In the Pro class, five different manufactures have won the last five years at Le Mans with the order being Ferrari, Corvette, Ford, Aston Martin and Porsche. Ferrari has won three of the last five years in GTE-Am and Ferrari has had at least two GTE-Am podium finishers the last five years with second and third place finishers last year.
This will be the final 24 Hours of Le Mans for the factory-backed Ford and BMW programs.
This preview goes entry-by-entry and gives you each driver with their number of Le Mans appearances, including this year in parentheses, followed by that entry's result on the Le Mans Test Day and a little additional information on each entry.
GTE-Pro
#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
Drivers: Alessandro Pier Guidi (4th), James Calado (4th), Daniel Serra (3rd)
Test Day Result: 8th
About This Team: Calado and Pier Guidi won at Silverstone but their only other podium finish was second at Spa-Francorchamps last month. They are third in the championship on 98.5 points. Calado was a runner-up finisher on his Le Mans debut in 2015 but he has yet to get back on the podium. Pier Guidi has never finished on the podium at Le Mans. Serra won on debut in 2017 with Aston Martin. Serra has won the last two Stock Car Brasil championships and he is the current Stock Car Brasil championship leader.
#63 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
Drivers: Jan Magnussen (21st), Antonio García (14th), Mike Rockenfeller (10th)
Test Day Result: 1st
About This Team: This is the eighth consecutive year and tenth time Magnussen and Garcià are racing together at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Their only victory together was in their first Le Mans together in 2009. They have only stood on the podium twice since. Magnussen has four class victories at Le Mans, all with Corvette. García won in 2008 with Aston Martin and he won in 2011 driving for Corvette with Olivier Beretta and Tommy Milner. Magnussen and García are defending GTLM champions in IMSA and they have finished on the podium in the last three races but despite having ten podium finishes in the last 12 IMSA races, Magnussen and García have not won since May 6, 2017 at Austin. Last year was Rockenfeller's first Le Mans with Corvette. He won the race overall in 2010 with Audi.
#64 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
Drivers: Oliver Gavin (19th), Tommy Milner (11th), Marcel Fässler (14th)
Test Day Result: 3rd
About This Team: Gavin has five class victories at Le Mans with the most recent in 2015 with Milner and Jordan Taylor. Gavin and Milner have one podium finish this year in IMSA, a third at Long Beach. The British-American duo's last two victories have occurred at Long Beach. The last victory for the pair at another track was Road America 2016. This is Fässler's third Le Mans start with Corvette.
#66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK Ford GT
Drivers: Stefan Mücke (13th), Olivier Pla (12th), Billy Johnson (4th)
Test Day Result: 7th
About This Team: The #66 Ford won the season opener over 13 months ago at Spa-Francorchamps and this car finished third at Le Mans last year but it has not scored a podium finish since despite winning pole positions at Silverstone and Shanghai. None of these three drivers have won at Le Mans. Pla was runner-up in LMP2 in 2013 and Mücke finished third in GTE-Pro in 2012 and 2013.
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK Ford GT
Drivers: Andy Priaulx (6th), Harry Tincknell (6th), Jonathan Bomarito (2nd)
Test Day Result: 2nd
About This Team: The #67 Ford is three points behind its teammate and Tincknell and Priaulx have not won a race this season. The #67 Ford was second at Silverstone and third at Fuji and Sebring. They finished second in GTE-Pro in 2017 with Pipo Derani as the third driver. Bomarito is the fourth different third driver for the #67 Ford in as many years. Marino Franchitti, Derani and Kanaan were the other co-drivers. This is Bomarito's first appearance at Le Mans since 2013 when he drove the SRT Viper with Tommy Kendall and Kuno Wittmer. Bomarito was a part of the team at Sebring.
#68 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing USA Ford GT
Drivers: Joey Hand (5th), Dirk Müller (8th), Sébastien Bourdais (13th)
Test Day Result: 11th
About This Team: Hand has finished on the podium in three of his four Le Mans starts. Hand missed the last two IMSA rounds due to illness but Müller and Bourdais have run the full season and are fifth in the championship. Bourdais has finished on the podium in five of his last seven Le Mans starts. These three drivers finished runner-up in class at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March.
#69 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing USA Ford GT
Drivers: Ryan Briscoe (6th), Richard Westbrook (9th), Scott Dixon (4th)
Test Day Result: 10th
About This Team: Briscoe and Westbrook have yet to finished on the podium in IMSA competition. It is the first time Briscoe and Westbrook head to Le Mans without a podium finish. All three driver have yet to score a class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Dixon is coming off his fifth IndyCar championship and he has 46 IndyCar victories, six behind Mario Andretti for second and 21 behind A.J. Foyt for the all-time record.
