The Le Mans 24 Hours entry list has been revealed for 2024, featuring 16 ex-Formula 1 drivers and counting - with Robert Kubica joining last year’s winners Ferrari, Mick Schumacher making his race debut and Jenson Button returning to join sportscar’s top drivers.
In the top class, there are entries for Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Isotta Fraschini, Lamborghini, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota.
F1 grand prix starters on the Le Mans entry list
Jack Aitken
Sebastien Bourdais
Sebastien Buemi
Jenson Button
Nyck de Vries
Antonio Giovinazzi
Romain Grosjean
Brendon Hartley
Kamui Kobayashi
Robert Kubica
Daniil Kvyat
Andre Lotterer
Mick Schumacher
Will Stevens
Stoffel Vandoorne
Jean-Eric Vergne
Felipe Nasr*
Paul di Resta*
Gianmaria Bruni**
* not on the entry list but expected to race
** on the reserve entry list
Kubica joining Ferrari - something he was always expected to do if his Formula 1 career hadn’t been curtailed by his rally crash in 2011 - and Jenson Button’s return as part of privateer Team Jota’s Porsche 963 line-up headline the big names involved in this year’s race, which takes place on June 15-16.
Porsche - which runs its factory cars in IMSA with Team Penske - has the most Hypercar entries with six, featuring a host of recognisable names alongside Button like Andre Lotterer, ex-Marussia Formula 1 driver Will Stevens and former Ferrari junior and IndyCar driver Callum Ilott.
Ilott’s 2020 Formula 2 rival and eventual champion Mick Schumacher has a seat at Alpine, while ex-Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais, six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Alex Palou headline Cadillac’s entry as they do in IMSA.
It will be double IndyCar champion Palou’s first Le Mans 24 Hours. He is not present on the provisional entry list, but has been confirmed as completing the #2 car's driver line-up.
Dixon and Palou’s IndyCar colleague Romain Grosjean was announced as a signing for Lamborghini last year and will give the SC63 car a debut in the blue riband event, with Daniil Kvyat and Edo Mortara in a sister car.
Peugeot has a pair of 9X8s but only has one driver each confirmed for its two cars. They certainly aren’t to be sniffed at though - with three Formula E championships between Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne.
Last year’s winning car, the #51 Ferrari, is unchanged with James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi back behind the wheel.
As well as Kubica, current Ferrari F1 reserve driver Robert Shwartzman will be part of the marque's efforts.
At Toyota, long-time Red Bull employee Sebastien Buemi and fellow Red Bull second team drivers Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) and Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) are among the entries, as are Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, who both won the race in 2021.
Buemi is one to watch as he has the most wins of active drivers with four, only five drivers have more and winning a fifth would put him equal third all-time on the win list with Derek Bell, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro.
The number of F1 drivers should rise further as Felipe Nasr is expected to be one of the Porsche names missing on the entry list, while Peugeot regular Paul di Resta is bound to be one of its TBCs.
The GT category is headlined by the debut of Valentino Rossi, the seven-time MotoGP champion having already won races outright in sportscar racing. He’ll drive a BMW M4 with the marque’s long-time sportscar and DTM ace Maxime Martin and Ahmad Al Harthy.
The Corvette Racing team ends a long stint in the GT class as winners and won’t defend its 2023 victory.
The LMP2 class - contested by Gibson-powered ORECA 07s - is in a similar situation to the GTs as last year’s winning Inter Europol line-up isn’t together to defend the title, so a new trio will claim the honours.
Hypercar entry list
LMP2 entry list
LMGT3 entry list
