EHRHARDT

New cars and tough battles for the world’s

greatest enduro

It’s not June, but the Le Mans 24 Hours is upon us. For the second year in a row, the world’s greatest endurance race is not in its traditional slot, but it is different to last year’s edition in two key ways.

The first is that spectators are back. The pandemic is far from over, but things are gradually heading in the right direction and the 24 Hours has long been one of the events for motorsport fans to attend.

The other is that the new era of sportscar racing has arrived. The Hypercar regulations have started in a modest fashion, with Toyota leading the way just as it did at the end of the LMP1 ruleset, but the potential is there, with Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Peugeot and Acura all eyeing various LMH or LMDh programmes.

Our traditional free Le Mans guide covers the new rules and all the leading contenders, as well as the enthralling class battles. The hard-fought LMP2 category includes 11 ex-Formula 1 drivers…

Away from sportscar racing, we look back at the final winning period for BRM with the help of designer Tony Southgate (page 16), talk to key figures at M-Sport and Ford about the new Puma World Rally Car project (p22), and hear from one of the most enthusiastic racers on the British Touring Car grid: Jake Hill (p26).

As ever, there’splenty happening in club motorsport, so we’ve also got a bumper 24-page National section with the latest news, events and opinions from paddocks around the UK (p45).

Kevin Turner Chief Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com

NEXT WEEK 19 AUGUST Schumacher special We talk to Mick and look back at Michael’s early

days in F1

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PIT & PADDOCK 4 McLaren takes major stake in Indy team 6 FIA rejects Aston Martin F1 evidence 8 Hypercars get Le Mans power boost 11 Opinion: Lewis Duncan 12 Opinion: James Newbold 13 Feedback: your letters

INSIGHT 16 BRM’s last Formula 1 hurrah 22 M-Sport and its new WRC challenger 26 Ford’s versatile rising BTCC star

RACE CENTRE 30 World of Sport: IndyCar; IMSA; DTM; Pure ETCR; NASCAR Cup; NASCAR Xfinity; MotoGP

CLUB AUTOSPORT 46 Bevan Imp back on track 51 Motorsport UK to organise British F4 52 Obituary: Bernard Cottrell 54 Paddock fire hits Ginetta team 56 Opinion: Stefan Mackley 57 National reports: Knockhill; Snetterton; Silverstone; Brands Hatch; Cro 68 The ultimate trackday weapon?

FINISHING STRAIGHT 70 What’s on this week 72 From the archive: 2007 Spanish GP 74 What could have been: Wilson to Le Mans

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LE MANS SUPPLEMENT

Your essential 52-page guide to the 89th running of the greatest sportscar race, covering all the cars and drivers

12 AUGUST 2021 AUTOSPORT.COM 3