TotalEnergies and the WEC

TotalEnergies is the multi-energy partner and official fuel supplier of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), of which the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the undeniable highlight.

As such, the company is actively participating in the return of Peugeot Sport to the new Hypercar category since 2022 and also has a partnership in the colors of ELF with Alpine which returns this year to the premier Hypercar category with a brand new prototype.

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A major partnership with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO)

Through this strategic partnership with the ACO, the company continues its long-standing commitment to endurance competitions. A true open-air laboratory, the track represents an essential vector of innovation, because the extreme constraints of endurance – race duration and high mileage – push us to develop ever more efficient fuels which will one day be intended for motorists.

Constraints made even higher by the fact that the ACO recently redefined the WEC rules for the Hypercar category. The goal now is to achieve the best performance using as little fuel as possible. A real revolution which echoes the current concerns of manufacturers and motorists: consuming less and reducing its ecological footprint.

To meet these requirements, and in continuation of Excellium Endurance, introduced in 2019, which already contained 10% ethanol of renewable origin and 5% bio-hydrocarbons, our engineers developed after eighteen months of research and testing: Excellium Racing 100. Excellium Racing 100 was therefore born from this desire to combine performance and efficiency. This certified* 100% sustainable fuel was introduced for the first time in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in March 2022 during the first event of the championship, the 1000 miles of Sebring (USA). Designed and manufactured by TotalEnergies, the Excellium Racing 100 is produced from bioethanol, itself produced from wine residues (from French agriculture).

Thanks to its 100% biomass origin, Excellium Racing 100 helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from track vehicles by at least 65%**.

A true innovation made possible thanks to the expertise of our engineers, the Excellium Racing 100 responds to the common values that the Company shares with the FIA, namely: safety, hybridization, lower consumption, low-carbon mobility... TotalEnergies, already a partner and supplier official fuel of the ACO (the Automobile Club de l'Ouest), demonstrates its pioneering spirit and its taste for performance.

This new fuel, validated by all our stakeholders thanks to phases of testing and discussions with car manufacturers and legislators (FIA, ACO), now supplies all competitors entered in the FIA WEC, including obviously the 24H Le Mans and in the European Le Mans Series.

Peugeot and TotalEnergies take on the Le Mans Hypercar category

On the occasion of the twenty-five year anniversary of their collaboration in 2020, Peugeot and TotalEnergies formalized the launch of their joint Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) project. An ambitious program which materialized in an official entry into competition as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship during the 6 Hours of Monza 2022. Particularly anchored in the DNA of the two brands, competition has always represented for them a true technological laboratory.

However, Le Mans Hypercar, the new premier category of Endurance, perfectly embodies the energy transition of the two companies and in particular of TotalEnergies, which has become a multi-energy group capable of meeting all mobility needs.

Alpine returns in Hypercar with ELF

Forty-three years after the victory of the Alpine A442b in the general classification of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alpine returned to the premier Endurance category in 2021, with ELF, its inseparable sporting partner, to support it in this new challenge. This arrival of the Alpine ELF Endurance Team in the new Hypercar category with the Alpine A480 was a logical continuation after the two FIA WEC LMP2 World Champion titles won in 2016 and 2019, and the three victories also signed at the 24 Hours of Mans in the antechamber of the premier category.

With the Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre, third in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans and great architect of Alpine's success in LMP2, the Brazilian André Négrao, as well as the Frenchman Matthieu Vaxivière, the Alpine ELF Endurance Team will have completed two years punctuated by two poles positions, two victories (1000 miles of Sebring 2022, 6 Hours of Monza 2022) and eleven podiums, including a hard-fought third place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2021, in twelve starts and won the honorary titles of vice-world champion manufacturer and drivers 2022. After a 2023 season, which saw the French team return temporarily to LMP2, the time to develop its brand new weapon, 2024 marks the debut of its LMDh Hypercar called A424. Two examples will be lined up this year in the FIA WEC, entrusted to Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxivière, Charles Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin and Ferdinand Habsburg.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans, a legendary race

The flagship event of the FIA WEC season, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most extreme races in the world.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans are also a major challenge for men, and the TotalEnergies teams are no exception to the rule, ensuring the distribution of some 280,000 liters of fuel to the 62 participating cars. In the interest of sporting fairness, they also carry out, at the request of the ACO and the FIA, more than 150 fuel compliance analyzes in the garages of the various competitors. To do this, they use a chromatograph, which allows them to check the “fingerprint” of the fuel. The fuel is also controlled at every stage of manufacturing to ensure quality and guarantee fairness between all competitors. In order to achieve this objective, an engineer from the TotalEnergies Company is on the track to analyze the fuel at all times. More than 150 analyzes carried out during the 24 hours of Le Mans to prove the conformity of participants' fuel.

*Excellium Racing 100 is a product certified 100% sustainable with regard to the mass balance system applied by a voluntary certification body approved by the European Union.

** In line with the methodology set by the European RED II directive (2018/2001), Excellium Racing 100 reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% compared to its fossil equivalent.

Updated in July 2024