During Monterey week, endurance cars of former glory gathered for three days at the Laguna Seca circuit for a special event comparable to the Mans Classic. Official BMW driver Bill Auberlen took the opportunity to slip behind the wheel of a McLaren F1 GTR that competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1996.

24H Le Mans

Le Mans Legendes

24 Heures du Mans

Historique

Following a fine inaugural campaign in the Hypercar class in 2023, Cadillac Racing had high hopes for 2024. Preparations went well but the season has nonetheless been a series of highs and lows. It is hoped that the strategic shift lined up for 2025 will bring a change of fortune.

<p>Cadillac Racing suffered a setback at the season&rsquo;s opener, the Qatar 1812 Km, falling foul of the Stewards for a minor technical infringement. The false start set the tone for the rocky road ahead. Mixed performances at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps, affected by a race incident and a penalty, reined in the team&rsquo;s ambitions.</p>

<p>At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Cadillac entertained hopes of a podium after the previous season&rsquo;s third place. The American contender sporadically led the race, <strong>hinting that the V-Series.R was indeed capable of being competitive</strong>. However, unfavourable weather and an erratic strategy relegated car #2 to seventh place &ndash; an honourable showing but a long way off the top three. The remainder of the season saw the outfit oscillate between further below-par performances (at S&atilde;o Paulo and Fuji) and a positive reaction on home soil at Lone Star Le Mans. Finally, a seventh place in the overall Hypercar manufacturers&rsquo; standings brought the curtain down on a rather disappointing campaign.</p>

<h2>Changes in store for 2025</h2>

<p>Cadillac Racing is banking on <strong>a major strategic change</strong> to reverse its fortunes in 2025 by entrusting its two V-Series.R hypercars to Hertz Team JOTA. The British team &ndash; winner of the FIA World Cup for Hypercar teams with a private Porsche 963 &ndash; will bring its expertise and a fresh dynamic outlook to propel Cadillac to a new level of competitiveness.</p>

<p>The American manufacturer is also planning to introduce <strong>improvements to the V-Series.R</strong>, as permitted by the regulations in the scope of the Hypercar homologation cycle. The developments are expected to include a significant overhaul of the electronic control system to boost its consistency and reliability. This upgrade would help rectify one of the weaknesses pinpointed in 2024, notably in terms of performance management over long distances and in changing conditions.</p>

<p>The V-Series.R will also benefit from the expertise of Hertz Team JOTA and <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/cadillac-hertz-team-jota-reveals-its-2025-driver-line-up-59138" target="_blank">an impressive driver line-up</a>. Seasoned drivers Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and S&eacute;bastien Bourdais, already familiar to Cadillac, will ensure continuity. The squad will be completed by Will Stevens, Jenson Button and Norman Nato.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

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<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Realistic expectations</h2>

<p>The choice of Hertz Team JOTA and the integration of technical improvements show that Cadillac Racing has learned lessons from its first two FIA WEC campaigns. Backed by a successful outfit and top-drawer drivers, Cadillac aims to be <strong>regularly in the mix for a podium </strong>despite the fierce competition in Hypercar. Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari will again be forces to contend with, while Alpine and BMW will continue to improve. Cadillac will need to show greater consistency, avoid race incidents and optimise its strategies to rival with these manufacturers.</p>

<p>The 2025 season is shaping up to be <strong>a watershed for Cadillac</strong>. With Hertz Team JOTA at the helm and promising technical developments in the pipeline, the Detroit-based manufacturer has the tools required to turn a corner. If the V-Series.R proves up to expectations, Cadillac could well become one of the most fearsome outsiders on the Hypercar grid. The road to victory is a rocky one, but Cadillac now appears to be better equipped to rise to the challenge.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

Cadillac looks ahead with fresh optimism after frustrating season

The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH development programme has shifted up a gear in recent weeks. Next season, the British hypercar will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans (10-15 June 2025) – and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the colours of Heart Of Racing.

