Where will it all end?
This year, eight manufacturers will once again battle it out in the World Endurance Championship's top class, starting with the 1812km of Qatar on February 28. Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota are continuing the adventure, while Lamborghini has been replaced by Aston Martin.
This impressive contingent will be joined next year by Hyundai's premium brand, Genesis, and most likely in 2027 by Ford and McLaren. Two projects with a similar timing, for one simple reason: they were initially linked.
For some years now, McLaren and Ford have had their fans dreaming of a return to the top class of endurance racing. And the two have clearly been among the brands that have campaigned hardest for common technical regulations between the WEC and the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Since then, McLaren, even more so than Ford, has taken one step forward, then two back, but nothing has seen the light of day when the announcements from their rivals have followed one another.
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In the course of 2024, however, rumours began to circulate about a common project. Surprising? No doubt. But it would have enabled costs to be shared, particularly for McLaren, which is already involved in Formula 1, IndyCar and Formula E. And don't forget that it's thinking of doing the same in Formula E with Hyundai, as revealed by The Race.
In the end, however, we won't be seeing a Ford-powered McLaren Hypercar on the track.
One of the reasons for this is a disagreement over the engine. McLaren wanted to add a twin-turbo V6 to the car, similar to the one powering its Artura hybrid road car. Ford preferred a normally aspirated V8.
Fortunately, however, their respective ambitions have not been put on the backburner, and both McLaren and Ford are said to have set their sights on an arrival in 2027.
Indeed, both have accepted the obvious: this golden age of endurance racing cannot take place without them. All the more so as these two brands have written two of the finest pages in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Ford with the GT40, winner from 1966 to 1969, and McLaren with its F1 GTR, which toppled the prototypes in 1995.
Last week, at the 24 Hours of Daytona, General Motors and Ford fought hard in GTD Pro. Winner Frédéric Vervisch admitted after the race: "It's quite a struggle, the battle between Ford and Chevrolet. Yesterday we met [Ford CEO] Jim Farley, and he said: 'Whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet' - as a joke, of course.''
A joke, really? No; Ford can't let its great American rival GM - via Cadillac - continue to put on a show in the top class without it.
And what about McLaren? It cannot allow Ferrari, Porsche and Ferrari, its rivals in the production sportscar market, to play the leading roles in the Hypercar class without it. And while this arrival has been put off for a long time, we can bet that the brand's return to form in F1, with its first constructors' title since 1998 last year, has made things easier.
Ford continued to work on its side. And although for a time the company thought about building an LMH, it finally decided on the LMDh regulations - a car built on one of the four chassis eligible for LMP2.
It's the more accessible and less expensive solution, and one that Acura, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Porsche and Lamborghini have also opted for. And according to The Race's information, Ford is understood to have picked ORECA, which may come as a surprise given the close links between Ford and the Multimatic brand that's also an LMDh supplier. Last Sunday, the two entities won at Daytona together.
The announcement is said to be imminent, perhaps as early as this Friday in the very early hours of the European day, during a conference given by Ford Performance in Charlotte, North Carolina, at which the brand's 2025 programmes will be announced.
While McLaren has also opted for LMDh regulations, it is likely to turn to Dallara.
Its announcement would be scheduled for June 13 at Le Mans, the day before the start of the 93rd edition of the race, where the McLaren F1 GTR triumphed just 30 years ago.
There are still a few details to be clarified, but they are far less urgent, and concern the exact programmes or the racing teams. But first things first: endurance racing has the wind in its sails, and there's no end in sight...
