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.
The company played an active role in Peugeot Sport’s return to the FIA WEC in the new Hypercar class in 2022 and through its brand ELF, it also has a partnership with Alpine, who joined the top-level Hypercar class with a brand new prototype in 2024.
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.
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.
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. 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 ACO, namely: safety, sustainable development of activities, 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 as well as in the Asian 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 company capable of meeting all mobility needs.
After a season and half competing with the PEUGEOT 9X8, during which the French outfit secured a podium at the 6 Hours of Monza 2023, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies gave the extensively modified 2024 version PEUGEOT 9X8 its competitive début at the 6 Hours of Imola 2024. The team enjoyed some promising results in the closing rounds of the 2024 season, claiming fourth place in Japan and a podium finish at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
This season, Peugeot TotalEnergies is entering two PEUGEOT 9X8 Hypercar prototypes for Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne/Paul di Resta and Loïc Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne/Malthe Jakobsen
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 alongside 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 secured at the 24 Hours of Mans in the feeder class to 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 in which the French team returned temporarily to the LMP2 class as it developed its brand new weapon, 2024 saw the début of its LMDh Hypercar, the A424, and a maiden campaign during which it scored a podium at the 6 Hours of Fuji. For the 2025 season, two Alpine A424 prototypes are entered for Paul-Loup Chatin/Charles Milesi/Ferdinand Habsburg and Mick Schumacher/Jules Gounon/Frédéric Makowiecki.
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 the people involved, and the TotalEnergies teams are no exception to the rule, ensuring the distribution of some 280,000 litres of fuel to the 62 participating cars. In the interest of sporting fairness, TotalEnergies' technical teams carry out more than 150 fuel compliance analyses, at the request of the ACO and the FIA. 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 present at every round of the World Championship alongside the FIA to analyse the fuel at all times.
*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 March 2025
