Insight: The Main Challengers to WEC's 'Big Three' Domination

Jamie Klein takes a look at which manufacturers are likely to challenge Toyota, Porsche, Ferrari this year...

There might only be one new Hypercar manufacturer joining the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, but the step up in the intensity of the competition is likely to be even greater than this time 12 months ago, when a flood of new entrants joined the party.

Two of last year’s newcomers, Alpine and BMW both emerged as credible threats for top honors over the course of rookie seasons that showed promise after tough beginnings, with both marques cracking the podium before the year was out. Peugeot made progress with its heavily-revised 9X8, coming good for a top-three in the final race of the year. And Cadillac was very unfortunate that incidents in the heat of battle denied it chances to win.

Last year, we saw both Ferrari and Porsche make significant progress in their respective sophomore years to the point that they became regular challengers for race victories, and in the case of Porsche, beat the established favorite, Toyota, to the drivers’ championship. But there was a clear separation between the 'big three' and the rest, as reflected by the final championship standings.

Heading into 2025, the big question is whether anybody else can graduate from ‘occasional challenger’ status, mix it with Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari in every round and mount a serious title bid.

The top teams are certainly on alert. Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe vice-chairman Kazuki Nakajima told Sportscar365 on the eve of last week’s Prologue that he expects there to be no more ‘first group’ and ‘second group’ of manufacturers this year. Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle expressed a very similar view at the end of the two-day test.

“If you see the field, there are maybe some outliers who are a little faster or looking a little faster at the first glance at the data in terms of long run pace, but other than this, the field is really close together and I think everybody is involved,” said Kuratle.

“I think if you ask anybody else for [their] expectations you always will hear ‘we are looking for a podium or victories’, because everybody can do it, which is the beauty of the championship we are in. Everybody can join in. It's close.”