Le Mans Ultimate review - the real endurance driving simulator

Metro

6 days ago

This new officially licensed World Endurance Championship game is a technical marvel but it's definitely not an arcade racer.
Of all the world's most prestigious motor racing series – namely, those run by motorsports governing body the FIA – the World Endurance Championship is probably the most hardcore. The clue is in the word 'endurance' – WEC races are long and brutal, with various classes of cars, each shared by several drivers, and then there's the jewel in the series' crown: the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The long-form nature of endurance racing has meant that in the past, few have attempted to translate the format into video games. But now we have an officially licensed WEC game, in the form of Le Mans Ultimate. It's been developed by Netherlands-based Studio 397, best known for the racing sim rFactor 2, whose parent company, Motorsport Games, is run by Stephen Hood – who helmed Codemasters' Formula One games between 2009 and 2014.
There's plenty of motorsports pedigree at work here, but beyond the official licences, Le Mans Ultimate and F1 25 come from very different ends of the motorsport gaming spectrum. Whereas the latter attempts to appeal to all F1 fans, regardless of driving talent, Le Mans Ultimate is a racing simulator, squarely targeted at hardcore petrolheads.
For starters, Le Mans Ultimate is PC-only (although Studio 397 and Motorsport Games are thought to be working on console versions). Although it does support conventional gamepads, as well as home rigs with steering wheels and pedals, it forces you to use a mouse to scroll through its menus – gamepad control only kicks in when you've told the game to exit from the pits.
Format-wise, Le Mans Ultimate's single-player element is about as simple as you can get: a series of race weekends consisting of three sessions – practice, qualifying and the race – for which you must choose your circuit and your car. At this point, it's important to bear in mind that the game has been in early access for the best part of a year, during which period the developer has been adding a constant drip-feed of cars and tracks.
So while it has a relatively small amount of tracks, many of the world's best are included. There's Le Mans, of course, but also Spa, Imola, Fuji, Interlagos, Bahrain, Qatar, and Austin. Silverstone is in the works and at some stage in the future a simulation of the whole European Le Mans Series will be added to the game as an alternative and very welcome single-player option.
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The choice of cars is pretty strong too, with LMH Hypercars from eight different manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Porsche, Chevrolet, Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMW, and Alpine – so that's nine GT3-class manufacturers represented. Or you can opt to drive a 2024 spec Oreca 07 LMP2-class car. There are various different livery options aping the real-life teams and Le Mans Ultimate also has an editor allowing you to design their own liveries.
Jump into a race weekend and you're given by default an hour for practice, 20 minutes for qualifying, and an hour for the race, although you can tweak those times if you want. They do to an extent reflect the real races, however, without forcing you to spend more than an hour contesting the actual racing.
It's on the track where Le Mans Ultimate really shines. The courses have been laser-scanned and possess the ring of absolute authenticity. The cars' sound and, most importantly, feel are utterly convincing, to the extent that we could hear a squeak emitted by the brakes of the Aston Martin Hypercar we initially chose.
A lot of technology has gone into modelling Le Mans Ultimate's cars, so, for example, you have to work hard to warm up your car's tyres before full grip kicks in, and grip drops off markedly once those tyres age. Even the GT3 cars – supposedly based on road cars, albeit impossibly exotic ones – are thrilling beasts to drive, and being able to race the LMH Hypercars is a real treat.
The default cockpit view is great, too, with clever representations of wing-mirrors and the like (Le Mans Ultimate supports VR setups too, should you have a headset) and warnings when you have cars either side of you, which tends to happen a lot in endurance racing.
Le Mans Ultimate does make some concessions to those whose driving talents are not the greatest: you can add racing lines to the circuits along a number of assists, including traction control. But beyond that it's pretty uncompromising.
Transgress slightly during a race and you will be black-flagged (annoyingly, the terse radio communications with the pits only really give you your lap-times, so we were black-flagged a few times without knowing why). Race starts are initially tricky, since they involve assembling behind the safety car, which requires precision while you attempt to generate some tyre-warmth.
But while the single-player game is superb (assuming you're a motor racing fanatic) it very much feels like a preparation for going online, which is where Le Mans Ultimate's real focus lies. There, you can jump into races, matched with drivers of similar ability. Or – and this is an innovation for a racing game, but given the multi-driver format of endurance racing also a necessity – you can take part in asynchronous co-operative races, where you race one stint, then hand over your car to someone else. More Trending
Studio 397 and Motorsport Games are working up to enabling full simulations of the 24 Hours of Le Mans using that format, but it is as yet unclear when that will arrive in the game, whose current focus is squarely fixed on esports territory.
Certain aspects of Le Mans Ultimate have a work-in-progress feel – the rather amorphous single-player game and terse in-car communications among them – but all the aspects that matter most in a simulation, especially the car feel and authenticity of the circuits, are very impressive.
Le Mans Ultimate is not a mainstream racing game like F1 25, but instead a rigorous simulator of one of the world's most popular motor racing experiences. If you're a big enough fan of racing games that you have a home rig with steering wheel, pedals, and a big screen this is very much built for you. But if you're a casual racing fan with a lesser set-up, the chances are that you'll find it a tad intimidating. However, even for a simulator, it is a technical marvel.
In Short: A thrillingly uncompromising racing simulator, that is easily the best endurance racer of the modern era, even if it's got a way to go before it's feature complete.
Pros: Extremely authentic tracks, incredible car-feel, and a real stamp of authenticity. Decent selection of cars and tracks and innovative asynchronous co-op mode.
Cons: Amorphous single-player element. Feels like a work-in-progress in some areas, especially menu navigation and the terse radio communications.
Score: 7/10
Formats: PCPrice: £28.99Publisher: Motorsport GamesDeveloper: Studio 397Release Date: 22nd July 2025
Age Rating: N/A
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