Sebring stat attack
Hypercar
– The #50 499P’s third-place overall finish was Ferrari’s best-ever WEC result
– The win for the #7 Toyota was the brand’s 40th win in the FIA WEC
– 11th race win for the GR010 HYBRID. Eight of those were 1-2 finishes in the Hypercar’s 13 starts
– Sebastien Buemi becomes the record holder for FIA WEC podiums by driver, with 45. His second-place finish put him above Nicolas Lapierre on 45
– The last time nine cars finished a WEC race in the top class was at the 2015 season finale in Bahrain
– The 11-car Hypercar class featured at least FIA World Champion (from Formula 1, FIA WEC (overall and GTE) and WTCC) in each team (not in each car). Romain Dumas, Loic Duval, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Ryo Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Michael Christensen, Jacques Villenueve and Earl Bamber.
LMP2
– Oliver Jarvis’ performance in Qualifying scored ORECA its 40th pole in LMP2
– David Beckman scored a win on his FIA WEC debut, in the #48 HERTZ Team JOTA ORECA
– HERTZ Team JOTA’s Yiefi Ye becomes the first-ever Chinese driver to win an FIA WEC race.
GTE
– Corvette has now won with the C8.R in both GTE classes, after winning at Monza in GTE Pro last year, and wins on its GTE Am debut
– The victory was Corvette Racing’s 14th at Sebring and its 123rd worldwide
– The season-opener was Christian Ried’s 79th consecutive FIA WEC start
– Nico Varrone, like Beckmann, also took a win on his FIA WEC debut
– Nicky Catsburg scored his first win as a Corvette Racing factory driver
Misc
– 12 drivers took part in the 2023 1000 Miles of Sebring who are also on the entry for the very first WEC race in 2012, also at Sebring: Roman Dumas, Loic Duval, Olivier Pla, Luis Perez Companc, Andre Lotterer, Richard Westbrook, Christian Ried, Julien Canal, Kevin Estre, Nicki Thiim, Dane Cameron, Fred Makoweicki
– Jacques Villeneuve was the fourth FIA Formula 1 World Champion to take the start in an FIA WEC race. The previous three were Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Emmerson Fittipaldi
– The 2023 opener featured the fewest classes ever in an FIA WEC race, with three, Hypercar, LMP2 and GTE Am
– Yesterday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring took place 11 years to the day after the inaugural FIA WEC race, the 2012 Sebring 12 Hours
United’s retirement explained
The reason for the United Autosport’s #23 ORECA’s retirement has been revealed by the team. The team posted on social media that the car, which retired while holding a comfortable lead in LMP2 in the first half of the race, lost power due to the onboard camera, which is fitted by the championship, causing an electrical failure. The camera, mounted on the dash, hit the inside of the car’s external kill switch and knocked it out.
Heartbreak for the #23 car which retires from the #1000MSebring after taking pole and dominating the first half of the race.
The electrical failure was caused by an in-car TV camera fixture that was not installed by the United Autosports team.
We are investigating.#BeUnited pic.twitter.com/sMseymEUnj
— United Autosports (@UnitedAutosport) March 17, 2023
“It’s times like this when you love racing and hate racing,” said Richard Dean, United Autosports co-owner. “The positives are the pace from both cars … I don’t think anyone would have touched us here with a clean race, as demonstrated by the #23 with Olly Jarvis and Josh Pierson pulling away. The work that’s gone in to have such pace is phenomenal, the drivers are saying the cars are incredible … so it’s cruel when the win is taken away from the #23 like that, but we have to analyse it.
“I know it was something we didn’t install in the car … it’s one in a million, but we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And for the #22, that was quite the recovery. They never gave up, a real fight to the end … we could have won with luck on our side, but we’ll take it!”
This is the second time the team has suffered from a freak incident involving a kill switch. At Le Mans in 2021, the team’s #22 ORECA had its kill switch activated by flying rubber debris.
#83 Richard Mille Ferrari written off
The #83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari, which was rolled by Luis Perez Companc in the opening laps of the race, is damaged beyond repair.
The team has been forced to field a replacement car for the first European round of the season next month at Portimao. The roll did too much damage to the chassis.
Nicki Thiim in at GMB
One nugget of ELMS news from the weekend is that DSC believes GMB Motorsport has signed Aston Martin factory driver Nicki Thiim for its full-season effort in GTE. The Dane will share the team’s new Vantage AMR with Gustav Birch and Jens Reno Muller. He replaces previously named Casper H Jensen.
