As reported by Sportscar365, Algarve Pro Racing has delayed plans to enter Porsche 963s in the Asian Le Mans Series, with team principal Stewart Cox citing concerns about placing FIA Bronze-rated drivers in Hypercars during a European winter campaign.
The Portuguese squad had worked towards entering as many as two Porsche 963s when the championship launches its Pro-Am Hypercar category in the 2026-27 season. However, the Asian Le Mans Series moved its three-round campaign to Europe amid instability in the Middle East, replacing the warmer conditions Algarve Pro expected when it began developing the programme.
Algarve Pro will continue competing in the championship with multiple Oreca 07 Gibsons in LMP2. Meanwhile, Cox intends to revive the Hypercar project for 2027-28 if the series can return to Southeast Asia or the Middle East.
Algarve Pro had two Bronze drivers ready for Porsche programme
Algarve Pro had progressed beyond simply evaluating the possibility of entering the new category. The team had identified two Bronze-rated drivers who wanted to proceed with the programme and had begun working towards running up to two Porsche 963s.
The Asian Le Mans Series will introduce Hypercar for the first time in 2026-27, with regulations requiring every line-up to include at least one FIA Bronze-rated driver. The class will sit above LMP2 and GT3 as part of a revised three-category structure.
However, the championship’s change of location forced Algarve Pro to reassess whether it could run its planned programme safely.
“We were looking at it, we worked on it and we got two Bronzes that were very keen to move forward with the project,” Cox told Sportscar365.
“We felt with what was going on in the Middle East, the ACO were put in quite a bad position of what they wanted to do. I know they worked very hard to keep it as an Asian or Middle Eastern-based championship.
“Ultimately, what everyone wanted was hot weather and minimal rain disruption.”
The original Hypercar concept centred on the championship’s established winter format in Asia and the Middle East. When organisers announced the category in 2025, they intended to introduce Pro-Am Hypercars into a series traditionally run between December and February at circuits offering relatively warm winter conditions.
European winter creates tyre temperature concern
The relocated 2026-27 championship instead begins at Circuit Paul Ricard from November 13-15 before travelling to Jerez from January 15-17 and Portimão from February 19-21. Each venue will stage two four-hour races, preserving the championship’s six-race format despite the temporary move away from Asia.
For Algarve Pro, the temperature difference between those circuits during winter and venues such as Sepang, Abu Dhabi and Dubai fundamentally changed the calculation surrounding its Bronze drivers.
The regulations require the Bronze-rated driver to start, while organisers have introduced tyre blankets for Hypercars. Cox welcomed the latter measure but remained concerned about how much tyre temperature drivers could lose between removing the blankets and reaching the start.
“The fact they introduced the tire blankets was good because, obviously with the Bronze driver starting the race with the way the ruleset is now, you can put the tire blankets on,” he said.
“But with the residual temperature from where we would have been going in Asia, at Sepang, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, you wouldn’t have lost too much tire temperature. It would have benefitted the Bronzes significantly.
“Ultimately, when you’re driving these cars, you want to do the right thing, which is the safe thing.
“Our decision was based purely on safety, from a point of view that we don’t really want Bronzes that wouldn’t have had a great deal of testing in the cars prior to that, being sat on the grid with the five-minute board saying you’ve got to pull the tire blankets off.
“It could be 10 or 15 degrees [Celsius] and you’re losing a huge amount of temperature and a slow formation lap before you start the second formation lap, you’re not going to get the sort of temperature you’d like.
“Cars that we have seen that are quite tricky to drive on the opening laps for pros, we didn’t feel it was wise to put Bronze drivers in that position.
“For that reason, we decided to not move forward with the program, running it in Europe in the winter.”
The concern becomes particularly significant because Bronze drivers will encounter Hypercars under circumstances substantially different from those faced by the professional drivers who normally race the machinery in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Asian Le Mans Series created its Hypercar category specifically around Pro-Am participation, making management of that experience gap an important element of its introduction.
Algarve Pro shifts Porsche plans towards 2027-28
Algarve Pro has delayed rather than abandoned its Hypercar ambitions. Cox said the drivers involved remain interested, while an additional year would give the team considerably more time to test the Porsche 963 and prepare its Bronze competitors before their race debuts.
The project therefore depends heavily on where the Asian Le Mans Series competes in 2027-28. Algarve Pro intends to move forward if organisers can return to Southeast Asia or the Middle East and restore the warmer conditions that formed part of the original plan.
“The commitment from those drivers remains there,” said Cox. “From our side, as soon as we get the go-ahead that we’re going back to the Middle East or Southeast Asia, where it’s going to be significantly warmer, we’ll go ahead with the project.
“Ultimately it’s going to give us time to test with the cars as well.
“We feel like the ACO were stuck between a rock and a hard place and they had to do what they did with the calendar.
“I think they’ve done the right thing from their side to look after everybody. We’ve got programs going forward and we’ll be taking LMP2s to the series that we’ll announce shortly.”
Consequently, Algarve Pro will maintain its substantial Asian Le Mans Series presence through LMP2. The team holds an especially strong record in the championship and will announce its Oreca 07 Gibson programmes separately.
Hypercar debut faces uncertainty
Algarve Pro’s decision creates another question around the strength of the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series Hypercar grid.
Organisers originally announced the class after receiving requests from manufacturers and teams, describing it as an opportunity to bring the cars competing at the highest level of endurance racing to Asian audiences while opening them to Pro-Am crews.
However, Sportscar365 reported that only two Hypercar entries had been submitted by late September, prompting the ACO and SRO Motorsports Group to extend the entry deadline. Algarve Pro’s prospective two-car Porsche programme would therefore have represented a significant proportion of the expected field.
Despite those questions, the championship continues to publicly list Hypercar alongside LMP2 and GT3 for 2026-27. Its current Paul Ricard timetable also includes separate Hypercar qualifying sessions before the two opening four-hour races.
Cox believes delaying Hypercar could benefit LMP2
Cox also believes organisers could gain another advantage by postponing the Hypercar introduction until 2027-28.
The championship needs sufficient performance separation between Hypercar and LMP2, particularly because Bronze-rated drivers will race the faster cars. That requirement has prompted discussion around modifying LMP2 performance rather than allowing the established prototypes to complete their final season at their existing specification.
For Algarve Pro, delaying Hypercar could remove the need to compromise LMP2 performance solely to accommodate what could become a very small top-class field.
“In some respects, it might actually be a good thing that we allow the P2s to run in their last year of full spec car, if they do actually pull the plug on the Hypercar championship, which I think, realistically, nobody would be upset about it, if they do it,” said Cox.
“Ultimately, it wouldn’t be great for any driver sat on the grid with those rather expensive cars and have a misfortune of going off or doing something silly in the first couple of laps.”
The Asian Le Mans Series has not announced a cancellation or postponement of Hypercar and continues to promote the category as part of its 2026-27 structure. The opening Paul Ricard meeting remains scheduled for November 13-15, followed by Jerez in January and Portimão in February.
Algarve Pro, however, will not place its Porsche 963 project on that grid this winter. Instead, the team will concentrate on LMP2 while retaining the drivers and underlying plans needed to revive the Hypercar programme if the championship returns to warmer conditions for 2027-28.
