Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps within 16 days: According to current planning, the three major 24-hour races are actually scheduled to take place within just two weeks in June 2025. A scenario that has never been seen before in the history of motorsport.
“It is crazy to drive three 24-hour races on three consecutive weekends,” says Frank van Meel, Managing Director of BMW M GmbH, in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com to the point. “This presents us with a huge challenge. If no one gives in, it will stay that way. But then it will be extremely difficult.”
Le Mans, Nürburgring, Spa: 24-hour marathon in just 16 days
What is meant is that behind the scenes there are negotiations between the car manufacturers and the organizers ACO (Le Mans), ADAC Nordrhein (24h Nürburgring) and SRO (24h Spa) have long been in talks in the hope of finding a solution for the impending 24-hour marathon. “We are trying to work together,” says van Meel. “But they are different race organizers. I think that everyone is happy on their own. But overall it is a huge challenge for the participants.
The dates for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring have been set for several years now, up to and including 2028, in order to offer long-term planning security to all those involved. The Le Mans and WEC organizer ACO does not want to deviate from its mid-June date for the 24-hour race and is not necessarily seen as willing to compromise. As if two 24-hour races within nine days were not enough, the SRO recently announced that the 24 Hours of Spa would be scheduled just one week after the 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
| Run | meeting | organizer | Spectators 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Hours of Le Mans | 14-15.06.2025 | ACO | 329,000 |
| 24h Nürburgring | 19.-22.06.2025 | ADAC North Rhine | 240,000 |
| 24h Spa Francorchamps | 26.-29.06.2025 | SRO | 99,500 |
Porsche boss Laudenbach: This is in nobody’s interest
Porsche Motorsport Director Thomas Laudenbach agrees Motorsport-Magazin.com: “I would like to see that we can reduce the pressure. This is an extremely high burden and may even lead to one or two people skipping one of the races because they cannot cope with it. This cannot be in the interest of the organizers, the teams or us as manufacturers.”
Laudenbach confirms the ongoing dialogue between the manufacturers and the three race organizers. In addition to BMW, which, like Porsche, also runs factory programs in Le Mans in addition to customer races, other brands are at the table. The extremely short time between the races at the Nürburgring and in nearby Spa-Francorchamps is causing problems.
“We should try to prevent this together”
Of course, the race organizers are also aware of the problem and are in contact. SRO boss Stephane Ratel suggested postponing the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, while in the Eifel region people argue that moving the major event would affect other events at the Nürburgring. If it were brought forward by three weeks to the long Ascension weekend at the end of May, the weather would also play a role.
Porsche manager Laudenbach: “I deliberately do not want to criticize only the organizers. I know how difficult it is to create schedules. We have to work on it together. The goal should be to spread it out again. We should try together to prevent three 24-hour races on consecutive weekends. That can only be done together because the organizers also have their constraints. But yes, all in all it is unfortunate.”
Laudenbach stresses the responsibility of the manufacturers for their customers, while van Meel raises the question of whether the 24-hour marathon could have a concrete impact on the deployment of the customer teams and factory drivers. The car manufacturers support their customers with engineers and data analysts, among others, but of course they cannot handle two major events within a few days.
In the end, the spectators would be the big losers
Van Meel, who speaks of a real game of Sudoku with regard to the complicated planning: “We first have to try to talk to everyone to see if we can ease the tension. Otherwise, you really have to look at which and how many drivers are taking part in which events. It is unclear whether it will still work as it has so far with the number of teams and drivers.”
The big losers in this ‘game’ would not only be customer teams, some of which might be left behind, but also the fans. After all, they invest a lot of time and money to cheer on their favorite drivers at the extremely well-attended 24-hour races. How annoying it would be if one or two top drivers were unable to start at the Ring or in Spa due to scheduling issues…