The winter break has come around quickly, and the outcome of the World Endurance Championship 2018-19 Super Season is still anyone’s guess! There are three rounds remaining. Three major races: Sebring, Spa and Le Mans.

24H Le Mans

Le Mans Series

24 Heures du Mans

FIA WEC

The world’s biggest carmakers are gearing up for the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, on 15-16 June. With the list of drivers set to take part unveiled today, here’s a rundown of all you need to know.

<h4 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mcusercontent.com/b5f125906fc10a7f9e846de69/files/4cd0fa6d-a2ed-2596-c4ba-5f319feaae50/24H_LE_MANS_2024_Provisional__Entry_List_v6_06052024.pdf">ENTRY LIST</a></h4>

Hypercar reaches new heights

The premium class of endurance has attracted a bumper field of 23 cars entered by nine different manufacturers: Ferrari, Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini, Peugeot, Lamborghini, Cadillac, Toyota and Porsche. The drivers list features some of the most experienced racers in the business with a glittering array of achievements to their name. They include four-time Le Mans winner Sébastien Buemi, three-time winner André Lotterer, and Kévin Estre, winner of the FIA WEC championship title and the LMGTE Pro class at the French endurance classic. All the makings of a historic battle!

LMGT3 enters the fray

While the spotlight will be on the Hypercars, the new LMGT3 class is shaping up to be just as exciting. It will also comprise 23 cars built by nine leading manufacturers: Aston Martin, Ford, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche, Lexus, Corvette, McLaren and, with a brand new model, Ferrari. The mix of LMGT3s and Hypercars promises a level of diversity rarely seen at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The LMGT3 driver contingent will feature Le Mans veterans such as Thomas Flohr, set to make his eighth appearance. At the other end of the scale, Kelvin van der Linde will make his first start in the race despite more than a decade of GT experience.

A treat in store in LMP2

The LMP2 class is always hotly contested and the 16 prototypes set for to compete this year will undoubtedly put on a superb show. Former 24 Hours class winners, such as Ben Keating and François Perrodo, will have their work cut out to fend off an armada of hungry young talent led by Louis Delétraz, hoping to go one better after two second places. Meanwhile Fabio Scherer, now with Nielsen Racing, will attempt to double up after his 2023 success. With high-flying teams of the calibre of United Autosports and Inter Europol Competition in the field, fans will undoubtedly be treated to a top-level race.

From Formula One to the 24 Hours

Since the premier single-seater championship was created in 1950, a host of Formula One heroes have taken up the Le Mans challenge and 2024 will be no exception. The 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button will fly the Hypercar flag for Hertz Team Jota and Antonio Giovinazzi, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary race in a Ferrari, will be back to defend his team’s crown. They will be joined by other former Formula One stars who have made the switch to endurance at Le Mans, including Robert Kubica, Nyck de Vries, Romain Grosjean and Mick Schumacher this year.

A pink Lamborghini

The Iron Dames are back with a new line-up and a new car. The outfit has chosen to run a Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 Evo2 for the 2024 FIA WEC. Rising French star Doriane Pin, who has already raced at Le Mans, will share the wheel with Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting. Last November, the Iron Dames won the 8 Hours of Bahrain – a first for an all-female trio of drivers at this level of competition. On 15-16 June, they will be among the favourites to add a new line to their already impressive track record.

A nine-time world champion on the grid

Valentino Rossi, nine-time world motorcycle GP champion, will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans début in LMGT3. Since appearing at the Circuit des 24 Heures in the 2023 Road To Le Mans support race, Rossi has joined forces with Ahmad Al Harthy and Maxime Martin in a BMW M4 LMGT3 for Team WRT. The three men made the podium in the second round of the 2024 FIA WEC, the 6 Hours of Imola. The 24 Hours of Le Mans challenge is on a different scale, but the Italian is no stranger to the spotlight and can count on the support of thousands of fans.

Final tickets available to see Free Practice and Qualifying, the Hyperpole session and concerts by Louise Attaque and BigFlo &amp; Oli! 
 
The ACO has already announced that Race Week and Race Weekend admission tickets are sold out and is now advising that there are only a few tickets remaining for the Free Practice &amp; Qualifying and Hyperpole sessions plus the concerts on Wednesday and Thursday. These tickets are compatible with the Green Ticket offer, which urges spectators to use sustainable forms of transport.&nbsp; 
 
Head to&nbsp;<a href="https://ticket.24h-lemans.com/content">https://ticket.24h-lemans.com/content</a>&nbsp;to book your tickets! 
&nbsp;

Who are the 186 drivers set to compete in  the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans?

Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich will take the start in the 92nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (12-16 June) at the wheel of Action Express Racing's #311 Cadillac V-Series.R.

Action Express Racing has announced that 2022 FIA Formula 2&nbsp;champion Felipe Drugovich will join Pipo Derani and Jack Aiten in the #311&nbsp;Cadillac V-Series.R for the 92nd 24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans, fourth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance&nbsp;Championship.

For the past two seasons, Drugovich (age 23) has served as a test and reserve driver for&nbsp;Aston Martin&#39;s&nbsp;Formula&nbsp;1&nbsp;team. He will continue&nbsp;in that role in addition to representing Vector Sport in the European Le Mans Series&#39; LMP2 category.

Action Express Racing team manager Gary Nelson: Felipe has been on our radar for a couple of years. After watching him race a sports car in the ELMS recently, we finally got a chance to meet him and work with him in some simulator testing. We were impressed by his maturity, discipline and knowledge. Next, we took Felipe to a track test, where he shared our car with Pipo and Jack. We are very excited to take the next obvious step and enter Felipe alongside Pipo and Jack at Le Mans. His record speaks volumes.

In F2, Drugovich (of Austrian decent with&nbsp;dual citizenship in Brazil and Italy) scored eight wins and five&nbsp;pole positions in 73 starts, winning&nbsp;the championship in 2022 with five victories, four&nbsp;poles and&nbsp;11 podiums. He earned 14 wins in 16 races to clinch&nbsp;the&nbsp;2018 Euroformula Open trophy&nbsp;and was also crowned&nbsp;MRF Challenge Formula 2000 champion in 2017 and 2018 with 10 victories in 16 races. Drugovich has&nbsp;competed in the FIA Formula 3&nbsp;championship and in Spain&#39;s F3 championship.

<h2>Two-Time Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans&nbsp;Winner</h2>

Felipe Drugovich: I am only 23 years old, and I am having the most important opportunity in my racing car career until now thanks to Action Express and Cadillac.&nbsp;The 24 Hours of Le Mans is impossible to define in words, such is its magic and importance for cars in general and motor racing in particular. I am having the opportunity to live this 100-year&nbsp;history for the first time with AXR and Cadillac.&nbsp;I barely touched the magic of the 24 Hours of&nbsp;Le Mans, winning twice the Virtual editions. Now I am going to plunge into it for real with the #311 Cadillac of Action Express Racing&nbsp;with my fellow Brazilian Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken. What a privilege having another dream coming true.

Action Express Racing&#39;s&nbsp;#311 Cadillac is participating&nbsp;in its second&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans. The American team finished 10th in the&nbsp;Hypercar category last year after Jack Aitken left the track early in the race at the&nbsp;Michelin chicane.

Cadillac finalises driver line-ups with Felipe Drugovich

The 2024 edition of the 4 Hours of Le Castellet certainly provided plenty of entertainment for the thousands of spectators that travelled to the Circuit Paul Ricard. They witnessed a dramatic race that saw the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca-Gibson take the chequered flag for the Polish team's first ever LMP2 victory in the ELMS.

The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 championship winning team started 12thon the grid, with Sebastien Alvarez making his way up the field to hand over to Vlad Lomko, who led for most of his stint before handing over to Tom Dillmann to secure the victory at his home race.

Dillmann took the chequered flag, with the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca finishing second on the road but a penalty for excessive weaving during the race dropped the car down to 4th.The no47 COOL Racing and the no14 AO by TF Orecas took second and third respectively.

The LMP2 Pro/Am victory went to the no29 Richard Mille by TDS Racing Oreca after a race long fight back after a collision at the start put Rodrigo Sales down the order on lap 1.The American pushed hard to get back in contention, handing over to Gregoire Saucy in a good position, with Mathias Beche able to bring the car home to claim the class victory.

It was another superb fight back from the crew of the no15 RLR M Sport Ligier, which had started on pole but ended up down the order.Michael Jensen, Nick Adcock fought their way back to hand the car to Gael Julien, with the French driver getting out in front to take the win ahead of the no4 DKR Engineering Duqueine and the no35 Ultimate Ligier.

The LMGT3 victory went to the no55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296, with Duncan Cameron starting on the front row and briefly holding the lead.Contact with another car spun the British driver around, delaying the car.

