We’ll have a variety of significant news snippets from the Bahrain season finale tomorrow, and more WEC news later this week, but before all of that the annual rookie test was back!
18 cars and a variety of current, future and potential future WEC drivers took part in five hours of track testing for the ‘Rookie Test’ sessions following the 2021 FIA WEC season finale with the hot weather of the fortnight of action for the unique double-header of races in Bahrain over the past two weekends continuing into Sunday.
Hypercar
All three Hypercar’s took to the track in both sessions with Nico Lapierre setting the fastest time of the day overall in the Morning session, a 1:48.697 edging out both Toyota factory drivers present.
Newly minted double World Champion Mike Conway was in the #7 Toyota, assisting WEC nominated ‘rookie’ and newly confirmed LMP2 Champion Charles Milesi – Milesi’s best in a 31 lap stint was a 1:49.636, just eight tenths off Conway’s benchmark time.
In the sister #8 car, Sebastien Buemi was assisting his namesake, seven-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier. Ogier was given plenty of running, 84 laps with a best lap, in the morning’s 2-hour session in 1:50.647, a second off Milesi’s best mark.
LMP2
Four LMP2 Orecas took to the track with nine different drivers seeing track action over the five hours. Full season Richard Mille Racing driver Sophia Floersch ran in the title-winning #31 Team WRT car and topped both track sessions, her and LMP2’s best of the day coming in the three-hour afternoon session with a 1:50.870, four-tenths quicker than Jazeman Jaafar who was second fastest in both sessions in the #28 JOTA Oreca.
Third fastest across the day was Sebastien Montoya who clocked a 1:52.245 and was the fastest of the LMP2 rookies as his father Juan Pablo took on coaching duties for the day with Sebastien driving his father’s full-season WEC #21 DragonSpeed USA Oreca.
The remaining four drivers all shared the #1 Ricard Mille Racing car, Gabriel Aubry drove a handful of laps with the remainder of the day dedicated to the trio of female drivers invited by Signatech.
1:53.578 in the morning session from Alice Powell was the fastest of the trio, the W Series runner-up edging the 2021 Champion Jamie Chadwick by a tenth with Lilou Wadoux, in her first run in a downforce car, a second and a half off.
GTE
Whist all four of the factory GTE Pro cars ran during the day the real stories were about the guesting drivers in both GTE Pro and GTE Am machinery.
As reported this morning on DSC, the #52 GTE Pro machine welcomed Christoph Ulrich and Simon Mann ahead of what is expected to be their full-season WEC debut next year, Simon’s father Peter was also due to run today, and was certainly seen in the garage ‘suited up, no time is logged against his name though that may be the result of a timing glitch.
One driver who was due to run in a GTE Pro car didn’t, that was WEC nominee ‘Rookie’ driver Laurents Hörr who was set to drive the Championship-winning GTE Pro car, instead, he took time aboard two different GTE Am Ferraris, both the #54 and the championship-winning #83, logging 66 laps with a best of 1:59.706.
Andrew Watson set target tomes in all three Aston Martins which were both remarkably consistent, and remained unmatched by any of the guesting drivers!
Fastest of the guests was far from a rookie, 2021 ELMS Champion and F1 race winner Robert Kubica posting a 1:58.632 in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari as the Polish driver spent the day with the team looking for 2022 opportunities, perhaps focused more on the Prema Powerteam LMP2 effort that Iron Lynx look set to handle in WEC and ELMS next year.
VLN race lap record holder David Pittard was next fastest in his first run in a GTE car, a 1:59.021 in the #98 Aston Martin as he looks for a 2022 berth too.
Florian Latorre (#33 TF Sport Aston Martin), Alexander Peroni (#60 Iron Lynx Ferrari), Valentin Haase Clot (#777 D’Station Aston Martin) were next up in the times with a variety of young drivers on-site looking for their first taste of GTE machinery and/ or for emerging 2022 opportunities in the FIA WEC.
