6H Fuji Circuit Safari Returns
Circuit Safari returns to the WEC at Fuji on Saturday morning immediately ahead of FP3.
The event, where spectators are able to view the WEC field on track from a convoy of coaches, was again subject to a heavily over-subscribed public lottery.
Strong Asian Le Mans Series grid expected
The gamble of taking the Asian Le Mans Series back to Southeast Asia in December appears to be paying off.
Amongst an array of positive voices about the opening double-header at Sepang in December and the full season (encompassing three races in the UAE in February) is SRO’s Benjamin Franassovici, on-site yesterday in Fuji for talks with co-promoters from this season, LMEM.
Signs are that the series is likely to feature a very healthy full-season entry with strong representation from European teams despite the logistical challenges and budget uptick that have come with the reintroduction of Sepang.
Absolute Racing’s Asia plans
Ingo Matter from Asian GT racing powerhouse Absolute Racing was in the Fuji paddock on Thursday and shared with DSC the team’s outline plans for 2024 as racing across Asia continues to recover from COVID.
“GT World Challenge looks very strong, and TSS has been very good for us too, together with Super Trofeo. Part of the recovery process from such a long pause means that we are working to test and assess a number of new drivers to the sport. That requires significant assets being directed into testing and unfortunately, those timeframes mean that the Asian Le Mans Series for this coming season does not work for us at present.
“The pace of recovery of the sport in Asia though, is still growing. I am pretty confident if and when the Asian Le Mans Series returns to a primarily Southeast Asia-based calendar, we will be very early adopters.”
Andre Lotterer formally steps down from single-seaters
Andre Lotterer has announced via his social media channels that, in the wake of changes in the Formula E driver rosters after his sixth consecutive season, he is stepping away permanently from single-seaters to focus on his sportscar racing programme with Porsche Penske Motorsport.
The multiple Le Mans winner and 2012 FIA WEC World Drivers Champion has long blended programmes between sportscar and single-seater racing, with title-winning success in Formula Nippon and a single F1 race start in Formula One featuring on a storied cv that latterly was focused on the all-electric series.
The advent of the Hypercar era and his call-up to the Porsche WEC effort though, was a significant factor in determining his future career path of choice as he explained yesterday.
“Got some news to share with you,” his statement read. “It’s time for me to close a 26-year chapter of single-seater racing! I have decided not to race anymore in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to fully focus on my challenge with the @porschepenskemotorsport team to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans (for the 4th time) and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
“It has been a great ride racing in Formula BMW & Formula Renault to Formula 3, Champ Car, Formula Nippon, Super Formula, Formula 1 and finally the Formula E family which I joined at the start of Season 4 back in 2017.
“I would like to thank the people who helped me join this innovative and exciting Championship; Leo Thomas, Julian & Alexander Jakobi, JEV & the Techeetah team! The adventures together were great! A big thanks to TAG Heuer Porsche FE too who gave me the opportunity to lead the team into their Formula E debut in Season 6! Last but not least, my engineer Fabrice Roussel who has shown amazing support since the beginning and all the way through the three Formula E teams, and the Avalanche Andretti Formula E Team for trusting me during Season 9.
“I would like to personally thank Alejandro Agag, his team & the FIA for creating Formula E, it has been a fantastic journey and you have changed many of our lives. Formula E has been the most challenging and fun Championship I have competed in! I am extremely grateful & proud to have raced in Formula E, promoting all the sustainable technologies and for meeting the amazing people in this paddock, a few of which have become my best friends today.
“Thank you all for the amazing support all those years.”
Peter Collins
Something of a surprise at the pre-event press conference yesterday was the appearance of the team manager for the ByKolles/Vanwall effort this weekend: Peter Collins.
Collins is likely best known for his time in Formula One in team management roles for Team Lotus, Williams and Benetton.
Iron Dames Welcome Japanese Female Racers
The traditional visit of local School children to the WEC paddock was mirrored on Friday by an opportunity arranged by the Japanese Automobile Federation for a group of young female drivers (Hana Burton, Anju Hayakawa, Anna Inotsume, Sara Matsui, Ai Miura, Kanon Takahashi and Riona Tomishita) to visit the Iron Dames team garage.
Müller expected to be back for Bahrain
Peugeot Sport driver Nico Müller, who isn’t racing this weekend due to a collarbone injury, is expected to be ready for November’s season finale at Bahrain.
“At the moment the news is good, but we will have to judge at the last minute, it’s too early” Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie said, “At the moment he is recovering very well. For now, the plan is for him to be in Bahrain, we think he will be.”
Ferrari’s Fuji challenge
This weekend’s meeting at Fuji has come with a new challenge for Ferrari in Hypercar, as the Fuji Speedway is the only circuit on the 2023 calendar that Ferrari will not have tested at prior to the race meeting started.
Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari GT and sports race cars race and testing manager, told the media that going into the weekend the team’s expectation is that the car won’t be best suited to the circuit’s layout.
“This is the first time we are facing a circuit we haven’t tested at before,” he said. “It’s more difficult than normal to have a prediction, as every other circuit we have faced so far we were able to test at before the racing, even Le Mans. We are still beginners. We don’t have a lot of data.
“It shouldn’t be a track that suits us — the layout is tricky and the third sector (which is tight and technical, featuring seven corners) is something we have never experienced in previous races. There are some sections that are similar to Portimao, where we struggled in places compared to the others. So we need to find a way to improve on that sort of section.”
Super GT Stars
As always at FIA WEC races, locally-based racers have been seen in the paddock taking a look at the World Championship and taking opportunities to engage with WEC teams.
Doing rather more than that of course is WEC-debutant and Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC Challenge programme driver Ritomo Miyata, who will race this weekend in the Car Guy-backed #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari in GTDE Am, a late replacement for Daniel Serra.
Current TOMS Toyota GT500 racer and previous Super Formula race winner Giuliano Alesi was amongst those sent chatting with teams in the paddock, the Frenchman is the son of ex-Ferrari F1 racer (and 2010 Le Mans Series GT runner-up!) Jean Alesi and his Japanese wife, ex model and singer Kumiko Goto.
Another Super GT star, Yuji Kunimoto, 2017 Le Mans starter for Toyota Gazoo Racing is here at Fuji in an entirely different role.
Kunimoto is a talented photographer and is working for Toyota this weekend as part of their media effort.
Tiago Monteiro present
Five-times Le Mans 24 Hours racer, former WTCC and WTCR race winner and two-times Nurburgring 24 Hours class winner Tiago Monteiro is in the Fuji paddock today on driver management duties.
The Portuguese ex-Jordan, Midland and Spyker F1 driver spent the 2009 season as part of Oreca’s LMP1 effort in the Le Le Mans Series in the ORECA 01 AIM but red only once in the FIA WEC with ByKolles at Le Mans in 2015.
Naughty Step
The recent trend of punishing Free Practice infractions with stop-and-hold penalties in subsequent sessions has continued in Japan. Inter Europol Competition received a five-minute penalty at the start of FP2 after Fabio Scherer crossed the white pit entry line in FP2 and both the #98 Aston Martin and Team WRT’s #41 ORECA will serve five-minute penalties at the start of Saturday morning’s FP3 after both Alex Riberas and Rui Andrade were penalised for track limits violations in FP2.
