Even though Audi Sport remains out of the running for Le Mans competition, that doesn’t change the fact that Audi fans will still likely be tuned in to the 24 Hours of Le Mans this week. As the second -most winning marque has the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ingolstadt’s influence in this historic race carries on with the presence of its former drivers, teammates and Volkswagen Group sibling Porsche and Lamborghini. Given that, we wanted to make sure Audi Club members know which cars and drivers to focus on in this week’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Also check below for where to watch the race for fans in the U.S. and Canada.
Cars / Teams / Drivers to Watch for Audi Fans
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport
Car: Porsche 963
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Drivers: Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Why to Watch: Car and Drivers
Without Audi in La Sarthe, any Porsche 963 is the closest thing you’ll get to an Audi Prototype. Audi had begun an LMDh program that began as an IMSA GTP-spec co-development with Porsche, including Multimatic chassis and likely identical drivetrain spec. It would have had its own bodywork, tuning and team of course, but this corporate cousin remains fairly close to what the Audi would have been. Two factory Porsche 963s will be fielded by Penske, including the #5 and #6. On the customer side, three more 963s will also compete including two from Hertz Team Jota (#12 and #38) and one from Proton Competition (#99).
In this case, we’re focused on the #6 Penske 963 because two of its three-driver lineup are former Audi Sport works drivers. Andre Lotterer has won Le Mans multiple times with Audi, including the 2011 race immortalized in the Truth in 24: 2 documentary. One of his teammates, Laurens Vanthoor, had a highly successful start to his career with Team WRT at the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS, including multiple championships and a 2015 victory at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
#15 BMW M Team WRT
Car: BMW M Hybrid V8
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Drivers: Dries Vanthoor
Why to Watch: Team and Driver
In addition to operating as an Audi Sport customer racing team for years, Team WRT would have most likely been the squad to operate the stalled Audi LMDh / Hypercar program. Following Audi’s closure of the program, BMW snapped them up to run their M Hybrid.
With the team also went drivers, and in the case of the #15, that’s Dries Vanthoor. Brother of Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor, Dries has also spent plenty of time running the R8 LMS GT3 with Team WRT and is a familiar face in the Audi family.
#20 BMW M Team WRT
Car: BMW M Hybrid V8 (Art Car)
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Drivers: Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast
Why to Watch: Team and Drivers
WRT’s second car is special for two reasons. First, the livery is historic as it is the next in BMW’s long line of art cars. Second, and we’d argue most important, three former Audi drivers were tapped by WRT for this car. All three have spent time with Audi in the DTM and in the R8 LMS GT3, while Robin Frijns also competed with the Envision Virgin Racing Audi in Formula E and Rene Rast also drove for Audi in the R18 here in the 24 Le Mans.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse
Car: Ferrari 499P
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Driver: Miguel Molina
Why to Watch: Driver
Though he’s lesser known in these circles, Miguel Molina had a short run on Audi Sport’s factory DTM squad. More recently he’s been associated with Ferrari, and he’s participating in that brand’s return following their sister car’s victory here last year.
#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx
Car: Lamborghini SC63
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Driver: Edoardo Mortara
Why to Watch: Car and Driver
Though it shares no technical spec with the shuttered Audi LMDh program as did the Porsche 963, it could be argued that the Lamborghini SC63 is more spiritually an Audi than the Porsche. At the very least, Lamborghini’s maiden top tier Le Mans effort has been funded by Audi given Ingolstadt’s ownership of the Lamborghini marque.
The #63 also features a former Audi driver. Edoardo Mortara has spent plenty of time on Audi Sport’s DTM squad, not to mention stints in various R8 LMS efforts including a Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona victory and repeated dominance at the highly technical Macau Grand Prix.
#93 Peugeot TotalEnergies
Car: Peugeot 9X8
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Driver: Nico Mueller
Why to Watch: Driver
Though Peugeot has been a fierce rival for Audi at Le Mans, this car is definitely worth watching thanks to the presence of Swiss Audi DTM veteran Nico Müller.
#94 Peugeot TotalEnergies
Car: Peugeot 9X8
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Driver: Loic Duval
Why to Watch: Driver
Loic won the FIA WEC championship with Audi Sport in 2012, then won Le Mans in 2013 paired with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. He later spent time in the Audi DTM program. Today, the French driver is no doubt excited to be competing for the French Peugeot factory team.
