Sports car season is over. Sports car season is about to begin. Most series are over and are settled into the offseason. One series is about to start.
We revisit our sports car predictions for 2025 as the 2025-26 Asian Le Mans Series is about to begin. Over December 13-14, ALMS has a pair of four-hour races from Sepang, and the Sepang 12 Hours is this weekend, but none of those events will change any of the results for the predictions we made for the year 2025. All of these are set.
FIA World Endurance Championships
1. The pole-sitter will be classified in at least seven of eight races
Correct!
After the pole-sitter retired from three of eight races in 2024, this season saw the pole-sitter finish every race in the 2025. In fact, five times did the pole-sitter finish on the podium this season after the pole-sitter finished only five of eight races total in 2024. Last season, the pole-sitter had only two podium finishes with only one victory. In 2025, the WEC pole-sitter won three races.
2. At least two manufacturers that did not win in LMGT3 in 2024 do win in 2025
Correct!
We were halfway there through the first race of the season as the #33 TF Sport Corvette of Jonny Edgar, Daniel Juncadella and Ben Keating won in Qatar after Corvette went winless in 2024. It would take a minute, but Lexus took victory in São Paulo with the #87 Akkodis ASP Team and José María López, Clemens Scmid and Razvan Umbrarescu, making that two new winners among manufacturers.
But we aren't done yet! At the next round at Austin, United Autosports took victory in the #95 McLaren with Sean Geleal, Darren Leung and Marino Sato. That's three new manufacturers!
To add to it, TF Sport won again at Fuji, but this time with the #81 Corvette, and the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus won again at Bahrain. In the final four races of 2025, each LMGT3 race had a winner that was a manufacturer that did not win in 2024.
Porsche won twice (Imola and Le Mans). Ferrari won once (Spa-Francorchamps). BMW and Aston Martin went winless in 2025 after each won a race in 2024.
3. Each Cadillac entry will get a podium finish
Correct!
And it happened in the same race as Hertz Team Jota Cadillac went 1-2 at the 6 Hours of São Paulo. The #12 Cadillac of Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens took the victory ahead of the #38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jenson Button.
Outside of those finishes, Cadillac didn't finish on the podium in any other race this season. Cadillac was looking good at the season opener at Qatar... and then the two cars collided under safety car and took each other out of contention for a podium. The #12 Cadillac was fourth at Le Mans. The #38 Cadillac had four finishes outside the top ten in 2025.
4. There will be at least two overall winners with a driver winning in his home country
Incorrect!
It only happened once. Ferrari won at Imola, and Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi were home winners in the #51 Ferrari. Outside of that, we did not see another home winner.
There were no Qatari, Brazilian, American or Bahraini drivers that competed in Hypercars this season.
At Spa-Francorchamps, the best finishing Belgian was Laurens Vanthoor in ninth. Frenchman Kévin Estre was second at Le Mans. Kamui Kobayashi was the top Japanese driver at Fuji, finishing seventh.
Other than at Le Mans, this wasn't really close to happening a second time.
IMSA
5. The overall pole-sitter will win consecutive races at some point
Incorrect!
After going winless in 2024 and having a 12-race winless streak dating back to 2023, the pole-sitter did finally win an IMSA race in 2025. It took five races as the #93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande won at Detroit. However, it was not followed with another pole-sitter victory.
The pole-sitter would not win again until Indianapolis when the #31 Whelen Racing Cadillac of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti finished first. This was also the penultimate race of the season, which meant the winner at Petit Le Mans had to start on pole position for this prediction to be correct.
The #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura won pole position, but the entry finished fifth in the race.
6. At least three LMP2 races feature a class winner with a Formula One-experienced driver
Incorrect!
Daytona started with a Formula One-experienced driver winning. Initially, Sébastien Bourdais won with Tower Motorsports, but Tower was disqualified for excessive wear to the skid block underneath the car. However, another Formula One-experienced driver was elevated to the race victory. That was Paul di Resta with United Autosports.
It wasn't di Resta's only victory, as he won at Watkins Glen with United. However, those were the only victories this season for Formula One-experienced drivers won in LMP2.
Sébastien Bourdais came close to victory at Sebring as Tower Motorsports was second. Pietro Fittipaldi ran a full season with Pratt Miller Motorsports, but Fittipaldi's best finish in class was sixth.
The only other past F1 driver to run in LMP2 in 2025 was Felipe Massa, who only ran at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Riley Motorsports. Massa was second.
7. The top three in the GTD Pro Endurance Cup championship will all be full-time entries
Correct!
