4 Stories to Look Out For at The 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans

by Luke Flanagan

Familiar Faces for F1 Fans

There are 16 former Formula 1 drivers taking part in this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hypercar (13)

Kamui Kobayashi - Toyota Racing #7

Nyck De Vries - Toyota Racing #7

Sebastien Buemi - Toyota Racing #8

Brendon Hartley - Toyota Racing #8

Will Stevens - Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #12

Kevin Magnussen - BMW M Team WRT #15

Andre Lotterer - Genesis #17

Sebastien Bourdais - Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #38

Jack Aitken - Cadillac Hertz Team Jota #38

Antonio Giovinazzi - Ferrari #51

Robert Kubica - AF Corse Ferrari #83

Paul di Resta - Peugeot #93

Stoffel Vandoorne - Peugeot #93

LMP2 (2)

Jack Doohan - Nielsen Racing #24

Pietro Fittipaldi - Vector Sport #26

LMGT3 (1)

Logan Sargeant - Proton Competition #88

Out of the 16 former F1 drivers there are six who have overall victories at Le Mans. Kobayashi, Buemi and Hartley have won Le Mans with Toyota; and Hartley also won with Porsche in 2017. Andre Lotterer has won three times with Audi, while Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica have won for Ferrari in recent years. Jack Doohan and Logan Sargeant are making their Le Mans debuts this year.

Ferrari's Chance to Draw Level With Audi

Ferrari have won the last three editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with a different car triumphing in each of the last three years. If they were to win this year and make it four in a row, they would go level with Audi on the all-time leaderboard of overall victories, with 13, joint second behind Porsche on 19. Audi overtook Ferrari during their dominant period in the 2000's and 2010's.

If Ferrari are to claim their 13th win, it will take something special from one of their cars after a poor qualifying during the week. The #51 was the only Ferrari to make it through to Hyperpole 2 and will line up in 8th, while the #50 was knocked out in Hyperpole 1 qualifying 12th and the #83 could only manage 17th on Wednesday's first qualifying session.

First Time at Le Mans for Genesis

This is the first time Genesis, Hyundai's luxury brand, have competed in the World Endurance Championship, meaning it will be their first time racing at the Circuit de La Sarthe.

Former Caterham and Renault F1 team principal Cyril Abiteboul is overseeing the Genesis Magma Racing Hypercar Program as the President of Hyundai Motorsport. In their two WEC races so far at Imola and Spa they have finished 15th and 8th with the #17, and 17th and 13th with the #19.

Despite the unremarkable results in previous races, they had an excellent qualifying for Le Mans as both cars made it through to Hyperpole 2. The #19 will start from 6th and the #17 from 9th on the grid.

BoP Advantage for LMDh cars

Since the opening qualifying session on Wednesday there have been complaints that the BoP (Balance of Performance) for this race is favouring the LMDh teams.

For those unaware, there are two sets of regulations that make up the Hypercar class, LMH and LMDh. In simple terms, LMH cars are built for the WEC and Le Mans, but LMDh are also built to compete in IMSA. LMH rules are more relaxed than LMDh and BoP is used to equalise them. Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and Genesis are running LMDh cars while Toyota, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Peugeot's cars are LMH.

The disparity between the two classes is evident in the qualifying results as LMDh cars locked out the top 6 and 8 of the 10 cars in Hyperpole 2 were LMDh. Toyota's technical director David Floury said after Wednesday's qualifying session that LMH cars are facing a clear deficit to LMDh cars, describing it as a 'two-class' structure. So if an LMDh car wins Le Mans this year, don't be too surprised.