The opening race of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship is tomorrow. This is the first time we are going to see with our own eyes, the fruits of the "convergence" idea in WEC racing as the second year of the Hypercar class goes absolutely bonkers with entries, with cars, and drivers. Let's start at the beginning with the GTE Am field. GTE Am is the only GT class in the championship this year. There is no GTE Pro anymore because all the manufacturers that we have seen compete previously in the GTE Pro ranks have stepped up massively into prototypes and into Hypercar through the Le Mans Hypercar or Le Mans Daytona Hybrid Hypercar platforms. That being said, we still get an amazing crop of talented drivers in the GTE-Am class. The format for these sessions in WEC now are three, 15-minute rapid fire sessions, one per class. GTE Am, LMP2, Le Mans Hypercar.
Back to the original GTE Am part of the story. All of the usual suspects were in the fight including new faces in new places. Iron Dames now run with Porsche. They are no longer with Ferrari's program. Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sara Bovy, they actually run for Porsche in WEC and Lamborghini in the WeatherTech Championship. The same is true for the Iron Lynx sister team and the Porsche 911 RSR-19 is now the car for them, too, with Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, and Alessio Picariello, the Belgian Italian driver. Well, GTE Am saw plenty of also rans at the bottom of the grid, including teams we'd expect to see a lot higher. GR Racing Porsche, D'station Racing Aston Martin, factory Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin, they were frittering around the bottom of the pile in 2 minute and 2 minute plus lap times.
The last part of the Am qualifying session was really a four car fight. Actually, three when it comes right down to the nitty gritty. About halfway through the session it became obvious that this would be a battle between Aston Martin, Corvette, and Porsche. Forgive me. New season, new cars. I thought Ben Keating was still driving an Aston Martin! Corvette Racing are back in their factory yellow colors with the C8.R, the car that yours truly saw race first three years ago in person at the 202 Rolex 24. That C8.R is a fast machine and remains relevant indeed. You had the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin, Ahmad Al Harthy at the wheel of it, sharing with Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood, scrapping it out with the factory Corvette C8.R #33 of Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone (the Argentine driver), and Nicky "The Cat" Catsburg.
Catsburg has become something of a stalwart in C8.R Corvette's over the last number of years. In the waning moments of the 15-minute session, it was sure to be Catsburg going to the top of the shop, right? Wrong. It was in fact, pole position, for the ladies! This one is for the girls as we see more and more women getting into motor racing as drivers, crew members, and officials, as we talked about earlier today in our coverage of the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, and Sara Bovy, Michelle Gatting, and Rahel Frey, with their new pink Porsche 911 RSR-19 pulled it off! They will lead the GTE-Am field to green tomorrow morning.
In LMP2, we have a massive entry of identical Oreca 07 Gibson's. Alpine have stepped back into the LMP2 ranks with a two-car team this year. Their doctored LMP1 Alpine A480 has been retired and they are in an interim phase now before they release a new in-house Hypercar for next year. Alpine had a really weird session. One of their cars was right at the bottom of the pile while the other was clearly at towards the top. It was the #36 car the faster of the two. Other teams were also in the mix throughout. Hertz Team Jota (who will be stepping up to Hypercar in a few races), for now, they have a two-car LMP2 effort. The two-car teams from WRT and Prema Racing, and United Autosports, were all in there.
It was in fact the first of the United Autosports cars that went to the top in LMP2. They too, could be in Hypercar soon, but with team boss Zak Brown's other interest, McLaren, as he owns their Formula 1 team. Watch this space. That is all I am going to say. At any rate, United are on the pole in LMP2 for tomorrow with the #23 Oreca to be driven by Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist, and Oliver Jarvis, pipping the first Jota car in the hands of David Heinemier Hanson, Pietro Fittipaldi (grandson of Formula 1 World Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi), and Oliver Rasmussen, and the #31 Team WRT machine of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael, and the top running Alpine entry of Matthieu Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi, and Julien Canal.
