It’s a beautiful field, despite all the notable absences… Now, now, how many of you will make it to Sunday afternoon?

If you told me a while ago that The Heart of Racing would be the pace-setters at the Test Day for the 94th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I would’ve laughed in your face. 

Not because the team are any slouches or because their beautiful-looking, beautiful-sounding British racing green Valkyries are slow-moving machines, oh no. There’s a certain irony knowing the only non-hybrid Hypercars in the field managed to blitz the rest of the competition to the top of the standings in a session, especially at a crucial time when the next top class ruleset was close to breaking cover… And now it has, essentially outlawing their presence from 2030 onwards.

Let’s face the facts: being the fastest at the Test Day means a whole amount of nothing, just like qualifying on pole position (looking at you, Jack Aitken… I mean, Dries Vanthoor!), especially when the race looming on the horizon is a gruelling twice-around-the-clock classic. A quick round-up across the interwebs on Monday and Tuesday produced many an entertained giggle, with a surprisingly large number of articles attempting to figure out a clear pecking order after a pair of three-hour test sessions.

No disrespect to anyone intended but, guys, calm down – they were just testing their cars, not vying for leaderboard glory. The real track action began Wednesday, with the first practice session, qualifying and then the second practice session. Even Hyperpole yesterday did not say much – single-lap pace will not win you a 24-hour contest, and you absolutely cannot rule out Toyota and Ferrari at Le Mans despite their far from ideal starting positions. Nothing can be really predicted until the French Tricolour is waved on Saturday afternoon at La Sarthe and the real thing gets under way.

Something is undeniable right now: at a glance, the gaps have been substantially reduced on all fronts. Perhaps LMP2 should not be as surprising given the identical hardware, but the field spread in Hypercar and LMGT3 has shrunk substantially since last year. That should bide well for this year’s 24 Hours, coming off a rather controversial year where the dominant storyline concerned whatever was in the Balance of Performance figures.

This, of course, assumes that everybody’s shown their hand throughout this week… Which they most definitely haven’t, unless you’re Aston Martin. According to a couple of articles, Toyota were reportedly “annoyed” at their competition for not showing their true pace during testing and practice, as is bound to happen in those situations. One might wonder what the Japanese manufacturer might be keeping up their own sleeves, despite pacing one such session themselves…

Either way, picking a winner – overall or in either of the slower classes – is extremely difficult, if not pretty much impossible. Hypercar sees Ferrari with a huge target painted on their back after taking three in a row – with last year’s winners in the #83 relegated to start 17th. Toyota will want to finally take their first triumph with some actual competition on the track (so much bad luck in other attempts!), while BMW will want to ride the high of leading the WEC standings after their 1-2 in Spa a month ago to take another victory after 27 years, and from pole position to boot. 

Could a 1999 rematch be on the cards?

Behind them, Cadillac and Alpine (the latter on their final scheduled appearance… or are they?) look rather strong, if rough around the edges, with Aston Martin showing promising speed and Genesis being the surprise package so far – who could predict them hanging around the top in Hyperpole? Are we in for an historic upset? Only their reliability will tell…

Meanwhile, for Peugeot, the less said about them, the better, and not due to a lack of trying (or talent). Dreams of a new car and what-if scenarios are guaranteed to disturb them in their sleep all throughout this week. At least they still have twenty-four hours to attempt to catch up this weekend.

Moving further along the entry list to Formula Oreca a.k.a. LMP2 – where the BoP is provided exclusively by team set-ups and driver skill, we’re faced with the usual scenario of a number of Hypercar or GTP factory drivers joining part of a team’s regular season entrants – names such as Renger van der Zande (in the No. 3 DKR Engineering psychedelic clownfish) or Nick Yelloly (in the allegedly bread-powered No. 43 Inter Europol car), both of which currently race for Acura on the IMSA side of the equation.

Despite several drivers making a case against it, I argue the situation has been exacerbated for this year thanks to the (much-mourned) absence of Porsche in the Hypercar ranks. Factory drivers Julien Andlauer (No. 30 Duqueine), Laurin Heinrich (No. 4 CrowdStrike by APR) and Kévin Estre (No. 14 TDS Racing) will all duke it out for honours in the blue-stickered class, with the latter two set for their own special battle in the Pro-Am subdivision. In addition to that, Estre’s Porsche Penske teammate Laurens Vanthoor was on-hand for United Autosports in LMP2 during testing – something undoubtedly linked to his McLaren United adventures, coming to the WEC in 2027.

Suffice to say it would be interesting to have all four of them out on track for the race, even if none of them is driving the car they really wanted to. May the best combination of speed, execution and luck win that particular battle. 

Now that I take a step back, a 24-hour race consisting entirely of Oreca 07s and star-studded lineups on neutral ground would be an enticing prospect…

Last but definitely not least, the mega-competitive melting pot of LMGT3 brings up the final portion of the entry list. Porsche (only two cars in a 62-strong field, how not to feel depressed about it? Bear in mind I am a Ferrari fan) have been the ones to beat so far at La Sarthe since the class came to be, and the pair of (very silver) Manthey-run 911 GT3 Rs will definitely try giving the Stuttgart brand something to celebrate in their motorsports division’s 75th anniversary year. Elsewhere, Corvette (25 years since the C5-R’s first victory) and Ford (60 years from their first victory and 10 years from their LMGTE Pro victory) have their own milestones to look forward to. 

Not a single manufacturer can be counted out, even those who have somewhat struggled throughout their WEC existence (Mercedes-AMG), whose reliability has not been the best during 24-hour races (McLaren) or whose cars are by far the oldest in the field (Lexus). In terms of numbers, Ferrari boasts the strongest entry with five, but that does not guarantee victory in any shape or form. While everybody has been raving on about their overall pole position, BMW and WRT are always primed to be in contention for victory, as are the actual LMGT3 class polesitters in the shape of The Heart of Racing, with Aston Martin.

The drop of the green flag on Saturday afternoon looms ever closer, and with it, the chance for everybody involved to write another chapter in Le Mans’s storied history. May this be another memorable edition of the French endurance classic!