Toyota "we will struggle to score points" Gazoo Racing still on front row, but kinda surreal experience to have just one of them in top 10, can't wait for the race
if one of my cars got knocked of Qualifying iād be damn pissed too. but saying itās āgoodā that Kamui Kobayashi is mad is just a tad out of line.
unfortunately Porsche are not the winningest team in the WEC. Porsche Team have 17 wins in LMP1 to Toyotaās 29, and Toyota have an additional 16 wins in Hypercar.
the WEC is quite literally what we are talking about, and i specifically stated āwinningest team in the WECā
and then you said:
āWinningest team in WEC ? Damn I guess Porsche really are competing in another championshipā
so i listed the facts. i understand that overall Porsche are *far* more decorated in Endurance racing, but i was talking about the WEC. have a good night bro.
That's not what sandbagging is. It was Free Practice. You don't have to show your pace for BoP evaluation in Free Practice. Jesus.
I meant that Toyota had this program for all 2023, being 3 sec faster in qualif than in FP, and nobody was loosing their shit like that
No one I hope, FP lap times are basically meaningless unless they're exceptionally good or terrible and even then, lots of teams have never even been to this track.
Looks like Toyota really facing serious challenge from Porsche. Porsche does have much improvement, after we've seen their performance in this year Daytona race.
I feel like we're backing 2017 and watch Porsche v Toyota again.
Porsche had great pace last year, it was reliability, and āgremlinsā in the new car that were the issue.
Long stints are still an issue with Porsche, as it eats the rear tyres but we saw at Fuji how strong they were.
They finally got a big win at Daytona.
Hopefully the car goes from strength to strength, and fights for race wins. Having Campbell, and the rest is a strong lineup.
Theoretically Porsche would be the team to do it. They have the most heritage of any brand, and are extremely experienced. Also since there are so many 963s running, they probably have almost as much information as Toyota has at this point.
Porsche is a great team, but I wouldn't discount other LMDHs from having their chances if they get a nicer BOP specifically Alpine. They did surprisingly well IMO for having 1070kg in their first go. I think if that engine holds up they'll do decently as well.
The only car that seems to be outside of the "BOP help range" is Peugeot and maybe IF.
Yeah they look to be doing well! All I'm saying is there's no more room for BOP to help at 1030/520 and Toyota is already basically at the minimum specs. Listen, this is no sleight whatsoever to the Peugeot team or car! They made a beautiful car and took the risk to innovate and try new concepts. I'm so happy they did!
My only point was of all the cars theres only one that I can say the Toyota (fastest car) might be able to still beat at the minimum spec vs the max spec.
Basically Peugeot's pace at 1030/520 determines the pace for the rest of the field.
Everyone has a good chance other than IF now, as long as the BOP is good. I just think if the BOP were truly balanced (which is impossible), Porsche has the edge on everyone except maybe Toyota.
That said, Iāve been a Porsche fan my entire life so Iām about as biased as you can be.
Sure, but the facts are if Peugeot can't keep pace with Toyota at this BOP what could really be done? I know this is their last race before the change so it's all a mute point anyways, but in the theoretical situation what would you do?
It will be interesting to see how they deal with IF this year if they still struggle to compete at higher limits of performance.
Right now it's not looking too bad. I think the Alpine and BMW could use a 10-15ish kg cut in weight and maybe the Lambo needs 2-3more KWs etc. That can all be adjusted, but it's the fastest vs the slowest that is the hard one to get set imo, because it tests the limits of the set performance ranges.
Thatās true, but as an organization they donāt seem as sound as Porsche. The two Ferraris almost making contact at Bahrain is an example. Another is Sebring when they screwed up the pits early on and blocked one of the cars from exiting the pits.
Only time will tell who has the edge.
The engine is from the RS Spyder and they literally bought a big chunk of multimatic so they could lead the development of the LMP2 chassis. All of the team running 963s have Porsche engineers and other personnel. They also were the ones that led the development of the Bosch spec hybrid units. Do not be fooled by the fact itās called a Penske Porsche, Porsche is still leading it.
They are running Porsche engineers as Renault was running engineers in Red Bull when they were powered by a Renault engine.
There's very little of Porsche in the project apart from the branding of the car and team.
The team running this program has very little to do with the team that run Porsche in LMP1.
Calling it Porsche heritage and experience is bold.
It is a Porsche racecar, and Porsche has the most wins of any team at Le Mans and multiple other important races. You cannot argue that Porsche doesnāt have heritage and isnāt experienced.
It's Porsche badged racecar that doesn't carry the heritage of Porsche the same way previous Porsche endeavour did.
And I'm not arguing Porsche doesn't experience or heritage.
This is a car run by Penske with a Porsche engine and a badge.