Matt Griffin took over the second stint to move the car up the field, before handing back to Cameron to finish his driving time, the British driver holding his own against the silver and gold drivers that were now out on track. David Perel brought the car home to score the team&rsquo;s first victory since 2021.The no63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini was second, 4.9 seconds behind Perel at the chequered flag, with the no59 racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage in third.

<a href="https://www.europeanlemansseries.com/race/4807" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>&nbsp;for the provisional result from the 4 Hours of Le Castellet.

Round 3 of the 2024 European Le Mans Series is the 4 Hours of Imola will take place on Sunday 7 July but before that some of the teams and drivers will be heading to Le Mans for the 92nd&nbsp;edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 15/16 June.

Extended highlights | 4 Hours of Le Castellet 2024 | ELMS

ELMS : les principaux faits de course des 4 Heures du Castellet 2024

Inter Europol Competition score first ELMS LMP2 victory at Le Castellet

In an ideal world, one's passion, hard work and commitment would guarantee success. But, talent also plays a complex and crucial role in winning. Olivier Gendebien's track record is proof positive of that fact. Though he never considered himself a professional, he nevertheless built a career that countless great drivers envy.

<h2>From One Horse to Another</h2>

It&#39;s nothing new:&nbsp;a young man helps his dad in his garage&nbsp;and falls in love with cars. Eventually, he ditches uni to devote himself to learning the science of racing. That is not how things happened&nbsp;for&nbsp;Olivier Gendebien.&nbsp;Born into an affluent Belgian family in 1924, he wasn&#39;t particuarly interested in cars, at least not more so than any&nbsp;other of his hobbies.&nbsp;After WWII, in which he actively participated,&nbsp;Gendebien&nbsp;lived in the Belgian Congo for four years working as an agricultural engineer, far from racing&nbsp;circuits.

In&nbsp;Africa, he met&nbsp;fellow countryman Charles Fraikin. The two hit it off and began&nbsp;planning to participate&nbsp;in the Li&egrave;ge-Rome-Li&egrave;ge rally sometime in the distant future. Having returned to his native soil, Gendebien&#39;s&nbsp;interest in racing increased, but horses remained&nbsp;his real passion at that time, in addition to skiing and&nbsp;tennis. Still, Gendebien&nbsp;took the start in the 1952 Fronti&egrave;res Grand Prix in Chimay, France. He&nbsp;was a&nbsp;revelation.

His reputation continued to&nbsp;soar&nbsp;after every race he entered. At the age of&nbsp;28 and on the heels of his success in rally, he tried his luck at&nbsp;circuits, proving&nbsp;just as fast. Gendebien&nbsp;thoroughly enjoyed endurance racing, taking the start in his rookie&nbsp;24 Hours in 1955 at the wheel of &Eacute;curie Nationale Belge&#39;s&nbsp;Porsche 550 RS 1500 with&nbsp;Wolfgang Seidel. The duo finished second in its category and fifth overall! Sure, his career got a late start, but wow did it&nbsp;kick&nbsp;off with a bang.

After yet another stellar&nbsp;performance in Italy, Gendebien was personally recruited&nbsp;by Enzo Ferrari for&nbsp;both Formula&nbsp;1 and&nbsp;endurance races. His pairing with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/who-was-phil-hill-the-legend-who-shunned-the-spotlight-58307" target="_blank">American driver Phil Hill</a> at the&nbsp;1000 km Buenos Aires was perfect given&nbsp;the&nbsp;two&nbsp;preferred racing at&nbsp;one&#39;s&nbsp;own pace&nbsp;without overdoing it to reach&nbsp;to the chequered flag&nbsp;in a good position.

<h2>Enzo Ferrari&#39;s Right-Hand Man</h2>

Gendebien quickly became indispensable within the&nbsp;Scuderia Ferrari. At the 1956&nbsp;24 Hours, he and&nbsp;Maurice Trintignant finished third, but the following year, a broken piston forced the duo to retire.

Hill rejoined Gendebien for the 1958&nbsp;24 Hours. Torrential rain flooded the circuit for&nbsp;15 hours, but that didn&#39;t stop the pair&nbsp;from going for&nbsp;a first win together. The&nbsp;Jaguar Type D just couldn&#39;t hold its own against the&nbsp;Ferrari 250 TR 58 and its powerful&nbsp;V12 engine.

