Summer may be winding down in the United States, but with just three races left in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the race for the Hypercar World Championship is only getting hotter going into this weekend’s race at Circuit of the Americas.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s trio of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Andre Lotterer still leads the World Drivers’ Championship. Together, the drivers of the #6 Porsche 963 have remained remarkably consistent since their victory in the season-opening Qatar 1812km: Three podiums in the subsequent four races, and their worst finish was fourth place at Le Mans.
It’s led Estre, Vanthoor, and Lotterer to a 19-point advantage over 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen for Ferrari AF Corse. A decent margin, but one that can still be overturned in an instant.
“We have an advantage – but not like, where we can lay back and do nothing, but we just have to execute,” says Vanthoor – many times a champion in SRO racing, twice a champion in IMSA, but still in search of his first WEC title.
“We don’t need to win the race, we need to be in front of the other guys, and just focus on what we’ve been doing all year. That’s easier than trying to invent something new.
“It’s fairly easy – we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing. And we’ve been consistent, we’ve had relatively low mistakes – and if we do, we manage to recover from them. That’s just what we keep on doing.”
For Estre, the surprise pole man at Le Mans this year and the 2018-19 WEC GTE Pro Champion, Porsche’s biggest adversary in pursuit of the championship is still Toyota Gazoo Racing – the unbroken dynasty that won every race except Le Mans last year, and this year, has one win for each of its two cars. Driver/manager Kamui Kobayashi and new addition Nyck de Vries are only 22 points back of the Porsche trio following a win at Imola and a runner-up finish at Le Mans.
“I think we’re confident we can win this championship, but for sure, not overconfident,” remarked Estre. “We know that Toyota and Ferrari are very strong teams, and can be very fast. Especially Toyota in Saõ Paulo was very impressive, very quick. So we know these last three races are gonna be hard.
“The lead is good, but not enough to just relax. We definitely have to push to get all the points we can take. Especially the last race, which is one and a half times the points. 38 points for the victory, which is a lot.
“It’s gonna be, I think, a race until the end for the championship. But if we can beat Toyota, if we can beat anyone this weekend – especially the title contenders – it would be good. But it’s going to be hard, for sure. Toyota, especially, is very strong.”
Any support that the #6 crew can get from the #5 of Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, and Frederic Makowiecki at this stage will be important.
Their personal ambitions of winning the championship were dashed hard at Spa-Francorchamps when Christensen clipped just enough of the exit kerb at Blanchimont to spit the #5 Porsche into the wall and out of the race. As it stands, Christensen knows his team will have to play the team game to benefit the #6 team’s standing in the Drivers’ Championship, and it’s something the Dane is prepared to do.
“We will compete as one team, as always. Racing for Porsche is racing for the brand,” said Christensen, who won the 2018-19 GTE Pro title alongside Estre. “The team makes the final decision if something happens on track and that may be difficult at times.
“We are at a stage where the team might give orders. You race for yourself first, but there comes a point where (the #5 and the #6) might have to help each other on track. We are ready to do that.”
“We’ve had a pretty good season. We keep on being surprised by our performance – we are always fighting for the win. It’s quite a difference compared with last year.
“Toyota is strong at every race so I believe they will also be strong at COTA… and so will Ferrari. I see no reason why we should underperform. Our expectations are to fight for a podium finish and if we overperform, then maybe we can aim for the win. Who knows!”
What kind of help would Estre like from the sister car? “Well, positioning themselves between us and the other contenders, that’s for sure. And helping the whole team, trying to have a good setup, good tyre choices, what we can learn from them – which you always want to do during the whole year.
“Both cars have to work for the team. But probably now, at the end of the season, a bit more. Because we would need any help we can.”
Porsche will also happily take a victory from the #5 car in its pursuit of the Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship – which is an even tighter race at the moment. Porsche only leads Toyota by four points, and Ferrari by 17.
It’s been a remarkable transformation from the start of 2023, where Porsche was far from the least effective manufacturer in either IMSA GTP or WEC Hypercar, but certainly not up to the standard that Porsche built for itself in endurance sports car racing over the last 75 years.
Operationally, Vanthoor feels that Porsche Penske Motorsport is firing on all cylinders after a difficult first year spent trying to achieve cohesion – not just in WEC but in IMSA as well.
“I don’t see a weakness at the moment. I think where we are with our car, with the crew, everything’s running very smoothly. And for sure, you can always improve the speed and the balance of the car, and so on.
“But even that, it’s been pretty good lately. So I don’t see one big roadblock where I’d say, ‘This needs to be improved.’ I think we have in place what we need.”
If there is an area of opportunity, Estre still feels the 963 has a ways to go to match one of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid’s great strengths – its ability to take care of its tyres.
“I think the weakness, let’s say, especially compared to the Toyota – which has been very strong there, stronger than the whole field – is the tyre degradation,” Estre explains.
“I think the Toyota is very, very easy on tyres, which helps them on tracks which have high degradation. So there’s definitely something which maybe we can improve…maybe not. I don’t know – we are trying, we’re doing our best.
“But in the end these cars are homologated, so you cannot change parts. You just can do setup. You’re limited, and the car is the way it is. But we’re definitely trying our best to help that.”
Just two weeks after COTA, the WEC heads to Fuji Speedway where Toyota has won the 6 Hours of Fuji nine out of ten times, a run of dominance that was only interrupted by Porsche in 2015. Toyota certainly has the “home track advantage” at the circuit that it owns, but Estre isn’t intimidated – after all, he won at Fuji in GTE Pro on his way to the title in 2018.
“It’s a bit like in football – you go on your field, the grass is not better there. It’s just that you have the atmosphere, mentally, it’s easier. But I think we can also be very competitive.
“I think Fuji is probably one of the best tracks for us in the championship. It was the most competitive race for us last year. We’ve shown good competitivity during the whole year, but definitely, we were never the quickest, apart from Qatar. We’re definitely looking forward to going to Fuji, to try to beat Toyota there – which is going to be very important for the championship.”
Fuji was also the site of the 963’s first true “breakout performance” in WEC, coinciding with a string of victories in IMSA on the other side of the Pacific. And after that is the 8 Hours of Bahrain, where Estre hopes to bookend the season with success in the Arabian Gulf on the way to the championship for Porsche.
Images © Juergen Tap / Porsche, Andrew “Skippy” Hall / Dailysportscar.com