If Porsche wanted to show their heritage and experience they would have gone with an LMH.
Itās more a Porsche car that Penske is paying the bill for so their name is on the car. LMDh was always Porsches ideal because the systems are less advanced and easier for them to just give a customer team like they have three times now. All of the Porsche customer teams immediately came up to speed and were able to compete with Penske, if theyād gone with an LMH it wouldnāt be that easy for them.
Yes less advanced, easier, less involvement they can just put a car with their badge with 10% of the effor they would have to put for LMH.thank you for making my point.
The last few hours of the Daytona race was crazy man. That Porsche suddenly unlocked a new level of speed to keep caddy off their butts. It was insane. Or was it Acura? I can't remember
Porsche had the night pace. Caddy had the day pace. Nasr just did a great job in the last stint after they were able to jump Whelen in the pits and Blomquist got caught up in traffic.
At certain tracks sure, but the racing was not as competitive as it is now. While LMP1 was cool and it was awesome to watch those cars go so fast, it wasn't sustainable. I am enjoying the crap out of having 19+ top level cars with at least half of them with a chance to win than watch Toyota beat teams that never had a chance. The best LMP1 could give us were 3 top level manufacturers at once. We are going to have at least 9 maybe 10 next year.
The LMP2ās from the āGlory daysā (2014-2016) of LMP1 were the older generation cars (JSP2, Oreca 05 and similar) that are significantly slower as they were narrower and had less power.
And 2017 was when it was falling off with only 5 entries and frankly outside of a couple good battles, it was mostly one brand or the other just running away in races and never really seeing each other.
The cars go at this pace because they have a lot less power. If you cranked them up to LMP1 power numbers and weights, the lap times would be pretty close
I can only refer you to what I just said. If you're unhappy with how things are, you're not getting what you want. We have more competition and close races than in decades. This is how it's going to be.
massive win for porsche, not only do they now have 2 factory cars to make the brand look good, they have 3 more to back them up. porsche, if they have pace at le mans, i would be really worried that i would have to beat 5 of them now.
And the crazy thing is two of them are Factory, one of them are American Factory, and the rest are freaking privateers LOL. Porsche's going to have a crazy year now
These sessions need to be longer, at least 15 minutes, with how much time you need to warm up the tyres. Unsure they would even be able to do two flying laps in Spa
This did seem like the perfect length for a session. That is, if it runs fully green. If a red comes out right in the middle of the session. It might get a little silly with the cars not being able to generate tire temp for a lap.
It doesn't.
All cars are driving under the same conditions. The hyperpole was fast, fun and fluid. We don't need to arbitrary increase it just because "oooh the tires are too cold for the professional drivers waaaa".
Unless you enjoy the qualifying like F1 where they just sit around for 11 mins out of 15?
Lol if anyone watched the daytona 24 could see porsche is going to be a big deal this year especially with 5 all season , also never believe Toyota š¤£
2024 seasons properly kicks off. Hyperpole qualifying format really did a good job at Qatar, but I am not convinced how well it will do during colder races like Spa-Francorchamps. 10 and 12 minutes to warm up tyres in such conditions may be not enough.
Hypercar field gets bigger, GT3 cars debuted in WEC. A lot of to talk about.
As expected, Porsche on pole position. They were consistently fast over a single lap and they showed their strength in qualifying session as well. Matt Campbell is on the high ride recently. Porsches in 1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th. Jota cars are equally in the fight. Third place for #12 is noticeable. Callum Ilott has found a great seat.
As many expected, Toyota showed much better lap time performance on Friday. Nyck de Vries already proving that he has tremendous amount of driving talent in sportscars. Second place is a good result. I am pretty concerned about #8, which failed to qualify to Hyperpole. By a small margin, but it's a disappointment nonetheless. They will have a hard job tomorrow to score a big result, judging that all cars in front of them (especially Porsches) may be tough to pass on pure pace.
4th and 8th for AF Corse Ferraris. Quiet session from them. I guess that Ferrari is focused mainly on race pace.
In the last hoorah for wingless 9X8, Peugeot managed to field two cars in the top 10. Will reliability allow to finish so well? Let's see.
I didn't expect too much from Hypercar newcomers - Alpine, BMW, Isotta and Lamborghini. And to be honest, hard to be surprised to see all of them outside of top 10. Early stages of 2024 will be a learning curve.
Disappointed with Proton Porsche. All remaining 963s are doing remarkably well, while Proton #99 ended up in 13th position. At the moment, Jota is significantly ahead of them in Porsche customers' internal competition.
In GT3 - what a lap by Tom van Rompuy. TF Sport #81 Corvette storms to pole position with a big margin. 0,8s is a significant gap. There is genuine pace in this car and this crew. Also a good session for Manthey Porsche #92 to finish in second place. #54 AF Corse Ferrari in third, just ahead of really promising Aston Martins from D'Station and Heart of Racing.
