For the first since the covid era we are back to Spa after 4-year hiatus, which was preceded by 13 years in row (2007-2019). Good news is that LMEM organisation renewed contract with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for running the WEC race here for another 5 years, i.e., until 2028. This year is completely different compared to all previous ones. Never ever there had been so many factory teams in the top class, now called Hypercar though most of the cars does not look much different from previous LMP1 Hybrid era machines.
The greatest news is a comeback of the Ferrari factory team to the top class. This year it is exactly 50 years since the last factory prototype competed in the World Endurance Championship and 24 Hour Le Mans. Back in 1973 the Ferrari team was defeated by Matra in an interesting long season battle. That after completely dominating the previous season 1972 - then Matra won Le Mans, while Ferrari skipped it and won all of the rest. Note to say that Matra opted otherwise - to skip all races by Le Mans. The last Ferrari win at Le Mans is dated back to 1965. So the history might be soon overwritten.
This year Ferrari is by far the closest competitor to long-time dominating Toyotas, which - after departure of Audi in 2016 and Porsche a year later - appeared to be without any proper competition in WEC. All that despite some attempts by FIA to allow private LMP1, later their grandfathered version (Alpine) to keep up with the Toyota, that has really never brought expected fruits. The closest to defeating Toyotas was Alpine LMP1 last year but it was prevented by continuous changes in BOP (Ballance of Performance) to assure that Alpine would not become a champion. The most obvious it was after the qualifying at Le Mans, when the BOP change made the Alpine uncompetitive, after excellent qualifying time at the levels of Toyota.
This year it is a huge difference. There are now no grandfathered cars and for all new Hypercars the BOP is set way better ten before and possibly reflects real strength of the teams & cars, as it would have been if their built cars to identical rules while the differences were caused primarily by experience, length of development and also investments. While I was afraid, they would make all Hypercars artificially equal regarding their speed, the real situation so far looks good. With the arrival of new factory teams, running in the different rule sets (ACO's Le Mans Hypercar and IMSA's Le Mans Daytona hybrid), it has not really been an easy task - especially considering how badly the BOP was usually held in the past, among the GT cars, or the last year with Alpine.
There are altogether 13 Hypercar class cars, the record number which is however going to be exceeded in the next race - Le Mans 24 Hours. The original 11 Hypercars racing in the first two races of the season - Sebring a Portimão - (2 x Toyota, 2 x Ferrari, 2 x Porsche, 2 x Peugeot, plus a single Cadillac and non-hybrid cars from Glickenhaus and a new Vanwall) there is a second factory Cadillac (being completed just before Free Practice 1) and also the first of privately entered Porsches. It was also delivered only less than a week before this event. It is entered by team JOTA, competing with a LMP2 car in the earlier races - to keep the drivers and the team busy enough.
While the first Free Practice on Thursday saw a pattern similar to the previous races, i.e., both Toyotas on the top, with the better more than one and half seconds ahead of everything else, the second Free Practice in the afternoon, saw much more interesting picture. At the beginning the session was interrupted by couple of red flags and some FCYs, so it took some time before any representative times were achieved. But soon after that we had a Ferrari at the top, with a time nearly 1 second better than last year's Pole Position. The regular Cadillac was second for most of the session (while the new one spent the session in the garage after catching small fire with only two laps completed). And the better Peugeot was third, still by mid of the session. Surprisingly quick Glickenhaus followed (need to say that last year this car set the Pole Position here, but lack of winter testing made them outsiders this season). Only after those four there was a pair of Toyotas. This meant 5 different makes on top 5, just like in the last race in Portimão.
It was a troubled session for Porsches, setting up no competitive times. The best of them was the private JOTA entry, but still not ahead of entire LMP2 field. Vanwall struggled as well, beating just a single LMP2 - the Alpine, which are two here, effectively sandwiching the Vanwall in FP2. The Alpine team is preparing for next year comeback to the top class, with own LMDh car but for some reason they are not really competitive in LMP2 this year so far. Another note of interest here is that their cars have a bit unclear designation. While technically they are identical to Oreca 07, the only car seen in the class this year, they were originally shown as Alpine A470 in the pre-season entry. Then in the entry release for Le Mans, the Alpine team car were called Oreca 07. It appeared similar in all WEC races so far too, despite the original entry said otherwise. To make more confusion to that, all press information provided by Alpine, call their cars as Alpine A470. After some discussion with the team, I understand it that they are allowed to use the Alpine name but officially FIA would list them as Orecas. So probably everybody can select what to use. Personally, I prefer Alpine. Not only they were called this way many seasons before they joined LMP1/LMH ranks but I also hate that monotonous 'Oreca Cup' when seeing any LMP2 results sheets, the cup which replaced the proper LMP2 competition and variety of the past. Fortunately, they are likely going to be replaced next year with way more LMH machinery, which brings real diversity in the field -something that true sports car fan must love.
