Lone Star Le Mans, staged at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, is the sixth round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship. Fans will recall that AF Corse’s #83 Ferrari 499P won last year’s thrilling race from the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Toyota Gazoo Racing by a mere 1.7 seconds. Could this season’s event produce a similar nail-biting finish? Lone Star Le Mans follows on from the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo where Cadillac shook up the title fight.

Ferrari currently tops the FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship. The Prancing Horse holds a 55-point lead over Cadillac with Porsche a further nine points adrift. A Lone Star Le Mans win will scoop 25 points. With two more fixtures on the 2025 calendar after this race, the season is far from over.

After finishing outside the top ten in São Paulo, the #50 and #51 works Ferrari 499Ps will be looking to make amends and pick up precious points. AF Corse’s #83 499P driven by Yifei Ye, Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson will also be keenly followed as the winner of June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans returns to defend its Lone Star Le Mans crown. Can the yellow Ferrari sparkle once again?

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA looking to cause an upset

Following their win in Brazil, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA and the Cadillac V-Series.R will be looking to draw on the home crowd’s strong support to upset Ferrari. “Obviously, the team is on a complete high from the 1-2 in Brazil, so we're hoping for more good things,” says Earl Bamber, driver of the #38 Cadillac. “I think we've just got to keep pestering that top five with both cars and keep chipping away. Closing that gap is going to be tough. But if we're always in the top five and we're always there, we know we're going to be closing in and scoring big points.”

Will Stevens, driver of the #38 Cadillac and São Paulo winner, adds: “The high-speed first section, we know that’s going to be a strong point to our Cadillac V-Series.R car. We know off last year’s performance, the car was also working very well there. I think we have a great chance at scoring some really good points and having a great race.” 
Confidence is running high in the American camp.

Meanwhile, Porsche Penske Motorsport will have high hopes of a podium with the #5 and #6 Porsche 963s. Both Hypercars will be manned by a three-driver crew: Julien Andlauer, Mathieu Jaminet and Michael Christensen in the #5, and Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell in the #6.
While Austin was a happy hunting ground for the German manufacturer who chalked up three straight wins with the 919 Hybrid between 2015 and 2017, it’s quite a different matter for the 963. “We haven’t been as competitive as we had hoped this season,” admits Porsche Motorsport Vice President Thomaas Laudenbach, “but going into Le Mans we turned things around and, thanks to a podium in São Paulo, we have kept our championship hopes alive. The team is fully prepared and eager for what promises to be a tight contest.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing without Mike Conway

Toyota Gazoo Racing is on a revenge mission at COTA after being pipped at the post last time out at the Austin venue. The team will however be without Mike Conway at the wheel of the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. The British driver injured his collarbone in an accident in practice last week and will be replaced by José María López, who will join forces with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. The Japanese manufacturer endured a tough race at the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo with performance and speed issues plaguing both cars. The team will hope for more favourable conditions in Texas to bounce back and pick up its first podium of the season.

“As a team we’ve had a few weeks to analyse what happened in Brazil and we want to come back much stronger in Austin,” insists Kobayashi. “Of course, we are all disappointed that Mike cannot join us in the #7 car, but José has proved he is a very capable substitute.”

While Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche and Toyota will be the main contenders for the podium, BMW, Alpine and Peugeot will not be there just to make up the numbers. For Aston Martin, Lone Star Le Mans will provide another opportunity to glean experience with the Valkyrie. The commitment shown by these prestigious makes at the highest level of endurance reflects the vitality of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

LMGT3 – another Ferrari v. Porsche face-off

In the LMGT3 class, Manthey 1ST Phorm (#82 Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3) leads the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 Teams standings, but the German outfit holds a mere 13-point advantage over Vista AF Corse (#21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3). TF Sport (#33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R) is also a threat. The British team is only 23 points in arrears of the pacesetters.

The race will start at 18:00 UTC on Sunday 7 September.

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