What to expect from the future of Le Mans Ultimate

Thanks to its status as the official game of the FIA World Endurance Championship, it includes vehicles from the real-world series. 

First up, two notable absentees from the current season. New aerodynamic packages for the 2026-spec Alpine A424 and Cadillac V-Series.R, with a much lower rear wing, missed the recent game update. However, both are confirmed as in development and expected soon.

Looking further ahead, next year’s WEC-based update will be a lot more interesting.

While Alpine will depart from the championship in 2027, Ford and McLaren will be joining the fun for the first time. And do you know what that means…?

Yes, of course you do, it’s two new cars for Le Mans Ultimate!

Although a model name has yet to be confirmed, Ford’s Hypercar will have a naturally aspirated Coyote V8 engine derived from its Mustang LMGT3 car. This means fans will be greeted by a raucously muscular exhaust note, rivalling that of the Cadillac.

The motor is being co-developed between Ford and its partner Red Bull Ford Powertrains, while the chassis will be supplied by French sports car specialist ORECA.

McLaren, meanwhile, has already been publicly testing its MCL-HY LMDh machine. Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, revealed his team and its partners’ aim to secure the Triple Crown of motorsport. Again.

While wins at the Indy 500, Monaco Grand Prix and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2027 will be a tall order, it would be a brave person to bet against the Woking-based squad.

2027 will also mark 32 years since McLaren essentially took a lightly modified version of its road-going F1 to Le Mans and won against a legion of much faster prototypes. At least this time, the MCL-HY will be on a more level playing field.

Alongside the box-fresh Ford and McLaren, Peugeot has confirmed a significant evolution of its 9X8, also expected in 2027.

So far, then, two facelifted 2026-spec cars soon, followed by two all-new Hypercar class challengers and a heavily revised one next year. These seem certain, but now allow us to theorise for a moment.

In LMGT3 next year, Toyota seems likely to bring its inimitable GR GT3 to WEC, finally dispensing with the venerable Lexus RC F, which has been in use since 2017.

Set to be the firm’s new flagship supercar, the road-going GR has been developed with one eye very much on its racing potential, much like the GR Yaris was solely developed with rallying in mind.

While the Toyota has been unveiled, the next Mercedes contender remains a secret. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 has been racing for a decade now, so naturally, the Affalterbach outfit feels the time is right for a successor to come to the fore. 

Despite some tweaks for 2020, the car has remained largely unchanged in the interim period, but has remained a competitive prospect nonetheless, even being the weapon of choice for a certain Max Verstappen at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.

For 2027, it’s hoped the new AMG GT3 will be made available to customer teams, with its road-going partner, the AMG Black Series GT, also set for release.

A quick note on Lamborghini, which left WEC at the end of 2024, with its new Temerario GT3 racing in the likes of IMSA and DTM. Its World Endurance absence makes it more unlikely to appear in LMU.

There’s also the curious case of the Genesis Magma GT3 Concept. We wouldn’t be surprised if this starts appearing in sim racing titles, and while it’s not been confirmed to compete in the real world, it was at least unveiled at the 24 Hours of Le Mans event. It could be a cool fictional-ish addition to the roster.

Tracks

Right, tracks next and, nope, it’s not the anticipated Asian Le Mans Series, but the next paid season pass for Le Mans Ultimate is the ‘US Track Pass’.

This is important for two main reasons.

One, more tracks are always a benefit to the overall ecosystem, and this will be six, slowly rolled out over the coming months, starting with Daytona and Laguna Seca.

Motorsport Games’ ageing sim rFactor 2 already features laser-scanned versions of Long Beach and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which could be of interest here. Pop your theories as to the rest in the comments below.

Second, this doesn’t appear to be IMSA licensed. For those not in the loop, the IMSA SportsCar Championship is a US-based series that shares the car ruleset with the WEC and Le Mans.

This is a pure track pack, with the IMSA-exclusive Acura GTP car and real-world liveries seemingly missing.

This means that the remaining US tracks won’t necessarily be venues on the IMSA calendar.

Also, doesn’t that now mean future tracks in Le Mans Ultimate don’t have to be tied to the official series, something that the official SRO game Assetto Corsa Competizione was?

