Sportscar365’s Manufacturer of the Year

Sportscar365 is recognizing some of the top competitors and moments from 2025. Next up is the Manufacturer of the Year award, as selected by website staff.

Manufacturer of the Year – Ferrari

With two consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans victories already in hand, Ferrari entered 2025 with its sights firmly set on what it had not yet achieved with the 499P: title success in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

It went on to achieve that goal in convincing fashion, taking the top three positions in the drivers’ standings and capturing the manufacturers’ crown to boot. Most of the groundwork for the title double was laid in the first part of the season, where Ferrari’s two factory cars took three consecutive victories.

While that led to increasing questions over WEC’s Balance of Performance system, the 6 Hours of Spa in particular showed Ferrari did have to get its elbows out to get wins across the line. It then took a third straight Le Mans victory, this time with its No. 83 car driven by Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye.

Although significant BoP hits from Sao Paulo onwards meant the 499P did not win another race after Brazil, the margin it had built up over the year proved enough to claim world title glory.

Outside its Hypercar program, there was most notably success with a dominant run to the Prancing Horse’s first FIA GT World Cup win for Antonio Fuoco. In the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, AF Corse secured a GTD class victory at Motul Petit Le Mans while DragonSpeed launched an unlikely GTD Pro title bid as Albert Costa ultimately came up just short against Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia.

Honorable Mentions: 

***While its season in top-class prototypes was arguably characterized by unfulfilled potential, BMW enjoyed an exceptional year in GT competition. With its new M4 GT3 EVO, and thanks in no small part to the efforts of new signing Kelvin van der Linde, the Munich marque captured one important prize after another. It returned to the top step of the Nürburgring 24, which together with wins in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Suzuka 1000km and Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS, helped it captured the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers’ crown for the first time. Further successes included the overall and Sprint Cup titles in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS as well as a second consecutive SRO GT4 Manufacturer Ranking crown.

***While 2025 ended on a bit of a sour note for Porsche with the withdrawal of its factory WEC Hypercar effort, it continued to be benchmark manufacturer in the WeatherTech Championship’s GTP class. An unbeaten run across the first four races (including a second consecutive Rolex 24 at Daytona victory) laid the groundwork for the Stuttgart marque to claim a championship double for the second year in a row. In WEC, Manthey had similar success, defending its LMGT3 title and taking back-to-back class victories at Le Mans.

***The fact that Toyota ended the year second in the Hypercar manufacturers’ standings is a remarkable achievement, given the brand’s BoP-induced struggles for most of the season. Its 1-2 finish in the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain not only gave it a much-needed result, but also gave it a crucial, six-point different over Porsche. Over in its native Japan, it enjoyed a dominant season in SUPER GT with five wins from the first five races in GT500.