Back to FP2 session. The other Ferrari was kept away of running for some time but soon it appeared in the full force, after just three laps it set the second fastest time and moved the Cadillac to third. It stayed this way until the end of the session. Only one Toyota manage to improve to 4th, moving Peugeot to still nice 5th and Glickenhaus to 6th. Best of Oreca Cup was 8th, i.e., Porsches remained unplaced.
Bad news is however that at the end of the session two AF Corse Ferraris collided near Ear Rouge, cars 21 and 54 and both were heavily damaged. We believe that 54, which led GTE class and was not beaten until and of the session might appear during the weekend, sbut no.21 was confirmed not to be repaired or replaced with a spare one.
Update 1: The final Free Practice session held on Friday was not about improving lap times but rather practicing in wet. For most of the session we had Ferraris at the top with Peugeot being closest. There were many different cars leading the session at some point. Peugeot at the beginning, then Ferrari and as the track slowly dried, there was also Porsche, even the private JOTA Porsche for a few seconds. But one minute before the scheduled end, Glickenhaus appeared at the top. We believe the session, planned for one hour, started a bit later, so it was not enough for Glickenhaus. It figures on 11th position if we look into the final results. The session was really flagged-off several minutes later, and despite some rain drops 10 minutes before the end, time improved quite quickly. Into the last lap the season was led by Cadillac, but it was more about being at the right time on the track on proper tyres.
Toyotas were most of the part of the session really in the back. Car no.8 was even behind all hybrid cars. But in the last lap we had Cadillac in the lead, most of the cars already flagged, ending their session, and only remaining Toyota in its final full-speed lap. Cadillac was really very close to its success, but the Toyota crossed the line enough in time to move to the front of the field. How meaningless the final time were, best illustrates the fact the third overall was one of the WRT Team Orecas, less then 1 second behind the Toyota. The JOTA Porsche managed to stay 4th while early dominating Ferraris and Peugeots ended up well behind better LMP2s, except for the Ferrari no.50 (19th), they were classified between 15th and 18th positions.
Now we await the final practice session, this time the qualifying one. Would it be Ferrari again after Sebring? Will Toyota confirm their dominance at Portimão? Could someone else surprise? I guess the weather might play a notable part in it but we hope it would be dry if not sunny.
One more note. Of the two crashed Ferrari yesterday afternoon, the less damaged car no.54 appeared this morning in the middle of the session. So, it is a good news and we can expect 37 starters tomorrows, unless something unexpected happens during the qualifying session.
Update 2:
Qualifying:
The first part for GTE saw another accident past Eau Rouge, when Porsche no.86 spun into the barrier, making the session red flagged. The Porsche was provisionally 3rd but it needs to be said that only Corvette (the only one in the field of Porsches, Ferraris and Aston Martins) and Aston no.25 had set competitive times before the session was stopped. Other teams were more affected by the session interruption and only Iron Dames Porsche in the last lap could move to second and also Proton Competition Porsche manage to eat the Corvette, while the Aston Martin improved being nearly 2 seconds ahead of the Dames, but still another two seconds behind practice times.
LMP2 section was interesting because nearly all team but two pitted after their first lap out, for tyre change. Not sure why but afterwards there no issues and interruption and thus all cars set their best, with newer United Autosport entry being under 2:06. All eleven cars were separated by 1.2 second, which is much smaller margin than between the first two in GTE. Alpines were once again on the last two places. So, their bad season continues.
Hypercar session was awaited with a great interest. Unfortunately for Toyota, Hartley in no.8 span into the barrier on cold tyres and the session was stopped after less than 2 minutes. So, one Toyota was out of contention and the battle continued, once the session was restarted. Again, fantastic competition throughout entire Hypercar field. Despite some positive showings from Peugeot, Porsche, Cadillac and also Glickenhaus, in the end it was also a very close battle between Ferraris and the remaining Toyota. Ferrari no.50 took provisional Pole Position and turned to the pitlane. By that time, Toyota no.7 set the best time, but the other Ferrari was still on track and in its final lap beat Toyota by fragment of second. Spectator applauded the Ferrari performance, but the time was soon deleted for ‘track limits’ moving Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi back to Pole Position, ahead of Ferrari no.50 of Miguel Molina. The second-best time of Ferrari no.51 driven by Antonio Giovinazzi was still sufficient to be placed third very closed ahead of both Cadillacs, two Porsches – one of them the new JOTA, Glickenhaus and the rest. The times much improved compared to the last year. While Glickenhaus was on pole last year, today’s time would be still enough for Pole in 2022 (despite slightly slower) but in the current competition it was just sufficient for 8th position.
