On January 3, 1977, Apple - founded in April of 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne - became a publicly traded company. On June 14, 1980, the #71 Porsche 935 of Dick Barbour Racing took the start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Californian company's colors (retirement).

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The 2025 Lone Star Le Mans promises another hotly disputed battle between Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche and Toyota at the Circuit Of The Americas. With just three rounds of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) remaining, each point will count in the fight for the Hypercar and LMGT3 crowns.

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&rsquo;s #83 Ferrari 499P won last year&rsquo;s thrilling race from the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Toyota Gazoo Racing by a mere 1.7 seconds. Could this season&rsquo;s event produce a similar nail-biting finish? Lone Star Le Mans follows on from the Rolex 6 Hours of S&atilde;o Paulo where Cadillac shook up the title fight.

Ferrari currently tops the FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers&rsquo; 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 S&atilde;o Paulo, the #50 and #51 works Ferrari 499Ps will be looking to make amends and pick up precious points. AF Corse&rsquo;s #83 499P driven by Yifei Ye, Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson will also be keenly followed as the winner of June&rsquo;s 24 Hours of Le Mans returns to defend its Lone Star Le Mans crown. Can the yellow Ferrari sparkle once again?

<h2>Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA looking to cause an upset</h2>

Following their win in Brazil, Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA and the Cadillac V-Series.R will be looking to draw on the home crowd&rsquo;s strong support to upset Ferrari. &ldquo;Obviously, the team is on a complete high from the 1-2 in Brazil, so we&#39;re hoping for more good things,&rdquo; says Earl Bamber, driver of the #38 Cadillac. &ldquo;I think we&#39;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&#39;re always in the top five and we&#39;re always there, we know we&#39;re going to be closing in and scoring big points.&rdquo;

Will Stevens, driver of the #38 Cadillac and S&atilde;o Paulo winner, adds: &ldquo;The high-speed first section, we know that&rsquo;s going to be a strong point to our Cadillac V-Series.R car. We know off last year&rsquo;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.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
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 K&eacute;vin 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&rsquo;s quite a different matter for the 963.&nbsp;&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been as competitive as we had hoped this season,&rdquo; admits Porsche Motorsport Vice President Thomaas Laudenbach, &ldquo;but going into Le Mans we turned things around and, thanks to a podium in S&atilde;o Paulo, we have kept our championship hopes alive. The team is fully prepared and eager for what promises to be a tight contest.&rdquo;

<h2>Toyota Gazoo Racing without Mike Conway</h2>

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 Jos&eacute; Mar&iacute;a L&oacute;pez, who will join forces with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. The Japanese manufacturer endured a tough race at the Rolex 6 Hours of S&atilde;o 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.

&ldquo;As a team we&rsquo;ve had a few weeks to analyse what happened in Brazil and we want to come back much stronger in Austin,&rdquo;&nbsp;insists Kobayashi. &ldquo;Of course, we are all disappointed that Mike cannot join us in the #7 car, but Jos&eacute; has proved he is a very capable substitute.&rdquo;

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.

<h2>LMGT3&nbsp;&ndash; another Ferrari v. Porsche face-off</h2>

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.

<a href="https://fiawec.tv/page/679a56921229db49627128a6" target="_blank">Watch all the action from the FIA World Endurance Championship</a>&nbsp;live or on demand with the FIA WEC TV official app! Don&rsquo;t miss a thing! Check out the app for further information.

FIA WEC – Title heat set to rise at Lone Star Le Mans

The 2026 Michelin Le Mans Cup calendar will feature the same six venues as this season with one important difference. The annual trip to Le Mans in June will now, for the first time, feature a single three-hour race on the full 13.6km Circuit de La Sarthe on Friday 12th June instead of the two 1-hour races run at previous events in support of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The six-round series will begin in Barcelona, with the Collective Test on April 8th&nbsp;followed by Round 1 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday 11th&nbsp;April.

Le Castellet will be the first of two events held in France, with Round 2 on Saturday 2nd&nbsp;May, followed by Road To Le Mans on Friday 12th&nbsp;June, as a curtain-raiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After the summer break, the MLMC returns in August for Round 4 at Spa-Francorchamps, followed by the second visit to Silverstone by the MMC on the 12th&nbsp;September. For the tenth time since 2017, the season finale will be held at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal on Saturday 10thOctober.

All of the races, with the exception of Road To Le Mans, will be in support of the European Le Mans Series.

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest:&nbsp;&ldquo;The Michelin Le Mans Cup will be ten years old next year. In the space of a decade, the series has proved to be an essential stage on the route to excellence in this discipline. The quality and variety of circuits offer an outstanding competitive environment enabling teams and drivers to work their way up the endurance ladder towards the FIA World Endurance Championship. 
The three-hour race on the full Circuit des 24 heures is a major milestone on that journey. Road To Le Mans&rsquo; new format reflects the close relationship between the series and the classic French 24-hour race, offering competitors a real taste of the spirit of Le Mans. We are looking forward to the new season.&rdquo;

Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, Le Mans Endurance Management (LMEM) CEO:&nbsp;&ldquo;The Michelin Le Mans Cup remains a very important step on the endurance racing ladder that leads to the ELMS, FIA World Endurance Championship and, ultimately, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 2026 calendar mirrors the six locations of 2025, allowing LMEM to strengthen events and grow fan support. 
The move to a single 3-hour Road To Le Mans race in support of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is an important step in the development of the series, which gives the teams and drivers more track time at the &lsquo;crown jewel&rsquo; event on the MLMC calendar. We look forward to welcoming everyone to another exciting Michelin Le Mans Cup season.&rdquo;

Three hour Road To Le Mans race is the highlight for the 2026 calendar

The calendar for the 2026 European Le Mans Series will once again feature six 4-hour races at the same circuits visited this year – Barcelona, Le Castellet, Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone and Portimão.