#6 Proton Competition
Car: Porsche 963
Class: Hypercar (HY)
Drivers: Neel Jani
Why to Watch: Car and Drivers
This Porsche 963 customer team is a standout thanks to the presence of Neel Jani. The driver is most known for a long history with Porsche, but he did sign on with the Audi F1 project in 2023 to operate as F1 simulator driver early as the team began virtual testing its new project.
#22 & #23 United Autosports
Cars: Oreca 07-Gibson
Class: LMP2 Prototype (P2)
Driver: Filipe Albuquerque, Oliver Jarvis
Why to Watch: Team and Drivers
Besides being part owned by American Zach Brown who’s both a prominent Audi collector (200 Trans-Am) and McLaren F1 team boss, United Autosports is also one of the earliest Audi Sport customer racing teams having fielded the R8 LMS GT3 in various series.
Felipe Albuquerque from the #23 car has a long history with Audi. While he began in lesser market customer racing programs, the Portuguese driver moved to the factory DTM team in 2011. In 2013 he helped log a first victory for Audi Sport at the 24 Hours of Daytona alongside United Autosports teammate Oliver Jarvis and Lamborghini driver Edoardo Mortara. He also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Audi Sport in 2014.
Over in car #22 is Oliver Jarvis who got his start with Audi in the DTM series back in 2008. Beyond his aforementioned 2013 Daytona win in the R8 GRAND-AM, he also won the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring and logged third in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the R18 e-tron quattro.
#44 Proton Competition
Car: Ford Mustang LMGT3
Class: LMGT3
Driver: Chris Mies
Why to Watch: Driver
German driver Christopher Mies has a long history with Audi Sport customer racing. He’s also fresh off a victory at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring little over a week ago. He’s flipped brands for a Le Mans seat, and will participate in the Le Mans debut of the Ford Mustang in LMGT3.
#78 Akkidos ASP Team
Car: Lexus RC F LMGT3
Class: LMGT3
Driver: Kelvin van der Linde
Why to Watch: Driver
Another Audi Sport customer racing veteran Kelvin van der Linde has been a major force in the R8 LMS GT3. This includes dominating DTM performance in the modern GT3-DTM era, and two outright victories at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
#85 Iron Dames
Car: Lamborghini Huracàn LMGT3 Evo2
Class: LMGT3
Driver: Rahel Frey
Why to Watch: Driver
Rahel Frey’s history with Audi Sport is extensive. She replaced Katherine Legge on Audi Sport’s DTM squad in 2011, leaving after the 2013 season to focus on sportscar racing. She’s spent much of that time since competing in the R8 LMS including a 3rd place at the 2017 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
More recently, Frey has been competing as part of the all-female Iron Dames team as part of the GT World Challenge, in IMSA and at Le Mans alongside Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy. The team showed a dominating performance at Le Mans last year, finishing in fourth in their class.
Interestingly, Frey’s all-female attempts at Le Mans predate the Iron Dames efforts. She also competed in 2010 alongside Cyndie Alleman and Natacha Gachnang in the #61 Matech Competition Ford GT, though that team was forced to retire before the end of the race.
Where to Watch the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans for Canadians and Americans
For American viewers, digital platform MAX and Discovery + appear to both be broadcasting Le Mans this year. MotorTrend TV via your cable provider will also play the whole race. MotorTrend’s streaming service closed since last year, though that’s been rolled into Discovery +.
For Candians, you’ll be able to stream via the official Le Mans / FIA WEC app
Want to Bone up on Le Mans? Here’s What to Watch.
First, download a Spotter’s Guide from Le Mans directly.
There are several documentaries worth watching in order to get a better feel for Le Mans. They can be found on YouTube and we’ll embed them below. These include the Audi / NFL Films produced documentaries Truth in 24 and Truth in 24 II depicting the 2008 and 2011 races. These races were at the heigh of the LMP1 era and the documentaries themselves are highly entertaining.
In order to get prepared for today’s Hypercar era, we’d suggest No Perfect Formula that dropped yesterday on Cadillac’s YouTube channel. Though it centers on the Cadillac effort, it’s an excellent synopsis of where we are now years on from Audi Sport’s exit. That the this documentary is also directed by JF Musial who is an Audi owner and known friend of the Audi brand, and includes Audi Club North America Board member Brian Scotto as one of the commenters also helps make watching this documentary another way of keeping up with the extended Audi enthusiast family.
Truth in 24
Truth in 24 II
No Perfect Formula