By the way, it seems that we could have a full filed of 38 cars tomorrow. Despite originally the Ferrari 21 was expected withdrawal, today’s report spoke about a spare bare chassis coming to the track. And after the qualifying session we could see almost completed new car no.21 built around the spare chassis nearly from scratch. The other accidents today, Porsche no.56 and the Toyota, both causing red flagging the session were not that serious to have impact on tomorrow start, we believe.
Update 3: Unfortunately, race morning news revealed that the crashed Porsche 991 RSR number 56 of team Project 1 AO. The car appeared to be damaged beyond repair for the today’s race. Originally released Starting Grid contained the Porsche on 38th position (despite setting quick GTE lap in qualifying), current version has this space empty. Toyota, another car that suffered an accident in qualifying is currently listed 36th, though also information that it would start from the back of Hypercar grid (actually 13th) also appeared. 37th grid slot is currently assigned to the replacement Ferrari no.21. Good news is that none of the drivers involved in the practice accident was seriously hurt and it seems that all of them (except for the car 56, of course), would be able to take part in the race.
Update 4:
The Race:
First, we can say that it was a great race full of action, demanding with fantastic finishes on podium in all three classes, however on overall podium in particular. Despite cloudy and cold weather, the attendance was really high, though we do not know any official figure. It must have been huge, especially compared with empty grandstands of Portimão two week ago.
One of the most important moments or decisions were to be taken even before the race started. Most gridded cars were on slicks, but the track was still quite wet, so some teams opted to switch to wets several minutes before the start. We witnessed Ferrari doing this switch, and considering the track conditions we assumed all teams would go this way. Then we moved to take some pictures of the start at the end of the main straight and expected close race, especially between Ferrari and Toyota. But to our surprise, Ferrari took the lead, while pole-sitting Toyota fell back. Cadillac was running third, surprisingly JOTA Porsche fourth, even Peugeots were very high. Only later we could understand the reason. While those cars at the top ran wet tyres, Toyotas, factory Porsches, yellow Cadillac no.3 and also non-hybrid Glickenhaus and Vanwall were clearly on slicks.
The wet tyre tactics might have worked, was not there a safety car after three laps when Iron Lynx Porsche left the track and had to be towed back. This time could bring the team on wets enough advantage, but safety car destroyed this hope. And when SC went off, the track had dried enough to make cars on slicks notably quicker. So all Hypercar from the top 6 had to pit. That led to a situation they lost a lap or more (thanks to the new rule, that tyres cannot be warmed, so it took several laps till for example Ferraris could ran at least at the pace of Vanwall. That situation virtually split the Hypercar field into two groups and this was actually never fully overcome during entire race. Off course, Glickenhaus and Vanwall who enjoyed for some time very high positions lost to Ferraris, JOTA Porsche and the Cadillac but otherwise this disadvantage of starting on wets was broken only in the final lap when Ferrari no.51 in an excellent finish overtook Porsche no.5, the remaining slick-started car on the track. Saying that one can assume that Toyotas took easy 1-2. That partially correct, but definitely was not that easy as it might have looked. Was the race started on regular conditions Ferrari would be likely today’s winner. Competition is generally closer to the Toyotas compared with Sebring and also with Portimão, when Toyotas won by two or one lap respectively. This time we had 4 cars in the lead lap. And it may have been more without relatively high number of retirements. And of course, without the difficult decision-making regarding tyres before the start. The Ferrari no.51 had to unlap itself. Fifth finishing Cadillac nearly managed the same, but Toyotas were simply quicker than Caddy showing here a nice performance.
Actually, the first notable retirement in the top class was the yellow Cadillac no.3. That one started on slicks and by 90 minutes into the race, it ran safely second behind leading Toyota no.7. At this point, the two Ferraris which were lap down approached the Cadillac. We thought the Cadillac would be an easy job for Ferrari, but it appeared that its driver wanted to keep the Ferraris behind for whatever cost. Unfortunately, into the Eau Rouge it was still Cadillac, Ferrari, Ferrari but outside the curve it was only Ferrari, Ferrari. It was the picture we could follow from the main grandstand. The TV soon showed the reason. The yellow Cadillac got a spin (too quick to keep Ferrari behind, or some mechanical issue?) and was crashed heavily, hopefully repairable. While there would be more accidents in Hypercar class, this impact was by far the most serious. Driver fortunately seemed OK.
