Manufacturers Offer Cautious Support for Asian Hypercar Class

Representatives from Porsche, BMW and Ferrari have offered cautious support for plans for the Asian Le Mans Series to add a class for privateer Hypercars in 2026/27.

Announced by the ACO last month in the run-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, teams running customer LMH and LMDh machinery and Pro-Am lineups, with at least one Bronze-rated driver, will be eligible to race in the series starting next year.

The move follows a downturn in the number of privately-entered cars running in the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, a knock-on effect of the ever-growing number of manufacturer teams in Hypercar.

Currently, only Porsche and Ferrari field customer machinery in the WEC, while Porsche is the only manufacturer with representation from customer teams in the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach said he welcomed the move to open the Asian Le Mans Series to Hypercar customers, but said it was too soon to say with certainty that any 963s will be on the grid for the 2026/27 campaign.

WeatherTech Championship squad JDC-Miller Motorsports, however, has already expressed early interest.

“We have to see,” Laudenbach told Sportscar365. “In the end, it’s customer racing and it’s a decision for our customers.

“We have been in contact in the ACO, and we said we are prepared to support it. We have to go through the details together with potential customers because it is quite a big financial effort.

“But I think we can say the door is now open. We have to see if anyone will go through it.

“Also, maybe it opens the door for more manufacturers to provide customer cars, because so far it is only us and it’s Ferrari [providing customer cars]. And Ferrari is doing it only with AF Corse. Maybe this opens up a bit of a wider range.”

BMW has yet to begin supply its M Hybrid V8 to customers, although plans to do so are advancing, with the marque’s motorsport boss Andreas Roos having suggested not long ago that cars could be in privateer hands as early as next year.

Asked about the possibility of supplying customers in the Asian Le Mans Series, Roos welcomed the news but cautioned that the 2026/27 campaign may be too early for BMW to begin such a program.

“I am happy with this decision; it’s great to open this,” Roos told Sportscar365.

“If a customer approaches us, we would have to see how this is possible. It is not like running a GT3 car. You need much more effort and it doesn’t work without technical support from the manufacturer to run the cars.

“But I doubt if this is possible for the 2026/27 season. You have to build it up and set it up, because during the winter break, especially on the manufacturer side, this time period is crucial and critical for our development and preparations for WEC and IMSA.

“We have the Daytona sanctioned test, Daytona, then it’s bam-bam-bam with Sebring, Qatar and all of these events. From pure time constraints, it could be difficult.”

Ferrari expressed a similar sentiment to Roos, with a manufacturer spokesperson stating in response to a query by Sportscar365 that any participation by customers of the Italian marque would likely hinge on an earlier-than-normal end to the season.

Currently, the Asian Le Mans Series begins in December at Sepang and ends in February with a pair of Middle Eastern races in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, although organizers have suggested a more Southeast Asian-centric calendar is possible for 2026/27.

“It can be very interesting for us, of course,” said the spokesperson. “The only thing is that we should be sure that the season ends before January, in December.

“Because with the people who are needed to run a Hypercar, it cannot be like a normal GT3 team, and this can be a problem because you have the winter break where you do some tests or you need to prepare for the start of the WEC season.”

It appears likely that any Ferrari presence in the Hypercar class of the Asian Le Mans Series would involve AF Corse operating the car on behalf of a customer.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report