Over the last decade, sports car races are never over until after the checkered flag, and we have seen the proof of that. This is a nice phase of the race because we aren't whining and moaning so much about the heat, going "it's too dang hot!" The car is feeling better, the tires feel better, and you can push them harder. Grip changes, fuel weight, tire fatigue, driver fatigue. It makes it harder to judge lap times and make comparisons between drivers. Two cars spend time in close company but with different drivers at the wheel. Alex Brundle says that in his time with Inter Europol this season, they have been working on the engineering structure for the team and have a group of people who are very effective. They are learning a lot. Brundle will be back with the team in 2023.
Alex Brundle has been in the WEC paddock now for a decade. That's amazing to think about. Everyone has to be a partner in steering the ship in the right direction. Drivers can do so much and deliver the investment for the team owners. That is how racing works. Esteban Guttierez, too, is a talented driver and has been great to work with. He has learned a ton about endurance racing according to Alex. Pit stop time for Mike Conway in Toyota #7 from second place. It is the official FIA Volunteers & Officials weekend; 450-500 unpaid volunteers are working here. Marshals are volunteers, not salaried. Without them we could not go racing.
The orange and white army, whether you wear an orange uniform throughout the world or a white uniform in the United States, we could not do it without you. Without you all being here to keep us safe, there would be no motor racing at all. God Bless each and every one of you. Nowadays, these 500 marshals are locals from here in Bahrain and you have to learn from expertise. We have seen a lot of British marshals over the years. Peugeot #94 is in the pit lane. Different nationalities, local folks marshaling, men and women driving the cars and working on the pit crews. A good battle is brewing once again, look, in GTE Am.Toyota #8 in pit lane too. Many Bahraini marshals also come to Europe to the other Class 1 and Class 2 circuits. Spread the love. Once again, God Bless the marshals. Will Stevens asks if he can push to try to make a move on the leading WRT car in LMP2. His crew chief comes back on the radio and says "OK to push. OK to push." It's like the magic words, please and thank you, or "mother, may I?" for a child, and mom says, "yes you may". Stevens is pressing Louis Deletraz with everything he's got and going into the corner, let's see what happens here.
Yes, Will. Push, but be very careful! Don't do anything silly. Think championship. Do not be a hero. Bring the car home. Lower the risk. Mike Conway must be losing patience. He wanted to hear "yes you may" from the Toyota bosses, 40 minutes ago and is still crawling all over teammate Brendon Hartley. This hasn't changed one iota for a good while now. We have not heard anything more from Brendon Hartley about the gearbox playing up. So I wonder if he is babying that gearbox to try and get home here. I am with you, Graham and Anthony. I am totally perplexed as to why Toyota have not let Mike go by Brendon and eke out a lead.
Even if Toyota #7 wins the race, they would still lose the championship to #8. Brendon Hartley is told the teammates are not fighting but Hartley wants to pass. He has only just come out of the pits, and he needs to get going. Drivers are under pressure from management and don't want to be replaced. The drivers are under tons and tons of pressure. The pressure keeps a driver sharp and honest. Drivers are sometimes desperate and sometimes confident. There is no trust really within a team, or if there is, it takes time to build. Some teams let the drivers fight and others don't, but the drivers know what the risk is.
Brendon Hartley must show he can stick to car #7 like glue and start taking risks. Mike Conway, too, he is going to do the exact same thing. This isn't a show. They are driving for their jobs, for their careers. Hartley can calm his tires down if he is waved through. Toyota #7 leading the motor race has now run 97 laps, 326 miles. The order in Le Mans Hypercar is Toyota, Toyota, Alpine, Peugeot, Peugeot. WRT leads LMP2, three laps behind the leaders on 94 laps, 316 miles. United Autosports and Jota with their two-car teams follow. AF Corse leads Ultimate and Algarve Pro in LMP2 Pro-Am. Ferrari's lead in both GTE Pro and GTE Am with AF Corse and Iron Dames.
Hypercar news as we have news that Yifei Ye will race for Hertz Team Jota in a Porsche 963 LMDh Hypercar for 2023. He is the nominated driver for Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific. Good news to hear. We look at a picture in picture shot and see the #64 Corvette C8.R in the pit lane either for service or to serve some form of penalty. Hard to tell. Plus, there is another battle heating up in LMP2. Sparks spewing off the left rear wheel for Corvette. Hopefully there are no issues. GTE Pro, check this out. Corvette #64 has the preferred line into the corner, sells Porsche #92 the dummy, and makes his move. Nick Tandy makes his move on Michael Christensen, and wham, goes right past. That was an odd angle, if you look at the picture, of how the #92 Porsche approached corner entry. A real head scratcher that was indeed.Once again, we look at the battle for seventh place in LMP2 competition between Esteban Guttierez and Norman Nato. The Mexican vs. the Frenchman.
