Private Hypercars in the Asian Le Mans Series by 2026-2027

After WEC and IMSA, a third championship will welcome Hypercars. This is the Asian Le Mans Series, and it will be launched by 2026-2027, with private prototypes. The announcement was made this Friday, June 13, during the ACO press conference.

At the end of the latter, Pierre Fillon, president of the body, explained the reasons which motivated this choice: "We want to move this championship forward, which is still somewhat focused on the Middle East, even though we have a race in Sepang. We want to return to Asia and attract Asian Gentlemen Drivers. They want to race with brands. I think now is the time to allow them to acquire and race Hypercars."

Frédéric Lequien, director of the FIA ​​WEC, for his part, indicates that the outlines remain to be completely defined, while the future cars entered in the Asian Le Mans Series will be in the Pro-Am category. "We wanted to announce this officially, but that's more than 18 months away. We're still going to work hard, mainly to be very precise in the regulations on the type of bronze drivers who will be allowed to drive.", explains the French leader.

Hypercars in the Asian Le Mans Series: a bronze driver is mandatory at the wheel

In any case, he assures that it will still be necessary "A minimum of experience because we're talking about powerful cars. We'll work on the details to find out who will be affected by this.". Furthermore, with the arrival of Hypercars in ALMS, "We wanted to give manufacturers more breathing space in a way, so that they could develop customer competition," Frédéric Lequien continues.

"We also maintain the ambition to penetrate the Asian market, and that could help." Furthermore, he states that there will be no obligation to enter two cars in WEC in order to be able to do the Asian Le Mans Series. "It will be open to all manufacturers.", he confirms.

Finally, Pierre Fillon clarified that the arrival of private Hypercars in Asia is not a consequence of a surplus on the WEC grid. "There are indeed problems with places on the grid, but it is not correlated."

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