The grid for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend should look very familiar to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship fans. Fourteen teams that regularly feature in IMSA competition are competing in the race, and nearly 100 drivers that have made an appearance in IMSA competition in recent years are taking part.
In Hypercar, Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 01 Cadillac Racing squad of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and endurance addition Scott Dixon are in the No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R. The team’s full-time WEC counterpart in the No. 2 features Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Alex Palou.
“It’s a classic, it’s heroic, it’s long and it’s amazing,” said van der Zande. “Once you get to racing, it’s the most fun you can get. If you look at last year, we performed very well. But, at the same time, you have to keep an eye on the competition. I think we were better prepared than everybody else, but this year everybody else will be better prepared than they were last year. I think the competition will be stronger than last year because of reliability, not because of speed. Teams have their cars and systems better sorted, so from that perspective it will be more interesting. I think we’re going to see a lot of high-level duels on track where you need to be on top of your game from the moment you start racing to when you see the checkered flag.”
“I think we’ve made a significant step forward on systems,” added Bourdais, Cadillac’s most experienced driver at Le Mans, as well as a Le Mans native.
“We’ve been focusing on race trims and trying to get the balance where we want it, get good tire data and make sure that balance and grip stay fairly consistent over two or three stints.”
Cadillac’s second IMSA squad, Whelen Cadillac Racing, returns with the No. 311 V-Series.R for Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and, new to the team for Le Mans, Brazilian Felipe Drugovich, who will run a helmet design that pays tribute to Briggs Cunningham’s Cadillac “Le Monstre.” The other all-IMSA Hypercar squad is the No. 4 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry featuring Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr, with Dane Cameron serving as reserve driver across Penske’s three Porsche 963s. Jaminet hopes to use the team’s momentum, along with his disappointment from finishing second in Detroit as fuel for a Le Mans victory.
“We seem to be on it. The 6 car is doing a pretty good job and we are coming stronger and stronger and catching up big points,” Jaminet said of the WeatherTech Championship season so far.
“So I think now from now on, we’ll keep on putting the pressure on the cars in front. Going to Le Mans, it’s good to be disappointed and have some some anger in finishing P2 heading into the biggest race. I’m sure Felipe is feeling the same. But everybody is ready. Hopefully, we are there and we’ll bring a big trophy home.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport was the star of the test day, posting the first-, second- and fourth-best times of the day on Sunday. And as Penske adds another car to its roster for Le Mans, so does Iron Lynx Lamborghini, entering a second SC63 for its Michelin Endurance Cup trio of Andrea Caldarelli, Roman Grosjean and Matteo Cairoli.
Defending champion Ferrari counts a number of IMSA regulars on its Hypercar roster, notably James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, part of the Rolex 24 GTD PRO class-w inning Risi Competizione squad, along with Miguel Molina, who is a regular in GTD in MEC for AF Corse.