It is a battle between Inter Europol and RealTeam by WRT. Many other drivers have already been announced for Hypercar and there are more to come. It used to be too many drivers and not enough seats. But now, it is the reverse. Too many available seats and maybe not enough drivers. Opportunities begin to open up. Finally, a formula for which the driver ranking system works. All these factories are getting into bigtime sports car racing. What a great view of the track tower with LED lights here at Bahrain. Pit stop time for Project 1 with the #46 entry, the first of their two GTE Am Porsche's. Nicki Leutwiler staying in the car for another stint.
This is the #777 D'station Racing Aston Martin currently in the hands of Charlie Fagg, being pursued by Mikkel Pedersen in the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche. We look at Nicky Leutwiler in the #46 Team Project 1 GTE Am Porsche. Of course, he is sharing that car with Mikkel Pedersen and Matteo Cairoli. Tires being changed and fuel being added. Trouble with the rattle gun on one of the tires but the wheel nut eventually gets seated into the stub axle. Sara Bovy continues leading in GTE Am while Ben Barnicoat in the sister Project 1 Porsche #56 has a penalty in his future for an unsafe pit release.
Come to race. Bring your friends. There's so much coming next year. It is building like crazy. We are all curious beings who want to know what on earth is going on. Four and a half hours of this motor race left to go, so we are half an hour away from the halfway point. Now we move back to Hypercar and are watching the #93 Peugeot 9X8 with Jean Eric Vergne at the wheel of it. He is chasing Alpine and Brazilian Andre Negrao.
There are no stupid questions. If you don't know, please ask. Maybe, just maybe, I can help. I am a super fan of endurance sports car racing. Pit stop time in LMP2 for the #9 Prema Orlen Oreca entry. Nico Muller has the sister #94 Peugeot in a podium spot, in third place right now. We say hello to John Doonan, President of IMSA. The Roar Before the Rolex 24 is coming very soon. Two seconds between Conway and Hartley. Francois Perrodo has finished his stint leading LMP2 Pro Am. e loves being back in LMP2 and has seen a great fight this year in 2022. Le Mans was not nice, but the rest was.
This is Francois Perrodo's final race for the time being. Best wishes to him in the future, as he has been racing with Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera. Nicklas and Alessio might be in a Ferrari Hypercar next year. Perrodo, if everything works out, will become the most successful driver in WEC history with, count them, four championships! Yikes! I did not know that! Three GTE Am championships and one LMP2 Pro Am title. We should see Perrodo back in racing next year perhaps in IMSA and/or the European Le Mans Series. Pit stop time as well for the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. IMSA's GTP division has huge heritage. Had the ACO said that Hypercar would be called Group C, the Twitter universe of the sports car racing faithful would have been out en masse with torches and pitchforks!
Enough nonsense. Meanwhile, back to the racing, and a scrum between Prema and Jota. Prema Orlen have been handed an opportunity in sports car racing after being very successful in open wheel racing. They are new to endurance but have the ability. There is so much engineering depth and knowledge that it does not matter what kind of cars a team like Prema are working on. You have Jota, United Autosport, and WRT as well, raising the bar higher and higher in the LMP2 class. The bar continues to be raised tenfold every single year.
Folks, we don't have to worry about Balance of Performance. The preparation at least in LMP2, and talent, is what is important. Balance of Performance is only set to do one thing, to define the maximum performance level(s) a car can achieve. That's all. How clsoe you get to maximum performance is the team game. It is about the whole package and not just the car as Toyota lead and run 1-2 as we are closing on the halfway mark as Mike Conway has a two and a half second margin over Brendon Hartley. He isn't rolling over to have his tummy scratched and play dead. He still has fight left in him. Charles Milesi brings the #1 LMP2 entry to the lane for Richard Mille Racing. Will Stevens in the meantime is in hot pursuit of the teammate Oliver Rasmussen. The inter team battle at Jota is beginning to boil and simmer. Pit stop time now at RealTeam by WRT as well, look.
No driver change. Just a drink bottle change. Norman Nato is here racing. Sean Gelael leads LMP2 for WRT with Josh Pierson and Will Owen in the United Autosports cars, following. Phil Hanson used to be their Silver driver and has been promoted to Gold. Leading the Pro-Am portion of the LMP2 class is the #83 Oreca with Francois Perrodo of France at the wheel of it. The battle in Pro-Am has been between AF Corse, Ultimate, and APR. They run 15th, 16th, and 17th in the overall. So, Ultimate take the erstwhile class lead before pitting.
