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One massive motorsport name is joining the LMH crowd next year...



Ferrari have just begun testing their Le Mans Hypercar - aiming for a racing debut in 2023. Details are sparse at the moment, but the shift of AF Corse into LMP2 this year is seen by many as an indication that they'll be running the Ferrari LMH. Who knows, Ferrari may buck the LMH trend and offer customer cars to other existing partners in their GT3 and GTLM programmes.

Ferrari brings the 2023 LMH entries up to four - Alpine's A480 will be ineligible next season. Back in 2018, it looked like Ford, Aston Martin and McLaren would develop LMH programmes. None have materialised. Two small manufacturers - Isotta Fraschini and Veloqx - have also talked about joining the fray, but since the requirement for a road car tie-in has been dropped by the FIA, they have been quiet. ByKolles - a small German manufacturer with experience in LMP1 - have been working on their Vanwall Vandervel LMH. Testing has apparently begun, but ByKolles have a history of not getting new projects to the grid. Their aim is for a 2023 entry.

It seems that LMDh is where most manufacturers are focussing on - especially those with a strong interest in the North American car market...



BMW have recently unveiled their M Hybrid V8 for 2023. This uses the Dallara chassis and will initially be raced by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in North America.



The rather beautiful Cadillac is another Dallara-based LMDh and is being developed by Chip Ganassi Racing ready for the 2023 IMSA championship. Action Express Racing will be receiving customer cars and other teams may join the Cadillac fold, with former customer JDC Miller Motorsports switching to Porsche.



Acura – Honda’s North American brand – are testing their Oreca-based ARX-06 LMDh car ready for 2023.

Lamborghini have announced their Ligier-based LMDh programme will go racing in 2024 and Alpine will be developing an Oreca-based LMDh for a 2024 debut. Audi's planned Multimatic LMDh car is on hold - if their move into F1 goes ahead, the Hypercar programme will be cancelled. And it's rumoured the new owners of Lola will look at a return to prototypes, but that might be the 2025-9 LMP2 regs rather than Hypercar.

That's the lay of the land for the future of sports prototype racing - four (maybe five) LMH and six LMDh cars to hit the track in 2023 and 2024. I suspect Carrera and Scalextric will be weighing-up the cost of official licenses - although that will get them the manufacturers' CAD files to use in the design process. Slot.it have just announced their Oreca 07 LMP project is currently being tooled for manufacturing, unleashing dozens of possible LMP1 and LMP2 liveries from the past five years - maybe including the Alpine A480 LMH - plus future LMP2s up until 2025. Although I suspect Maurizio will be looking at LMDh, Slot.it might hold back for now - or maybe not... Likewise with NSR, whose only venture into Le Mans Prototypes was the Audi R18, but they may be tempted. Whether other manufacturers like Racer Sideways will join in, we'll have to wait and see. It seems like SRC have an open field for the moment, although as a small company, they'll need to pace themselves.