Mercedes-AMG waiting for the green light to enter WEC

Like other manufacturers, Mercedes-AMG is not yet certain that it will be able to run AMG GT3s in WEC next season. The German brand have a double disadvantage: it has no hypercar programme and no recent history with Le Mans. These two rules demanded by the FIA/ACO combo can be important when it comes to deciding which manufacturers will be able to take part. However, Mercedes is clearly one of the key brands in GT3, and it would be a shame to do without them.

While there were several Mercedes-AMG GT3s at the start of the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series season, they are conspicuous by their absence from the Le Mans Cup, and even when the European Le Mans Series hosted GT3s (GTC), there were no SLS AMG GT3s on the grid. There was just one AMG GT3 on track at the Road to Le Mans last June, the Winward Racing car.

As in the Hypercar category, the GT3s will be calibrated via a Balance of Performance. Like the GTEs, the GT3s will be equipped with torque sensors, which enable better control of powertrain parameters on the track. These sensors, which are resistant to electromagnetic fields and heat, are fitted to the cars' driveshafts to measure the power allocated by the BoP.

"Since two weeks, we've officially known that the GT3s will be equipped with torquemeters," Stefan Wendl, head of Mercedes-AMG customer racing, told some journalists, including Endurance-Info. "We are preparing everything so that our customer teams will be able to use them next season. The negative point remains the high cost, but I think that more and more championships will use this system in the future. We're in the business of customer racing, so the aim is to reduce costs as much as possible."

It now remains to be seen what the final 2024 regulations will be to find out whether these torquemeters will also be installed in the European Le Mans Series. In the case that there is no Mercedes-AMG GT3 in WEC, but rather in ELMS, and that, for example, a Mercedes team is invited via the Asian Le Mans Series, what will happen to these torquemeters to establish a BoP if a Mercedes will race at Le Mans?

The presence of Mercedes-AMG in WEC next season has not been made official. "At the moment, it's not very clear," says Wendl. "We clearly have interest from customers who have everything they need to run there in 2024, but no certainty that we'll be able to take part."

It is therefore still too early to say whether Mercedes-AMG will designate a team with two cars or two teams with one car each.