A 1m45.783s from Kamui Kobayashi during a qualifying simulation for the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID topped the third and final practice session for the FIA WEC teams at Sebring ahead of qualifying. With each session, Toyota continues to …
A 1m45.783s from Kamui Kobayashi during a qualifying simulation for the No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID topped the third and final practice session for the FIA WEC teams at Sebring ahead of qualifying.
With each session, Toyota continues to find pace and looks to be the favorite for pole position this evening. Just what sort of time will be possible in qualifying? It’s going to be fascinating to find out.
The headline from this final 60 minutes of track time wasn’t just the blistering pace of the No. 7, though, it was the repair work that needs to be undertaken by the team ahead of this evening’s fight for grid positions.
Jose Maria Lopez, who had a huge shunt in last year’s event at Sebring, again found himself in the wars during FP3. The Argentinian (who complained that the engine cut out earlier in the lap at Turn 13 on the radio) lost the rear of the No. 7 at high speed on the entry to Turn 17, sending him backwards into the tires and damaging the car’s right-rear corner. This brought out red flags and the session to a premature end.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) March 16, 2023
“It’s not ideal, it’s tough for mechanics. But the good thing is that Jose seems to be OK,” said Kazuki Nakajima, vice president of Toyota Gazoo Racing. “We can recover from here. The car is fast so let’s take something positive.”
It was once again a Toyota 1-2 at the top of the times, with the No. 8 six-tenths back.
Third, just under a second off was the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, which ended with a 1m46.777s. Like the No. 7, the No. 50 had an off in the session too, moments after Lopez’s hit, Nicklas Nielsen complained that he lost traction control, which sent the car veering off the track after the rear snapped at the exit of Turn 10. The car ended up beached in the gravel, though with no significant damage.
Fourth in the times was the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which the GM brand hopes will be in the mix for a strong grid position later.
“Not sure we have quite the pace to match the Toyotas, but I think we’ve got the pace to fight Ferrari for that final place on the podium,” Earl Bamber said after the session. His teammate Alex Lynn is set to drive in qualifying tonight.
Completing the top five was the No. 93 Peugeot, with a best time 2.1s off the No. 7. The No. 5 Porsche made it five makes in the top six positions.
Further down the order, it was a disastrous session for Vanwall Racing. The car stopped at pit-out at the start of the session, unable to find power. It completed zero laps — not ideal ahead of the car’s first qualifying session.
In the other classes, JOTA led United Autosports in the LMP2 pack. Pietro Fittipaldi’s 1m50.128s was under a tenth quicker than Phil Hanson who reeled off a 1m50.218s.
GTE Am, meanwhile, saw a huge change in fortune for Northwest AMR. The trio of Vantages have propped up the bottom of the timing screens throughout the running at Sebring so far, but in this session the pace improved. Nicki Thiim set the fastest time in the class, a 1m59.030s in the No. 98.
GR Racing’s Porsche ended up second, with the Kessel Racing Ferrari third.
The FIA WEC field for Friday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring has been reduced to 36 cars. The heavy shunt in Free Practice 2 for the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19 left the car damaged beyond repair, and the team with no choice but to withdraw …
The FIA WEC field for Friday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring has been reduced to 36 cars. The heavy shunt in Free Practice 2 for the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR 19 left the car damaged beyond repair, and the team with no choice but to withdraw the car from the remainder of the meeting.
The No. 88, driven by Harry Tincknell, Ryan Hardwick and Zacharie Robichon, hit a concrete block head-on at high speed after contact with the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Richard Westbrook, resulting in a lengthy red flag.
The contact between Westbrook and Hardwick occurred in the braking zone to the hairpin, Westbrook moving across on the Porsche while trying to take the racing line, clipping the front of the Porsche with the rear of his V-Series.R. Thankfully Hardwick walked away from the hit unscathed.
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“It’s a real shame,” a disappointed Hardwick told RACER after the session. “We had a really good program going here. Proton has a spare car but it’s in Europe so we can’t use it this weekend. The chassis was broken by the impact. We hope to be back at Portimao.”
