Le Mans 2023: 10 reasons to watch this year's race

Keep your Monaco Grand Prix and your Indy 500… the 24 Heures du Mans is the most iconic motor race in the world full stop.

It’s the race where factory juggernaut outfits still clash hand-to-hand with garagistas to claim the ultimate honour in motorsport.

Here’s ten things you need to know before the race kicks off on Saturday night local time.

There is one Aussie in the race…

Only a single driver will represent the green and gold this year, with 27-year-old James Allen suiting up in an LMP2 Oreca for Algarve Pro Racing. (The fella above on the right.)

We can kind of claim six-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon at a stretch; the Kiwi who will race for Cadillac in the Hypercar class was born in Brisbane.

He will be joined by fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber (a two-time Le Mans winner in 2015 and 2017), while NZ’s Brendan Hartley will be going for a fourth win driving a Toyota GR010 Hybrid in the Hypercar class.

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And one that should be

On the reserves bench for Porsche Penske Motorsport #75 Hypercar is Matt Campbell, who took a class victory at Le Mans on debut in 2018.

The quietly spoken Queenslander is an enduro expert, having competed in all of the biggest 24-hour races on the planet for the last five years.

His 2023 focus on the US-centric IMSA series in the Porsche 963, though, means that his WEC teammates get the nod for this year.

It’s the debut of the Hypercar

2023 marks the first running of the Hypercar at Le Mans, and Cadillac, Vanwall, Porsche, Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot and Glickenhaus will all field entries in the premier class.

With a minimum weight of 1050kg and a mandated maximum output of 500kW, the Hypercar is far cheaper to build and run than the previous generation of Le Mans Prototypes. This has led to a 16-car field of top-flight Hypercars who will greet the tricolor on Saturday afternoon.

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🔼 Ferrari returns as a factory outfit

Ferrari has had a complicated relationship with Le Mans, but returns in strength as a two-car factory operation for 2023.

The 499P has seen mixed success in the World Endurance Championship in 2023, but it’s been reliable and increasingly pacy on the run up to June. Its driver line-up and pit crew are yet to be tested in the cauldron of the world’s biggest endurance race, though.

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🔼 And so does Peugeot

The quintessential French marque first ran at Le Mans in 1926 and has won the race just three times in its history.

If we’re honest, the 9X8 is long odds to add to that tally in the 2023 event, despite some recent balance-of-performance adjustments in its favour leading up to Le Mans.

A lack of both speed and reliability in the 2023 WEC season means it’s on the back foot from the outset.

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🔼 And so does Porsche

Teamed with the formidable Penske Racing operation, Porsche returns to Circuit de Le Sarthe as a factory squad for the first time since it ran the dominant 919 Hybrid.

Porsche’s last win came in 2017, and it would like nothing better than to celebrate its 75th Le Mans with a victory.

Like the Peugeot, however, the 963 has had a troubled gestation, with an up-and-down run through the 2023 WEC season. But with a crack crew and top-flight driver line-up, don’t count them out.

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🔼 Toyota is still the favourite

Ever since its gut-wrenching last-lap defeat in 2016, Toyota has won five of the last six Le Mans crowns, culminating in its fifth straight win last year.

The TS050 Hybrid has also jumped out of the blocks in 2023, winning the first three races of the endurance season.

Easily the most experienced team in the Hypercar paddock, Toyota will be red hot Le Mans favourites this year.

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🔼 Huge upgrades to Circuit de la Sarthe for 2023

While the trip to Circuit de Le Sarthe is a must-do for any race fan worth their chequered flag, the facility itself had fallen behind the times, with huge queues, sketchy grandstands and questionable facilities.

For 2023, however, a brace of work has been done to update the circuit to accommodate the sold-out crowd of more than 250,000 over the race weekend.

New grandstands and spectator bridges at key points combine with a new build at the South Entrance, more parking and a complete makeover of the event’s toilets (necessary, trust us!) brings the old dame up to date.

Not all teams are happy about the safety car rule change

Toyota isn’t rapt about changes to the 2023 race, which will ditch the notion of multiple safety cars over three sectors in favour of one single safety car for the entire 13.6km circuit.

Lapped cars will also be waved around to the rear of the pack.

The team’s technical director Pascal Vasselon reckons that the “Americanisation” of the rules will pollute the purity of the event and predicts teams will roll off the gas until hour 22.

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🔼 Rolex will customise a Daytona watch for the winners

For the last 22 years, the outright winning drivers of Le Mans have each received a unique Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona that’s engraved with the year of the event on the caseback.

2023 is no different, with Rolex once again proffering the 60-year-old watch as the ultimate prize in racing. And if you reckon you might want to get your hands on one, consider that Paul Newman’s personal Daytona traded hands for $18 million in 2018.

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How to watch the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans

Australian fans can tune into the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans via the Stan Sport streaming service [↗], which is broadcasting practice and qualifying sessions.

Its race coverage starts at 11pm on Saturday 10 June. An added bonus; noted Australian racing commentator Richard Craill will form part of the Radio Le Mans broadcast team, while former Supercars caller Leigh Diffey will anchor the US coverage.

If you’re not a subscriber, sign up for a trial period, or catch up with the numerous team streams that will populate YouTube over the course of the event.

You can also buy a round pass from fiawec.tv [↗] to watch the entirety of the event, which will cost you a nick over $20.