Following DSC’s look at the runners and riders in the Hypercar category, it’s time to take a look at the LMP2 and GTE Am classes, which provided much of the entertainment in the season-opening race at Sebring.
The LMP2 field for this weekend’s race remains at 12 cars, which is likely to be the season-high for the category outside of Le Mans (barring any additional one-offs) as the #48 HERTZ Team JOTA ORECA is set to be replaced by the British team’s Porsche 963 Hypercar from Spa onwards.
And it was the #48 that stole the headlines in the opener, when David Beckmann, Yifei Ye and Will Stevens powered to victory amidst a dramatic finish with multiple late splash and dashes changing the running order in the closing laps.
This race, almost certainly JOTA’s last in the FIA WEC with two cars in LMP2, will be another one it is among the favourites to win. This time out Will Stevens steps aside, though he will be present at the event with the team, replaced by Antonio Felix da Costa, who like Stevens and Ye, will form part of the team’s Hypercar line-up for the rest of the season.
Da Costa on home soil, along with Ye and Beckmann, a Silver-ranked driver with significant F2 and F3 experience, will be a force to be reckoned with here as the team edges closer to its top-class debut. The team’s #28 meanwhile, will be looking for a stronger outing after David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi and Oliver Rasmussen could only muster a sixth-place finish in Sebring.
Another crew hoping for a change in fortunes is the team in the #23 United Autosports ORECA. Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis, who looked set to win the Sebring 1000 Miles comfortably before an issue with the in-car camera broke the kill switch on the car and forced it into retirement on the spot.
United’s other ORECA – the #22 – should be in the mix too, however, both cars see driver changes due to the clash with the IMSA race at Long Beach. Ben Hanley steps in for Filipe Albuquerque in the #22, and Giedo van der Garde will race in the #23 in the seat filled by Tom Blomqvist last time out.
Beyond that, Alpine and WRT will also be looking for better results after underwhelming performances in Sebring. Alpine was clearly still getting back up to speed with its ORECAs after its stint in Hypercar, and struggled with some minor mechanical niggles throughout the meeting. WRT meanwhile, also struggled, uncharacteristically, with car set-up and could only manage a best finish of fifth.
To come away with stronger results in Algarve though, they will have to get the better of Inter Europol, which had an extremely encouraging run to fourth in Florida and scored points for third as the winning JOTA ORECA isn’t eligible to score as a race-by-race entry. The pair of Prema ORECAs will also be tough to beat, the #63 in particular looks particularly strong. Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti and newly-signed Lamborghini LMDh driver Daniil Kvyat came achingly close to winning the opener and look almost certain to be a title contender this season.
That leaves Vector Sport, which finds itself in Portugal fresh from its team principal Gary Holland assisting Isotta Fraschini’s Tipo 6 LMH rollout in Italy at Vallelunga. The team struggled for pace and came home last of the classified finishers in Round 1. An improvement on that will surely be the principal target here.
In GTE Am, after a barnstorming run to victory for Corvette Racing’s C8.R on home soil, the big question is whether or not the US-flagged team’s form will translate to Portimao, a circuit which the team has never raced at before. The team will also have to overcome the 30kg success ballast penalty enforced for winning in Sebring.
So what about the rest of the field? Of the Porsche teams, the Iron Dames trio looked most impressive throughout the Prologue and pre-race sessions on race week, before Rahel Frey’s off at Turn 1 eliminated the car from contention early in the race. The team will be hoping to bounce back here, while the Iron Lynx example will hope to build on its sixth place finish.
The trouble for the Iron Dames Porsche left the #77 Dempsey Proton RSR as the highest-placed 911 by the end of the race, after a strong performance from Julien Andlauer, Christian Ried and Mikkel Pedersen. Can this trio earn another podium finish and make themselves early title contenders?
Meanwhile, Proton’s sister car, the #88, will be hoping for a change in fortunes after the car had to be withdrawn from the Sebring meeting following a heavy shunt caused by the Cadillac of Richard Westbrook in practice. Harry Tincknell, Ryan Hardwick and Zach Robinchon will be fully focused on getting their season back on track with a strong result in a brand new replacement chassis.
Another team that will be searching for a solid haul of points, after a head-turning performance at Sebring, is GR Racing. The team ran in the leading pack for a significant chunk of the race and came home a respectable seventh. `
Elsewhere there is a change in driver line-up for the Project 1 AO Porsche. The clash with IMSA means Gunnar Jeannette and PJ Hyett will be competing in Long Beach this weekend, meaning the Portuguese pair of Guilherme Oliveira and Miguel Ramos will join Matteo Cairoli for this weekend.
There is a change in amongst the Ferrari teams too, as Stefano Costantini will make way for Diego Alessi in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari which had an encouraging run to fourth in Am in Round 1, finishing just ahead of the #54 AF example of Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci that will surely be hoping for another top-five finish this Sunday.
At Richard Mille AF Corse, there’s a notable change too, though not in the driver line-up, but in the car. The big off at Turn 1 in the opening laps of the 1000 Miles for Luis Perez Companc has forced the team to field a brand new replacement chassis for Portimao onwards, this a car that was initially allocated for the team for Le Mans.
It was Kessel Racing that had the best Sebring of the Ferrari teams, with Scott Huffaker, Takeshi Kimura and Daniel Serra scoring an impressive third-place finish. Can Kessel leave with a set of trophies once again on a radically different circuit in the Algarve?
For the Aston Martin teams, Sebring was an event to forget. All three were off the pace throughout the lead-up to the race and while strategy saw cars in early contention, ultimately the three Vantages flattered to deceive and finished ninth, 10th and 11th, with the ORT by TF Sport machine the first across the line.
It is still early days, and it will be interesting to see if Northwest AMR, TF and D’Station are more of a factor in the first of the European races.
