It’s been 10 years since the FIA WEC last visited Interlagos, and so much has changed! Few teams, drivers and paddock personalities remain from what proved to be a historic weekend for the championship in South America, yet the WEC returns to South America in the midst of a ‘golden era’ and Sunday’s race promises to be a memorable one.
We will have a never-before-seen DSC gallery to share soon. In the meantime though, here’s a look back at some of the key moments and storylines from the 2014 edition of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo:
Back in 2014, the Brazilian circuit hosted the championship finale for the FIA WEC.
It was the final professional race for Tom Kristensen after a stellar career, which included, of course, nine Le Mans wins. He took a bow as the reigning World Drivers Champion!
55,000 spectators were claimed to have attended over the race weekend and a huge turnout is expected this weekend for the WEC’s return.
It was a race weekend that will not be remembered fondly by organiser LMEM. Local suppliers refused to work after commercial issues with the promoter Fittipaldi Group hanging over from the previous year.
Nevertheless, double Formula One World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi joined the #61 AF Corse crew, his first competitive race start since 2008.
Fittipaldi was teamed with Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Guidi in what was then the now triple World GT Drivers Champion (and overall Le Mans Winner’s) second race in the WEC, part of a two-race GTE Am programme that year.
Toyota fielded Mike Conway aboard the #7 TS040, substituting for Kaz Nakajima. The Japanese driver was the innocent victim of an error by the event promoters who sent incorrect paperwork for his required work visa! News broke too during the race meeting that Conway, now a double World Champion and overall Le Mans winner, had had his contract option picked up by Toyota.
Also taking a bow after a stellar spell in sportscar racing was Howden ‘H’ Haynes after 100 races with Audi as a Race Engineer and latterly as technical director of Audi Sport Team Joest. His career included success with Bentley, Team Veloqx and Champion Racing as well as with the factory team.
ACO Chief Scrutineer Daniel Perdrix was another on the post-Interlagos retiree list. He was one of the longest-serving officials in the sport with a Le Mans history that dates back to the early days of Group C.
Paddock visitors included Felipe Massa, Nelson Piquet and Carlos Ghosn, then the Chairman and CEO of Renault and CEO of Nissan.
Also in the paddock was Pipo Derani, who at the time was a single-seater racer and ELMS Murphy Prototypes LMP2 driver, taking a close look at the WEC. Whilst his career in the WEC has included races in LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro and Hypercar, the Brazilian’s major success has come in IMSA with two overall drivers championships to his name.
In the supporting Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil race was Ricardo Rosset, ex-Arrows and (very briefly!) Lola F1 man. Rosset had shared the grid when Emerson Fittipaldi made his previous last competitive racing appearance in the now-defunct Brazilian GT3 Championship on a grid that also included Walter (father of Pipo) Derani!
14 drivers who raced at Interlagos last time around are returning to race a decade later: Richard Lietz, Andre Lotterer, Fred Makowiecki, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Davide Rigon, Mike Conway, Brendon Hartley, Matteo Cressoni, Klaus Bachler, Matthieu Vaxiviere, Neel Jani, Loic Duval and Sebastian Buemi. And it’s possible that we may have a 15th by tomorrow!
Amongst the teams, AF Corse, Proton Competition and Porsche Team Manthey are notable returnees in 2024 alongside Toyota Motorsport – now redubbed Toyota Gazoo Racing, with Aston Martin racing (Prodrive) still supporting the two customer Vantages in ’24.
The race was marred by a HUGE accident between Mark Webber in the factory Porsche 919 and Matteo Cressoni in AF Corse’s GTE AM Ferrari on the start-finish straight. The incident saw the Porsche LMP1 car break into two pieces and the race completed behind the Safety Car.
That did though secure what might be considered a dream podium:
Third were the outgoing World Champions. Audi, local lad Lucas di Grassi, 2013 Drivers Champions Loic Duval and, of course, Tom Kristensen, stood on a podium for Audi Sport one last time in this his final race, his 19th podium in the first 24 FIA WEC races.
Second was the #8 Toyota, confirming the Manufacturer’s title to add to the Driver’s title for Toyota Motorsport, Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi.
And on the top step was the #14 Porsche, which took the first win for the 919 Hybrid ahead of what would become a dominant spell in the WEC and at Le Mans. Neel Jani is still very much a part of the top class in the Championship, taking the win with Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb. The trio would be World Champions together just two seasons later.
LMP2 saw Championship wins for SMP Racing and Sergei Zlobin. It was a controversial result in a season that saw just four full-season cars in the class, with the title effectively secured by double maximum points scored at Le Mans despite Zlobin finishing the race a very distant 12th in class!
Its title challenger G-Drive Racing (run in 2014 by OAK Racing), crashed out after a brake failure for Olivier Pla into T1.
In GTE Pro, Porsche needed a 1-2 and for Ferrari to have a very bad day to prevent Ferrari from taking the Manufacturer’s title. They gave it a good go, but a win for Aston Martin put its title run to the sword, and the Manufacturer’s title went to ‘The Prancing Horse’.
It was a double win for Aston Martin as Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Christoffer Nygaard took advantage after a blowout for David Heinemeier Hansson. That drama left the one-time class leader – and already confirmed champions – tumbling down the order before mounting a fightback that finally saw them back up to second, the ‘Dane Train’, therefore, finished the season having never finished lower than second!
The then newly-resurfaced Interlagos track produced stellar grip and head-turning lap times. Here’s a look back at the track as it was back then with outgoing World Champ Allan McNish, the story from Sam Smith, still on board as part of the FIA WEC’s media operation.