We think it does. Start your Nordschliefe campaign now…

Back to the World Endurance Championship, however, and its 2027 calendar includes Silverstone, but otherwise the same line-up. The British venue is confirmed owing to its successful European Le Mans Series event last year. But the track already features for LMU thanks to the first ELMS DLC pack.

Career Mode

So, that’s what to expect for content, but what about features? It’s here where Le Mans Ultimate is starting to run behind previously stated schedules.

Perhaps the most significant addition for a large swathe of players will be the highly touted single-player career mode.

As it stands, there isn’t even a way to do a relatively simple single-player championship mode, let alone a career. While the sim’s strong player numbers are bolstered by the excellent ranked multiplayer modes, offline racing is limited to just single race weekends presently.

This places greater emphasis on the upcoming career mode. From the screenshots published so far, we can see that the balancing of funds will be key, including damage bills and sponsors, and it looks as if there’s an authentic driver progression system, working your way up from an LMGT3 pay driver to a paid Hypercar Pro.

Elements such as media interviews and some kind of offline driver swap with pitlane management also look to be included.

Going back to track DLC, it is perhaps worth noting that once the US Track Pass is released, just seven venues will be in the base game, compared to 13 paid DLC circuits. How this is handled within the career is interesting.

So far, we’ve seen this menu screen with the words “These rounds will require additional DLC. You’ll have the option to obtain the DLC, replace these events or skip them altogether.”

Originally slated for a release in the first quarter of 2026, the mode was pushed back to “later this year”. Well, we’re in middle 2026 now, and it hasn’t arrived yet. Hopefully, there will be more progress reports about this soon.

Multiplayer

Speaking of missing features, last year, the ability to swap drivers mid online endurance race was added. Then an engineer mode was added. Brilliant.

Except, as it stands, you cannot enable driver swaps during a race that you host, which isn’t ideal for community-led leagues, for instance. 

This is related to ongoing development work, which sees 24-hour multiplayer test races remaining tests, following instabilities.

This is clearly taking longer than anticipated to fully implement. At least now there is a special events calendar published for the rest of the year, meaning teams and drivers can plan ahead.

There is at least one day-long race currently slated for October, and we have everything crossed that it will be pulled off without a hitch. If so, we expect further marathon races in LMU’s future. If not, it’s back to the drawing board, folks.

Then, there’s the pinnacle. What all of these ranked races could lead up to. The Le Mans Virtual Series.

Starting as a solo event in covid-afflicted 2020, it was spun out into a full championship with real-world motorsport stars competing against the world’s best sim racers. That ended in 2023, as the Studio 397 development team switched from rFactor 2 to Le Mans Ultimate.

“Le Mans Virtual will be returning,” emphatically stated Stephen Hood in 2025, and the subscription-only Team Championships mode was previously confirmed as a method of LMVS qualification.

However, after a couple of years of consistent references in earnings calls, for recent updates, this competition has been conspicuous by its absence. Since then, the professional sim racing esports scene has seen a dramatic decline in prize pools, competitions and, perhaps, crucially, sponsors.

Perhaps this is another on a long list of events that may never return?

Console versions

While the multiplayer is a major feature for current PC players, PS5 and Xbox owners, we also hear you. After the messy Rennsport and Project Motor Racing launches, and with support stopped for Assetto Corsa Competizione, you deserve a decent racing simulation.

The good news is that Le Mans Ultimate is headed your way. The not-so-good news is that it won’t be any time soon. But would you like LMU without a career mode? No, we didn’t think so.

In our opinion, the career mode implementation must be sorted first before a console port can be released. It’s not just that, as there are technical considerations too.

For instance, the coding language used by the game on PC for the frontend menus wouldn’t be allowed on PlayStation and Xbox. In the March Version 1.3 update, this was changed to a different structure on PC (from Chromium Embedded Framework to Coherent, if you must know).

The menu looked and worked in much the same way, but it meant it could now be used on consoles too.

That’s just one example, and we’re certain there will be many others. Work on these editions is handled by a third-party porting agency. Initially slated for either late 2026 or early 2027, four months ago, this was moved to “early-to-mid 2027”.

