WEC 2024

I would’ve liked to have seen Doohan in the Alpine lineup, but otherwise I think it’s a good one. Chatin and Ferdy were both deserving of moving up into the top class and Mick is an exciting and marketable signing.

Kubica must confirm the third 499P, which is awesome.

Also a big fan of De Vries getting a shot with Toyota next year.
 
Solid career move for Mick.

Amazing how many former F1 drivers are popping up in this series.
 
Kiante said:
Killer lineup for the Priavteer Ferrari:


Kubica/Schwartzman/Ye

Killer trio.
Click to expand...

That’s big time. With fan favorite Kubica and two young talents it’ll be a really popular car to pull for.

Between losing Ye, Da Costa, and adding a second car JOTA have a lot of seats to fill.
 
FLRacingFan said:
That’s big time. With fan favorite Kubica and two young talents it’ll be a really popular car to pull for.
Click to expand...
Another Ferrari to cheer for too!
FLRacingFan said:
Between losing Ye, Da Costa, and adding a second car JOTA have a lot of seats to fill.
Click to expand...
There's so much world class talent in this series those seats should go pretty quickly. I believe Button and Vettel are still in play also.
 
Third Ferrari, second JOTA, and the Isotta Fraschini were all confirmed. IF have parted ways with Vector Sport and the entry will be run by Duqeine Engineering. Vanwall were not admitted. Audi and Mercedes were left out of LMGT3.

Crazy good field next season. This is gonna be fun.

IMG_1820.jpeg


IMG_1821.jpeg


2024 FIA WEC Entry List Revealed

2024 FIA WEC Entry List Revealed
www.dailysportscar.com www.dailysportscar.com
 
It's not a great loss to not have Vanwall stinking up the show, but what does this tell other teams who might want to get in? Yeah, Vanwall sucked, but they did prop up the grid for a year, so this is poor reward for them. I understand they had to make room, but I always hate to see an entry sent home.
 
Doc Austin said:
After they spent the money to build a car and support the series?
Click to expand...
They had a deal lined up with Pipo to start using the same engine as the Glickenhaus, but it was too late in the entry process to give them entry. Hopefully it gives them time to develop the car more.
 
Kiante said:
They had a deal lined up with Pipo to start using the same engine as the Glickenhaus, but it was too late in the entry process to give them entry. Hopefully it gives them time to develop the car more.
Click to expand...
I don't know how much development is going to help if they can't get an entry. Even if they do, they have lost a year. I really never expected them to be competitive, but it's sad we've lost hypercar.
 
Doc Austin said:
It's not a great loss to not have Vanwall stinking up the show, but what does this tell other teams who might want to get in? Yeah, Vanwall sucked, but they did prop up the grid for a year, so this is poor reward for them. I understand they had to make room, but I always hate to see an entry sent home.
Click to expand...
They only had room for 19 Hypercar entries and the second JOTA and third Ferrari were both much better options than Vanwall; Isotta Fraschini are an unknown quantity but deserve a chance to prove themselves on track so they got a bid as well. There’s just no one Vanwall have a better argument than. They’ve been around for years blowing engines and crashing cars, running around at midpack LMP2 pace, getting into legal complications. There’s just no benefit to them being around when demand is as high as it is.

Maybe if they can find a way to get to tracks that would allow the grid to expand further in 2025 (Imola and COTA have 37 garages, which is why the cap is 37) but in the interim no one is really going to miss them.
 
FLRacingFan said:
They’ve been around for years blowing engines and crashing cars, running around at midpack LMP2 pace, getting into legal complications. There’s just no benefit to them being around when demand is as high as it is.
Click to expand...
Again, just hate to lose a hypercar.

FLRacingFan said:
but in the interim no one is really going to miss them.
Click to expand...
You're probably right, especially since they got "replaced" by legit, competitive cars.
 
Doc Austin said:

WEC already planning grid expansion for 2025: ​

https://racer.com/2023/11/28/wec-already-planning-grid-expansion-for-2025/

A little touch of irony in this article in that it talks about expansion, but the photo is of the Vanwall!
Click to expand...
I think no matter what they’re going to find a way to expand the grid in 2025 but it’ll be the same situation where quality Hypercar applicants are gonna take priority over Vanwall and probably even some more LMGT3 applicants, like Mercedes and Audi being denied for 2024. At the very least there will be the one Valkyrie, second Lamborghini, then WTRAndretti with Honda/Acura are aiming to join in 2025 and you’re already at 40-41.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think no matter what they’re going to find a way to expand the grid in 2025 but it’ll be the same situation where quality Hypercar applicants are gonna take priority over Vanwall and probably even some more LMGT3 applicants, like Mercedes and Audi being denied for 2024. At the very least there will be the one Valkyrie, second Lamborghini, then WTRAndretti with Honda/Acura are aiming to join in 2025 and you’re already at 40-41.
Click to expand...
In the Group C days, they ran nothing but C1 and C2 cars, simply because they had so many of them there was no room for GT cars. Those had their own separate races and championship. The way this series is going they may eventually have to go that way.
 