#71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
Drivers: Davide Rigon (6th), Sam Bird (6th), Miguel Molina (3rd)
Test Day Result: 4th
About This Team: Rigon and Bird finished third in the season opener at Spa-Francorchamps but their best finish since has been sixth. Bird has had at least one class victory in the previous three WEC seasons. Molina is currently the championship leader in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and Blancpain GT World Challenge America.
#81 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE
Drivers: Martin Tomczyk (2nd), Nicky Catsburg (2nd), Philipp Eng (3rd)
Test Day Result: 16th
About This Team: Tomczyk and Catsburg were runner-up finishers at Sebring. Catsburg is also competing in the World Touring Car Cup and he has scored points in nine of 12 races but he has yet to stand on the podium. He is tenth in that championship. Eng won at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GTLM class and he picked up his first career Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters victory at Zolder last month.
#82 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE
Drivers: Augusto Farfus (3rd), Antonío Félix da Costa (2nd), Jesse Krohn (1st)
Test Day Result: 17th
About This Team: Da Costa had a runner-up finish with Tom Blomqvist at Fuji. In Formula E, da Costa won the season opener in Abu Dhabi but he has only two podium finishes since and he is fourth in that championship. Farfus was a part of the GTLM class winning team for BMW Team RLL at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Krohn's best finish in GTLM competition this season is fourth at Sebring.
#89 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
Drivers: Pipo Derani (5th), Jules Gounon (2nd), Oliver Jarvis (8th)
Test Day Result: 15th
About This Team: Derani enters Le Mans as the championship leader in IMSA's prototype class after he won the 12 Hours of Sebring for the third time in four years. This is Derani's fifth different team in his fifth Le Mans start. Jarvis was not at Le Mans last year but he won the LMP2 class and finished second overall in 2017 with Jackie Chan DC Racing. This is Jarvis first start at Le Mans in a GTE class. Gounon won the Circuit Paul Ricard 1000kms in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup earlier in the month. He also won the 24 Hours of Spa overall in 2017. Gounon's father Jean-Marc made 12 Le Mans starts and finished second overall in 1997 driving for Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren.
#91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR
Drivers: Richard Lietz (13th), Frédéric Makowiecki (9th), Gianmaria Bruni (11th)
Test Day Result: 6th
About This Team: Lietz and Bruni trail the #92 Porsche by 36 points with 39 points left on the table meaning the #91 Porsche has to win for Lietz and Bruni to have any shot at the title. The #91 Porsche won at Sebring and had runner-up finishes last year at Le Mans and at Shanghai. Lietz and Bruni both have three class victories at Le Mans but Makowiecki has yet to score a class victory. Bruni won the title twice in 2013 and 2014 and Lietz won the world championship in 2015.
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR
Drivers: Michael Christensen (5th), Kévin Estre (5th), Laurens Vanthoor (4th)
Test Day Result: 13th
About This Team: Porsche has clinched the manufactures' championship and Christensen and Estre sit on 140 points in the World Endurance GTE Drivers' Championship. Christensen and Estre clinch the title with at least a ninth place finish. These three won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year in GTE-Pro and it was the first Le Mans class victory for all three drivers. Christensen and Estre won at Fuji. The only race the #92 Porsche did not finish on the podium was fifth at Sebring. If Christensen and Estre were to win the title it would be the first for each driver.
Drivers: Patrick Pilet (11th), Nick Tandy (7th), Earl Bamber (5th)
Test Day Result: 5th
About This Team: Tandy and Pilet won in GTLM at the 12 Hours of Sebring with Makowiecki, successfully defending that class victory. They also won Petit Le Mans last year. Bamber has won the last two IMSA races with Vanthoor and those two lead the GTLM championship. Bamber has won in every odd-numbered year he has started at Le Mans with his overall victory in 2015 and a GTE-Pro victory in 2017. Tandy has not returned to the podium since the overall victory in 2015. Pilet has never won a class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Drivers: Sven Müller (2nd), Dennis Olsen (1st), Mathieu Jaminet (1st)
Test Day Result: 12th
About This Team: Müller's Le Mans debut did not got as planned with his Porsche retiring after 29 laps. Olsen heads into coming off a victory at the Bathurst 12 Hours in February and he won in the GTE class at the European Le Mans Series season finale last year at Algarve. Jaminet won the ADAC GT Masters championship last year
Drivers: Marco Sørensen (5th), Nicki Thiim (6th), Darren Turner (17th)
Test Day Result: 14th
About This Team: Sørensen and Thiim won at Shanghai but their only other top five finish this season was fifth at Le Mans last year. They won pole position at Fuji. Thiim won on his Le Mans debut in GTE-Am in 2014 but he has not stood on the podium since. Sørensen has never stood on the podium. Turner won the GTE-Pro class in 2017, adding to his two GT1 class victories in 2007 and 2008.