Mike Conway knew he was the faster of the two Toyota's and is keeping his word. He is now 2.8 seconds up on the sister car of the Kiwi, Brendon Hartley. Mike Conway is stringing together quite a few good stints. Hartley though was top of the shop during qualifying yesterday. m Josh Pierson hits the pit lane in one of the two United Autosport cars and is the car on their team with a chance at the championship. He is sharing with Oliver Jarvis who is the next driver into the car. Somehow or other the GTE Pro cars have been changing three tires, with Corvette, Ferrari, and Porsche. Not the case in prototypes. There is more aero with the prototypes as both Jota cars are in the lane, 1.2 seconds apart.
The biggest difference with tires in LMP2, the tires are different and not confidential tires whereas the tires in GTE Pro are. They have to give the tires back to Michelin after each race. Now then, the #31 WRT entry is in the lane as well for a driver change and regular service. #22 is now in the pit lane. WRT exit the lane and of course they will be the factory BMW team in WEC. Louis Deletraz is now the erstwhile LMP2 leader aboard the #9 Prema Oreca 07. The final World Championship in GTE Pro is going to very likely be defined by two words, and those two words are safety car.
Porsche could get help with a safety car. Good battle raging here, look, in GTE Am. It is for third in the class between the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin of Henrique Chaves of Portugal and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari with Thomas Flohr of Switzerland at the controls. I think I have been getting a little confused during this hour of what part of the race I am actually writitng about. Forgive me. For the #33 team, Ben Keating has done a triple stint and so now, Chaves and Marco Sorensen will share the car to the end o the race. Paul Dalla Lana and company want to be the best, the top dog, in GTE Am for Aston Martin should something go wrong for the boys in the #33 camp.
You know the #98 team are the sharks who smell blood in the water. Nico Muller is told he will pit this lap in Peugeot #94 and Loic Duval will take over the car. The gap between the two Toyota's is nearly 2.3 seconds and now, the traveled distance thus far for the Toyota's equals 112 laps on the board, 377 miles. Oh boy. An offcourse excursion under braking as Nico Muller comes to the lane, coming in a shade too hot on his in lap. The marbales from the tires are getting worse. So, Loic Duval is the third driver into the car and I believe Gustavo Menezes has done a stint.
We have discussed this idea before, but it is worth reiterating. The Peugeot 9X8 looks very different from any other Hypercar or LMP2 entry in the field. Why is that? Well, simply put, there is no visible rear wing on the automobile. This is all part of the different thinking of design as well as Balance of Performance in the umbrella of Hypercar that is encompassing the LMH, the Hypercar class here in World Endurance and for the LMDh/Grand Touring Prototype class we are going to see in the IMSA championship with Cadillac, Acura, Porsche, and BMW, next year.
You can use the underfloor to generate downforce if you would like. Now, I believe IMSA have stipulated they want the car manufacturers to incorporate rear wings into their designs per the rules. But Peugeot are using the upper bodywork and the underfloor of the car to generate the downforce on the 9X8. So, technically speaking, they are fine as wine without having to use a rear wing. Nico Muller has had a frustrating few stints and is visibly upset as he is trying to explain to the engineer how the car is working out at this moment.
Now, former Peugeot driver James Rossiter, who was let go from the team, I don't necessarily believe he was let go. He is going to be team boss in Formula E for the open wheel electric race cars, for Maserati of all brands. Well, that will be an interesting thing to see if you are inclined and/or interested in following Formula E which is something that yours truly has sadly not had the ability or interest in doing as of late. The #10 Vector Sport LMP2 car is in the lane for service and a driver change and this was the car that Nico Muller drove in for half of the 2022 FIA WEC season.
#10 has Ryan Cullen, Renger van der Zande, and Sebastien Bourdais on the driver's strength for this race in Bahrain. Le Mans resident, Bourdais, is getting into the car for this stint. The LMP2 cars are still very current and are running similar lap times to the Hypercars. The Peugeot has lots of ground effects as the Vector Sport team changes the tires and drops the car off the air jacks. It will be interesting to see, in a couple more years here in WEC, and next year in IMSA against the GT3 cars with good mechanical grip and of course with antilock brakes.
Robin Frijns is finally aboard the #31 WRT entry in LMP2. His father was a racing driver as well. Frijns is ahead of both United cars and the #38 Jota entry as well as the #9 Prema car. Will Stevens is now up to fourth and he can win along with his teammates if they finish sixth or better and right now it looks like they will. Pit stop time at Alpine. Porsche are going to deliver customer cars but we are not going to see any customer Porsche GTP cars at the Rolex 24. They are not scheduled to deliver before that event. So, you shall only see the two Team Penske factory run cars.
