Iron Dames to leave WEC in 2026 with no future plans specified

Iron Dames confirmed on social media that it will not have an entry in the 2026 World Endurance Championship, ending five years of participation as the only team with an all-female lineup in the series.

"You will not see a Porsche entry under the Iron Dames name" when the official 2026 WEC entry list is published, the team communicated via its digital platforms.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

The Narrative Behind the Announcement

The official statement presents the decision as part of a "long-term vision" and a "change by design," using promotional language to explain the absence from the world championship where they achieved their greatest visibility.

Iron Dames emphasized that "we will be on many tracks in 2026," although it did not specify in which series it will compete. The organization maintains that its "spirit never lived on just one grid," suggesting diversification into other categories.

The team highlighted its victory at the 8 Hours of Bahrain 2023 as the pinnacle of its WEC participation, when Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, and Rahel Frey became the first all-female trio to win a round of the world championship.

2025 Performance

The final season for Iron Dames in the WEC showed mixed results. The 2025 trio of Célia Martin, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting achieved only one top-five finish throughout the entire LMGT3 campaign, with a fourth place in São Paulo as their best performance.

These numbers differ markedly from their successful 2023, when they finished second in the GTE Am teams' championship and demonstrated sustained competitiveness with the Porsche 911 RSR-19.

For 2025, Iron Dames operated through a partnership with Manthey Racing, using a Porsche 911 GT3 R after competing with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the two previous seasons.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

Historic Presence in the WEC

Since its debut in 2021 in collaboration with Iron Lynx, Iron Dames established itself as a unique benchmark in international motorsport. Its proposition of exclusively female crews was unprecedented in world endurance championships.

The project, initiated by Deborah Mayer in 2018, found in the WEC the ideal platform to demonstrate female competitiveness at the highest level. Its record includes a regular presence in the European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup, where they maintained better competitive consistency.