Lamborghini is not going to race its SC63 LMDh prototype subsequent season after saying that it’s placing its GTP class assault on the IMSA SportsCar Championship on maintain.
The Italian producer is billing its choice towards persevering with its IMSA marketing campaign, which encompasses the endurance rounds with a solo automobile run by Riley Motorsports, as a “pause” ensuing from a “strategic realignment of its motorsport actions”.
Lamborghini ended its involvement within the World Endurance Championship Hypercar class with the SC63 forward of this season and has performed down any prospect of a return, which suggests it’s sure that its LMDh is not going to race subsequent yr.
Lamborghini hinted that it may very well be the tip of its participation with the LMDh.
It said it is going to now concentrate on its programmes with the brand new Temerario GT3 launched in July forward of a 2026 launch to prospects and a Tremendous Trofeo one-make model of the automobile attributable to come on stream in ’27.
Using the time period pause echoes the Volkswagen-owned automobile maker’s rhetoric late final yr when it introduced that it could not be persevering with with the SC63 in WEC.
It opted as a substitute to concentrate on North America with an assault on the five-round IMSA Endurance Cup.
#63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat
Picture by: Courtesy of IMSA
After the tip of its partnership with the Italian Iron Lynx group, which straddled one-car assaults on the total WEC and 4 of the IMSA enduros in ’24, Lamborghini was compelled to completely fund this yr’s marketing campaign and signed up Riley as a service supplier.
It made no secret of the truth that it wanted one other associate to return in for ’26 if the programme was to proceed.
Lamborghini chief expertise officer Rouven Mohr mentioned on the launch of the Temerario racer on the Goodwood Competition of Pace that “time is ticking” on its aspirations to proceed in GTP.
“We’re nonetheless searching for alternatives to have a group that’s as a result of in the meanwhile we’re working the automobile on our personal, for positive with the assist of Riley, however ultimately we’re main the programme and paying for the programme,” defined Mohr.
“It’s clear for us now we have to seek out some monetary balancing.”
Of a return to the WEC, he added: “We wish to, however it’s much more costly [than IMSA] since you are compelled to have two automobiles, you will have extra abroad races, extra mileage total – and mileage is operating prices.”
Lamborghini referenced the change in guidelines for this yr’s WEC that demanded producers should discipline two automobiles in Hypercar in Monday’s assertion on its IMSA participation.
#63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, Edoardo Mortara
Picture by: Andreas Beil
“The circumstances on which the programme was based mostly have considerably modified,” it said. “Because the undertaking developed, useful resource calls for — each by way of funds and technical complexity — have grown past authentic projections.”
The brand new regulation was a key issue Lamborghini’s withdrawal from Hypercar, the corporate mentioning that it’s a small firm compared to its rivals operating LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar equipment.
Mohr admitted at Goodwood that Lamborghini had “maybe underestimated” the prices concerned in creating an LMDh, which it undertook along side Ligier Automotive.
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One of the best outcomes for the SC63 have been a pair of sevenths in IMSA on the Sebring 12 Hours final yr and the Watkins Glen 6 Hours this yr, in addition to a Tenth-place end on the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2024.
It has been confirmed that the Riley-run SC63 entered below the Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse banner will full its 2025 programme on the ultimate two IMSA enduros, the Indianapolis 6 Hours and Petit Le Mans at Highway Atlanta in September and October respectively.
Lamborghini additionally harassed its long-term dedication to motorsport, describing it as “an integral a part of its model DNA”, and said that it “will proceed to judge future racing alternatives”.
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