By missing Sebring, the No. 88’s 2023 FIA WEC program is likely to be reduced to just three races, as RACER understands that the car is unlikely to continue after Le Mans in June. Proton is believed to be planning to scale back its GTE Am effort to a single car once it begins competing with the Hypercar class Porsche 963 it has ordered.
After AF Corse’s Ferrari 499Ps managed to get close to the Toyotas on pace in the opening practice session of the 1000 Miles of Sebring event this morning, the Japanese team turned the wick up during the red-flag-interrupted FP2. The quickest time …
After AF Corse’s Ferrari 499Ps managed to get close to the Toyotas on pace in the opening practice session of the 1000 Miles of Sebring event this morning, the Japanese team turned the wick up during the red-flag-interrupted FP2.
The quickest time in the session was set by the No. 7 GR010 HYBRID, Kamui Kobayashi posting a 1m46.954s, a tour of the circuit significantly faster than this morning’s quickest lap from Ryo Hirakawa (1m47.649s).
There are clearly chunks of pace from the GR010 HYBRID still to be found it seems. The quickest time this afternoon was over a second faster than the best laps achieved during the Prologue test and you’d expect the team to find even more time in qualifying tomorrow.
Nobody else in the Hypercar field was able to get within a second of the lead Toyota. In third, eight tenths off the sister No. 8 Toyota that finished the day second, was the No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, The Italian completed a 10-lap run and set a best time of 1m48.121s.
Ferrari’s 499P remained the nearest challenger to the Toyotas, but was 0.8s off the pace. JEP/Motorsport Images
The Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was in the mix too, as it has been throughout the event so far. It split the two Ferraris on the timing screens after Richard Westbrook’s 1m48.265.
It wasn’t a clean session for Westbrook, however, as the Briton was involved in contact with the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche at the hairpin which ended with Ryan Hardwick hitting the concrete blocks before the guardrail section at the hairpin head-on. The damage to the Porsche was significant, and the red flag period for the cleanup lasted around 10 minutes.
It was a rather quiet session for the Porsche and Peugeot Hypercar camps. Porsche’s No. 5 963 was the only car of the quartet across the two teams that lapped quicker than the No. 28 JOTA ORECA that topped LMP2. The No. 5’s best lap was only good enough for seventh, behind the Glickenhaus 007 which had a more promising run, Olivier Pla setting a time almost a second quicker than the team’s best during the Prologue.
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The aforementioned No. 28 JOTA ORECA, which led the way in LMP2, saw Pietro Fittipaldi set a 1m50.326s, a tenth up on the fastest of the two Peugeots, and four tenths quicker than the first of the two United Autosports ORECAs that ended up second and third.
In GTE, the off for the No. 88 wasn’t the only drama in the class causing a red flag in the session. The running had to be neutralized towards the end after an off for the GTE Am pace-setting Kessel Ferrari at Turn 3.
Takeshi Kimura was aboard for the off, his teammate Daniel Serra meanwhile, set the best time in the class, a 1m58.845s.
Corvette Racing’s improved form from FP1 continued here, the No. 33 C8.R finishing up second, with the quickest Aston Martin, D’Station’s No. 777, third. The performance from D’Station represented the highest in the classification an Aston has finished in a session since the teams arrived in Florida last week.
UP NEXT: The third and final Practice session is set for tomorrow morning at 11:55am local time.
The first practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship season saw a surprise at the top of the times. AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari 499P looked set to finish with the fastest time, courtesy of James Calado who managed a 1m47.935s. However, …
The first practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship season saw a surprise at the top of the times. AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari 499P looked set to finish with the fastest time, courtesy of James Calado who managed a 1m47.935s. However, it was Ryo Hirakawa who ultimately set the benchmark time for the day when he reeled off a 1m47.649s with two minutes remaining in the session to top the timing screens in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID.
This lap, faster than any of the times set at the Prologue test, put him ahead of the two Ferraris that finished up second and third in the times. It may not have ended up with the fastest time, but the performance from AF Corse’s 499Ps represented a significant stride in pace ahead of the car’s global race debut on Friday. The early signs of a memorable season opener are here…
The No. 51 ending up second was also particularly encouraging for the team after its hard work to change the chassis after Calado’s hefty Prologue shunt at Turn 1 on Sunday.
