World Endurance Championship: 'Plans' for female hypercar driver in 2025, says CEO Frederic Lequien
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Ferrari won the Le Mans 24 Hours in June with James Calado, ex-F1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi
Bosses in the World Endurance Championship are planning for a female driver to compete at the top level in 2025, according to the sport's CEO.
Frederic Lequien told BBC Sport: "I know that there are some plans for 2025. I'm pretty sure it will happen."
There are currently no women competing at the top of motorsport, including for nearly 50 years in Formula 1.
It was also announced that legendary seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will drive for BMW in the WEC.
Lequien added: "Hypercar [the WEC's top class] is impressive and of course we would like to welcome some female drivers in that category - maybe there is a good surprise in 2024. It can happen. But at the moment, frankly speaking, we don't know."
The WEC includes the famous Le Mans 24 Hours race, which was surprisingly won by Ferrari in 2023 after they returned to the top class for the first time in 50 years.
The Italian team are one of several car manufacturers who have returned to sports car racing following a change in the rules.
The hypercar class allows manufacturers more flexibility when designing cars, and the whole WEC field competes using sustainable fuels - a growing alternative to the batteries used in electric cars as climate awareness continues to influence the automotive industry.
Ferrari have a female factory driver on their books in France's Lilou Wadoux, who this year became the first woman to win a race in the WEC in the lower GT class in the Ferrari 488.
Wadoux, 22, tested the top-level Ferrari 499P hypercar in Bahrain this month. The Italian team are yet to name their full line-up of drivers, and so could chose Wadoux, in what will be a total of three 499P cars in the WEC in 2024.
They have already confirmed Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco for next year and are expected to use Polish former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica. However, British Le Mans winner James Calado is yet to be confirmed.
What are the chances of women competing in hypercar?
"Diversity is super important," added Lequien. "But the result is also important - look at the last race of the season where [all-female Iron Dames] won the race.
"I think we will be successful [with diversity and inclusion] when we will see them as a driver. Not as a female driver."
Wadoux has now tested both the Ferrari 499P and last year Toyota's GR010 hypercar. She also has experience at the LMP2 level of competition, which will not feature across as much of the WEC next season.
Another female driver in LMP2 this year was Wadoux's compatriot Doriane Pin, who drove for the Italian Prema team after impressing with the Iron Dames in the GT class in 2022.
She has been seen as a potential driver with the new Lamborghini hypercar programme, but is not thought to be included in the 2024 line-up, expected to be announced fully in December.
Lequien's comments come as another season has passed at the top level of motorsport without any female participation, in particular in sports cars, F1, Formula E and the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Italian Rossi, 44, has been looking to compete on four wheels for some time after retiring from motorbikes, testing several cars, including an LMP2 car and even Michael Schumacher's F1 Ferrari several years ago.
Rossi will compete in a BMW M4 GT3 run by the Belgian WRT team.
Another high-profile driver who has been rumoured to be competing in the WEC next season is Britain's 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button.
Button, 43, competed in this year's American version of WEC - the IMSA Sports Car Championship - in a Porsche 963 at Road Atlanta in the Petit Le Mans race, finishing fifth for JDC-Miller Motorsports.
Despite losing out to Ferrari at Le Mans, Toyota won the drivers' and manufacturers' hypercar titles in the WEC this year.
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