24 Hours Of Le Mans 2026
It was 15 years ago that I first traveled to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Back then, it was an escape from the home situation with my seriously ill mother. Just a nice weekend away, fully immersing myself in the racing event and trying to capture it with my first SLR and a 50-200 lens. I became hooked on it; the grand, epic event, the battle for victory, or simply getting a car to the finish line in such a tough 24-hour race. It is and remains cool to experience, and especially to be right in the middle of it as a photographer these days. Every year is a benchmark for me: where do I stand with photography, professionally and personally? Can I raise the bar even higher, improve myself again?
The festivities started once again with the Pesage: the technical inspection plus team presentations in the city. During this, I saw the Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Lexus, and McLaren teams, among others, pass by. This was followed by laps through the city with some of the cars. It was fantastic to hear the Aston Martin V12 engine and the Cadillac V8, among others, roar through the old city. The public thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
Sunday was test day. An opportunity to explore the circuit again, discover new spots, and see what had changed in familiar places, for example around the red zones; areas off-limits to photographers. Remarkably, Aston Martin was the fastest that day, a sign that the car had clearly improved compared to last year.
Tuesday was once again packed with press moments. First, the group photo of the drivers. Then the pit stop competition, where the mechanics once again fiercely battled for the fastest time. The autograph sessions were held in a new format on the straight. This felt a bit awkward and wasn't to everyone's liking. In the evening, I was also present at the group photo in front of the cars. It takes quite a while to get everything in the right position (almost 2 hours), but the result is a beautiful picture.
After that, the calm was over. Practice and qualifying kicked off on Wednesday. On Thursday, it initially looked like Cadillac would take the Hyperpole again. However, because they lined up too early for the final Hyperpole session, the time was disallowed and the #15 BMW won the Hyperpole after all. It was also very surprising that the Ferraris, which had won for the past 3 years, didn't keep up well, and Toyota wasn't going all that fast either. However, the field was very evenly matched and the race promised to be very unpredictable.
The Friday before the race is always the Parade des Pilotes, a procession where the drivers are driven around the city in classic cars and where goodies are flying at you from all sides. After a long time, I was there again, and this time I was right in the middle of it as a photographer. What a wild scene: ecstatic crowds, people with safety nets, some screaming themselves hoarse, burnouts, drum bands, Transformers—wonderful!
Over the weekend, temperatures had risen to around 30 degrees. With beautiful sunshine to boot. While it had been cloudy just above 20 during the week, things were now baking quite a bit hotter. At 4:00 PM, after a long build-up, it was finally time for the race. The #20 BMW quickly took the lead. During the race, this would frequently change hands between different brands. Everything was fairly evenly matched. The sunny weather also brought something in the evening that I had hoped to capture for years: a sunset in the woods between Mulsanne and the Indianapolis/Arnage corner combination. As photographers, we know that the light filters beautifully through the trees there in the evening, but the conditions have to be right. And this time, they were perfect. And so, a million or more worth of glassware was set up in the woods to capture the sunset. It was beautiful.
On Sunday morning, things were looking very good for the Dutch. A little while before I was about to enter the pit lane to take photos, a Dutchman was leading in every class: Frijns in the BMW hypercar, Verschoor in LMP2, and Catsburg in the Corvette LMGT3. But during my lap in the pit lane, the brakes on Verschoor's car failed, and that car had to retire with 3 hours to go. In the pit lane itself, I also saw large clouds of brake dust coming off the Peugeots during the tire changes. The hot conditions and the fierce battle took their toll. The Ford Mustang also came in with wheel problems.
The final phase of the race was incredibly exciting. The #7 Toyota fought its way to the front on experience and with a strong finish from Kamui Kobayashi, and their #8 took third place at the expense of the strong-driving Cadillac. Thus, we had a Dutch overall winner at Le Mans for the first time since 1988, not with Frijns, but with Nyck de Vries. And in LMGT3, Catsburg's TF Sport Corvette won. What a remarkable end to a particularly cool race week!
Below is a large selection of the photos (there are many more). Would you like to buy photos, or are you interested in my services as a photographer?
