- Squadra Corse to put IMSA participation on hold next season
- Unexpectedly high costs of LMDh programme contribute to decision
Lamborghini has announced a ‘strategic realignment’ of its motorsport activities from next season, which includes pausing its involvement in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) SportsCar Championship.
It means that the Italian manufacturer will have stopped its Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) programme entirely in 2026, having been involved in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) only last year.
Instead, Lamborghini will focus its motorsport efforts on the GT3 category and its one-make Super Trofeo championship.
In the statement, Squadra Corse claims that its involvement in IMSA is being put ‘on hold’, but this is very similar wording to the announcement of its departure from WEC last year.
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The cost of competing in IMSA has fuelled Lamborghini’s decision to exit the endurance racing championship. Lamborghini chief technology officer Rouven Mohr told Autosport that WEC is “even more expensive [than IMSA] because you are forced to have two cars”.
On this basis, it appears unlikely that Volkswagen-owned Lamborghini will make a return to either series any time soon.
‘Initially conceived as a natural evolution of Lamborghini’s successful customer racing platform, the Hypercar/GTP project was launched with the ambition of further expanding the brand’s presence in top-tier endurance racing,’ the statement from Lamborghini read.
‘The programme was designed to ensure global visibility through the presence of a hybrid racing car in each of the two championships where this class is admitted.
‘However, the conditions on which the programme was based have significantly changed. As the project developed, resource demands – both in terms of budget and technical complexity have grown beyond original projections.’
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