The circuit opened on 26 May 1923. In its original configuration it measured 17.262 km and routed traffic through the city of Le Mans, including a hairpin near the Pontlieue bridge. A bypass shortened the track in 1929, and in 1932 the city was circumvented entirely with the addition of the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses leading to Tertre Rouge, establishing the classic triangular layout — Le Mans, Mulsanne, Arnage — of approximately 13.5 km that would remain fundamentally unchanged for decades. The circuit has passed through fifteen numbered configurations in total; the present Circuit N°15 has been in use since 2018.
Speeds increased through the 1960s and modifications followed. The Ford Chicane was added at the entrance to the pit complex in 1968. Armco barriers lined the pit straight from 1969. In 1972 the entire venue was extensively revised at a cost of 300 million French francs, with work including the addition of the Porsche Curves, which bypassed the original Maison Blanche section and created a more technical sector through the infield. A chicane was inserted at the Dunlop curve in 1987.
The most significant safety intervention came before the 1990 race, when two chicanes were inserted into the Mulsanne Straight. The FIA had decreed it would no longer sanction any straight longer than 2 km, and speeds on the straight had become extreme. In 1988 Roger Dorchy, driving a WM Peugeot P88, was radar-clocked at 407 km/h — the highest confirmed speed in the circuit's history. High-speed fatalities on the straight had also concentrated attention: Jean-Louis Lafosse died there in 1981, and Jo Gartner was killed in the same section in 1986.
Following the fatal accident of Danish driver Allan Simonsen at the exit of Tertre Rouge during the 2013 race, the corner was re-profiled. The exit radius was moved approximately 200 m inward with new tyre barrier arrangements, and a further revision in 2018 produced the current circuit configuration.
Before the addition of the 1990 chicanes, the Hunaudières (Mulsanne Straight) extended for approximately 6 km. Porsche 917 long-tail cars reached approximately 362 km/h in 1969–71; Group C prototypes surpassed 400 km/h in the late 1980s, with Dorchy's 407 km/h in 1988 standing as the confirmed peak. Even with the chicanes in place, the two broken sections of the straight remain the circuit's defining feature, the longest sustained flat-out passages in top-level endurance racing.
The 1955 Le Mans disaster remains the deadliest accident in motorsport history. A collision on lap 35 sent debris and a car body into spectator areas on the pit straight; 83 people died. The pit straight at that time bordered a public road with limited separation between the crowd and the circuit. Safety improvements followed over subsequent decades, including barrier separation, widened run-off areas, and the progressive reconfiguration of corners.
Located within the larger venue is the Bugatti Circuit, a permanent 4.185 km loop opened in 1965 that shares the Le Mans pit lane and first corner before routing through the infield. Capacity of the venue is 100,000. The Bugatti Circuit hosts the French Motorcycle Grand Prix and the 24 Heures Motos, and the Le Mans Classic event uses the full historic circuit on alternating years.
Under the current Circuit N°15 configuration (13.626 km, since 2018), the race lap record is 3:17.297, set by Mike Conway driving a Toyota TS050 Hybrid at the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. The circuit also hosts the Le Mans 24 Heures Camion, a truck racing event, and the Porsche Supercup as support events during the main June weekend.
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