Since that moment we had positions Toyota no.7, Porsche no.6, Toyota no.8 and Porsche no.5 a bit back but still in the lead lap. Non-hybrid had already lost they tyre selection advantage and all the rest were lap down, even mixed with LMP2, due to early pit stop followed by tyre-warming, which took longer in still partially wet conditions. At this point the blue Cadillac no.2 kept both Ferraris behind while Peugeots and JOTA Porsche were further down behind the LMP2 leaders.
It needs to be said, the third running Toyota no.8 started from the back of the grid but with the safety cars and tyre choices that was not as big disadvantage as it might have looked, but it was the Porsche that ran really well at this part of the race. At some moment it was even behind the Toyota no.8 but overtook it back and at the beginning of the third hour of the race, it ran quicker that both Toyotas, which being sandwiched between them. Unfortunately, it did not take too long, and the Porsche stopped at the beginning of the main straight and it was the end of the car in the race.
Since then, we had Toyotas one-two and only other remaining hybrid car starting on slicks was Porsche no.5, which however never had the pace of the two others, already retired. However as the race progressed, it looked as if Ferraris could really make the race hard for Toyotas, as they ran usually quicker, they unlapped themselves and with a lucky timing of safety car period, it was still not a lost race for Ferrari.
Of the Hypercar backmarkers, by middle of the race one Peugeot and Glickenhaus still ran ahead of the LMP2 but in the second half they would join the other Peugeot and Vanwall to get mixed further down with the LMP2 field. Bad for Vanwall, later they had some issues, when it stopped on track after pitstop, only to restart and complete a slow lap back to the pits. However even later, Vanwall taking on lapping some GT car, it span and crashed fairly enough to cause another safety car and retirement. Unfortunately for AF Corse Ferrari GTE no.54, it was taken along, with this spinning Vanwall. While the Ferrari was pulled from the gravel and reach the pits, we believe it never took it back to the track, despite currently shown in the results as non-Classified, rather than a non-Finisher. This all happened in the fourth hour of the race.
While the hourly results would always show the Porsche no.5 on third spot, after hours 3, 4, 5, the real situation on track was more interesting due to completely different pitstop strategy between the two groups of Hypercars, which separated the pre-race tyre choice. Especially the Ferraris often appeared ahead of the Porsche, and also the remaining Cadillac had a chance on the Porsche. With 100 minutes to the end, the situation was very interesting so we took a print screen of timing screen which show following provisional standings:
1. Toyota no.7 - 105 laps
2. Toyota no.8 – 4.575 seconds back
3. Ferrari no.50 – 13.228 seconds back
4. Ferrari no.51 – 17.561 seconds back
5. Cadillac no.2 – 24.738 seconds behind the leader
They were followed by two Porsches, meaning the JOTA recovered also well and can consider their debut race a success. They would finish nice 6th, just one lap down.
We hope the race could be still undecided at this point but two laps later the pattern was completely different. The Ferrari no.50 had to pit and when exited, the driver lost control over the car on cold tyres and could not manage to avoid the barrier. Then the car moved back to block half of the track and another Safety Car period was called. It was a sad moment, but the race was still not finished.
Due to different pitting strategy of the two groups, it happened that the Porsche no.5 again appeared 3rd. While the Cadillac did not run that quickly at the end and was lapped by the leading Toyota, the Ferrari made a race when with 30 minutes to go, decided to catch the Porsche no.5, which was full 40 seconds ahead. That meant to gain over a second per minute until the finish. I followed this great battle from the new grandstands at Eau Rouge, where is an excellent overview and followed entire battle also through the timing screen, where the difference was updated several times per lap. I did not have much hope but as the race finish approached, the more likely this battle was becoming. Some 10 minutes before the end, the Ferrari was already visible from the rear mirrors of the Porsche on longer straights. And when they ran into the last lap that gap was really very small. When entering the Les Combes, Ferrari was already ahead, it was so quicker at this part of the race (2-3 seconds per lap) that it was very easy to overtake the Porsche. There was actually no real battle for the position. But it was a fantastic finish. By the way, leading Toyota crossed the finish line a few seconds later.
There were also excellent podium battles in the other class until the very end. In LMP2 Team WRT no.41 won by margin ahead of Autosport United no.23 but there was a very close battle in the final laps for third, ending happily for Polish Inter Europol Competition team, which had a close with Prema Racing no.9, only gaining some margin at the very end.
The GTE battle was even closer. Ferrari no.83 won by some 20 seconds, but the second and third between solo Chevrolet Corvette and Aston Martin no.25 (team ORT by TF) was undecided until the last turn. Difference 0.2 second, Corvette won it. The battle took many laps and it occupied attention of most spectator, despite the great catch-up by Ferrari, as this battle was so obvious and visible to everybody.
