Hypercar Manufacturers Braced for Two-Car Mandate

Figures representing Cadillac, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini have all acknowledged the possibility that they may be required by regulation to expand to two-car efforts for the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Reports emerged in the build-up to last weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola that WEC organizers are evaluating a requirement for manufacturers to enter two cars each as part of efforts to expand to a 40-car grid for next year, with an e-vote set to take place regarding the matter next month.

Cadillac Racing, Lamborghini Iron Lynx and Isotta Fraschini Duqueine would all directly be affected by such a mandate as each currently only has a single entry on the grid, while Heart of Racing Team has previously stated that it would enter “at least one” Aston Martin Valkyrie when it joins the top class in 2025.

However, it is understood that any changes would not affect customer teams such as Porsche outfits JOTA – which in any case is in the running to join forces with Cadillac next season – and Proton Competition as well as Ferrari satellite team AF Corse.

GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser didn’t give anything away about Cadillac’s 2025 plans but said the marque would react if needed.

“Rules are rules, right?” she said. “We’ll have to wait and see gets rolled out for next year and we’ll have to respond accordingly when we hear what the regulations are.”

Lamborghini’s chief technical officer Rouven Mohr said it’s “too early to say” how a two-car mandate would impact the Italian manufacturer’s plans for the second season with the SC63, one example of which is also running in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

“If it’s communicated, we are preparing at the moment what would it mean inside Lamborghini and outside Lamborghini with our team, Iron Lynx, what would be the consequences,” said Mohr.

“It depends also a little bit on the boundary conditions. It’s not only about the car. If you run a championship like this, you have a lot of additional factors like marketing and so on. You have to understand also hospitality issues, sharing garages and so on.

“There are a lot of trivial things and at the moment, it’s not yet clear what would it mean to have this second car.”

Isotta Fraschini would arguably face the biggest challenge in scaling up to a second car for 2025, although the boutique Italian manufacturer had been planning to enter two of its Tipo 6 Competiziones this year, one each with Duqueine and Vector Sport, until it became clear it would only be granted one entry.

Duqueine team principal Max Favard told Sportscar365 that his team is “working at the minute” with Isotta to be ready for a potential expansion, but warned that the WEC shouldn’t make it too difficult for smaller manufacturers to enter the series in the future.

“A two-car team is a big challenge,” said Favard. “There are a lot of parameters to take into account, the driver lineups, sponsors… this year is a big year for bringing the evolution to year two.

“At the same time, the two-car mandate is something we have to say… for structures that are human, it’s something you can lock a project for year two, or year three if you must have an upgrade to stay alive. It can reduce a bit the diversity of the grid, if they go mandatory two cars.

“This is a topic we are aware of, and we accept the rules, but they are listening to different manufacturers with different approaches. They have to keep alive the small structures and give them these options.”

Favard acknowledged that finding drivers with budget would be “part of the discussion” to enable Isotta to run a second car in 2025, while also expressing optimism that a two-car entry from the marque would be accepted.

“If you push [manufacturers] for a two car entry, you must provide two entries [to them],” he said. “The WEC needs to figure this out taking into account all the different teams. They have a hard decision to take.

“We shouldn’t be overconfident, but we need to work in this direction.”

Assuming no changes to the 18-strong LMGT3 field, a 40-car grid would have room for nine two-car teams in Hypercar plus four customer cars, as there are now, or ten two-car teams plus two customer cars, assuming that all the existing manufacturers stay on board and are joined by Aston Martin as planned by the British marque.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report