<p>With the 63rd Rolex 24 at Daytona just around the corner (25-26 January 2025), the Valkyrie AMR-LMH has taken part in <strong>three days of testing</strong>. Heart Of Racing used the tests to work on chassis settings and adaptation to the tyres.</p>

<p>Drivers <strong>Alex Riberas, Ross Gunn </strong>and <strong>Roman De Angelis</strong> could also explore the performance capabilities of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH under the Florida racetrack&rsquo;s floodlights during a two-hour night session. These night sessions are essential to check visibility and tyre management in cooler temperatures.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Tyre tests in Bahrain</h2>

<p>Before this key phase, the Valkyrie was involved in tests organised by tyre manufacturer Michelin at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir to assess the models that hypercars will use in next season&rsquo;s FIA WEC. Heart Of Racing used the opportunity to examine <strong>the new tyres&rsquo; behaviour</strong> under extreme conditions with high temperatures and an abrasive track.</p>

<p>Development of the Valkyrie had begun earlier in the year on the Road Atlanta circuit following Petit Le Mans. This highly technical road course offered an ideal test bed to <strong>trial the first modifications</strong> of the hypercar. The data collected during these outings provided a crucial foundation for the subsequent tests.</p>

<p>With such a rigorous development programme, Aston Martin and Heart Of Racing are giving themselves every chance of making a successful start to their hypercar campaign. Further tests are lined up over the coming weeks in preparation for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH&rsquo;s race d&eacute;but in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

Aston Martin steps up development work on Valkyrie AMR-LMH

2024 was pivotal for the Iron Lynx team and Lamborghini SC63 in the FIA WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans Hypercar category. The season delivered invaluable lessons and difficult challenges as well as encouraging indications for the future.

<p>Edurance racing fans awaited the arrival this year of the&nbsp;Lamborghini SC63, the Italian marque&#39;s first Hypercar, with heightened&nbsp;anticipation. The Verde Mantis car wowed the crowd at the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans, with both&nbsp;SC63s making&nbsp;it to the chequered flag, in&nbsp;10th and&nbsp;13th&nbsp;places overall.&nbsp;The&nbsp;Lamborghini Iron Lynx team proved its ability to hold its own in a&nbsp;highly competitive&nbsp;Hypercar category.</p>

<h2>A Learning Curve Season Against Formidable Competition</h2>

<p>Lamborghini&#39;s desire to measure up to endurance racing titans like&nbsp;Toyota, Ferrari and&nbsp;Porsche exposed&nbsp;challenges associated with a rookie season in the FIA WEC. Ranked&nbsp;eighth in the FIA Endurance Hypercar Manufacturers&nbsp;Championship, the Italian carmaker earned points at the&nbsp;Qatar 1812 km, the&nbsp;6 Hours of Imola and the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le Mans. <strong>Daniil Kvyat, #63 SC63 driver:</strong> <em>It&rsquo;s been a challenging year, of course the results were not what we want, but knowing this was our first year in the championship there were some encouraging performances, and we were in the mix several times, fighting with a lot more experienced rival. Of course, there are a lot of areas to improve, we know this, and hopefully we will be able to bring the updates that we really need to make our package more competitive. I am proud of the efforts of the boys and girls in the team, the dedication of the team has been amazing.</em></p>

<p>Teammate&nbsp;<strong>Edoardo Mortara:</strong> <em>This year we have been learning a lot, we knew it would be a tough challenge against some really tough competitors, it was not going to be easy. We&rsquo;ve improved, but hopefully we will back with a more competitive package, this is the goal of the entire team. We&rsquo;ve shown some performance but it&rsquo;s now up to us to extract the maximum performance.&nbsp;</em></p>

<h2>Turning Consistency into Victories</h2>

<p>The shortcomings of the SC63&#39;s&nbsp;performance level undermined its efforts to keep&nbsp;up with&nbsp;extremely seasoned opponents. While the chassis and hybrid powertrain seem&nbsp;solid, the team will need to focus on optimising race strategies as well as&nbsp;the car&#39;s&nbsp;aerodynamic package and&nbsp;tyre management. The drivers&nbsp;demonstrated real commitment, reflecting the dedicated work executed by the outfit&#39;s&nbsp;engineers and mechanics.</p>

<p>Lamborghini will need to prove itself more&nbsp;competitive to become a podium contender in 2025. The SC63 has proven it can reach the finish line at even&nbsp;the most grueling races, but now the goal is to convert&nbsp;that&nbsp;reliability into wins.&nbsp;</p>

A tricky but promising start for Lamborghini Iron Lynx's SC63

In the wake of a 2024 season punctuated by progress and even a late podium finish, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is heading into 2025 with determination. The Peugeot 9X8 has been fine-tuned across this year's races and is seeking to vie for top spots with a measure of consistency. Fortified with a positive outlook, the engineers and drivers hope to give the best teams a run for their money at the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans on 11-15 June.