Just off Calado’s best time, Miguel Molina put the No. 50 into the top three with a 1m48.039s at the end of the session. This pushed the sole Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to fourth, after early times from Earl Bamber saw it sit as high as second in the times.
Toyota’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID ended up fifth, nine-tenths off the sister car, but clear of the two Porsche 963s and the Peugeot 9X8s, which were all over a second off.
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The nine Hypercars from the major factory programs all set times faster than the LMP2 runners, while the Glickenhaus and Vanwall continued to struggle for pace, ending up 16th and 20th overall respectively.
The fastest time in LMP2 came from the No. 63 Prema Racing ORECA, a 1m50.074s by Mirko Bortolotti, improving on a previous hot lap (1m50.148s), which was good enough to set the pace early in the session. WRT’s No. 31 ORECA finished up second, with the No. 9 Prema example third.
The GTE ranks saw the Iron Dames Porsche finish up with the quickest time. Michelle Gatting reeled off a 1m59.028s at the very end of the running to put the striking pink 911 RSR 19 a tenth up on the rebuilt No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari, which spent much of the practice session atop the class times.
Corvette Racing’s C8.R made it three marques in the top three, with a 1m59.101s, an improvement in the pace from the Prologue for the Pratt Miller team in its first competitive WEC session as an Am outfit.
Further down the order the Aston Martin teams were unable to find outright pace, a continuation of the Vantage AMR’s Prologue form. The best of the three was the D’Station Racing Vantage, 11th in class.
UP NEXT: FP2 is set to begin this afternoon at 4:35pm local time.
Proton Competition’s dual IMSA-WEC Porsche 963 program continues to come together behind the scenes. The German team has told RACER that it is expecting to take delivery of its new LMDh Porsche at the end of April, before taking on an extensive test …
Proton Competition’s dual IMSA-WEC Porsche 963 program continues to come together behind the scenes. The German team has told RACER that it is expecting to take delivery of its new LMDh Porsche at the end of April, before taking on an extensive test program.
The only hiccup thus far is a delay to the program’s start date, which will see the team likely wait until after the Le Mans 24 Hours in June to debut its cars.
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Unless a significant commercial opportunity emerges, team principal Christian Ried has repeatedly made it clear that the team would prefer to test its valuable new assets rather than rush to the Le Mans and compete in IMSA at its first opportunity.
RACER understands that when it takes delivery of its 963s, the team’s testing plans feature multiple venues in Europe, with 8-10 days of track time likely. Currently, it appears that the FIA WEC effort is most likely to get underway at Monza, while the IMSA program’s most likely start point is now Road America.
RACER also believes that the team’s step up to Hypercar in the FIA WEC will see it reduce its GTE Am entry to a single car: the No. 77 Dempsey Proton 911 RSR 19 for the FIA WEC races after Le Mans. Proton will, however, continue to support the Iron Lynx/Iron Dames effort.
Christian Ried’s team isn’t the only team on the cusp of receiving an LMDh chassis from Porsche for use in the FIA WEC this season, as Hertz Team JOTA, which is present in Sebring with a pair of LMP2 ORECAs, is also close to taking delivery of a 963. The team is fully focused on its LMP2 title challenge at the moment, but it will quickly split its resource to accommodate its Hypercar effort in the coming weeks.
Part of its transition to Hypercar is embedding its new team principal, former head of DTM at Audi Sport Dieter Gass, into the operation. He is present with Hertz Team JOTA in Florida for his first event with the British team.
RACER spoke with Gass ahead of what is set to be a quieter event for him in his new role. While he is part of the team this weekend, he is still getting up to speed. The real work starts for him when the team debuts its 963, which is expected to be at Spa.
Gass says he’s really enjoying life at JOTA so far and has been impressed with the level that the Le Mans class-winning team operates.
“I got in touch with (JOTA co-owner) David Clarke some time ago, before the deal with Porsche was sealed,” he told RACER. “He told me his vision and said he wanted to work with me. We stayed in touch and once the 963 deal was sealed we continued our discussion.
“It was an easy decision. It’s all happening now, there are so many cars and manufacturers involved in prototypes so I’m really looking forward to it.
“I was really surprised by the level of every area of the team. I honestly didn’t expect it to be this good from the outside. For now it’s been good to get back in the paddock, reconnect and get to know the team.”
The new era for the FIA World Endurance Championship is now underway, and the days of a lean top class seem long gone. In the paddock, it feels like the beginning of a truly historic period of sports car racing. The long-awaited plans for …
The new era for the FIA World Endurance Championship is now underway, and the days of a lean top class seem long gone. In the paddock, it feels like the beginning of a truly historic period of sports car racing. The long-awaited plans for convergence have come together. The WEC paddock at Sebring, with its thriving Hypercar category featuring a variety of manufacturers all bringing very different cars, is a sight to behold.
We are now on the eve of the opening meeting. The two-day Prologue test last weekend gave us a first taste of LMDh and LMH cars running on track together, and the two rule sets running together appears to be a natural fit. It’s far less awkward than the early days of the ALMS/Grand-Am merger which saw Daytona Prototypes and LMP2 cars thrown into the same class.
The major manufacturers for the 2023 season made the most of the available track time. It wasn’t plain sailing for all of them, though, as Peugeot and Ferrari lost out on crucial mileage thanks to a combination of on-track incidents and mechanical dramas.
Toyota, perhaps unsurprisingly, looks like the team to beat at Sebring. Its tried and tested GR010 HYBRIDs ran like clockwork all weekend, and set the fastest times. Durability-wise, they would appear near-bullet proof. The upgrades to the aero appear to have made the car more agile too; visibly the 2023-spec GR010 looks at home on the Sebring bumps.
Leaner and meaner Toyota GR010 looks ready for everything coming its way at Sebring. JEP/Motorsport Images
“As drivers we have all felt comfortable in the car and we’re all up to speed; it feels like we have made a nice step in terms of car balance compared to last year,” Toyota’s Brendon Hartley said after the test.
Overall, completing 2,195 miles of running was extremely encouraging for the Japanese marque, which came into the weekend feeling a little bit on the back foot due to its off-season testing program being perhaps less intense than some of the competition.
Cadillac Racing, like Toyota, heads into race week full of enthusiasm. Its single WEC full-season V-Series.R completed 218 laps and was quick too, topping the third session. Cadillac’s Alex Lynn spoke to RACER after the running and was confident about the team’s chances this season.
The Briton, who is a winner at Sebring with the DPi Cadillac, feels the new car is a significant step up on the DPi V.R. “It’s clear that Dallara was determined to right the wrongs from its previous-generation LMP2 chassis,” he said.
Alex Lynn likes what he saw from the new WEC-spec Cadillac. JEP/Motorsport Images
The WEC arm of the Ganassi LMDh operation still has work to do. One key task is getting set up at a base in Europe and another is pressing ahead with a test program, which RACER understands will include a pre-Le Mans endurance test at Portimao.
Thankfully, due to Michelin supplying the same tire to the GTP and Hypercar teams, the testing previously completed by the IMSA crew at Sebring ahead of the season provided the WEC outfit with plenty of directly relatable setup and tire data to give it a head start.
Porsche had a similar experience to Cadillac during the weekend. The car showed flashes of pace but was unable to match the Toyotas and gathered plenty of data over 433 laps. Reliability will be the key to a strong result on Friday night, and so far so good. Penske will be desperate to avoid a similar experience to the Rolex 24 At Daytona, where mechanical issues cost it a shot at a good result.
The remaining entries in Hypercar have a handful of question marks hanging over them at this stage.
Hypercar newcomers Ferrari and Vanwall are set to push Peugeot. JEP/Motorsport Images
For Ferrari, the pace of its 499P on its return to top-class factory racing after 50 years away, was encouraging and improved as the weekend went on. Where the team fell short is in track time — it lost lots of it on the Sunday to lengthy repairs to the No. 51 after James Calado’s Turn 1 shunt.
