Jouanny now on pit lane duty
A surprise addition to the FIA WEC TV crew in Qatar is ex-racer and Top Gear France host Bruce Jouanny. The Frenchman is patrolling the pit lane together with near-ever-present Louise Beckett, who will be reducing her role this year. She has confirmed that she will be present for Le Mans at this stage.
“You’ll see much more of Bruce throughout the season when I step back,” Beckett said after introducing Jouanny during the FP3 broadcast.
More on the red flag at the end of FP2
More information on the red flag that brought FP2 to an early close was provided last night in the form of a document on the noticeboard, which explained that Mirko Bortolotti suffered a gearbox issue which led to the car stopping on track.
“The driver (Bortolotti) left his car on the track in third gear,” the bulletin from the organisers says. “He explained he had a mechanical failure which stuck the gearbox in third gear and forced the driver to stop the car. The driver explained that he tried to go back to neutral while stopping the car, without success.
“He then saw some smoke at the back of the car and decided to get out of it as quickly as possible, for safety reasons. Considering the matter extensively, the stewards determined that the driver could not do anything more to stop the car in neutral and therefore decided that no further action was necessary.”
Yasser Shahin surprised by lack of tyre deg
There were so many unknowns coming into this event for the teams, with so many new cars and a circuit new to the FIA WEC to get to grip with. One of the areas that has required a lot of attention is tyre degradation.
Initially, the thought was that the drivers would need to focus on saving tyres and this circuit puts high levels of load on the left side tyres each lap.
However, Manthey EMA’s Yasser Shahin told DSC he has been pleasantly surprised by the surface and the Goodyear rubber.
“The track has more grip than you think, it’s an interesting track. I expected a bigger delta between Bronzes and Pros but there is not a lot of time for the Pros to make up a lot of time on the circuit,” he told DSC.
“The deg has been very low. On the track walk, we were convinced it would be a high deg track, but the tyre is working very well late in a stint, almost the same as it is at the start.”
Should Porsche be considered the favourite?
Should we consider Porsche Penske Motorsport the favourite to take pole and win tomorrow’s race in Qatar? This is perhaps the biggest question in the paddock right now.
The 963 has proven to be the fastest of the Hypercar throughout the running and looks to be in a strong position ahead of Qualifying and the atmosphere surrounding the Penske operation appears transformed following its big win at Daytona in January.
Will it deliver a first LMDh victory in the championship after the 10-hour race? #5 driver Matt Campbell told DSC he feels it is still too early to say.
“It’s looking good. But I don’t think we will have a true answer until the race. Our speed has been strong but with the style of track and tyre sensitivity we will only get a true read one or two stints in the race. We don’t know what people have been doing in practice.
“We just need to chip away, but so far it’s been a strong start.”
Thomas Laudenbach, the head of Porsche Motorsport also feels it may be too early to make bold predictions, but did express a level of confidence not seen during last season.
“The 2023 season featured a lot of ups and downs, we’ve done a lot of homework over the winter and now we can be pleased with how the season began in Daytona.
“I wouldn’t read too much into the practice times, but it looks ok. The car feels good from what I hear from drivers. I would say we are looking forward to the race, because we know that last year we were not in a position to win races. I hope this changes, it’s the main point of the WEC this year.
“We don’t come to the race track to fill the grid. I hope all the effort puts us in a position to fight for wins if we do a perfect job.”
Too early to discuss additional customer 499Ps
This weekend sees the introduction of a third 499P to the FIA WEC, with AF Corse running a privately funded example for Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye alongside the factory cars.
Will the customer programme for Ferrari expand in the future? Ferrari’s head of endurance Antonello Coletta feels it is too early to think about the potential for a fourth car for the WEC, or programme in IMSA’s GTP class.
“For the moment it is complicated to add one more car because the LMH base is more complicated than the LMDh,” he told reporters this week.
“At the moment I think we will (remain) with three cars, but it is not impossible to (increase the number) or reduce them because this is a customer programme and AF Corse needs to confirm a third car for 2025.
“We hope AF will confirm a third car (for ’25) because it’s an important base to get more data,” he continued.
Classic Endurance Racing field on site
Amongst the familiar faces in the paddock is ex-Fortec and United Autosports tech guru Trevor Foster, who is looking after a Lola T70 in Classic Endurance Racing support races.
Also racing is ERA Motorsport owner Kyle Tilley in a mighty Chevron. The unique Ford DFV-powered car is an ex-1976 Targa Florio machine and set times some six seconds faster than any other competitor in practice. It is geared to hit 192 mph on the pit straight here!
Ian James impressed with new Vantage
Heart of Racing team principal and driver Ian James is thoroughly enjoying racing the 2024 Vantage LMGT3 and feels it represents a significant step forward for the Aston Martin brand’s flagship customer product.
This week Heart of Racing and D’Station appear to be in a strong place, showing pace in the Prologue and throughout practice.
“We’ve been fortunate as a team, we’ve probably got three to three and a half 1000 kilometres now in the car (due to its dual programmes in IMSA and WEC),” James said. “It’s a step in, in multiple directions in terms of drivability.
“Functionality is improved as well. The outright one-lap pace, I don’t think is any stronger. It’s just the consistency is a lot higher now. You can feel the car is a bit more downforce, its brakes are a little bit better.”
Looking at the time sheets from testing, it appeared that all six Aston Martin drivers were able to produce similar times during the Prologue. Initial assumptions were that this was because low-fuel, new tyre runs were being handed to the two bronze drivers to help them get up to speed in the new car and to prepare James for Qualifying. However, James told DSC that this was not the case.
“We had a driver ID thing, so the fast laps from myself and Clement (Mateu), it wasn’t us, it was Alex (Riberas) and Marco (Sorensen) that did those laps. It was mislabeled.”
Goodyear’s Wingfoot Award returns
Goodyear introduced a Wingfoot Award last season in the FIA WEC to recognise the drivers in LMP2 (below) that produced the most consistent stints during each race.
In 2024, with Goodyear switching to supplying LMGT3 with tyres, the award returns. Its aim is to reward the driver who produces the the best stint (or double stint at Le Mans) in the new-look class.
For a stint to be counted, the number of green-flag laps completed by the driver must be greater than 75% of a typical full-fuel stint. Only green flag laps are counted and in and outlaps are not included in the average.
All drivers in LMGT3 are eligible and the award will return for the LMP2 class at Le Mans.
New Michelin tyre identification markers to debut at Imola
Last year saw the introduction of visible colour coding for Michelin’s tyre compounds in the Hypercar class, making it possible to track tyre strategy during the races on TV. The coding was widely considered too subtle though, prompting Michelin to make a change this year.
The final versions of its 2024 sidewall markings are expected to debut in Round 2 of the WEC season at Imola. They can be seen below.
This year two specs are pre-determined by Michelin before each race weekend for teams to work with, except for Le Mans where all three compounds will be available.
Here in Qatar, the Medium and Hard Pilot Sports have been chosen.
WEC YouTube channel previews
The FIA WEC YouTube channel has published season preview videos for the two classes featuring Sam Smith and Alexa Rendell. They are well worth a watch ahead of Qualifying!
