After Porsche Penske’s 963s finished 1-2-4 in the combined Le Mans Test Day times yesterday, with no major mechanical dramas or incidents to report, all signs point to this week ending with the German marque’s 20th overall win, right?
That is certainly what Toyota believes.
“The hierarchy is clear,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing’s technical director David Floury after the test. “If Porsche doesn’t win they will have done a pretty bad job. No surprise (after seeing the BoP).
“I think (Porsche) has the edge on every aspect and I wonder what Ferrari and Cadillac are doing. Clearly, Porsche are looking very strong,” he added. “BMW looks good as well. Behind Porsche, it should be a good fight.”
However, history tells us that drawing firm conclusions from testing alone is unwise. With each team working towards a different set of objectives, too much shouldn’t be read into the lap times.
There is so much more to come from the pace of the Hypercars as race week wears on if it stays dry. The pole time last year was a 3:22.982, four seconds faster than the best lap achieved by Kevin Estre in the #6 Penske Porsche during the test.
So what can we read into the test? Is it going to be an all-Porsche affair like Qatar come Sunday?
While Urs Kuratle – Porsche Motorsport’s director of factory racing – doesn’t believe there can be a standout favourite for this race, he was positive about the team’s prospects ahead of practice and qualifying.
“We will be in the mix, we will be there, but I am not sure you can be favourites because so much can happen,” he said.
“We had a really easy, relaxed preparation for this one. During the session, besides a rear-right flat spot on the #5 car we had no technical issues and are high on the timing board. It will not be representative of the qualifying ranking though, we are realistic.
“The fact we are in the mix with so many other cars is such a nice thing for the whole sport.”
Toyota meanwhile, remains an enigma. David Floury’s tone after the test was undeniably downbeat, matching Toyota’s outlook throughout the opening rounds of the season, but its performance during the test was far from worrying.
The #7 GR010 HYBRID topped the Morning session before the #8 went on to set the third fastest time in the Afternoon run, with best lap just seven tenths off the #6 Porsche.
Both GR010 HYBRIDs also began to turn up the wick at the end of the afternoon session, with fast individual sector times from Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi before the latter brought out a red flag at the end with an off at Indianapolis.
On the driver side of things, Toyota is also satisfied that Jose Maria Lopez is already up to speed on his return to the Hypercar team on short notice after Conway’s late withdrawal from the event due to injury.
“By the look of the lap time, it was like he drove the car yesterday,” commented Floury. “He was up to speed immediately. There were no issues and he was clearly motivated. He has worked hard to get up to speed with the car’s systems and he is on top of things. We are confident there will be no issue in the race.”
Looking further down the Test Day time sheets there were notable performances from some of the cars that are entirely new to Le Mans.
The #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 ended with the sixth-best time and plenty of mileage (though the sister car did need an engine change during the day) and the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 ended seventh after 73 tours.
Peugeot’s 2024-spec 9X8 got its first taste of the La Sarthe asphalt too. Its 9X8s may have ended up 13th and 21st on lap time, but the team feels the new car is effective on the circuit.
“I’m happy to be here compared to last year when I did not do the Prologue,” #93 driver Jean-Eric Vergne told the media. “It’s a massive help to get me acquainted to the car and build confidence.
“I think we have a good indication of where we need to go with the set-up of the car, and I am happy with the feeling behind the wheel. There are no areas where we are bad, so that’s a positive.
“Obviously the lap times are not representative, all I care about is the feeling in the car. We know where we can improve and it should be easy to do. We focused our car on set up, the other car on long runs, so we have a lot of data gathered.
“It seems to have improved last year, but frankly that was not difficult.”
What about Cadillac and Ferrari? Both manufacturers have been regularly namechecked in conversations surrounding the contenders for this year’s race.
The 2023 pole-sitting #50 499P enjoyed a quiet run that resulted in the fifth-fastest time of the day.
Cadillac’s three V-Series.Rs on the other hand, would slot in 14th, 16th and 19th, with the #3 Ganassi entry having its track time limited by a fuel line issue.
There doesn’t appear to be any sense of panic within the Ganassi or Action Express ranks at this stage though. After achieving an overall podium last year, the Cadillac has form here, and as we all know, you cannot win the Test Day…
“I think we’ve made a significant step forward on systems,” #3 driver Sebastien Bourdais said. “We’ve been focusing on race trims and trying to get the balance where we want it, get good tyre data and make sure that balance and grip stay fairly consistent over two or three stints.
“In general, the track seems a bit harder on tyres than last year, so there is a bit more sliding around and that’s where we’re trying to see how much margin we have as far as adjustments on the set-up to regain the grip that we’ve lost.
“Overall, the car is responding well and the engine side I feel like we have a better handle on things and the systems in general are a lot smoother and predictable than our first time here last year.
“We just have to fine-tune some things to bet ready for qualifying practice.”
As ever, there was plenty to unpick from the first day of running at Le Mans. Perhaps the best news of all is that we still don’t have a true sense of the pecking order in Hypercar.
Porsche appears most confident at this early stage, but there’s a long way to go…