This left the mechanics scrambling to repair the front end and inspect the chassis for damage. The No. 51 was still being worked on when I visited the garage yesterday, but AF Corse has told RACER that it is changing over to a spare chassis as a precautionary measure.
It wasn’t a perfect Prologue for the Prancing Horse in its top-class sports car racing return as a factory effort, but from what we did see, there is reason to believe that it can be in contention for a strong result on the car’s race debut.
There was a similar amount of frustration at Peugeot Sport. Like AF Corse, it too lost a good chunk of the track time due to repairs and to mechanical woes.
Both 9X8s had on-track incidents, the No. 93 the worse of the two when Jean-Eric Vergne collided with the Vector Sport ORECA. The car then ended up losing more time with mechanical issues.
At this point the entire Peugeot Sport program is hard to read. You’d expect the team to emerge stronger having learned a lot about its car at the tail end of last season, but green shoots of progress have been hard to spot at this stage.
No. 93 driver Gustavo Menezes explained to RACER that while the team has made positive strides, it has had to take some time to adapt to the Sebring track. Until the Prologue the 9X8 hadn’t run on the bumps.
“We could always wish for more time, but in the end we started in a place that we were not happy with last week, and made big steps in the test,” he said. “Sebring is a track that’s really hard on the car, and it highlighted some of our weaknesses. The 9X8 hasn’t run on a track this aggressive, so it puts us at a small disadvantage.
“We have benefited from small improvements to the car aero wise and we’ve worked on reliability, though. It has been a while since Bahrain but we’ve done a lot of testing and it’s been a constant improvement for the car. Step by step we are getting to where we need to be.”
Then we have two smaller efforts in the class, from Glickenhaus Racing and Vanwall. The time sheets weren’t an easy read. Glickenhaus, which opted not to test its 007 at all during the off-season, is struggling for speed here.
The team has been pushing hard to work to a program and above all get up to speed with the new Michelin tires. Adjustments have also been made to its traction control system, to help the car find pace. But the reality is, the car hasn’t been upgraded, it hasn’t been tested, and the competition in the class has taken a leap forward. Even with Balance of Performance governing the class, it would be a surprise to see Glickenhaus in the mix, especially in the early stages of the season.
It’s a similar situation for Vanwall — it too has a car which is lagging behind the rival major OEMs. The positive is that in the hands of Tom Dillman, it did manage a time quicker than three of the Peugeot drivers. With 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve at the wheel, though, it was a different story. The Canadian was far off the pace — so far off, in fact, that he was seconds off the slowest of the LMP2 drivers. He has a lot of work to do.
When looking at the class as a whole, before we get into the practice and qualifying sessions the Hypercar category looks set to be close between Toyota, Cadillac, Porsche and Ferrari, with the Peugeots, Glickenhaus and Vanwall lagging behind. This could all change though, and testing times, as ever, should be taken with a pinch of salt.
What we shouldn’t expect is a BoP change anytime soon. The formula is set for Sebring, with no changes anticipated between the Prologue and race. Beyond that, an anticipatory BoP has been made for Portimao, Spa and Le Mans.
“This is what was agreed last year — it was a long process last year discussed in several working groups. The BoP will be stable until Le Mans,” Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon told RACER. “The only thing that may be adjusted is the so called ‘Platform BoP’ between LMDh and LMH, which could be adjusted every second race. So, it could be adjusted before Spa.”
The Platform BoP system means any changes made are to all cars of the same type (LMDh and LMH), rather than specific cars. This, in theory, should eliminate the incentive to sandbag.
Toyota Gazoo Racing completed its 2023 FIA WEC Prologue running with a third 1-2 from four sessions over the two days of track action. The final session of the day, and event, was topped by Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. His …
Toyota Gazoo Racing completed its 2023 FIA WEC Prologue running with a third 1-2 from four sessions over the two days of track action.
The final session of the day, and event, was topped by Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. His 1m48.216s was just 0.008s off the fastest time of the Prologue test, which came from Jose Maria Lopez (No. 7) in the first session Saturday.