We would take this as an estimate, as opposed to a definitive release window. But good things come to those who wait, and perhaps, unlike the final Game of Thrones novels, this is on the way.

Getting this code base working on consoles will help set up the company for future expansion, too…

What’s next for MSG

Ah, yes, about that. Do you think that Motorsport Games and Studio 397 are only working on Le Mans Ultimate?

Well, that might be the case now, but at some point soon, the company will publicly confirm work on a second project. We may hear more about this later this year, too…

“We have been building a foundation, one that we continue to advance, all whilst demonstrating its value, supporting products like Le Mans Ultimate,” said Stephen Hood on a recent earnings call.

“We are not yet in a position to share the full details of what that foundation will support next.

“But, I want to be direct. We have a product roadmap we believe has the potential to drive very meaningful revenue and profit growth in 2027 and beyond, and we expect to discuss it in detail on our Q3 earnings call.” That call is usually scheduled for November.

“What I can tell you today is that our next stage of growth will not require us to start from scratch,” he continued.

“It will leverage everything we have already proven. Our technology, our platform, our audience and our operational discipline.”

Reading between the lines, we expect to know roughly what the company will do next, built upon Le Mans Ultimate’s tech, before the end of this year. Will it be the resurrection of the previously cancelled ‘rFactor 3’ project? Could it be something else completely different? Perhaps it’s a fourth Nickelodeon Kart Racers, only this time a simulation? 

Irrespective of what it turns out to be, we hope for a simultaneous approach. Once Le Mans Ultimate has the multiplayer working on a larger scale, the career mode up and running and console versions sorted, the theory goes it could be maintained with a smaller team, working on season updates, bug fixes and smaller additional features.

What we saw with the Assetto Corsa franchise, for instance, was the abandonment of Competizione, while the Kunos development team worked on Assetto Corsa EVO. This is despite ACC still receiving three times more regular PC players than Automobilista 2 and RaceRoom to this day. This ruffled more than a few feathers in the passionate community bases.

Motorsport Games would be best advised to avoid this scenario with LMU if it has the resources to do so.

Speculation zone

That’s everything we know so far, based on earnings call comments and announcements. But now, let’s briefly enter the speculation zone.

A key feature that we see repeatedly discussed in our YouTube and podcast comments is the current lack of support for full course yellows, virtual safety cars and full safety cars. A critical component of contemporary real-world endurance racing, this does seem an odd omission for a title of this ilk, although we understand the coding complexities at play here.

Of course, there’s always scope for further content, too. Many expected that the next DLC, following ELMS, would naturally be the Asian Le Mans Series (and supporting Asian Le Mans Cup). It’s under the ACO umbrella; this is a game with official links to the ACO, it uses the same cars already in the sim, etc., etc.

It would have meant, if it followed the 2025-26 season, three new circuits: Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, the Dubai Autodrome and Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

Now, while we happen to think more USA tracks are more interesting (maybe Sepang aside), we still can’t help but pine for these Asian venues at some point to ‘complete’ the ACO set.

There is a potential fly in the ointment. Due to the ongoing war in Iran and Middle East unrest, the next ALMS season may run… in Europe. Less ‘ALMS’ then and more ‘ALMS On Tour’. If that happens, it could be running at Paul Ricard, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and Portimao’s Algarve International Circuit, all of which are already available for LMU. Clanger.

With a bit of luck, let’s say in 2027, there’s a way of including the three Asian venues, either as a 2025-26 season throwback, or looking ahead to a hopefully regular 2027-28 season.

And finally, historic content. Come on, MSG, throw a dog a bone. The modern Hypercar and LMGT3 cars are undoubtedly popular, but with over a century of motorsport history to draw on, surely it would be remiss not to consider releasing vintage vehicles and tracks from the history of both Le Mans and WEC?

Covering the halcyon days of Group C, GT1 and Group 4 Sports Cars sounds extremely appealing, as does going beyond WEC and into its previous guise as the World Sportscar Championship (Porsche 956 at the Nordschleife, anyone?!).

Maybe we’ve got ahead of ourselves there…