The FIA World Endurance Championship is headed across the Atlantic to Texas in the USA for round six of its 2025 campaign this weekend, as the title-chasing contenders prepare to engage in a high-speed, high-stakes game of poker at Lone Star Le Mans (5-7 September).
Designed with the input of former motorcycling world champion Kevin Schwantz, Austin’s state-of-the-art Circuit of The Americas (COTA) has hosted FIA WEC on seven previous occasions, first appearing on the schedule in 2013 and delivering plenty of dramatic action and compelling contests over the years.
The most modern venue on the series’ calendar, COTA is renowned for its challenging layout, characterised by striking elevation changes, fast sweeping corners, slow technical sections, notorious bumps, a signature uphill climb into a tight, blind Turn One – known as ‘Big Red’ – the zig-zag ‘Esses’ and the triple-apex right-hander that forms Turns 16, 17 and 18.
Run in an anti-clockwise direction and extremely hard on both brakes and tyres, approximately 44% of the 5.513km lap is spent at full throttle. Hypercars reach speeds in excess of 300km/h, as drivers shift gears an estimated 54 times per tour.
COTA’s flowing nature and wide overtaking zones invariably result in spectacular races, with the 2024 event culminating in the second-closest finish in FIA WEC history, as the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P fended off the #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 Hybrid for its maiden Hypercar victory by a mere 1.780s.
The privately-entered yellow Ferrari is firmly in the hunt for outright honours in 2025, as the chase for the coveted crown prepares to heat up under the scorching Texas sun. Having triumphed in June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson-piloted prototype sits just 12 points adrift of the top of the table heading to Austin, and Ye boasts a 100 per cent win rate in the US, having similarly prevailed in the LMP2 division at Sebring in 2023.
The prey that they are hunting is the championship-leading #51 factory Ferrari, crewed by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi. The latter clinched his first FIA WEC pole at COTA last season, followed 24 hours later by his first DNF, due to contact with an LMGT3 car. The Italian returns with redemption in his sights.
While the ‘Prancing Horse’ is unquestionably in the driving seat in the Hypercar category, Cadillac will also clearly fancy its chances after achieving a commanding breakthrough victory last time out – as the two V-Series.Rs left the opposition trailing in Brazil.
The São Paulo-winning #12 entry is the sole car on the high-calibre, 18-strong grid to have qualified in the top ten for every race so far this year – on all bar one occasion, inside the top five, including back-to-back poles at Le Mans and Interlagos. Alex Lynn – the driver who set all of those Hyperpole laps – will reach the milestone of 50 starts in the series in Texas, and will be eager to celebrate in style.
At Toyota, two-time world champion Kamui Kobayashi will be making his 75th appearance, while stablemate Sébastien Buemi is the only competitor in the field to have contested all seven Lone Star Le Mans races to-date.
Notably, COTA is one of the rare circuits in FIA WEC at which the Japanese marque has never prevailed, although Brendon Hartley triumphed there a record three times with Porsche from 2015 to 2017 – with the New Zealander one of 15 previous overall or class-winners at the circuit in action this weekend.
That list also includes two of the drivers who reached the highest step of the rostrum in the inaugural Lone Star Le Mans back in 2016, in the shape of Loïc Duval (Team Peugeot TotalEnergies) and Frédéric Makowiecki (Alpine Endurance Team).
There is plenty of homegrown interest in the LMGT3 category, with US-based Aston Martin outfit Heart of Racing Team – a winner at COTA in 2024 – amongst the favourites alongside a brace of Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Corvettes, not to mention the fact that championship leader Manthey counts in its pace-setting Porsche line-up Tennessee-born Ryan Hardwick.
Aston Martin has claimed more than twice as many GT pole positions in Austin as any other manufacturer, and has secured the top spot on the class starting grid for each of this season’s most recent two rounds – Heart of Racing Team at Le Mans and Racing Spirit of Léman in São Paulo. The former’s Lone Star Le Mans victory 12 months ago remains the only time an LMGT3 race has been won from pole.
In the #33 TF Sport Corvette, meanwhile, Texas’ own Ben Keating – who triumphed in the Qatar curtain-raiser alongside team-mates Daniel Juncadella and Jonny Edgar – will be bidding to close down the 23-point deficit currently separating him from the summit of the standings as he gears up to make his 40th FIA WEC start.
The on-track sessions will begin with free practice on Friday, 5 September. Qualifying – and the all-important Hyperpole top ten shootout – starts at 15:00 local time (22:00 CEST) on Saturday, 6 September, with the race getting underway at 13:00 local time (20:00 CEST) on Sunday, 7 September.
For further information, including the full event timetable and entry list, click HERE.
Tickets – all of which include access to seating in a permanent grandstand – can be purchased here, starting from $79 USD. Children aged 12 and under will be admitted free of charge with an accompanying adult.
Watch FIA WEC live or on-demand via the official FIA WEC TV app – your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship including the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don’t miss a moment. For further information, check out the app.
