A first day of school that seemed difficult for everyone except for Porsche who took all three steps of the podium, two of them with its official cars.
Last year in Sebring, this year in Losail, it’s time to get back on track starting with one of the most difficult circuits on the calendar. The International Circuit of Losail is one of the most difficult because of the ease of the track to get dirty, the difficulty in heating the tires and respecting the track limits.
At the first race of 2023 we met the cars of the eleventh season of the WEC, this year three new manufacturers are added to the class (BMW, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini) and Alpine is back. Last year’s cars are the same, but what has changed in Qatar? BOP, difficulties in finding the right set up and mistakes from the teams, that’s why the 1812 of Qatar revealed so many surprises.
Toyota and Ferrari what happened? Was Qatar’s BOP a fair balance of performance?
Last year the Japanese and Maranello manufacturers gave us battles for the first places and Ferrari made us dream with the victory at Le Mans, but in Losail what happened?
Both have reconfirmed the reliability bringing all their cars to the finish line without problems, but to slow them down in the race were ballast, energy management and some mistakes.
Toyota: competitive performance was not enough for a podium
Already in the prologue we saw the effort that Toyota was making to keep up with others. A difficulty that was then confirmed in qualifying where only Nyck De Vries showed competitive, but lost pole to Porsche.
During the race the team of the Rising Sun was lost in the group , but already from the Prologue and in free practice they understood that Losail was not their track. The team worked tirelessly before the race to manage the tyres and the weight-power, but this was not enough for a win, losing it at the first race of the season for the first time since 2018.
Thanks to the good strategy and the experience of the drivers, the Toyota Gazoo Racing returns home with important points obtained with a 6th and 9th place.
“Unfortunately for this first race of the season we struggled all the way through the race to find strong performance. Finishing sixth was the best we could realistically achieve today, and this isn’t what we hoped for coming here. Obviously, our car was not well suited to this circuit; it is very surprising how challenging this event has been for us. But, despite the difficulties, all team members worked very hard to score points with both cars. The drivers didn’t make any mistakes and the engineers and mechanics performed great too. We will look at everything from this race and work hard to come back stronger at Imola.”
Said Kamui Kobayashi, Team Principal and driver, car #7
Ferrari: too many mistakes
Molina made the fans dream at the start, leading the group and dominating for the first half hour of the race. To penalize them were then errors on the part of the drivers who brought in penalties for both cars. But even the contact that made so that the 499P #51 lost its back part, was not helpful for the placement in the final ranking.
Ferrari closes the race with its official cars in eighth and fourteenth position. However, the Italian team remains hopeful about the car’s capabilities thanks to the sister #83 of AF Corse who gets on the second step of the podium of private teams.
The yellow car of AF Corse proved to have three very good drivers behind the wheel who managed to give their best with excellent performance, despite the contact during the race that caused damage.
It was a difficult weekend for the Prancing Horse team, but now it’s time to go back to Maranello and concentrate to face the home race that will be held in Imola on 20-21 April.
Porsche takes it all in Qatar
In 2023, Porsche had disappointed with its performance, even though it had shown excellent reliability, it had not been able to keep up with its competitors. This year for the German House the start of the season had a whole other flavor: they took home a pole (thanks to Matt Campbell) and not just a victory, but a hat-trick.
Porsche, in fact, has redeemed itself by getting its first victory in the category, but it has also managed to write its name in the history of the WEC obtaining the absolute domination of the podium. This did not happen since the 6h of Spa in 2013, when Audi had occupied all three steps of the podium in the LMP1 category.
Peugeot: a podium lost for a "drop"
Although last year there was still a lot of work to be done on the first day, in 2024 Peugeot showed that it could fight for the podium, but it wasn’t the car that betrayed them but the team itself. After a good race, less than 2 laps to go, the French #93 was forced to stop at the edge of the track for lack of power while in second place. Fault of the car? No, the Peugeot ran out of gas a few kilometers from the end probably because of a wrong calculation by the team. The 9X8 was not only deprived of the podium, but also of the points it could have brought home, as it was disqualified, after crossing the finish line in seventh place, for not respecting some points of the technical and sporting regulations. The #93, after running out of petrol, managed to finish the race thanks to the power of the electric motor (which cannot be used under the 150 km/h regulation) but did not return to the pits after crossing the finish line. The 9X8 stopped on the straight, after crossing the finish line, not reaching the parc ferme’ as it should have done by regulation. For these reasons the car was disqualified post-race.
"[... ] I think a mistake was made, or maybe there was a problem. Obviously, it was the deserved result, next time we’ll have to be better." said Stellantis Motorsport vice president to Motorsport.com acknowledging the team’s mistake.
Cadillac keeps up the rhythm
As it had done in 2023 in Sebring, this year Cadillac starts the season with the right foot. The American car closes the race in fourth place. Despite the collision it had in the first part of the race that had caused damage in the front of the car, the trio behind the wheel of the Cadillac V-series R managed to position themselves at the top of the standings, close to the podium.
Isotta Fraschini does not reach the finish line
Expectations for Isotta Fraschini were not high, but it disappointed not to finish the race due to mechanical problems. After being weighed down by the BOP, the Italian car then had to retire due to a problem with the front suspension that the mechanics could not repair.
Lamborghini, where are you?
Lamborghini "conquers" the fourteenth place in the standings, however, keeping in mind that in this race they did not aim at speed but to know the category and to accumulate experience and data to be analyzed for the future and face the path of growth.
Tough race for BMW
Team WRT’s two BMW M Hybrid V8 cars finished eleventh and fifteenth in the final standings and failed to score points. A very difficult race for the team but, like all the others, it brings home experience and data to be analyzed in sight of the next rounds.
Hypercar #20 driver Sheldon van der Linde commented on the first race of the year with the following words: “The first race of the WEC season is done. It was quite disappointing for the whole team to just miss the points in P12 (e.d.: P11 after the disqualification of Peugeot) after with a completely clean race from outside and no real mistakes on execution. On the other hand, we have a lot more races to improve this year, with seven more events so I hope we can make some big steps on the car. We are learning a lot with BMW M Team WRT on our side and I believe that we have one of the best teams and will make significant steps. A big thanks to everyone for the hard work these last few weeks for this first race in FIA WEC and without these guys we wouldn’t be here so thank you so much.”
コメント