Notably, all six Toyota drivers featured in the top seven of the combined fastest lap by driver chart. There was just over 0.4s between Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi who bookended the Toyota times.
Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber spoiled a Toyota clean sweep with his session-topping time Saturday afternoon, just 0.1s off the fastest time in the test.
During the final session, Toyota completed 145 laps across its pair of GR010s — significantly more than the other manufacturers. Over the two days, Toyota completed 3,533 kilometers of running across 587 laps.
At the other end of the scale, it was a frustrating end to the Prologue for Peugeot Sport. Its 9X8s managed just 69 laps combined, with 65 of them coming from the No. 94.
The No. 93 car completed just four laps, spending most of the session in the garage for mechanical repairs. It wasn’t a clean session for the No. 94 either, as the car had an off at Turn 3, damaging the front end, and was forced into the pits for some replacement bodywork.
The fastest non-Toyota was Cadillac, with a 1m48.890s from Richard Westbrook, buoyed by the team’s performance in its first FIA WEC event.
“What a start we’ve made and there is so much more to come,” he said after the session.
The Briton was 0.4s clear of Nicklas Nielsen in the sole (No. 50) Ferrari that took part in the session — the Dane moving up the order after a late effort. The No. 51 sister car missed the entire session, the team spending all afternoon assessing the integrity of the chassis following James Calado’s hefty off at Turn 1 during the morning session on cold tires.
We await further information from AF Corse concerning the extent of the damage.
Elsewhere in class, the two Penske Porsches ended up fifth and sixth, 1.5s and 1.6s off the fastest Toyota time.
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The fastest car in LMP2, the No. 41 WRT ORECA, ended up with a 1m50.827s from Robert Kubica. The Pole ended up in amongst the Hypercars in eighth overall, his time faster than the best tours from the No. 94 Peugeot, Vanwall and Glickenhaus.
Completing the top three in class was the No. 48 JOTA ORECA, with the No. 22 United Autosports example that topped the first three sessions in third.
Further down the order, there was significant drama for JOTA’s other ORECA. The No. 28 of David Heinemeier Hansson had an off at Turn 14 just 10 minutes before the end of the session, damaging the front end of the car following a hit to the wall on driver’s right. This brought out the third and final red flag in the session, which ended prematurely as a result of the stoppage.
1.6s separated the entire field in LMP2.
GTE Am’s pace was set by GR Racing’s Ben Barker to conclude the test. He reeled off a 1m59.253s to go 0.01s faster than the impressive Lilou Wadoux in the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 which slotted in second.
The Project 1 Porsche completed the top three. Corvette’s single C8.R ended up seventh, and yet again the three Aston Martin Vantages occupied the bottom three positions in the times.
Corvette Racing may not have had the ultimate pace of the leading Porsche and Ferraris, but Nicky Catsburg says it was a successful test for the team, which is still getting up to speed with its new driver combination and competition.
“We’re all getting used to each other and getting up to speed,” he said. “Ben (Keating) definitely showed his performance today. That’s very good. Nico (Varrone) got a lot of laps today and showed what he could do. We are getting to grips with each other and where we want the car to be. It’s a good starting point for the race week. We still have some little things to learn, get used to some driver changes and some procedural things that are normally all automatic. We still need to get a rhythm. But it’s all OK. This was a nice test.”
There was a significant drama in Am too. Stefano Costantini had an off into the barriers at Turn 17 towards the end of the session, resulting in substantial rear-end damage for the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.
With the FIA WEC Prologue now over, it’s time for a pair of rest days before the “Super Sebring” meeting gets fully underway on Wednesday. By then the full IMSA paddock will be set up and the first competitive sessions of the FIA WEC season will take place.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs returned to the top of the timing screens in the third session of the Prologue weekend at Sebring. The No. 7, which went quickest in the first session Saturday, was fastest once again; Mike Conway setting …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs returned to the top of the timing screens in the third session of the Prologue weekend at Sebring.
