Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
The FIA World Endurance Championship’s pre-season testing event, The Prologue, has concluded with the setting sun. Tomorrow, the opening race of the season, the Qatar 1812km, will begin, leaving little time for data analysis.
We have examined the sessions in which all teams in the Hypercar class participated – sessions 2 and 3. By averaging the longest stint from each session for each car, we can identify emerging trends.
It is important to note that this is only testing and teams are not pushing to their full potential. Some teams may even be intentionally holding back to deceive their competitors.
Additionally, the Balance of Performance, which regulates power, weight, and hybrid motor usage for LMH-rules cars from Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot, and Isotta Fraschini, plays a role. This year, the BoP has undergone changes, allowing for additional weight to be added to the cars and introducing a two-stage system for power levels based on speed.
Now, let’s take a look at the average lap times for each team from sessions 2 and 3.
As shown, Cadillac has achieved the fastest lap times, closely followed by the customer JOTA Porsche squad. Ferrari performed the best among the LMH-rules cars, with Peugeot, Porsche, and BMW following suit.
Cadillac, Porsche, and Ferrari are in their second year of running their cars, giving them more room for improvement compared to Toyota, who have been using versions of the GR010 Hybrid since 2021.
Toyota’s performance was relatively lower, 1.3 seconds behind Cadillac. It is evident that the German-Japanese team is not pushing to their limits during testing, and their position is likely to change by Friday and Saturday. However, it is worth noting that they have the heaviest and least powerful car.
The teams with new cars, as expected, showed slower lap times. Alpine was not far behind, less than a tenth of a second slower on average compared to Toyota. On the other hand, Lamborghini, with their Ligier-based car, struggled to match the pace. Both teams will use Wednesday to analyze the data and aim to bridge the gap to the other teams.
However, the Isotta Fraschini team faces a different challenge. They are nearly two seconds behind Lamborghini and almost four seconds off Cadillac. Hopefully, they can find some speed in the Tipo 6 LMH Competizione before the race.
Peugeot, on the other hand, seems to be performing well. The smooth track surface of the Losail International Circuit suits their still-rear-wing-less 9X8, giving them a potential advantage in Qatar.
BMW is also in the mix. While their car is not new like Alpine or Lamborghini, the BMW M Hybrid V8 is making its debut in the WEC. However, WRT has been testing with it for almost a year and has a wealth of data from the States to rely on. Although Toyota will likely surpass them in the order, BMW is competitive.
Attempting to predict the exact order is challenging, but I expect Toyota to be at the top, closely followed by Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot, and Cadillac, possibly in a mixed order. BMW should be next, followed by Alpine, Lamborghini, and Isotta Fraschini.
However, I would also welcome pleasant surprises and being completely wrong about this. Surprises make the race more exciting!
The Qatar 1812km will commence on March 2nd at 11am local time.