GT Racing Alive and Well as Porsche and Ferrari Are Sticking to GTE at Le Mans

In 2019, 16 GTE-Pro cars from six factories and eight full-time factory programs competing in either North America or Europe highlighted what was then the most exciting class in sports car racing. This year, just seven GTE-Pro cars are headed to Le Mans, and only four of those are cars competing full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

It represents a catastrophic fall for what was recently the most competitive front of factory sports car competition in the world. What is left, factory programs from Ferrari's AF Corse and Porsche's Team Manthey, seems something like a rock bottom. At the very least, that rock bottom will not change any time soon.

After both Porsche and Ferrari confirmed their continued involvement in 2022 to Autosport, and with no new or returning GTE-Pro programs on the horizon, it seems that four-car class will stay together for the next two FIA WEC seasons, and, more importantly, the next two runnings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This pushes out a decision on what to do with GT racing at Le Mans for another year, creating a notable split with IMSA's 2022 decision to abandon the GT2-based GTE class entirely in favor of expanding its GT3-based GTD class to replace it as the core, factory-supported level of GT competition at all races.

While the commitment to stay is a good thing, it does create some concerns. It means that Ferrari and Porsche will not be joining Ford, BMW, and Aston Martin in shuttering their European programs for at least one more year, but it makes the outcome of GT racing at the 2023 race, one that is expected to be the biggest and best in decades, unclear. The answer chosen here was no answer, and a specific refusal to make a quick switch to a more affordable GT3 category where both Porsche and Ferrari currently develop very competitive cars based on the same cars as their GTE entries.