Lamborghini open to new LMDh partners for WEC return

Lamborghini will start looking for new partner teams to continue its LMDh project beyond 2025 if it can prove the competitiveness of the car in this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship.

The Italian manufacturer has taken over the lead of the race programme for this year with an IMSA-only assault on the five endurance rounds following its split with Iron Lynx.

But it has outlined a vision to return in 2026 in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship with factory-supported customer teams.

“It is not our ambition in the future to be a racing team,” explained Lamborghini chief technology officer Rouven Mohr.

“It is clear that if we go to the next step and enlarge the programme, it makes only sense if the car is sorted and the performance of the car is at the level of our GT3 cars [in terms of competitiveness] and we can put the car in customer hands.

“We will judge the future programmes depending on how fast we are progressing with the performance development.”

Mohr added that he is “super-positive” that Lamborghini Squadra Corse, its in-house motorsport department, will be able to make the SC63 competitive over the course of this year.

But he insisted that it remains too early to commit to plans for 2026.

“One step after the other: first we have to consider the improvement of the LMDh and then if we are competitive and we find the interest of a team or teams to re-enter, let’s see,” he said.

Lamborghini suggested that the WEC remains very much in its plans.

Company CEO Stephan Winkelmann described the Le Mans 24 Hours, the centrepiece round of the WEC, as a race that “gives a lot of visibility” and that he would “love to be back as soon as possible”.

Rohr would not go into detail about the split with Iron Lynx, which is believed not to have been fully resolved.

The Italian team was a key partner in the SC63 project and ran a full season with a single car in the 2024 WEC and also entered four of the five IMSA enduros with one entry.

“Our future interests were a little bit different and we decided to go our separate ways,” he said.

#63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, Edoardo Mortara

Photo by: IMSA

That divergence included the decision to stand down from the WEC as a result of the rule change demanding that manufacturers in the Hypercar class must run two cars.

Iron Lynx team principal Andrea Piccini said at the WEC finale in Bahrain last November that the team was “ready to run two cars”.

Mohr explained that the move by Squadra Corse to take over the race programme was motivated by a desire “to have full control on further development of the car”.

“Last year we were seeing some potential, and we said that if we have more control we can better develop the performance,” he explained.

Lamborghini has employed the Riley Motorsports squad to provide the backbone of the team running the solo SC63 entered under the Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse banner in the five IMSA long-distance races, beginning with last weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.

The deal was put together at the last minute following the divorce from Iron Lynx, which remained involved up until the official IMSA test at Daytona in November.

Riley got the SC63 it ran at Daytona in early January and it is understood that it is a development chassis rather than one of the cars that Iron Lynx fielded last year.

New Squadra Corse boss Maurizio Leschiutta explained that a plan is in place to introduce at least one evo joker over the course of the 2025 season.

He explained that development will focus on “vehicle dynamics, suspension and aero” which he described as “the three pain points” of the SC63 as it stands.

Lamborghini’s GTP entry driven by Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara retired from Daytona after 58 minutes with what were described a powertrain issues related to the cooling system.

Only Bortolotti, who ran as high as eighth after starting ninth, got to drive the car in the race.