Following a record attendance in 2024, with over 100,000 fans across the six events, the 2025 season is already set to break this record with the return to the British Home of Motorsport at Silverstone this 12&ndash;14 September.

The 2026 season will follow the same format, starting in Spain with the Prologue and Round 1 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya at the beginning of April, which moves forward one week compared to 2025. The ELMS will then move to France for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet at the start of May.

After a break in June for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the ELMS returns for Round 3 in Italy with the 4 Hours of Imola and then it&rsquo;s off to the Ardennes for the longest circuit on the calendar, the 7km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in August.

The ELMS will return to the UK in September for 4 Hours of Silverstone, and, for the tenth time in a row, the season finale will take place at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, one week earlier compared to this season.

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest: &ldquo;Year after year, the European Le Mans Series confirms its place as a reference in European endurance. Spectator enthusiasm is buoyant and the continued record-breaking attendance augurs well for seasons to come. 
The popular series remains attached to its star fixtures and the 2026 calendar features the continent&rsquo;s most prominent circuits. We are grateful to all our hosts who contribute to the notoriety of the championship. The ACO is proud to witness the growth of the ELMS and to see more and more enthusiasts enjoy endurance racing.&rdquo;

Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, Le Mans Endurance Management (LMEM) CEO:&nbsp;&ldquo;The 2026 calendar is all about providing the teams and our partners with a stable platform, which will enable everyone involved to continue to build on the considerable success enjoyed by the ELMS since 2013.&nbsp; 
With six 4-hour races on six of Europe&rsquo;s leading circuits, the 2026 season will provide the teams and drivers with continuity and different challenges, while providing exciting racing for our many fans around the world to enjoy whether in person at the track or watching at home. We look forward to welcoming all our competitors, partners, fans and the media next season.&rdquo;

Record breaking calendar returns for 2026 ELMS

The BMW M Hybrid V8 will benefit from an overhauled aero design for next year's FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons.

A new front end, smaller grille, improved aerodynamics: the BMW M Hybrid V8 is getting a new look for 2026. BMW M Motorsport is modifying&nbsp;the car&#39;s aerodynamics (subject to homologation) in response to&nbsp;experience gained in competition since 2023.

The biggest change is to&nbsp;the front end of the German Hypercar.&nbsp;A slightly smaller grille,&nbsp;revised splitter and redesigned headlights aim to&nbsp;optimise&nbsp;airflow.&nbsp;

<h2>Aerodynamic Modifications for More Consistency and&nbsp;performance</h2>

These improvements offer&nbsp;two main advantages. Firstly, they ensure more consistent performances across all the circuits on the calendar. The data collected over&nbsp;the last two WEC and IMSA seasons revealed weaknesses that needed to be overcome. Secondly, the new air&nbsp;circulation around the car woll&nbsp;aid in cooling.

The new aerodynamics were executed in&nbsp;a close collaboration between&nbsp;the engineers at&nbsp;BMW M Motorsport and its chassis partner,&nbsp;Dallara. Private testing sessions have been&nbsp;conducted the last few weeks and now the BMW M Hybrid V8 will make its first public appearance for a collective shakedown&nbsp;at&nbsp;Lone Star Le Mans, the sixth round of the 2025 WEC. Suject to final homologation, the car&#39;s first race will be the Rolex&nbsp;24 at&nbsp;Daytona at the end of January 2026.

Head of BMW M Motorsport, Andreas Roos: Since we began racing in the IMSA series in 2023 and the FIA WEC in 2024, we have learned a great deal about our BMW M Hybrid V8. After optimising the brakes for the current season, it is now time for an aerodynamically improved version of the car. With these updates, we are responding to the insights gained from our previous race outings. Following the tests we&rsquo;ve already conducted, we are confident that the changes to the BMW M Hybrid V8 will allow us to compete more consistently at the front on all types of tracks, taking another step toward the top. A big thank you to everyone involved for their hard work. In the coming months, we will continue to work intensively to ensure we are optimally prepared for the start of the 2026 season at Daytona in January.

BMW is currently fifth in the&nbsp;2025 WEC Hypercar Constructors standings behind Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche and&nbsp;Toyota. At the Qatar&nbsp;1812 km, the #15&nbsp;BMW M Hybrid V8 finished fourth overall.

The BMW M Hybrid V8's new aerodynamics for 2026

24 Heures du Mans 1980

The only car to have boasted the American company&#39;s rainbow apple logo, the previous year the same&nbsp;Porsche 935 allowed&nbsp;Paul Newman, Dick Barbour and&nbsp;Rolf Stommelen to claim the second step on the overall&nbsp;podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was sold at auction in&nbsp;Monterey,&nbsp;California last August for $4,840,000.

Photo (Copyright - Archives/ACO): The #71&nbsp;Porsche 935 sported the name&nbsp;Apple on its hood at the 1980&nbsp;24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans.

24H LE MANS

Today's Photo Story - A Porsche sponsored by Apple at Le Mans in 1980

Related News

FIA WEC – Title heat set to rise at Lone Star Le Mans

Three hour Road To Le Mans race is the highlight for the 2026 calendar

Record breaking calendar returns for 2026 ELMS

The BMW M Hybrid V8's new aerodynamics for 2026

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