Drivers: Alex Lynn (3rd), Maxime Martin (2nd), Jonathan Adam (4th)
Test Day Result: 9th
About This Team: Lynn and Martin won the most recent round at Spa-Francorchamps and that puts them a half-point ahead of the sister car. It was both their first GTE-Pro victory. Lynn won at Spa-Francorchamps in 2017 with G-Drive Racing in the LMP2 class. Adam has split the season between the #95 Aston Martin and the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin in GTE-Am. He won the GTE-Pro class in 2017.
GTE-Am
#54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Thomas Flohr (3rd), Francesco Castellacci (4th), Giancarlo Fisichella (10th)
Test Day Result: 3rd
About This Team: They enter the finale second in the Endurance Trophy for GTE-Am Drivers championship, 23 points off the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche. The #54 Ferrari has not won this season and its best finish was second at Le Mans and Sebring. Fisichella has won twice at Le Mans in the GTE-Pro class.
#56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR
Drivers: Jörg Bergmeister (17th), Patrick Lindsey (2nd), Edigio Perfetti (2nd)
Test Day Result: 15th
About This Team: Despite winning only one race this season (Fuji), the Team Project 1 Porsche leads the championship with 113 points after five podium finishes. It has been 15 years since Bergmeister picked up his lone class victory at Le Mans. Lindsey could join Gustavo Menezes as the only American drivers to win a WEC championship. Menezes won the Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers in 2016.
#57 CarGuy Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Kei Cozzolino (1st), Takeshi Kimura (1st), Cômé Ledogar (2nd)
Test Day Result: 4th
About This Team: The Asian Le Mans Series GT champions won all four races but James Calado was apart of that lineup. Ledogar made his Le Mans debut last year but that was with Jackie Chan DC Racing in an LMP2 entry. Ledogar did run in LMP2 in the most recent ALMS season and won the season opener at Shanghai with Spirit of Race.
#60 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Claudio Schiavoni (1st), Sergio Pianezzola (1st), Andrea Piccini (4th)
Test Day Result: 5th
About This Team: Pianezzola won five of seven races last year in Michelin Le Mans Cup on his way to the GT3 championship with Giacomo Piccini. Schiavoni and Andrea Piccini were co-drivers last year in Michelin Le Mans Cup and their best finish was fourth on two occasions. It is Piccini's first time at Le Mans since 2009. Piccini was apart of the Aston Martin lineup that finished second in GT1 in 2006.
#61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Matt Griffin (8th), Matteo Cressoni (2nd), Luís Pérez Companc (6th)
Test Day Result: 2nd
About This Team: The team finished third in both Spa-Francorchamps races but that is the only time the #61 Ferrari has finished on the podium this season. Its other four finishes are fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. The car had an accident at practice in Sebring and was not able to start the race. Pérez Companc returns to Le Mans for the first time since 2014. Cressoni is back at Le Mans for the first time since 2015.
#62 WeatherTech Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Cooper MacNeil (5th), Toni Vilander (11th), Rob Smith (2nd)
Test Day Result: 1st
About This Team: Vilander has two Le Mans class victories and he enters leading the Blancpain GT World Challenge America championship and won over the weekend at Sonoma. This is the first time Vilander is competing in the GTE-Am class. MacNeil was third in GTE-Am in 2017. MacNeil and Vilander are competing full-time in IMSA's GT Daytona class. They finished third in class at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
#70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Olivier Beretta (24th), Eddie Cheever III (2nd), Motoaki Ishikawa (2nd)
Test Day Result: 8th
About This Team: This team's best finish this season was fifth on three occasions. Beretta has six class victories at Le Mans. This is the first time Beretta has had the same two co-drivers for consecutive Le Mans starts since he drove with Oliver Gavin and Max Papis with Corvette in 2007 and 2008. Beretta is going to become the ninth driver with at least 24 Le Mans starts and he will tie Jan Lammers, Claude Ballot-Lena and Emmanuel Collard for sixth all-time.
#77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 GTE
Drivers: Christian Ried (10th), Matt Campbell (2nd), Julien Andlauer (2nd)
Test Day Result: 7th
About This Team: After disqualification after Fuji and being stripped of all its points from the first three rounds of the season due to manipulation of data for refueling, the team has responded and won all three races since the penalty. The team has amassed 83 points and has an outside shot at the title, 30 points out with 39 points on the team. This is the defending Le Mans class winner. Campbell won the Dubai 24 Hours and the Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year and Andlauer was a part of that Dubai winning team. Last year, Andlauer became the youngest class winner in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans at 18 years and 352 days old.
