Last week’s Goodyear LMGT3 tyre test in Portimao revealed that Audi Sport Customer Racing is serious about competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship next year.
The R8 LMS GT3 EVO II that was present in Portugal, fitted with newly developed closed-loop torque sensors required to meet LMGT3 regulations, ran on 2024 Goodyear tyres for the first time with senior Audi technical staff on hand.
Factory driver Christopher Haase drove the test car and Audi Sport customer Team Saintéloc was present to help run the test with team director Frédéric Thalamy, owner Sébastien Chétail and additional engineering staff.
DSC asked Thalamy if its presence in Portugal was part of its preparations for the 2023/24 Asian Le Mans Series season. There, Saintéloc hopes to win the GT class title and secure a Le Mans invite. Earlier in the year Thalamy described its surprise Asian Le Mans entry as its one and only chance to get to Le Mans with the R8. “After next year it’s finished,” he said.
However, Saintéloc’s plans extend further than the Asian Le Mans Series. The French team, with the full support of Audi, was keen to test on Goodyear tyres with a car that meets the 2024 regulations because it plans to run in the full FIA WEC season, not just Le Mans. It did not run on both Michelin and Goodyear rubber like AF Corse did at the test.
“We are here to achieve something, to get into the FIA WEC,” Thalamy (pictured below) told DSC. “It is WEC or nothing. Everybody is pushing very hard to get entries, we are pushing for two, we would like two cars, but we would take one.”
The feedback DSC received from Thalamy and Haase at the test was overwhelmingly positive. Thalamy was keen to comment on how impressed he was with the level of service Goodyear provided, and Haase was hugely complimentary of the tyres. “I have been really surprised, the car worked straight away out of the box. I was so happy with the level of grip and feedback. It was joyous,” Haase said.
How confident are Audi Sport Customer Racing and Saintéloc of gaining LMGT3 entries? The hope is that Audi’s previous loyalty to the ACO during the LMP1 era, plus Saintéloc’s level of ambition to compete, will be enough to secure places on the grid.
However, LMGT3 in 2024 is going to be oversubscribed in both the FIA WEC and ELMS (and Saintéloc has no plans to compete in the ACO’s European series). With no Hypercar programme or customer team currently competing in the FIA WEC, Audi’s current plan doesn’t fit either of the publicly stated selection criteria, which will give priority to OEMs in Hypercar and teams that have been loyal to the FIA WEC.
If the WEC’s full-season entry cap is 36 cars and the split between the two classes is 18-18, then Audi, like Mercedes-AMG, would appear to be on the outside looking in. This is because Aston Martin (Prodrive/Heart of Racing), BMW (WRT), Corvette (TF Sport) Ferrari (AF Corse), Ford (Proton), Lamborghini (Iron Lynx), Lexus (ASP), McLaren (United) and Porsche (Manthey) are all seeking two-car entries.
Nevertheless, Audi Sport is pushing hard to be a part of the FIA WEC next season, despite its customer sport programme being scaled back significantly from 2024 onwards.
DSC understands that it will provide both factory driving and engineering talent for Saintéloc’s WEC bid, and is fully supportive of Saintéloc and Attempto Racing’s Asian Le Mans Series plans.
Featured image courtesy of Tim Creswick