The #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW won the Endurance Cup championship in GTD Pro with the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW finishing second in the Endurance Cup, and the #77 AO Racing Porsche was third.
All three of those teams were full-time teams. The #48 BMW was fourth in the overall championship with the #77 Porsche in fifth while the #1 BMW finished seventh. All three cars won races in 2025. The #48 BMW won at Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta. AO Racing won Sebring and Laguna Seca. The #1 BMW won at Road America.
8. Renger van der Zande's winning streak ends at eight consecutive seasons
Incorrect!
Van der Zande and co-driver Nick Yelloly won at Detroit, from pole position as you may have heard, and van der Zande has now won an IMSA race in the premier class in nine consecutive seasons.
Van der Zande has actually won a race in all 12 seasons since the Grand-Am/American Le Mans Series merger. In those first three seasons, van der Zande ran in the Prototype Challenge class, and he won a race in each of those years, including winning overall at Lime Rock Park in a Prototype Challenge/GT race in 2016. Van der Zande was the PC champion in 2016 with Alex Popow and Starworks Motorsport.
The #93 Acura was fifth in the GTP championship with additional podium finishes at Sebring and Road America. Each of those were third-place finishes. The #93 Acura did win three consecutive pole positions over Detroit, Watkins Glen and Road America.
European Le Mans Series
9. At least two different Americans win a race
Correct... kind of
I don't like a class inside of a class. In ELMS, there is the LMP2 class, but there is also the LMP2 Pro-Am class. LMP2 entries with a bonze-rated driver are placed in the LMP2 Pro-Am class. It is essentially the same class, only one of the drivers is seen as more amateur than others in those entries.
Based on the ELMS structure, three American drivers won in 2025. P.J. Hyett and Dane Cameron were co-drivers in the #99 AO by TF Oreca, and they won at Imola with Louis Delétraz. Boom! Prediction correct right there, but to add insurance, Rodrigo Sales won in LMP2 Pro-Am with TDS Racing.
In LMP2 Pro-Am, three American drivers won a race. In LMP2, LMP3 and LMGT3, there were no American winners.
10. LMGT3 will have different British drivers win in consecutive races
Incorrect!
There were no British winners in LMGT3 in 2025. Since 2021, only three times has a British driver to win in the GT class in ELMS. Duncan Cameron won at Monza in 2021 with Spirit of Race. Sam De Haan won at Imola in 2022 with Oman Racing with TF Sport. In 2024, Cameron won at Circuit Paul Ricard with Spirit of Race.
Other
11. The closest finish in an Intercontinental GT Challenge race will be greater than four seconds
Incorrect!
This prediction was looking good.
At the Bathurst 12 Hour, the #32 Team WRT BMW won over the #46 Team WRT BMW by 10.244 seconds.
The Nürburgring 24 Hour is a bit of a mess because the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche was first on the road, but received a one-minute and 40-second penalty for causing a collision during the race. This elevated the #99 Rowe Racing BMW to first-place overall, and the listed margin of victory was 1:17.810. Even if we got based on the margin of victory on the road, the #911 Porsche was more than four seconds ahead of the #99 BMW.
Grasser Racing Team won the 24 Hours of Spa by 8.703 seconds over the Rutronik Racing Porsche. Team WRT won the Suzuka 1000 km by 13.647 seconds over Absolute Racing.
What happened in the final IGTC race, the Indianapolis 8 Hour?
Team WRT won by 0.805 seconds over Mercedes-AMG Team GMR.
Yep. So close. At least Indianapolis was a good finish.
12. Ben Barnicoat will win a proper class on at least three different continents in at least two different championships
Incorrect!
This one hurts because Ben Barnicoat was hurt for most of 2025. After a mountain biking accident in the middle of March, Barnicoat was sidelined until June.
Prior to that biking accident, Barnicoat had raced only once in IMSA and once in WEC. He had also raced in four Asian Le Mans Series races, and he won the first race from the Dubai Autodrome in the #96 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG on February 8.
That was Barnicoat's only victory of the season. In IMSA, he ran seven races but his best finish with Vasser Sullivan Racing was fifth at Indianapolis. In WEC, he ran four races, but his best finish was the first race of the season, fourth at Qatar.
I don't know how much the cycling accident affected this prediction, but it certainly did not help.
Five-for-12.
It wasn't even a strong 5-for-12. One of those is correct on a technicality (Thanks LMP2 Pro-Am). There were a few close ones. It always feels like there are few close ones. I hate to think I have to take driver's training programs into consideration when making predictions, but it might be good to keep in mind moving forward. More drivers should be swimmers.