We may not see the customer cars at Sebring either looking at teams such as Proton Competition and JDC Miller Motorsports I believe as we look at Malthe Jakobsen, the ELMS LMP3 champ. Malthe Jakobsen is due to test the Peugeot 9X8 tomorrow in the rookie test after this race is long over. So, we shall talk to you about the rookie test very soon. Stay tuned. There is a lot more to come. Toyota #7 has now run 115 laps, 387 miles, with the sister car nearly 4.8 seconds behind. Peugeot had four drivers slated to test the 9X8 tomorrow but there will be just three as poor old Stoffel Vandoorne has come down with a bout of appendicitis. Blech! Get well soon, Stoffel.
Appendicitis does not sneak up on you. It is, oh my God! I'm dying! Help me! Nico Muller is discovering how tough the Bahrain circuit is on tires. He feels good about the race, the car, and how things are going. Muller has only had a day of testing in the Peugeot, with just a few laps. A lot to learn. The Hypercars are not as difficult to learn about as the old LMP1 cars, but they are still technological marvels. Mike Conway's lead over Toyota teammate Brendon Hartley has ballooned to four and a half seconds. Both Peugeot's have dealt with electronic glitches in the race today but they remain in the fight, running third and fifth in the overall.
Alpine holding out hope for their car in third place. No more worries it seems from the Toyota #8 team about the gearbox nearly going kaput. I think we can put that what if scenario to bed. Alexander Wurz, driver advisor and team ambassador at Toyota, looking on. We see a battle for seventh place in the GTE Am class heating up between D'station Aston Martin and Iron Lynx Ferrari. Charlie Fagg, the Englishman in the #777 car vs. vastly experienced Italian Ferrari driver, in Formula 1 and sports cars alike, Giancarlo Fisichella. Toyota should next be putting their Japanese drivers into the cars. Kamui Kobayashi into #7 and Ryo Hirakawa into the #8.
Funny enough, Nico Muller and Rene Rast, we thought they were headed for Audi who wanted to do a Hypercar effort, a GTP effort. But that car and entire program were canned in favor of Audi racing in Formula E I believe. Another example in racing of what might have been. Oh, dear me! I had to mention Nico Muller. Commentators curse strikes again! The #94 Peugeot he is one of the drivers in, is going very slowly, now with his co-driver Loic Duval of France at the controls. Shifting issues and a possible fuel cut I think is what Duval is telling the team on the radio as he finally gets the car restarted. But he will be trundling back to the lane at this rate.
I wonder if Peugeot #94 is a shot duck. The engine shuts off completely and poor old Loic Duval is just coasting. Did he shut the engine off. No. The engine failed. It shut itself off. Push reset and keep going, just like a computer. So, he has reset the thing and is back underway. These hybrid cars have their gremlins. Push reset. Control, Alt, Delete. You don't have to go through a bunch of maps and menus on your dashboards, scrolling like you would on a computer screen. All you need is a quiz show reset button, one of those king size buttons to buzz in your answer.
There need to be two big buttons on the dash. Two big red buttons. One king size button says reset, and the other king size button says deploy ejector seat. Poor old Loic Duval is still in trouble. He is now in the pit lane. #94 back to the garage. Shades of Monza where both cars ran into trouble last summer. Peugeot split the lead Toyota's at one stage, but the speed dwindled and the reliability gremlins have struck once more. Sheesh. Nico Lapierre moves to third place even though he is a lap down, almost two, to the leading Toyota's.
Well, well, well. Just as we say that the latest pit stop for the #36 Alpine is now under investigation by the stewards as we now have crossed over 120 laps on the board, 403 and a half miles. A 2.2 second lead from one Toyota to the other. Philippe Sinault and a few others have been able to keep the Alpine brand alive in motorsports. They have succeeded. There is more to Alpine than just being the name of a Formula 1 team or a sports car team. Just like Abarth for Fiat, Alpine in the late 1950s/early 1960s was the performance tuner, just in the same way as Gordini was for Renault. They built their own racing and rally cars and won Le Mans in 1978 with Renault in the hands of racing legends Didier Pironi and Jean Pierre Jassaud if I am right.
They have come back into sports cars since that Le Mans victory what, 44 years ago. We watch another battle brewing in LMP2 in the Pro-Am section between Nicklas Nielsen for AF Corse, car #83 and Sebastien Bourdais for Vector Sport, car #10. I think Vector Sport and Bourdais are actually in the overall LMP2 division and not just a part of the Pro-Am ranking. So, yet another racing hour is now in the bag and we are halfway home.
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