The No. 7, which went quickest in the first session Saturday, was fastest once again; Mike Conway setting a 1m48.473s, just 0.008s quicker than the sister car of Sebastien Buemi in second. Once again Toyota managed to complete plenty of laps during the three-and-a-half hours of track time. Combined, its GR010 HYBRIDs toured the circuit 164 times.
For the first time this weekend, Porsche managed to claim the fastest non-Toyota time with its No. 5 963. The Penske-run car with Michael Christensen at the wheel took third late in the session with a 1m48.957s, though the time was eclipsed by the best laps of all six of Toyota’s drivers.
Cadillac’s sole car — third in session one, then topping session two Saturday — ended the Sunday morning session fourth, 0.7s off the best Toyota time, piloted by Alex Lynn.
Further back the two Peugeots had a more productive session. The team completed 122 total laps and emerged sixth and seventh behind the second Porsche, the No. 94 a full 0.8s slower than the top time and the No. 93 a fraction over a second off the pace.
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It wasn’t a good session for Ferrari, however. The No. 50 ended up eighth, while the No. 51 didn’t set a single competitive lap after James Calado had an off at Turn 1 on his out-lap, damaging the right-front corner.
Vanwall had a more encouraging session, the Vandervell finishing up the running ninth, quicker than the entire LMP2 field for the first time — Tom Dillmann setting the time but with Esteban Guerrieri in amongst the LMP2s and Jacques Villeneuve once again slower than all of the LMP2 drivers.
The Glickenhaus 007, meanwhile, was struggling for pace and was slower than the top five ORECA 07 LMP2 cars.
Yet again in LMP2, United’s No. 22 ORECA was fastest, Filipe Albuquerque setting the best time (1m50.577s). The top three was completed by the No. 63 Prema Oreca in the hands of Doriane Pin and the No. 48 JOTA of Yifei Ye.
Of the GT cars, in Am it was an all-Porsche top five with the Project 1 AO 911 setting the fastest time. The best lap was a 1m59.170s from Matteo Cairoli, a tenth up on the Iron Lynx and Iron Dames Porsches which have been quick all weekend.
The fastest Ferrari was the Kessel Racing 488 slotting in sixth before an off for Takeshi Kimura caused major damage to the left-front corner of the car. It was fully repaired before the end of the session, though, and the team expects to head out for the final run in the afternoon.
Aston Martin’s slow start to the season continued. Yet again the three Vantages made up the bottom three places in the 14-car class with at least two of the cars having off-track moments in the session. The BoP, at this stage, appears to be slightly off for the TF and Northwest AMR efforts.
The Corvette Racing C8.R ended up 10th.
Track action continues with the final session Sunday afternoon.
Toyota Gazoo Racing is set to stay in Florida after the 1000 Miles of Sebring weekend to put a GR010 HYBRID through an endurance test before Le Mans. This will be the third and final test for Toyota with its updated GR010 HYBRID since the end of …
Toyota Gazoo Racing is set to stay in Florida after the 1000 Miles of Sebring weekend to put a GR010 HYBRID through an endurance test before Le Mans.
This will be the third and final test for Toyota with its updated GR010 HYBRID since the end of last season. Technical director Pascal Vasselon tells RACER the team will run a single GR010 HYBRID for all six full-season drivers, and the team’s nominated reserve driver Kazuki Nakajima.
For this season Toyota brings the second significant update for the GR010 HYBRID since its 2021 debut. The most visible changes come in the form of a more aggressive aero package. Further improvements have been made elsewhere though, to enhance drivability and aerodynamic consistency.
“The changes are never enough, but we have improved a few areas where we are not at the best possible level, so we are satisfied,” Vasselon said.
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For its post-race running, a third updated GR010 HYBRID has been transported to Sebring, the team unsurprisingly opting to give the pair that will race next Friday a break.
“We have been testing very little this year — we needed a third test,” Vasselon explained. “The problem we had is that we planned it for the time when Portimao was added to the calendar, so we had to move our last test. It isn’t ideal. It’s our last test of the season, and our last test before Le Mans (bar a planned brief shakedown after the race at Spa).”
