Mercedes’ 2025 Le Mans return won’t involve an AMG One Hypercar
Upgraded to LMGT3 spec, the AMG GT3 will take Mercedes back to Le Mans for the first time since 1999
Mercedes-AMG is to join the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2025, albeit without fielding a Hypercar… for now. Yes, the current Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (not a new car based on the new Mercedes-AMG GT) is getting the LMGT3 treatment, for deployment during the 2025 WEC season, including at Le Mans.
Small adjustments to Mercedes-AMG’s GT racer will be needed for it to be homologated for LMGT3 racing, including torque sensors on the driveshafts and aero adjustments. Time has been tight for Mercedes to get the car over the line, ready for homologation for the 2025 season. Iron Lynx will be the first customer team to run the car, after its separation from Lamborghini, which pulled its SC63 Hypercar out of the WEC for 2025 after a difficult 2024 season. The AMG GT3 is of course a known quantity, being a 500 race winner since its introduction, including wins at the 24 Hours of Spa, the Bathurst 12 Hour, and Nürburgring 24 Hours.
GT3 cars are big business at the moment. As such, it comes as no surprise that Mercedes has been vocal about how the AMG GT3 being homologated for the WEC and ELMS ‘opens new sporting opportunities for all other Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Teams’.
This will mark the first time a Mercedes-badged car has raced at Le Mans since 1999, at which the famous incident of the CLR getting airborne on the Mulsanne forced Mercedes into an abrupt departure from endurance racing.
The question has loomed ever since, whether Mercedes would ever return to the top level of endurance racing, which today would mean a Hypercar entry. Speculation has been rife about the marque considering a Hypercar programme and its GT3 entry only fuels the hearsay.
When it comes to manufacturers with aspirations of fielding GT3 cars, the ACO gives priority to those running Hypercars, as well as marques with strong historical precedent. Obviously, Mercedes has a long-standing history at Le Mans, but understanding that Mercedes intends to enter Hypercar in the future would certainly grease the wheels for allowing an AMG GT3 entry for 2025.
More to the point, would a marque of the stature of Mercedes want to only be represented in GT3, while rivals Porsche and BMW race for overall honours? The chances of a Mercedes Hypercar appearing in the World Endurance Championship soon are surely good.
Don’t however, if a Mercedes Hypercar does happen, expect it to have anything to do with the AMG One. Its chassis is a bespoke design without any concession to Le Mans Hypercar regulations and would need significant reengineering. The engine also, while derived closely from F1 counterparts, would not be suitable for an endurance racing application.