<p>Last winter,&nbsp;Team Peugeot TotalEnergies executed&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/team-peugeot-totalenergies-unveils-the-peugeot-9x8-2024-58439" target="_blank">an ambitious overhaul of the&nbsp;Peugeot 9X8</a></strong>&nbsp;with one goal in mind: to reach the&nbsp;top spots in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and mainly&nbsp;to win the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le Mans. The technical and engineering crews quickly galvinised&nbsp;their&nbsp;efforts and&nbsp;tweaked the&nbsp;9X8 to hold its own against the championship&#39;s major contenders.</p>

<p>The first rounds of the 2024 season proved it was easier said than done. Despite noticeable improvement, the&nbsp;Peugeot 9X8 faced off against fierce competition, namely the&nbsp;Toyota GR010 Hybrid, Ferrari 499P and&nbsp;Porsche 963, three&nbsp;Hypercars that have certainly raised the performance bar.</p>

<p>At the&nbsp;FIA WEC season highlight, the 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans, the imbalance in respective&nbsp;performance levels was particularly obvious: the two&nbsp;Peugeot 9X8s finished&nbsp;11th and&nbsp;12th overall, trailing the winning Ferrari by two full laps.&nbsp;The&nbsp;result reflected&nbsp;the challenges the team faced against competitors with&nbsp;complete control of their cars and strategies.</p>

<h2>A Promising Season End</h2>

<p>Yet,&nbsp;Team Peugeot TotalEnergies has demonstrated true resilience. The second half of the season saw real progress and&nbsp;constantly improving performances. At the&nbsp;6 Hours of Fuji, the&nbsp;9X8 achieved an impressive&nbsp;fourth place overall finish with the team&#39;s blood, sweat and tears&nbsp;finally bearing fruit. The rise carried through to the last race, the&nbsp;Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain, where&nbsp;Team Peugeot TotalEnergies clinched third&nbsp;place.</p>

<p><strong>Jean-Marc Finot, Stellantis Motorsport Senior VP:</strong> <em>The season began under challenging conditions with a car that took time to find its rhythm, but the team never gave up, and we are pleased to end the season with a positive result that marks continuous progress. However, this podium should only be a step toward more consistent results in the top positions.</em></p>

<p>Though the Peugeot 9X8 hasn&#39;t yet reached the top tier in the FIA WEC hierarchy, the&nbsp;2024 season&nbsp;helped lay a solid foundation for the future.&nbsp;Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is looking to 2025 to parlay progress into consistent performances and enjoy a major payoff at the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans with a much more competitive car.</p>

The 9X8's improvement compels Team Peugeot TotalEnergies to aim high in 2025

24 Heures du Mans 1996

<p>Why the McLaren F1 GTR? Because the car is equipped with a&nbsp;BMW engine and the German manufacturer was celebrating its&nbsp;100th anniversary at the Laguna Seca circuit! Enjoy a lap of the Californian track and listen to the roar of the&nbsp;V12 engine in the McLaren entered officially by&nbsp;BMW, with the support of Team Bigazzi, at Le Mans back in 1996 (eighth overall)!</p>

<div class="embeddedContent oembed-provider- oembed-provider-youtube" data-align="center" data-maxheight="315" data-maxwidth="560" data-oembed="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LUXsUmt1RYc" data-oembed_provider="youtube" data-resizetype="responsive" style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/LUXsUmt1RYc?wmode=transparent&amp;jqoemcache=TTeny" width="383.5959885386819"></iframe></div>

<p>Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO</p>

<p>&gt; Special content and exclusive videos: get more with myACO! Join&nbsp;<a href="http://myaco.lemans.org/">here</a>!<br />
&gt; More info about the online community&nbsp;myACO free to endurance racing&nbsp;fans&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lemans.org/en/News/introducing-myaco-the-new-online-community-for-racing-fans/40905">here</a>!</p>

<p>Video: YouTube - The RACER channel</p>

24H LE MANS

Hop in the McLaren F1 GTR from the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans!

Related News

Cadillac looks ahead with fresh optimism after frustrating season

Aston Martin steps up development work on Valkyrie AMR-LMH

A tricky but promising start for Lamborghini Iron Lynx's SC63

The 9X8's improvement compels Team Peugeot TotalEnergies to aim high in 2025

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