Doc Austin said:
In the Group C days, they ran nothing but C1 and C2 cars, simply because they had so many of them there was no room for GT cars. Those had their own separate races and championship. The way this series is going they may eventually have to go that way.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t ever get to that point based off of demand, and it wouldn’t be logistically or financially feasible anyways. Would just be a scenario where they’d have to cut one or two teams, likely ones that don’t have a parallel Hypercar program (Ford, McLaren). But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves.
 
Callum Ilott was seen testing with JOTA in the #12 last week, would round out the entry with Will Stevens (confirmed) and Norman Nato, who tested again last week himself. Would be a big deal for Callum to pick up one of the few paying seats not attached to a manufacturer.

Doesn’t sound like Vettel is going to wind up driving in the #38 but Jenson is still a candidate, with Phil Hanson likely earning a seat there as well.

 
So it sounds like Porsche will be the only the LMDh manufacturer taking joker upgrades this offseason. They had a lot more mechanical issues than everyone else this year and it sounds like they attribute it to the oscillations of the engine and how it interacts with the spec hybrid system. So they’re waiting on approval to re-work the engine and switch from a flatplane crank to a crossplane. Given how many entries they have across both IMSA and WEC it probably won’t debut until Imola if it’s approved. Other than that they already tested at Daytona this week with a new hydraulic pump to help stability under braking and cornering.

They kinda snuck in that the updated Peugeot probably won’t be ready until Imola either, whatever that car winds up being.

 
One seat left for JOTA in the #38, which I guess is TBD based on whether or not Button commits. Otherwise they might just run with two drivers.

Great to see Callum land on his feet; I’ll miss him in IndyCar this season. And Phil Hanson has done a great job of working his way up through the LMP2 rank, well deserved.

 
FLRacingFan said:
One seat left for JOTA in the #38, which I guess is TBD based on whether or not Button commits. Otherwise they might just run with two drivers.

Great to see Callum land on his feet; I’ll miss him in IndyCar this season. And Phil Hanson has done a great job of working his way up through the LMP2 rank, well deserved.

Click to expand...

Oliver Rasmussen as well, some really good line-ups for JOTA. Look at all of these F2 drivers from that 2020 year are now in WEC.
 
Kiante said:
Oliver Rasmussen as well, some really good line-ups for JOTA. Look at all of these F2 drivers from that 2020 year are now in WEC.
Click to expand...
Which was one of the most memorable F2 seasons in a long while. Maybe they didn’t get proper F1 opportunities, but that was a really likable class of young drivers.

Doc Austin said:
No one in F1 got replaced, so where else do the F2 drivers go? The level of F1 caliber talent in WEC is amazing.
Click to expand...
So many paying seats in sports cars for young drivers now during the boom period. And as long as F1 adamantly opposes grid expansion that backlog will only grow more. Modern F1 drivers spend so much time on fitness and are safe as ever within the ****pit that you just don’t get anywhere near the same level of turnover. IndyCar has benefited from this to a degree as well.
 
Toyota are going stealth in 2024. I love it, they’d run mostly the same red/white/black since 2016.

 
Regarding color schemes, Kas Kasner once said "black is for after you have kicked everyone's ass."
 
Looking back at Spa, all the hypercars were really suffering on cold tires. It always looked like a wreck waiting to happen. Toyota and Ferrari both wadded up cars on cold tires, so it was a rough weekend to not have warmers. Spa could possibly be like that again. At least it could be exciting.

I"m not ready to panic though. Michelin will get it worked out, and we may get lucky with the weather anyway.

WEC tyre warmer ban remains in place for 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours​

 
Doc Austin said:
Looking back at Spa, all the hypercars were really suffering on cold tires. It always looked like a wreck waiting to happen. Toyota and Ferrari both wadded up cars on cold tires, so it was a rough weekend to not have warmers. Spa could possibly be like that again. At least it could be exciting.

I"m not ready to panic though. Michelin will get it worked out, and we may get lucky with the weather anyway.

WEC tyre warmer ban remains in place for 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours​

Click to expand...
I don’t think new tires are coming until 2025, so that’s a pretty interesting decision. We all saw how badly Ferrari struggled at Spa in cold conditions, and I don’t think there’s any doubt they benefitted the most from warmers being instituted for the one event at Le Mans. Could make for an interesting dynamic during the overnight running next year.
 
Lambo confirmed lineups today. Mortara/Kvyat/Bortolotti for WEC and Grosjean/Caldarelli/Cairoli for IMSA. Mortara and Cairoli were just signed from Audi and Porsche.

 
Doc Austin said:
Maybe a fake:



​
Click to expand...

EI has a couple of renderings as well. Kinda hard to make out much from the Paul Ricard test but it definitely looks pretty low-slung. It won’t be as big as most of the other rear wings of their competition.

IMG_1864.png


IMG_1863.jpeg


en.endurance-info.com

WEC / Le Mans - What the Peugeot 9X8 with rear wing will look like!

With the information we have at our disposal, here's a drawing and a montage to give a clearer idea of the new silhouette of the Peugeot 9X8, which now sports a rear wing.
en.endurance-info.com en.endurance-info.com
 
Can’t find the source interview but reportedly they’re looking to construct a few more garages at Le Mans and bring the field to 64 or 65 in future years. They’ve expanded from 56 to 62 over a couple of different builds over the past decade.

 
The way the convergence is working they are eventually going to need even more. I can't believe how great it is now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom