The day before the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans, ByKOLLES Racing has confirmed its involvement in Hypercar, the future top class at the race and in the FIA WEC, in 2021.

24H Le Mans

24 Heures du Mans

The race of the century last June drew a historic attendance to the circuit: a 325,000-strong crowd witnessed Ferrari’s flamboyant victory. Thanks to comprehensive media coverage, the remote audience was larger than ever.

There were plenty of ways to watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary, the fourth round of the increasingly popular FIA World Endurance Championship.  
No fewer than 196 countries offered TV coverage of the event and an impressive 113 million viewers tuned in: two-and-a-half times more than last year!  
The widespread fame of the iconic race is reflected in its international audience. With Lebron James as official <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/lebron-james-named-official-starter-of-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-centenary-race-57564">race starter</a> and a NASCAR <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/why-is-there-a-nascar-on-the-2023-24-hours-of-le-mans-grid-57532">in the field</a>, the number of viewers from the USA increased sharply compared to previous years. Other key endurance racing nations such as Germany, Japan and Denmark recorded huge audiences eager to cheer on their home-grown stars.  
The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans will be held from June 12 to 16, with an illustrious line-up already taking shape.

24 Hours of Le Mans: record-breaking audiences

Peugeot TotalEnergies has named Stoffel Vandoorne, 31, as official driver for the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Next season, Peugeot fully intends to play a leading role in a Hypercar class that promises to be even more competitive&nbsp;with the introduction of the likes of Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini&nbsp;and Lamborghini. The French outfit has therefore added Stoffel Vandoorne to its official driver roster. The Belgian is a familiar face to the Peugeot TotalEnergies team, having been involved in testing and simulator sessions as reserve driver this term.&nbsp; Last weekend, he stood in for the injured Nico M&uuml;ller at the 6 Hours of Fuji.

He will make his first start as an official driver at the 2024 FIA WEC season&rsquo;s curtain-raiser in Qatar on 2 March, before moving on to the other seven venues on the calendar including, of course, the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 15-16 June 2024.

Jean-Marc Finot &ndash; Senior VP, Stellantis Motorsport: We are proud to name Stoffel Vandoorne as Team Peugeot TotalEnergies official driver. As he showed in Fuji,&nbsp;his team spirit, his performance, and his consistency are in line with the ones of his teammates. Of course, we already know Stoffel very well, as driver for DS Penske in Formula E; he is part of the Stellantis Motorport drivers&rsquo; family. His ability to adapt and to be get into rhythm right away shows that both series are complementary, the FIA WEC and FIA Formula E and the advantage of having drivers that participate in both championships.

Stoffel Vandoorne: I&rsquo;m really happy to join the team as official driver for the 2024 season. I have always appreciated the FIA WEC and am familiar with it as I raced in 2019 and 2021. My goal was clearly to come back to this championship and even more now with the Hypercar class, with so many manufacturers. Having the opportunity to fight for the victory and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is fantastic, and I think it&rsquo;s a dream for a lot of drivers. I&rsquo;m really glad to be part of this team and excited to start with Peugeot.

Stoffel Vandoorne appointed official driver by Peugeot TotalEnergies

The three drivers nominated as official ‘Rookies’ for the official FIA World Endurance Championship test session at Bahrain International Circuit on Sunday 5 November have today been announced.

Josh Pierson (Hypercar), Nicolas Varrone (LMP2) and Antoine Doquin (LMGTE Am) will each get a minimum of 30 laps behind the wheel of the championship winning car for their allocated category. The official test will take place one day after the season-closing Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain with a two hour session in the morning followed by three hours in the afternoon.

The three drivers were chosen by the Promoter and Organiser of the FIA WEC and the ACO for their exemplary performance, race skills and commitment throughout the 2023 WEC/ELMS season.

Josh Pierson (17)&nbsp;from Portland, USA, will drive the Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid Hypercar &ndash; the same vehicle that has taken five out of six victories so far in this year&rsquo;s WEC. For the last two seasons, Pierson has driven an LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson for British squad United Autosports and in 2022 he made history as <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/24-hours-of-le-mans-josh-pierson-16-years-of-age-and-ready-to-go-56356" target="_blank">the youngest driver to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans</a> &ndash; at just 16-years-old. Pierson won this year&rsquo;s 6 Hours of Portim&atilde;o and finished third in last year&rsquo;s overall LMP2 standings.

Nicolas Varrone (22) from Buenos Aires, Argentina, will drive the winning car in this year&rsquo;s LMP2 category (WRT, Inter Europol Competition or United Autosports can still mathematically take this year&rsquo;s title). It&rsquo;s fair to say that Varrone &ndash; alongside his Corvette Racing team-mates Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg &ndash; have been untouchable in this year&rsquo;s LMGTE Am category, wrapping up the GTE Am title with two rounds to spare. Varrone started his racing career in Formula Renault 2.0 in his native Argentina before venturing into sportscars with a Le Mans Cup campaign with Rinaldi Racing in 2021 followed by ELMS in 2022.

Frenchman&nbsp;Antoine Doquin (19)&nbsp;has been chosen to drive the LMGTE Am championship-winning Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in Bahrain. Having raced in karts for five years, Doquin took the plunge into endurance racing in 2020 competing in ELMS with Cool Racing before winning the LMP3 category of Asian Le Mans Series in 2022with CD Sport. This year, Doquin has been competing in LMP3 with Racing Spirit of Leman, winning the 4 Hours of Castellet and is currently second in the standings.

The full entry list for the official Rookie Test on Sunday 5 November will be released in due course.&nbsp;

Josh Pierson:&nbsp;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited to get my first experience in a Hypercar, especially with a team like Toyota that is experienced and passionate about the sport. I&rsquo;m extremely honoured and grateful to have been selected for this and I&rsquo;m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel. I&rsquo;d also like to thank United Autosports, my co-drivers, and my driver coach, Stephen Simpson, as I owe a lot of my progression as a driver to them. I can&rsquo;t wait to get started!&rdquo;

Nicolas Varrone: &ldquo;I&#39;m very honoured to be selected by the WEC to participate in the Rookie Test at Bahrain. This has been a great year with Corvette Racing. I couldn&#39;t imagine a better year in this championship. We managed to clinch the title early and win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was our biggest goal going into this season. So, it is fantastic to have the chance to drive the WEC championship-winning car in LMP2. This is something that is very great for me. Obviously I am driving GTs but my goal is Hypercar, so this is another step forward toward that for my career. It will be cool to drive the LMP2, and I&#39;m sure I will enjoy it. Thank you to the WEC and everyone for this opportunity.&rdquo;

Antoine Doquin:&nbsp;&ldquo;I am eager to get my first laps behind the wheel of a car from the FIA WEC. I would like to express my gratitude to WEC and Corvette Racing for giving me this opportunity. It&#39;s a source of pride for me to know that I will be driving a car that has won the championship in its category. After competing and winning in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and then in the European Le Mans Series championships, this is the logical next step in my endurance journey. I can&#39;t wait to get there, to discover the car, the team, the track, and this unique environment.&rdquo;

Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, FIA WEC CEO:&nbsp;&ldquo;The FIA WEC has no shortage of talented drivers and the fact that Josh, Nicolas and Antoine have been picked is testament to the high level of drivers we have in both WEC and the ELMS. We are always looking to nurture young talent in endurance racing and we have seen in the past how beneficial our rookie tests can be for drivers&rsquo; future careers. We look forward to seeing how all three of these individuals perform behind the wheel in Bahrain.&rdquo;

Official FIA WEC Rookies revealed for Bahrain test

The Asian Le Mans Series just keeps getting better and is now on course to break its owns entry records during the 2023/2024 season! The championship has once again drawn several of the most successful endurance racing teams in the world for a calendar stocked with thrilling and highly competitive rounds.

By keeping the immensely popular United Arab Emirates races&nbsp;on the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) programme, the upcoming season will see a calendar&nbsp;expanded to five rounds&nbsp;(including one in Southeast Asia).

At least&nbsp;36 cars will take the start in the 4 Hours of&nbsp;Sepang, opening race&nbsp;of the season, the&nbsp;largest grid ever seen in the ALMS at&nbsp;the Sepang International Circuit.&nbsp;Interest in the championship has heated up, with full season entries capped due to available paddock space and circuit layout constraints. The&nbsp;larger Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina Circuit are able to accommodate more competitors, so&nbsp;teams may&nbsp;enter rounds on a race by race basis for those held in the United Arab Emirates.

The complete 2023/2024 ALMS entry list will be released shortly before the opening round in Sepang in early December.

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest:&nbsp;&quot;The Asian Le Mans Series keeps getting stronger. Next year&#39;s grid is the perfect illustration&nbsp;with no less than 10&nbsp;LMP2s on the starting grid. In the GT class, the array of constructors knows no bounds,&nbsp;eight in all! Such a healthy field sets the scene for another spectacular season, beginning in Sepang on 2 December. We are looking forward to returning to Southeast Asia.&quot;

Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, Le Mans Endurance Management&nbsp;CEO:&nbsp;&ldquo;The Asian Le Mans Series continues to be a very attractive programme with another big grid of existing and new teams! The return to Southeast Asia&nbsp;and the expansion to five races were both important steps in the growth of the series, especially the strong number of LMP2 and GT entries shows the popularity of the series.&rdquo;

St&eacute;phane Ratel, SRO Motorsports Group Founder and&nbsp;CEO:&nbsp;&ldquo;I must congratulate the ACO, Colin Ong and his team for compiling such a strong entry list for the 2023/2024 Asian Le Mans Series. The return to Southeast Asia is an important milestone in the championship&#39;s post-pandemic development, but also one that teams and drivers from the region have clearly embraced. SRO&#39;s more recent hands-on experience across the continent has and will continue to play a role within the series&nbsp;organisation, but we are also eager to build on the current momentum beyond the upcoming campaign.&quot;

<h2>Returning&nbsp;Champions</h2>

As many as seven&nbsp;previous champions will compete&nbsp;in the 2023/2024 Asian Le Mans Series season:

<ul>
	<li>2023 champions DKR Engineering defending its crown</li>
	<li>2022 LMP2 and 2019/2020 LMP3 champion Nielsen Racing in LMP2 for the entire season</li>
	<li>Algarve Pro Racing returning&nbsp;for the full season</li>
	<li>2018/2019 LMP2 Am champion ARC Bratislava in LMP2 with one car</li>
	<li>2022 LMP3&nbsp;champion CD Sport returning for its&nbsp;fourth ALMS season</li>
	<li>The first non-Asian team to win the GT class&nbsp;in the ALMS, Herberth Motorsports returning&nbsp;with its&nbsp;Porsche 911 GT3 R to support&nbsp;Pure Rxcing</li>
	<li>Optimum to&nbsp;support&nbsp;2022 GT champion Inception Racing returning&nbsp;with two&nbsp;McLaren 720S GT3s</li>
</ul>

<h2>At Least Eight Different Marques in GT</h2>

The&nbsp;GT class continues to attract top competitors, with a minimum of&nbsp;eight different marques signed up for&nbsp;the 2023/2024 ALMS season. Given the significant&nbsp;paddock capacity in the&nbsp;United Arab Emirates, we may see even more on the starting grid. Here are the various&nbsp;GTs entered in the ALMS so far:

<ul>
	<li>Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2</li>
	<li>Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3</li>
	<li>BMW M4 GT3</li>
	<li>Ferrari 296 GT3</li>
	<li>Lamborghini Hurac&aacute;n GT3 EVO 2</li>
	<li>McLaren 720S GT3</li>
	<li>Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO</li>
	<li>Porsche 911 GT3 R</li>
</ul>

<h2>2024 24 Hours of Le Mans&nbsp;Invitations</h2>

A prized&nbsp;invitation to participate&nbsp;in the 92nd&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans (15-16 June&nbsp;2024) will be granted to the winners of&nbsp;the 2023/2024 ALMS&nbsp;LMP2 and&nbsp;GT classes.

The&nbsp;LMP3 winner will be given priority when entering the 2024&nbsp;Road to Le Mans support race.

<div>&nbsp;</div>

ALMS – 36 teams entered in the 2023/2024 Asian Le Mans Series season

24 Heures du Mans 2020

In the official ACO press conference today, ByKOLLES Racing announced it will take part in the new Hypercar class in&nbsp;the 24 Hours of Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship, and has named the project&nbsp;PMC Project LMH. The car will be equipped with a 700 hp&nbsp;aspirated V8 engine&nbsp;weighing&nbsp;1,040 kg. Release of the road version is scheduled for the first trimester of 2021. The&nbsp;LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) race version will make its debut in competition in 2021.

More images of ByKOLLES Racing&#39;s Le Mans Hypercar:

24H LE MANS

24 Hours of Le Mans – ByKOLLES Racing confirms participation in Le Mans Hypercar

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24 Hours of Le Mans: record-breaking audiences

Stoffel Vandoorne appointed official driver by Peugeot TotalEnergies

Official FIA WEC Rookies revealed for Bahrain test

ALMS – 36 teams entered in the 2023/2024 Asian Le Mans Series season

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