Drum roll, please! Now it is time for the moment you have all been waiting for. The Hypercars take to the track in earnest with this massive smorgasbord of new machinery that we have never seen before in World Endurance with many contenders who want to do one thing. They want to knock the all-conquering Toyota GR010 Hybrids off their perch. Yes, the same chaps are still around who were driving these cars last year. The #7 with Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi (the team boss), and Jose Maria Lopez, and the #8 of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi, and Ryo Hirakawa, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022.
Looking to dethrone them, we have Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, Cadillac, Glickenhaus and Floyd Vanwall Racing. To be 100% honest, it was to be expected that the fully petrol powered V8 specials, the screamers for Glickenhaus and Vanwall, with their naturally aspirated 3.5 and 4.5 liter V8 motors respectively, would not touch the hybrid powered factory cars. Vanwall and Glickenhaus are very much garagistes and are in it for the passion of the sport even though they are doing everything in their power to remain competitive. Slowest in Hypercar, the #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 Gibson V8 to be driven by 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1997 Formula 1 World Champion, Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve, Frenchman Tom Dillman, and Esteban Guerreri of Argentina, a man with touring car and open wheel experience.
The Vanwall is using the now proven 4.5 liter screaming Gibson Technologies naturally aspirated V8 that is a punched-out version of Gibson Technologies' de regur LMP2 motor. Glickenhaus came next with their now familiar baby blue paint to replicate the old John Wyer Gulf Racing cars of the glory days. The #708 Glickenhaus SCG 007 was next in the serialGlickenhaus continues with their own engine built by Pipo Moteurs, the 3.5 liter naturally aspirated V8 that is really two 4 cylinder rally car engines welded together at the block and very reminiscent of the standard Ford Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engine that served so well in open wheel cars in the 1960s, '70s, and into the '80s. Romain Dumas, Ryan Briscoe, and Olivier Pla will again share this car and the team does hope to have drivers in the pipeline for a second car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Then it was time, for the true Hypercars from the factories to tackle the track. You have them out there racing against the smaller teams. The factory cars, Toyota, Cadillac, Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot. Cadillac were penalized causing the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing/Cadillac Racing Cadillac V Series R to enter the speedway late, with Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook, and Earl Bamber to share the driving chores. They ended up far better than expected as their lap times improved and will start fifth on the grid tomorrow. Peugeot are back after doing half the season last year and their two car effort with their wingless 9X8 Hypercar is once again loaded for bear.
Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, and Jean Eric Vergne took the #93 car to the slowest time for a factory car just ahead of the Glickenhaus and the Vanwall with their sister machine #94 of Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes, and Nico Muller just ahead. So, Peugeot will be contenders but are going to have a long road ahead tomorrow. Believe you me, as we go up the grid, this is where the fight really starts and we knew this was going to be the battle royale. Toyota Gazoo Racing vs. Ferrari with AF Corse and Porsche with Team Penske. Toyota with their two GR010 Hybrids that have been mopping the floor with everyone, Ferrari with the new 499P Hypercar and their return to top level, factory prototype sports car racing for the first time in half a century, and presumably, the top of the heap, the Porsche 963 duo from Porsche Penske Motorsports who have efforts in both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.
You have the heavy hitters with Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen taking the qualifying laps at Porsche. At Toyota it is Brendon Hartley and Jose Maria Lopez. Ferrari has Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi. OK. So, we have set the stage. Everyone was thinking, ho hum, another Toyota lockout on the front row. Press the losing buzzer, now. On the contrary, Dr. Pepper. Toyota were shell shocked! The FIA WEC paddock were shell shocked! Ferrari... boom goes the dynamite, as Antonio Fuoco puts himself to the top of the tree by two tenths of a second over the Toyota! Have you ever? No, I've never!
The Prancing Horse, on the pole, at Sebring, in FIA World Endurance! Absolutely amazing. Get a good night's sleep for tomorrow. You all are going to need that and plenty of coffee for the 1,000 Miles of Sebring. When we get underway at 10:30 A.M. it is going to be a barnburner! You won't want to miss it. Tune in on the Motor Trend app if you have it and join us right here for all the action on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog. It will be fun! I can guarantee it. Sleep well, ladies and gentlemen. Good night from Sebring International Raceway. Bye bye.
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