The two current LMDh manufacturers in the FIA WEC, Cadillac and Porsche, appear to be heading in different directions as we edge closer to the 2024 season. Porsche is pushing for a series of upgrades for its 963, while Cadillac appears confident it can rely the maturing V-Series.R platform in its current form, with no significant revisions in sight or customer cars.
Cadillac was out testing in Imola last month for two days in mixed conditions. There, all three of its full-season drivers turned laps, with Alex Lynn hopping between Belgium and Italy midweek due to a clash with his European Le Mans Series commitments with Algarve Pro Racing and Ganassi development (and 2024 IndyCar) driver Kyffin Simpson.
The feedback DSC received was positive, the Ganassi-run team completing a significant amount of mileage without any incidents or mechanical delays, gathering data ahead of the FIA WEC’s debut at the circuit next season.
The GM brand’s track time at Imola was spent with chassis 003, in bare carbon. Chassis 003 is the #3 Cadillac that took part in the 6 Hours of Spa and crashed heavily in the race, now equipped with a new set of bare carbon bodywork. Since being rebuilt, it has been acting as the spare for the team’s full-season WEC #3 V-Series.R.
Crucially, a Cadillac spokesperson told DSC that it was not trialling new-for-2024 solutions at that test, or at its recent run at CoTA, during which it shared the Texas circuit with two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, one run by Pratt Miller, the other by new WEC LMGT3 customer team TF Sport.
The other question mark surrounding Cadillac for 2024 is the potential for a second Ganassi-run V-Series.R in the world championship. While Cadillac confirmed to DSC back in June that it will be back in the FIA WEC in 2024, the number of cars wasn’t and still isn’t set in stone.
DSC understands that GM Motorsport’s top brass have been working hard in the background to secure funding for a second factory car in Year 2 of the programme, but the likelihood of this addition is still firmly up for debate. As recently as early September it appeared that in the background the efforts to convince the board at GM that a second car was necessary for Cadillac to achieve its sporting goals were paying off. Since Fuji, however, sources within the effort have indicated that the second factory car is now unlikely, with no customer cars available until 2025 at the earliest.
Ask Cadillac directly and the official line remains: “How many cars and all that stuff hasn’t been announced, but the intent is to continue.”
It will certainly be interesting to see if this week’s news regarding the Andretti Formula 1 bid (which Cadillac is a part of) has an impact on the final decision.
As for the other current WEC LMDh manufacturer, Porsche, it’s a different story. It too has been out testing recently, including a run at Spa which it shared with WRT’s test BMW M Hybrid V8 chassis ahead the team’s 2024 Hypercar debut, and is known to be testing in Qatar after the season finale in Bahrain.
In the background, it is known to be working on updates to its LMDh-spec 963, primarily to enhance the car’s reliability ahead of next season, and has already begun testing its 2024 solutions on track.
To ensure it can make its desired improvements to the car in time for the start of the 2024 IMSA season in January and the WEC campaign in March, DSC understands that it needs to be ready to homologate the new components in time for the IMSA Daytona test in December. This allows enough time to gain approval from the ACO, FIA and IMSA in time for the Rolex 24.
Should Porsche receive the ‘green light’ for its improvements, then by regulation its customer teams will also need to race with the new upgrades applied to their cars with immediate effect.
This is proving to be a headache for customer team Proton Competition, which like HERTZ Team JOTA, is committed to a full-season WEC campaign in 2024 with the 963 platform, after a partial season campaign in 2023 due to the late delivery of its cars.
Proton boss Christian Ried’s plan, in an ideal world, is to run a pair of 963s for the full WEC and IMSA seasons next year. But as he told DSC last week, it is currently in a race against time.
Currently, Proton is in possession of two 963s, one which it received before the WEC race at Monza in July and another which was delivered just before the race at Fuji. If Proton doesn’t take delivery of its third and fourth 963s before the start of next season, then it will have to shift to ‘Plan B’: running a single car in each championship for the full season, with race-by-race entries later in the season once cars arrive.
The reason Proton hasn’t received its third and fourth cars, Ried said, “is due to the 2024 upgrades and supply issues. It’s complicated. But everyone in the paddock is struggling in this way.”
LMDh manufacturers do not need to factor in a set number of ‘Joker’ performance updates that can be made during a car’s lifecycle like LMH manufacturers do, but the process of gaining approval for any revisions is still a lengthy and challenging one.
All changes made to LMDh cars need to be justified via lengthy and periodical discussions with the rule-makers, endurance tested and put through wind tunnel tests in Europe and the USA to ensure the car still fits inside the formula’s designated performance window.
Working out how far the envelope can be pushed and how much resource and time is needed to develop and test revisions is the top priority for the parties in play right now.
