Lamborghini open to new LMDh partners for WEC return

Lamborghini will begin searching for new accomplice groups to proceed its LMDh undertaking past 2025 if it could show the competitiveness of the automotive on this yr’s IMSA SportsCar Championship.

The Italian producer has taken over the lead of the race programme for this yr with an IMSA-only assault on the 5 endurance rounds following its cut up with Iron Lynx.

But it surely has outlined a imaginative and prescient to return in 2026 in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship with factory-supported buyer groups.

“It isn’t our ambition sooner or later to be a racing staff,” defined Lamborghini chief expertise officer Rouven Mohr.

“It’s clear that if we go to the subsequent step and enlarge the programme, it makes solely sense if the automotive is sorted and the efficiency of the automotive is on the stage of our GT3 vehicles [in terms of competitiveness] and we will put the automotive in buyer palms.

“We are going to choose the longer term programmes relying on how briskly we’re progressing with the efficiency growth.”

#63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, Edoardo Mortara, #25 BMW M Staff RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Marco Wittmann, Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

Picture by: Andreas Beil

Mohr added that he’s “super-positive” that Lamborghini Squadra Corse, its in-house motorsport division, will have the ability to make the SC63 aggressive over the course of this yr.

However he insisted that it stays too early to decide to plans for 2026.

“One step after the opposite: first we now have to contemplate the development of the LMDh after which if we’re aggressive and we discover the curiosity of a staff or groups to re-enter, let’s see,” he mentioned.

Lamborghini urged that the WEC stays very a lot in its plans.

Firm CEO Stephan Winkelmann described the Le Mans 24 Hours, the centrepiece spherical of the WEC, as a race that “offers quite a lot of visibility” and that he would “like to be again as quickly as doable”.

Rohr wouldn’t go into element concerning the cut up with Iron Lynx, which is believed to not have been totally resolved.

The Italian staff was a key accomplice within the SC63 undertaking and ran a full season with a single automotive within the 2024 WEC and in addition entered 4 of the 5 IMSA enduros with one entry.

“Our future pursuits had been somewhat bit completely different and we determined to go our separate methods,” he mentioned.

That divergence included the choice to face down from the WEC because of the rule change demanding that producers within the Hypercar class should run two vehicles.

Iron Lynx staff principal Andrea Piccini mentioned on the WEC finale in Bahrain final November that the staff was “able to run two vehicles”.

Mohr defined that the transfer by Squadra Corse to take over the race programme was motivated by a want “to have full management on additional growth of the automotive”.

“Final yr we had been seeing some potential, and we mentioned that if we now have extra management we will higher develop the efficiency,” he defined.

Lamborghini has employed the Riley Motorsports squad to supply the spine of the staff operating the solo SC63 entered below the Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse banner within the five-race IMSA Endurance Cup, starting with final weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.

The deal was put collectively on the final minute following the divorce from Iron Lynx, which remained concerned up till the official IMSA check at Daytona in November.

Riley obtained the SC63 it ran at Daytona in early January and it’s understood that it’s a growth chassis moderately than one of many vehicles that Iron Lynx fielded final yr.

New Squadra Corse boss Maurizio Leschiutta defined {that a} plan is in place to introduce not less than one evo joker over the course of the 2025 season.

He defined that growth will give attention to “automobile dynamics, suspension and aero” which he described as “the three ache factors” of the SC63 because it stands.

Lamborghini’s GTP entry pushed by Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara retired from Daytona after 58 minutes with what had been described as powertrain points associated to the cooling system.

Solely Bortolotti, who ran as excessive as eighth after beginning ninth, obtained to drive the automotive within the race.