Fillon Expects “Two or Three” Hypercars in First Asian Season

Photo: Porsche

ACO President Pierre Fillon has set modest expectations for the launch season of the Hypercar class in the Asian Le Mans Series, stating that he predicts between “two and three” of the cars to be on the grid for the 2026/2027 season.

Announced last week at Le Mans, the introduction of the top class prototype platform utilized in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will expand into the ACO and SRO-run Asian series beginning next year.

It will be the first time Hypercar will run to a Pro-Am format, with the requirement of a Bronze-rated driver in each lineup, as well as all cars being entered by privateer teams only.

Speaking exclusively to Sportscar365, Fillon stressed the importance of the Bronze-rated driver to the equation.

“It means Bronze [drivers] will be required, with a special education,” he said.

“This is not an easy [car to drive]. These are very performant cars and technically it’s more difficult to run than a GT3 or LMP2.

“Our target is to clearly attract some Asian gentlemen drivers. You know they like to drive a car with a big brand.”

When asked about his expectations on car count for the first campaign, Fillon said: “I think for the first season, maybe we will have between two and three cars.

“We know that there are clients with Ferrari and Porsche. Of course, maybe in the future, McLaren, Ford, Alpine and the others, will have some clients.

“We will see. What we wanted to announce is that we open the series for Hypercar, for privateers, no factory teams.”

Fillon said “why not” when asked if the likes of former WEC Hypercar entrants Glickenhaus, Vanwall and Isotta Fraschini would be eligible in the class with their cars in customers’ hands.

LMEM boss Frederic Lequien added:” There will be no obligation [to also race in the WEC]. It will be open to all manufacturers.

“It’s a decision of the manufacturers to develop the customer racing business, and also because we still have the ambition to penetrate the Asian market.

“For this, we need to have this category.”

With the WEC grid more-or-less sold out due to the large number of factory Hypercar efforts, Lequien believes the Asian LMS could be a logical destination for privateers.

“What we never expected is such big success in the WEC and now I would say we are ‘sold out’,” he said.

“When they sold the idea of Hypercar regulations, everybody agreed there would be the possibility to do some customer racing.

“I think you will agree me it would be very difficult to have any additional privateer cars in the WEC, because the grid is full.

“Once again, with this idea of the Asian Le Mans Series, it answers one demand which is very strong from the OEMs, but not only that, we want to make this championship more powerful in terms of media coverage in Asia.”

No Plans to Introduce Hypercar to ELMS

Fillon, meanwhile, stressed that there are no plans to introduce the Hypercar formula into the European Le Mans Series, which will maintain LMP2 as its top category for the foreseeable future.

“In Europe you have ELMS but you also have the WEC,” he explained. “It’s an endurance pyramid.

“In ELMS, LMP2 is the top category and we want that LMP2 remains the top category.

“Asia is another continent.”

Jamie Klein contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John