In 1959, things got complicated. Stirling Moss with&nbsp;Aston Martin took the start like a bat out of hell. His competitors could barely keep up, including Gendebien/Hill in a&nbsp;Ferrari 250 TR 59. The car managed to hold its own,&nbsp;but was then forced to throw in the towel&nbsp;in the 20th hour due to an overheating engine.

The 1960 24 Hours provided&nbsp;a new career milestone:&nbsp;Gendebien mastered the fragile&nbsp;Ferrari TR59/60 along with&nbsp;Paul Fr&egrave;re,&nbsp;dominating&nbsp;the race as&nbsp;the other Ferraris struggled. The Belgian duo scored a stunning win with a four-lap lead.

Gendebien proved his mettle in single-seaters as well, but found himself confined to endurance racing. Frustrated by his&nbsp;situation, he left the&nbsp;Scuderia to take the wheel of a&nbsp;private Cooper-Climax in&nbsp;Formula&nbsp;1, and the move paid off. Gendebien finished third at the 1960 Belgian&nbsp;Grand Prix and second at the French GP in Reims.

However, it was clear the&nbsp;Belgian driver and&nbsp;Ferrari needed each other if they wanted to win Le Mans. They teamed up again for the&nbsp;1961 season, which turned out to be Gendebien&#39;s last in Formula&nbsp;1.

<h2>The Right Man for the Job</h2>

Hill/Gendebien quickly set a&nbsp;staggering&nbsp;pace at the 1961 24 Hours, forcing their opponents to pull out all the stops. The&nbsp;lead&nbsp;cars eventually gave up the breakneck pace, but two Ferraris emerged: one the official car shared by the American/Belgian pair, the other a private entry by North American Racing Team (NART) driven by Mexican brothers&nbsp;Pedro and&nbsp;Ricardo Rodr&iacute;guez. The drivers delivered a breathtaking duel until NART&#39;s&nbsp;Ferrari broke down, paving the way for another Hill/Gendebien victory (the latter&#39;s third).

If it ain&#39;t broke, don&#39;t fix it. The two shared the wheel of&nbsp;a monster 330 TRI/LM at&nbsp;the&nbsp;1962 24 Hours, its&nbsp;4-litre&nbsp;V12 the only one on the starting grid. The car&#39;s&nbsp;performance was mind-blowing, dusting&nbsp;the&nbsp;Maseratis and&nbsp;Aston Martins by several seconds each&nbsp;lap. The Rodr&iacute;guez brothers remained Hill/Gendebien&#39;s only real competition until dawn on Sunday, but Gendebien went on to clinch his fourth win at Le Mans, a new&nbsp;record at the time.

After narrowly avoiding contact with&nbsp;a slower car at&nbsp;Tertre Rouge the following year, Gendebien&nbsp;retired from racing at the request of his wife without ever truly&nbsp;considering&nbsp;himself a professional driver.

He was perhaps never the fastest, nor the most incisive behind the wheel, but his track record made&nbsp;him one of the best drivers in the history of the world sports car championship.&nbsp;Gendebien&nbsp;also won the&nbsp;12 Hours of&nbsp;Sebring in&nbsp;1959 and&nbsp;1961 with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/team/6293" target="_blank">Scuderia Ferrari</a>, and with&nbsp;Porsche in 1960.

Rich in his own right, he lived in the South of France until&nbsp;he passed&nbsp;away&nbsp;in 1998, receiving the Order of the Belgian Crown that same year.&nbsp;With his death ended&nbsp;a bygone era&nbsp;focused on values ​​and conduct&nbsp;beyond driving. Gendebien was a true artist, every bit as talented as those &quot;professionals.&quot;

Olivier Gendebien, the "amateur" four-time Le Mans winner

Gala dinners and award ceremonies abound at this time of year and the names on some trophies are engraved well before the season ends, but the World Endurance Championship remains wide open. With three monumental races still to be run, the 2018-19 Super Season is living up to its name. Fans have the 1000 Miles of Sebring to look forward to on 15 March, followed by the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on 4 May and the grand finale, the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 15-16 June. At 15:00 on 16 June, we shall simultaneously applaud the winners of the 87th running of the French classic and crown the world champions.

Don&rsquo;t miss the video of what&rsquo;s in store.

24H LE MANS

Video: WEC 2018-19 Super Season still on tenterhooks

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Who are the 186 drivers set to compete in the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans?

Cadillac finalises driver line-ups with Felipe Drugovich

Inter Europol Competition score first ELMS LMP2 victory at Le Castellet

Olivier Gendebien, the "amateur" four-time Le Mans winner

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