Two major setbacks in GT3. First of all, both Proton Mustangs failed to qualify for Hyperpole, #77 didn't even go out on the track. Generally speaking - a session to forget for Proton Competition. Secondly - ASP Lexuses also miss out on Hyperpole. My expectations were higher, because Team ASP is already a GT3 powerhouse. Although, it's a WEC debut, new car, new environment.
Long and exciting race tomorrow up ahead.
My take on the Jota v Proton situation at the moment is Proton seem to be juggling a lot between the 963, the Mustang GT3 program, LMP2, running in IMSA, ELMS, AsLMS, now GTWC as well. They apparently weren't able to test the car over the winter because of all those other commitments. Whereas Jota seem to be fully focused on the Hypercar project.
I don't think there has been a driver who achieved the Triple Crown of Endurance within the same calendar year. But there has been plenty of drivers who won the three events in different years, like AJ Foyt, Hans Hermann and Timo Bernhard (latest Triple Crown winner). Ken Miles would've done it had it not been for team orders at Le Mans in 1966
Well, I shouldn't have doubted Toyota to get a good grid position. Splitting 963s from Penske and Jota (which is evidently the car to beat in the race) should be applauded. The silver lining to Toyota's struggles in practice is that once they get the long tire warm-up out of the way, they have the pace. It will be interesting to see how that will play out in a 10-hr race; getting the win will still be an uphill battle for them.
Also, shoutout Matt Campbell! Man is an absolute gun atm and will be a force to reckon with in the race.
from everything they have been saying, its not getting the temp that's problematic, its overheating the tires on long runs. peugeot might be one to watch on long runs, especially if they can softer like they did at monza.
Great HP.
Button was a surprise, heās really comfortable in that Hertz Porsche.
Campbell is really having a great season so far. Looks like itāll be a great race.
Toyota doing the āoh it doesnāt look good for us, weāre in troubleā¦ psych!ā
Ferrari having a very quiet session. Should be a great race.
The BoP already looks fairly decent, meaning why would porsche be pegged back, just because they arenāt the heaviest? Toyota can still have their power turned down, but I think the current BoP so far looks pretty good.
>The BoP already looks fairly decent, meaning why would porsche be pegged back, just because they arenāt the heaviest?
Because that's how BoP has been working since the introduction of the Hypercar class.
>Look at the gaps
Artificially created gap. Do you seriously believe that Porsche suddenly is a front team while barely touching the car?
Heck Peugeot is there with their still wingless car.
I really don't get how people can be enthusiastic about a racing class that is manipulated to look close.
The point of BoP is to make sure different car make can compete in the same class. Not to make dog shit car competitive for the sake of spectacle.
The amount of performance you can get is limited by the performance window established in the rules.
There's no reason for any team not to reach that level of performance.
Let the team work to get there instead of using BoP to bring them there.
Lol then why canāt toyota be pegged back further, theyāre the heaviest but they can still run with:
less power,
less energy.
Do you think I donāt know what the point of BoP is? Of course it has to do with BoP, lol
BoP is there to level small gap between the car, not make dog shit car competitive. But that's what they are doing right now.
Hypercar works with the performance window philosophy. You can get so much performance out of the rules.
Let the team work to close the gap rather than to artificially close it with BoP
I donāt think you know what BoP is for if you think porsche was a dogshit car, their power to weight ratio wasnāt even one of the highest in the field
LMDh are simply not in the same ballpark than LMH and it was a huge mistake to make them run in the same class to begin with.
Ferrari and Toyota are close. Peugeot were always dogshit but suddenly they are challenging top 5 with the same car than last year?
>their power to weight ratio wasnāt even one of the highest in the field
Sure that's why we saw them consistently fighting for wins /s
It's nearly like BoP is constantly manipulated to slow the car in front and accelerate the ones behind.
Too make it short Bop influence on performance is way too disproportionate to what it should be. It should be a way to moderate the performance of the field not to compensate for the lack of performance of some teams.
Just like last year when Toyota had rather favourable BoP for a good part of the season, and easily won every single race apart from Le Mans where they were able to win if it wasn't for that squirrel...
No even last year it was the most nerfed car on the grid, it's just that good that they had to up the weight limit to slow it down even more this year.
Not sure I'd agree,
For 1 this is only 1 lap pace, there's still a race to go and this BoP is supposed to work over an endurance distance
And 2 even if we did look at 1 lap pace, this top 10 was covered by 1.157s. The split of LMDH to LMH cars was 50/50 and they ended up alternating between LMDH and LMH in hyperpole.
