GTE out, GT3 in for Le Mans future
The vision for the future of GT racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship has been laid out by the Automobile Club de l’ouest and the FIA. The current GTE regulations will be replaced by a new category based on GT3 for 2024 when GTE Pro will be dropped.
No meat was put on the bones by either of the bodies that set the rules for international sportscar racing. ACO president Pierre Fillon explained that there was still work to be done on the detail of the plans and that the final rules and regulations will be set by the end of the year.
He stated that GT3 will be the “basis” of the new class used across the WEC and the sister European Le Mans Series, and that changes in specification are likely to be “marginal”. That is likely to fit with the demands of the majority of the GT3 manufacturers who resisted the attempts of the DTM organisation to try to up-spec the cars for the start of its new era this year.
The end of the pro class will follow the introduction of the LMDH category in the WEC in 2023 and the influx of new manufacturers into the top level. Ferrari and Porsche, the only full-season entrants in GTE Pro this year, will be moving up to the front of the grid with LMH or LMDH designs.
The decision to drop GTE Pro could affect Chevrolet’s plans for the Corvette. The General Motors marque is still evaluating its future and whether it will develop a GT3 version of the car to race in the IMSA Sportscar Championship’s GT Daytona Pro division after a period of transition running the current Gte-spec C8.R in modified form starting next year.
Asked whether the inability to race as a factory at Le Mans could derail its continuation of the long-running Corvette Racing effort, GM sportscar programme manager Laura Klauser said: “Is it a dealbreaker? We are not ready to say that.”