2023 24 Hours of Le Mans: Ferrari Wins the Centenary Race

The 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 91st running of the race, marking its centenary, and it was won by Ferrari's 499P No. 51. The race was held on 10-11 June in front of 325,000 spectators, and it was a wet, incident-heavy event in which only 40 of the 62 starters finished.

When and where was the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans held?

The race was held at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France, on 10-11 June 2023. It started at 16:00 CEST on 10 June, and it was the fourth round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship. A test day took place a week earlier, on 4 June.

The event was also known as the Centenary 24 Hours, because it came 100 years after the first race in 1923. Its entry included teams of three drivers in the Hypercar, LMP2 and LMGTE Am classes, and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) organised it.

Ferrari's 499P No. 51 won by 1 minute, 21.793 seconds, its first overall Le Mans win since 1965 and a centenary result to remember.

What changed in the rules for 2023?

The biggest change was a new safety car procedure, aimed at reducing the impact of the cars on the race. Three safety cars were deployed, but two were then removed so that every car circulated behind the one that remained, which allowed lapped cars to pass and rejoin the back of the queue. The field was sorted by category, from fastest to slowest, before racing resumed.

The procedure followed a review of the safety car's use since 2018, when Porsche won the LMGTE Pro class by a large margin. It was not used in the final hour, and cars could still pit under safety car conditions until the pit lane was closed. The FIA and the ACO also suspended the tyre warmer ban for the Le Mans race only, after drivers had complained about slides on cold tyres at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

LMGTE Pro was dropped from the race in 2023, leaving LMGTE Am as the only GT category. The balance of performance was also changed four days before the test day. The Toyota GR010 Hybrid was made 37 kg (82 lb) heavier, the Ferrari 499P 24 kg (53 lb), the Porsche 963 11 kg (24 lb) and the Cadillac V-Series.R 3 kg (6.6 lb). The Glickenhaus, Peugeot and Vanwall cars were not changed.

How was the 62-car field made up?

Entry opened on 8 December 2022 and closed on 21 February 2023, and the ACO granted 62 invitations. The grid combined 37 guaranteed WEC places with 15 ELMS cars, four from the WTSC, four from the ALMS and two one-off entries. In total there were 40 cars in the two prototype classes, 21 in LMGTE Am and one innovative entry.

Automatic places went to teams that won championships in the European Le Mans Series, the Asian Le Mans Series and the Michelin Le Mans Cup, as well as the 2022 ELMS runners-up in LMP2 and LMGTE. Prema Racing gave up its automatic LMP2 place because it wanted to run its two full-time WEC cars. Ten reserves were named, three from LMGTE Am and seven from LMP2.

Heart of Racing withdrew its No. 27 Aston Martin after the list was published, and Risi Competizione withdrew its No. 82 Ferrari, which the ACO confirmed on 5 May. The reserve list was then reduced to eight entries, with no other changes to the teams.

What was Garage 56 in 2023?

Garage 56 returned after a two-year absence as the concept entry for testing new automotive technologies at Le Mans. A modified Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, run by Hendrick Motorsports, was announced at Sebring International Raceway in March 2022. It marked NASCAR's 75th anniversary and was the first NASCAR presence at Le Mans since 1976.

The car received aero updates, carbon brake discs and working headlights, and its fuel cell grew to 32 US gal (120 L; 27 imp gal). The changes reduced its weight by 525 lb (238 kg) compared with the NASCAR Cup Series model. Mike Rockenfeller, co-winner in 2010, joined Jenson Button and seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson as drivers, with Chad Knaus as project manager. The No. 24 was a tribute to Jeff Gordon.

The Garage 56 car had been quicker than the GTE cars during testing and practice, so at the request of the LMGTE Am entries the FIA WEC Committee moved it to the back of the LMP2 class, in front of every GTE car.

How did testing and practice go?

Every entrant had to complete eight hours of driving on the test day, 4 June, split into two sessions. Some drivers missed part or all of it because of commitments in Formula E, GT World Challenge and IndyCar. Ferrari topped the morning running, with Fuoco setting 3:30.686 in the No. 50 car, while Paul di Resta's Peugeot stopped with a high-voltage safety problem, and Conway's Toyota ended testing early after a spin into the wall at Tertre Rouge.

Practice began on 7 June in warm, sunny weather, with Toyota quickest overall. Hartley set 3:27.742 in the closing minutes of the first three-hour session. Vanthoor was fastest in the two-hour session at 3:28.878, and Fuoco's 3:26.579 led the third session on 8 June. The final hour saw Calado set 3:27.275, after race director Eduardo Freitas had red-flagged the session for 19 minutes.

Practice also brought crashes. Casper Stevenson's Aston Martin hit the Armco before Tertre Rouge, and Steven Thomas struck its door at high speed. Both were unhurt, but the barrier repair took 35 minutes. D'station and Tower Motorsports had to start from the back after chassis were replaced, and six LMP2 teams were penalised for running ride height sensors during testing.

Who took pole for the 2023 race?

Antonio Fuoco took pole for Ferrari with a 3:22.982 lap in the Hyperpole shootout, a Hypercar class record. It was Ferrari's first Le Mans pole since 1973, and it halted Toyota's run of six straight poles, which began in 2017. Ferrari's other 2023 pole had come at the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

The qualifying format gave one hour to set the starting order, with the top eight in each class going into a half-hour Hyperpole for pole. Pier Guidi qualified the sister No. 51 Ferrari second, and the top eight in the Hypercar shootout also included Hartley's Toyota, Nasr's Porsche, Kobayashi's Toyota and Bamber's Cadillac. Bourdais' Cadillac caught fire after a high-pressure fuel hose burst, and the car was stopped for marshals to put it out.

In LMP2, Chatin's IDEC Sport No. 48 took pole at 3:32.923. In LMGTE Am, Keating's Corvette set 3:52.376 on his final lap. In the warm-up, Calado had been fastest at 3:30.113, ahead of his team-mate Nielsen.

How did the race unfold?

The race started at 16:00 CEST with basketball player LeBron James waving the French tricolour, and the pole-sitting Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen led away. Temperatures ranged from 18.2 to 26.4 degrees C (64.8 to 79.5 F) on the air and 21 to 48 degrees C (70 to 118 F) on the track, and rain was forecast for the afternoon.

In the first hour Buemi took the lead at Indianapolis corner, and Jack Aitken lost traction on damp tyres at the first Mulsanne chicane and crashed the No. 311 AXR Cadillac. A spin by Mark Kvamme in the Inter Europol car triggered the first safety car, which lasted 35 minutes while the barrier and debris were cleared. Catsburg brought the No. 33 Corvette in for a damper repair in the second hour, and Keating rejoined two laps down.

Accidents followed for Sales' No. 14 Nielsen car, which hit the outside tyre barrier at Dunlop corner, and Ricky Taylor's No. 13 Tower car, which hit the inside barrier at high speed in Arnage. Both retired. Midway through the second hour De Pauw's AF Corse Ferrari hit the back of Bourdais' Cadillac under Dunlop Bridge, after Bourdais slowed for a slow zone. De Pauw's Ferrari and Birch's GMB Aston Martin were both retired, while Bourdais drove to the garage for rear-end repairs.

Heavy rain fell in the third hour, and several cars were caught out on slick tyres. Pera spun the LMGTE Am leading Porsche, Wadoux crashed the No. 83 Richard Mille Ferrari backwards into the wall at the Porsche Curves, and a second safety car came out for aquaplaning cars. Ye crashed the No. 38 Jota Porsche in the Porsche Curves when visibility was poor, and the car was repaired after 20 minutes and four laps.

Night brought more changes. Pier Guidi lost control while avoiding a Proton Porsche at the Daytona Chicane and gave the lead to Muller's Peugeot. In the ninth hour Kobayashi slowed for a slow zone at Tertre Rouge, and Prette's JMW Ferrari struck the rear of the No. 7 Toyota, ending the race for both cars. Hirakawa's No. 8 Toyota, which had a large piece of Kevlar in its suspension and an overheating engine, went on to take the lead at the Dunlop chicane. Actor Michael Fassbender crashed the No. 911 Proton Porsche after 20 hours.

In the morning Hirakawa ran over a squirrel near 7:00 a.m. local time, which removed front downforce from the No. 8 Toyota and sent it for a pit stop. That returned the lead to the No. 51 Ferrari.

Hirakawa spun at Arnage with 1 hour and 45 minutes to go, after locking the rear brakes because of a rearward brake balance setting he had not known about. He returned to the pits for bodywork and rejoined nearly a lap down, behind the leading Ferrari.

Who won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans?

Ferrari's 499P No. 51, driven by James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, won after 342 laps. It was the first overall Le Mans win for all three drivers and Ferrari's tenth overall, and its first since 1965.

The No. 51 car held the lead for the last 55 laps, and it finished 1 minute, 21.793 seconds ahead of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid No. 8 of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. Hartley and Hirakawa had battled the winners in the second half of the race, and the win came after a Ferrari system reset during the final pit stop.

Bamber, Lynn and Westbrook brought the Cadillac V-Series.R No. 2 home in third, one lap behind. Cadillac's result came despite frequent oil top-ups during pit stops, which followed an engine oil problem that had started in the third hour.

What were the class results?

Ferrari won the overall race, Inter Europol Competition won LMP2 and Corvette Racing won LMGTE Am. The table lists each class winner with the car and the margin.

Only 40 of the 62 starting cars finished, the lowest number since 2015. The minimum distance for classification was 239 laps, which was 70 per cent of the winner's distance. Corvette had its ninth Le Mans GTE victory, and Keating earned his second category win.

What did the result mean for the championships?

The win lifted Calado, Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi from fifth to second in the Hypercar standings, 25 points off the lead held by Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa. Buemi's group finished on 102 points, which kept them at the top of the standings.

Deletraz, Kubica and Andrade remained leaders of the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 drivers after WRT's second place, with Costa, Scherer and Smiechowski moving from sixth to second. In LMGTE Am, Catsburg, Keating and Varrone kept their lead over Al Harthy, Eastwood and Dinan.

Toyota, Team WRT and Corvette left Le Mans as the leaders of their respective World Endurance Championship categories, with three races left in the season.

How did the teams and drivers react?

Giovinazzi said finishing had been by no means a given, and Calado called the win a great achievement after so long. Pier Guidi said he had dreamed of driving for Ferrari since childhood, and Ferrari chairman John Elkann called the day unforgettable. Hartley was disappointed but proud of second, and Toyota had told Hirakawa to push hard for the win.

Bamber said Cadillac had a nearly perfect race, and Porsche's LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle felt the Penske cars could have matched the Cadillac on pace without technical problems. Scherer kept driving after a foot injury that was later found to be an incomplete fracture with ligament damage, and he was cleared for the 6 Hours of Monza. WRT owner Vincent Vosse was unhappy with second in LMP2, after the team had lost the class win on the final lap of 2021.

Keating described the Corvette's race as an emotional rollercoaster. Bourdais said De Pauw had hit him after failing to notice the slow zone was still active, and he suggested some slow zones should be deactivated. Kobayashi said it was painful to lose a third-place run that the team had been catching up on.