from Rossi to Schumacher, big names join endurance in 2024

It was an open secret: Italian MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi will participate in the 2024 World Endurance Championship (WEC) season and will therefore start for the first time in his career at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Italian, seven-time world champion in the premier motorcycle category (six times in MotoGP, once in 500 cc), will compete in the new LMGT3 category, at the wheel of one of the BMW M4 GT3s which will take the start next year. One bearing the pilot’s lucky number: 46. He will remain with the Belgian Team WRT, which he knows well since the end of his two-wheeled career and with whom he achieved his first success. in the GT category this year on the Le Mans circuit.

This brand arrival completes an already very attractive field for the future of the discipline. While 2023 was a superb year for endurance with the arrival of new prestigious manufacturers and the dream edition of the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, next year looks even more promising, with a host of attractive new features, as confirmed the entry list unveiled this Monday morning by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and the International Automobile Federation (FAI).

Plethora of new manufacturers

In detail, seven manufacturers will join the ranks of the WEC in its different categories – Alpine, Lamborghini, BMW, Isotta Fraschini, McLaren, Ford and Lexus – to reach a total of 14 manufacturers.

The Hypercars, at the top of the discipline, will include a record 19 cars: two Toyota GR010 Hybrids, five Porsche 963s, three Ferrari 499Ps, two Peugeot 9x8s, two Alpine A424s, two BMW Hybrid V8s, a Lamborghini SC63, a Cadillac V- Series. R and an Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6-C.

Well-known names at the start

As for the drivers, several announcements were particularly noted. Former Polish F1 driver Robert Kubica will be entered in a private Ferrari for the AF Corse team, while Toyota brings in Dutchman Nyck de Vries, whose Formula 1 career ended abruptly this season after results deemed insufficient . But perhaps the biggest blow comes from the Alpine French team, which will field Mick Schumacher, Michael’s son, in one of its two cars. Linked to Lamborghini, Frenchman Romain Grosjean should also make his debut in the WEC and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But his participation in certain events is suspended from his commitment to Indycar, in the United States.

The complete list of drivers and that of specific entries for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will be communicated later. One thing is certain: after the resounding success experienced during the centenary, the 2024 edition promises to be just as successful from a ticketing point of view: just a few days after the tickets for 2024 went on sale, almost everything is already sold out .