Julien Delfosse/DPPI

By Stephen Kilbey - Jun 7, 2025, 11:32 AM EDT

Le Mans road run completes 24 Hours scrutineering

Scrutineering for the 2025 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours came to a close this afternoon with the final group of cars passing through the city center for technical checks and a road run featuring 19 cars from the field, with fans lining the streets.

The day was punctuated by the presence of some of the heaviest hitters from Hypercar, with Ferrari-AF Corse, Porsche Penske Motorsport and Toyota Gazoo Racing all presenting their cars and drivers to the crowds.

Ferrari was through first, ahead of what could prove to be a truly historic week for the Prancing Horse, with a chance to claim a third consecutive overall win for its 499P. The message from the drivers in the factory cars has long been “championship over Le Mans” in terms of priority for 2025, but it’s a different story within the No. 83 camp.

Phil Hanson, who shares the privately entered yellow 499P with Robert Kubica and Ye Yifei, told RACER that he feels it’s “all or nothing” for the crew at La Sarthe. Double points are on offer here, and the No. 83 drivers sit third in the standings, but after retiring from Spa, they feel slightly on the back foot going into the longest race of the season.

“We lost significant points with what happened at Spa; that’s going to be difficult to make back up,” Hanson told RACER. “I know points are important, but I’m looking at this race as Le Mans. I’ve won here before in LMP2 and had heartbreak with competitive cars.

“For me, it feels pretty much like all or nothing in this race. Standing on the podium is an achievement, but once you’ve won it, you want to keep scratching that itch.”Kubica echoed Hanson’s thoughts, though the Pole admitted he expects it to be a tougher race for Ferrari to win than last year, when the No. 83 was a firework early in the race and led a big chunk before retiring with an MGU fault in the closing stages.

“Our car has been very competitive throughout the first part of the season, so for us in the No. 83, it was important to always be there,” Kubica said. “We had a technical issue that cost us good points, so it’s important to score well in double points here. However, it’s essential not to change our approach; it remains the same. We must extract the maximum from the weekend.

“We come here with more experience and knowledge with the No. 83 car but, maybe I’m wrong, I think this year will be even tougher. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are at least five or six manufacturers targeting wins and have a chance to win the race.

“It will be complicated to repeat the performance of last year for Ferrari. At one point last year, our car had a 45-second lead; this year, I don’t expect that to happen.”

Porsche is one of the teams chasing Ferrari and chasing history. Today provided a first look at the three Penske 963s tasked with delivering the 20th win for the German marque and the first for Roger Penske.

“Le Mans is the only thing this project hasn’t won – that’s missing, and the only thing in Roger’s career that’s missing, and it’s the only thing on my wish list too,” Laurens Vanthoor said. “A lot of work has been put into correcting that.”



Lots of boxes to check at Le Mans this year for Penske, Porsche and their drivers. Javier Jimenez/DPPIInterestingly, Vanthoor is one of a number of drivers doing more than one of the three back-to-back 24-hour races at Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa this month. Straight after Le Mans, he will head to Germany, where he is set to represent Porsche in a GT3 car.

“Everything is on Le Mans, that’s the priority,” he says of the challenge. “For those of us doing more than one, it’s about dividing the work and mindset. The races should be OK, with a couple of days' rest and a week of holiday after!”

Toyota, meanwhile, is out for redemption this year, searching for its sixth win and celebrating 40 years of racing at Le Mans. The start to the WEC season has been difficult for the reigning manufacturers’ champion. Still, clever strategy calls have cemented second place in the manufacturers' standings, and it remains one of the standout favorites.

“This year we haven’t had the performance in the car, but two fifths and a fourth feels like a victory if you understand the performance deficit we had,” No. 8 driver Brendon Hartley told RACER. “We come here as a crew with confidence – now we have to do it at the big event.”

Part of Toyota’s 40-year celebration is the return of the TS020 (GT-One) livery which the sister No. 7 GR010 HYBRID is sporting for the race, one of several eye-catching new paint schemes that attracted the attention of the fans at scrutineering.



Evocative livery celebrates a 40-year anniversary for Toyota. Javier Jimenez/DPPIAnother of these special liveries – AF Corse’s No. 183 ORECA – will be impossible to miss on track, as it will race with chrome gold stripes this year. It may also prove to be a rocket in LMP2 Pro/Am, with a highly motivated Antonio Felix da Costa joining full-season ELMS duo Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere. The Portuguese ace, who was pulled from the WEC in 2024 by Porsche and tasked with focusing on Formula E, is beyond thrilled to be back at Le Mans and in a car with a chance of victory.

“They (AF Corse) actually called me last year, but last year I wasn’t allowed to come and do it, so I had to pass,” he told RACER. “Luckily, I could do this this year, and I want to thank Porsche for allowing me. It’s a race that breeds passion and history. I’m so happy to be back.”

The Test Day is set to be more important than usual for da Costa, as he looks to get back up to speed with the ORECA 07 and the Goodyear tires.

“I’m very green,” he admitted. “The last time I raced this car here was three years ago when we won it here with JOTA. I did one day of testing two months ago and Daytona in a P2, and that was OK to get back in the rhythm, too. But that's it.”

Beyond this one-off drive, da Costa was keen to make it clear that he wants to return to the top class of the FIA WEC full-time in the future.

“My hope is to be fully back from next year onwards,” he said. “I want a double program again. I enjoy Formula E and that challenge, but I have worked hard to be a good endurance driver, and I feel like I am missing out on the golden era. It’s a feeling I hate right now.

“I have been here for seven years, I did the golden era of GTE, then LMP2, then one year of Hypercar, and I was feeling good before I was pulled out. I’m working hard to get back next year, it’s looking good. We will see. We are looking at all the options (not just with Porsche).”

Now it’s down to business for all the teams. Test Day is up next, and that gets underway tomorrow morning at 10:00am local time.