Two weeks on from a thrilling ten hour affair in Qatar, the endurance racing world once more turns its attention to the North American scene, with the iconic 12 Hours of Sebring just days away. But who will be vying for overall honours in Florida?

First up, and no surprise they’re the heavy favourites coming into this weekend is Porsche. Having just won the 24 Hours of Daytona back to back for the first time since the 80’s their lineup needs no change, nor introduction. Stuttgart will field their usual pair of two works cars for this event, with the lineups. 

Felipe Nasr once more will join Laurens Vanthoor and the only man ever to win all major twenty four hour events Nick Tandy in the #7 car, but don’t count out their equally competitive sister entry. That will be piloted by the likes of last year’s Daytona winner Matt Campbell, with the ever-exciting Kevin Estre and fellow Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet forming a formidable #6 entry. The favourites they may be, though they are yet to win this event in the modern era.

A team well versed in victory here are Cadillac. They previously held a three year win streak here, until it was broken in the last five minutes of the race as Louis Deletraz put on an incredible display to snatch a fourth consecutive victory away. Now with Wayne Taylor Racing who won this race last year with Acura, hopes are high. With last year’s race winning team in WTR, and with last year’s winning drivers they look set to get their revenge on Acura this time round.

All three cars from Daytona form the WTR lineup with Ricky Taylor, Felipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens piloting the #10 Dex Imaging car. The sister #40 car that became a hit with the crowd thanks to a bold chrome livery will be without Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel, but he’s been replaced by the other Taylor brother, namely Jordan. Last year’s winners Brendon Hartley and Louis Deletraz join him in a strong effort. Cadillac’s own #31 machine will remain unchanged, with Frederik Vesti hoping to make up for his huge crash that ruined the team’s chances of victory at Daytona. There’s no Felipe Drugovich this time round, but the young Dane will have no lack of talent alongside him. Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken join him, both having been a part of Cadillac’s LMDH programme since the very start. 

On the other end of the spectrum is Acura. Having lost both the team and drivers who won this race for them last year, they’ll be hoping to prove that they can still be just as competitive. Back with Meyer Shank Racing, their Daytona showing (one where they didn’t cheat this time) was impressive considering the circumstances the team found themselves in. It will be once again a two car effort with a strong lineup. Colin Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Scott Dixon form the #93 lineup, while ex Cadillac man Renger Van De Zande, ex BMW driver Nick Yelloly and reigning Indycar champion Alex Palou. Though they may not have the prototype CV’s of other lineups, you’d be a fool to underestimate this trio.

And last though looking stronger than they ever have in GTP is BMW. They come into this event after an incredibly strong showing at Daytona which they might have won, had Dries Vanthoor not made a few costly mistakes in the final hour. Despite this, the team still claimed their first pole position in GTP and their best finish at Daytona since the Hypercar era began. They’ve already featured on the Sebring podium back in 2023, and know this track well having achieved overall victory back in 1999 with the iconic V12 LMR. 

That, though, was a whopping 26 years ago and though BMW won’t have Tom Kristensen, they will still have another rapid Dane in their lineup. Kevin Magnussen really impressed in his first race for the team back in Daytona, so you can expect him to pull off some daring moves and have quick pace throughout the weekend. He’ll be joined in what can only be described as a truly stacked lineup with Dries Vanthoor and Phillip Eng in the #24 car, attempting to break that 26 year win drought. 

They won’t be alone though. BMW’s #25 car may not have fared so well last time out, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be packing a serious punch. Fresh off an overall victory at the 12 Hours of Bathurst, Sheldon Van De Linde will compete alongside Robin Frijns and Marco Wittman in the #25 machine. 

And then there’s the single car entries, most notable of which is Aston Martin. After experiencing a tough debut with the car over in WEC last week, they’ll be hoping the #23 car of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Alex Riberas can muster a better debut on the North American side of things. Already having all but achieved the title of ‘best sounding car of the 2020’s’ Heart of Racing will be hoping it can perform as well as it sings. Keep expectations realistic for them though, this is after all their first race stateside with the car. 

This would normally be the bit where I’d say a good target would be to beat Lamborghini, but, well, they’re Lamborghini. It will be Romain Grosjean, Mirko Bortolotti and Danil Kyvat hoping to restore some kind of promise into the SC63’s future with a good result here, and Riley’s second as team operator after Iron Lynx walked out the door. 

Instead, Aston Martin’s yardstick for this event should really be the privateer Porsches. JDC-Miller Motorsport will once more be running their #85 car that, depending on who you ask, is either affectionately referred to as the “Yellow Submarine” or “The Banana Car.” I’m a fan of the Beatles song, so I’ll personally go with the former. Without Phil Hanson this year, they’re going with young Dutchman Tjimen Van Der Helm and Gianmaria Bruni, with the third driver unconfirmed at time of writing. 

The other privateer Porsche is that of Proton Competition. Having been competitive at Daytona last time out, it’s once again young Chilean Nico Pino fresh off from his Hypercar debut in WEC last week, who’ll be joined by 2016 Le Mans winner Neel Jani and Tristan Vautier in the #5 car.

And that then is your top class of 2025 ready to battle it out for 12 long hours which means for me there’s only one thing left to say:

Respect the Bumps!

thumbnail credit – Rick Flores from USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons