The 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship is turning out to be one of the best-supported in decades. There are many new entrants to the fold, including Aston Martin that will compete in the top-flight hypercar class (more info here). More big news is that Mercedes returns to world endurance racing this year.  

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“It’s no secret that we’ve been very keen for some time to come back to Le Mans. The 2025 season with the FIA WEC entry is the right moment. The first FIA WEC season with LMGT3 cars has already been extremely interesting, and we want to bring even more excitement to the field in the future. Our successful Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the experienced Iron Lynx team is the right pairing to set another major milestone in our Customer Racing success story. I am already very much looking forward to the new season, and our ‘new start’ at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will certainly be a highlight
– Christoph Sagemüller, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport

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Italian Partners 

Mercedes-AMG will return to the FIA WEC with Iron Lynx. The Italian team has plenty of experience at this level of racing, having previously entered and campaigned Lamborghini machines. It will be the team’s fifth consecutive campaign on the world stage.

Homologation of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the LMGT3 class has paved the way for other customer teams to also compete in the FIA WEC, and its crown jewel, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The category also features the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, McLaren and Porsche.

Our friends in the WEC paddock tell us that series organisers prefer an automaker to have a LMGT3 contender in the field before they will consider a top-flight LMDh/Hypercar entry. So, this could mean that Mercedes-AMG is evaluating an entry into the class.

Former Winners

Mercedes are former winners of the endurance classic in France. Mercedes-powered racecars won at Le Mans outright in both 1952 and 1989. The more recent victory was claimed by the iconic Sauber-Mercedes C9. The Silver Arrows claimed the top two spots on the podium, with the leading car seven laps ahead of the nearest Porsche in third.

Click here to watch an incredible video of the Sauber-Mercedes at full flight at La Sarthe before chicanes were introduced to the long back straight.

Driving Strength

Iron Lynx will field two cars in the 2025 FIA WEC, numbers 60 and 61. The former will be driven by an all-Italian driving squad of Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Matteo Cairoli. The #61 car will be piloted by endurance regulars Christian Ried and Maxime Martin. The third driver will be 18-year-old rising star Lin Hodenius. The Dutch driver makes the switch from single-seaters, having most recently raced in Formula 4.

2025 FIA WEC Calendar

February 26-28 – Qatar 1 812 km
April 18-20 –  6 Hours of Imola
May 8-10 – 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
June 11-15 – 24 Hours of Le Mans
July 11-13 – 6 Hours of São Paulo
September 5-7 – Lone Star Le Mans
September 26-28 – 6 Hours of Fuji
November 6-8 – 8 Hours of Bahrain

Images from Iron Lynx and FIA WEC.