“We can’t run through the night — it’s not possible here (Sebring) — but over the three days we will complete an endurance test.”
Vasselon was keen to point out that the team hasn’t tested as much as some of its closest rivals in Hypercar this off-season.
“We did not reduce our amount of testing compared to previous years, it just appears that we run a test program that is much less intense than our competitors,” he said. “Unfortunately we are testing a lot less than others. It will be tougher, but we are experienced in the FIA WEC; let’s hope it balances out.”
Since January, Porsche has completed seven days of testing with 963 (with two cars at each test), Ferrari has 12 days of 499P running to show for, and Cadillac has tested its V-Series.R for two days (although it benefits from data sharing with the IMSA GTP-class effort) and Peugeot has run the 9X8 for 10 days. Toyota, meanwhile, has completed nine days of testing with one car at each test.
Corvette Racing is also staying in Florida to test its 2024 Z06 GT3.R. The test car, which ran in camouflage last year and turned laps after the Rolex 24, will take to the track in Sebring for two days of running. Development driver Tommy Milner is expected to drive.
The test car here for Corvette is believed to be the only fully built chassis, with a second car still under construction.
Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R topped the times in the second test session of the 2023 FIA WEC Prologue. Earl Bamber was the fast man in the car, setting a 1m48.429s to better the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs that slotted in second and third. Bamber’s …
Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R topped the times in the second test session of the 2023 FIA WEC Prologue. Earl Bamber was the fast man in the car, setting a 1m48.429s to better the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs that slotted in second and third.
Bamber’s time wasn’t the quickest of the day, as Jose Maria Lopez’s Session 1-topping 1m48.208s still stands as the fastest so far.
The afternoon session was incredibly encouraging for the WEC side of the Cadillac Racing operation ahead of its world championship debut.
Bamber’s time in the session was 0.014s quicker than the No. 8 Toyota, with the No. 7 a further 0.1s back. The two GR010s did 74 and 70 laps respectively.
Behind, the two Ferrari 499Ps continued to build confidence during the session and ended up fourth and fifth. 90 total laps were completed by the two cars.
The Hypercar field remains tight on times so far at the top, as the first seven in the order all ended up with times under 1m50s.
It wasn’t a good session for Peugeot and its pair of 9X8s, however. The No. 94 finished up eighth, 2.6s off the slowest of the two Porsches.
The No. 93, meanwhile, only completed 12 laps in the three hours of track time, after Jean-Eric Vergne made an “ambitious” dive up the inside of the Vector Sport ORECA at Turn 1. He hit the left rear of the ORECA and ended up in the barriers, bringing out the red flag.
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Elsewhere in the field, Glickenhaus and Vanwall again struggled to find any outright pace at what, admittedly, is still a very early stage of the event. Trap speeds for both cars have been slower than many of the LMP2s in both sessions so far. Lots of work needs to be done by both to find speed ahead of race week.
Vanwall in particular is a long way off, ahead of only one LMP2 car in the times during the second session. Jacques Villeneuve again was the slowest driver in the class, 3.5s off the next-slowest time in the session by a Hypercar driver and almost 2s off the slowest LMP2 driver.
In LMP2, United’s No. 22 ORECA once again led the way, with Phil Hanson bettering his time from the morning, touring the airfield in 1m51.492s. Ex-F1 pilot Danil Kvyat came closest to the Briton, with a time 0.05s behind in the No. 63 Prema ORECA 07.
The No. 41 WRT ORECA managed to finish up third. The No. 31 sister car had a tougher time, though, stopping on track and causing a red flag due to a damper failure.
While the quickest Hypercar times came in the morning, all bar four drivers in the LMP2 field set their best times in the second session.
GTE Am, like LMP2, saw the fastest car from the morning session set the quickest time again in the afternoon. Michelle Gatting reeled off a 1m59.201s in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR 19, a time 0.25s up on the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari. The Dempsey Proton Porsche made for two Porsches in the top three. The sister No. 88 Proton 911, meanwhile, caused a red flag in the session after stopping on track.
The FIA WEC teams will continue to test in two further Prologue sessions Sunday.