#78 Proton Competition Porsche 911 GTE
Drivers: Vincent Abril (1st), Louis Prette (1st), Philippe Prette (1st)
Test Day Result: 11th
About This Team: Abril won the 2015 Blancpain GT Sprint Series championship with Maximilian Buhk but his only victory since that championship was the 2017 Circuit Paul Ricard 1000kms. Louis Prette won two races in the 2017-18 Asian Le Mans Series season in the LMP3 class. Louis and his father Philippe have been racing in Ferrari Challenge and Philippe has won Ferrari Challenge Asia-Pacific Trofeo Pirelli the last two years.
#83 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Rahel Frey (2nd), Michelle Gatting (1st), Manuela Gostner (1st)
Test Day Result: 9th
About This Team: Frey returns to Le Mans for the first time since 2010 when she drove a Ford GT1 with Natacha Gachnang and Cyndie Allemann but that entry only completed 59 laps. They finished second in the ELMS season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard and they are fourth in the championship after two rounds.
#84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE
Drivers: Rodrigo Baptista (1st), Wei Lu (1st), Jeff Segal (4th)
Test Day Result: 13th
About This Team: Segal won at Le Mans in GTE-Am in 2016. Segal and Lu were teammates in Pirelli World Challenge SprintX last year. Baptista has spent the last few seasons in Blancpain GT World Challenge America and he has won twice this season with K-PAX Racing Bentley and he had four victories last year.
#85 Keating Racing Ford GT
Drivers: Jeroen Bleekemolen (14th), Ben Keating (5th), Felipe Fraga (1st)
Test Day Result: 16th
About This Team: This is the fifth consecutive year Keating and Bleekemolen are competing together at Le Mans and it will be the fifth different car they have driven. The previous cars were an SRT Viper, an Oreca-Nissan, a Riley-Gibson and a Ferrari 488 GTE. Last year, they finished third in GTE-Am. Fraga competes full-time in Stock Car Brasil and won the championship in 2016 and was vice-champion last year.
#86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR
Drivers: Michael Wainwright (5th), Ben Barker (4th), Thomas Preining (1st)
Test Day Result: 6th
About This Team: This team has yet to finish on the podium this year in GTE-Am competition. The team's best result was fourth at Fuji and Sebring. Preining joined the team at Fuji replacing Alex Davison. Preining won the Dubai 24 Hours earlier this year.
Drivers: Matteo Cairoli (3rd), Giorgio Roda (2nd), Satoshi Hoshino (1st)
Test Day Result: 14th
About This Team: This team's best result was third at Shanghai but neither Roda nor Hoshino was apart of that driver lineup.
Drivers: Salih Yoluç (3rd), Euan Hankey (3rd), Charlie Eastwood (2nd)
Test Day Result: 12th
About This Team: Yoluç and Eastwood has four runner-up finishes this year in WEC competition but the #90 Aston Martin has yet to break through for that first victory and that has them third in the championship, 26 points off the #56 Porsche. Yoluç and Eastwood would be the first Turkish and Irish driver to win a WEC championship.
Drivers: Paul Dalla Lana (7th), Pedro Lamy (20th), Mathias Lauda (5th)
Test Day Result: 10th
About This Team: The defending champions have to win to retain the title and they have not won since the season opener last year at Spa-Francorchamps. Despite all the success the #98 Aston Martin has had in the previous three seasons, this car has yet to finish on the podium at Le Mans.
#99 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR
Drivers: Patrick Long (16th), Niclas Jönsson (14th), Tracy Krohn (14th)
Test Day Result: 17th
About This Team: Long has two class victories at Le Mans, in 2004 and 2007. This is his seventh consecutive year competing in the GTE-Am class. Long is competing in the GT Daytona class in IMSA and in Blancpain GT World Challenge America and he won over the weekend at Sonoma in Blancpain GT World Challenge America. Krohn and Jönsson have competed together for 14 consecutive years at Le Mans and they have three class podiums but have yet to pick up a Le Mans class victory. Long is the ninth different driver to pair with Krohn and Jönsson.
A four-hour practice session is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday June 12th with the first qualifying session taking place at 4:00 p.m. ET later that day. There will be two qualifying sessions on Thursday June 13th with the first two-hour session scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET with the final qualifying session at 4:00 p.m. ET.
The 45-minute warm-up session takes place at 3:00 a.m. ET on Saturday June 15th with the race starting at 9:00 a.m. ET.