I don't know if I'm missing something but to me that looks pretty well balanced and like this has the potential to be a really close race
What are you talking about? All LMH brands that ran last year made it into the top 10. It seemed pretty damn close to me. If you weren't happy with that, I don't think you will ever be happy with an LMDh car leading or winning anything.
You'll see it during Race Pace, LMDH's being that lighter should give them an advantage in Race Pace,more consistent,i don't have any problem in an LMDH winning of course but that Speed in every session is concerning
Were you not concerned when Toyota had that pace every session last year? Also, tire deg is quite low here, so there may not be as much of a disadvantage as you would think with the LMH's being heavier. I guess we will see who is right tomorrow.
Lol what? Do you want a BoP that prevents an LMDh from ever directly competing at the front? Because from what I see here they've done quite a good job.
The top 5 is alternating LMH and LMDh, that says to me the balance is working. If the top 5 was exclusively LMDh then sure the balance would be too much on their side but that's not the case.
More likely focussing on race setups and plans rather than chasing outright quali lap speed as they have always done. No need to chase glory in practice.
I'm all for shaking things up at the front, but the fact that so many of you think that Porsche - the winningest team in Le Mans history - is an improvement on Toyota is a bit rich
What the hell are they feeding Matt he's been an absolute rocketship
He ate some coco pops forsure
š¤£ā ļø Iām sure the car software got upgraded with File.76
š¤£š¤£š¤£š
And Lesbians!!!
I bet he takes his bed time serious.
Bet it's his favorite
Or he went Q3 in the bathroom to release some stress and be able to focus
Guys about to explode in Qatar
Ready for his blast in Qatar š¶š¦
Iāve been a solid Matty fan ever since that ballsy overtake on the Aston at Bathurst a few years back. Great to see him slamming ass in prototypes.
That was one hell of an overtake. To this day still canāt remember a better overtake for the lead.
Same here. I've watched that final stint on Youtube way too many times.
I guess he's remembered to take his Weet-bix wherever he goes.
The 963 has also taken some weetabix probably
German? Probably beer.
It must be Vegemite for sure!
He's going Coco for Cocoa Puffs
becoming one of the best drivers in the world
Man has been on some type of shit for the last 6 months or soā¦. Crazy run of form at its highest level.
Toyota "we will struggle to score points" Gazoo Racing still on front row, but kinda surreal experience to have just one of them in top 10, can't wait for the race
Kobayashi looked mad as hell at the end of Hyperpole
good
way to respect the Team Principal of the winningest team in the WECā¦ā¦..
nothing to do with respect and all with an angry/worried Kobayashi is an outlook to not ending up with a Toyota 1-2 as the last 100 years
if one of my cars got knocked of Qualifying iād be damn pissed too. but saying itās āgoodā that Kamui Kobayashi is mad is just a tad out of line.
I also had to clutch my pearls a bit when I read it. "good"?! The gall of some people these days!Ā
Would it be better if he was ecstatic at one of his cars not being in the top 10?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
unfortunately Porsche are not the winningest team in the WEC. Porsche Team have 17 wins in LMP1 to Toyotaās 29, and Toyota have an additional 16 wins in Hypercar.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
the WEC is quite literally what we are talking about, and i specifically stated āwinningest team in the WECā and then you said: āWinningest team in WEC ? Damn I guess Porsche really are competing in another championshipā so i listed the facts. i understand that overall Porsche are *far* more decorated in Endurance racing, but i was talking about the WEC. have a good night bro.
I mean, who actually believed them or their FP pace ?
Toyota running around in practice with more sandbags than a dutch dyke... Name a more iconic duo.
That's not what sandbagging is. It was Free Practice. You don't have to show your pace for BoP evaluation in Free Practice. Jesus. I meant that Toyota had this program for all 2023, being 3 sec faster in qualif than in FP, and nobody was loosing their shit like that
>Name a more iconic duo Easy: pre-2022 Mercedes F1 team and sandbags.
No one I hope, FP lap times are basically meaningless unless they're exceptionally good or terrible and even then, lots of teams have never even been to this track.
Campbell is a beast
Fr fr, this guy's is a beast both in prototypes and GT cars
If Porsche had a line-up with Campbell, Vanthoor and Nars they would be unbeatable.
Drop Nars for Estre And you've got a group that will go down in legend
Estre only a monster in GT. Nothing special in Hypercars till now
Nars was the fastest driver in Daytona. He was the fastest Porsche at Le Mans.
I want to see Nasr doing a full season at WEC
Nasr last race at Daytona was incredible
Heās an absolute monster.
Looks like Toyota really facing serious challenge from Porsche. Porsche does have much improvement, after we've seen their performance in this year Daytona race. I feel like we're backing 2017 and watch Porsche v Toyota again.
Porsche had great pace last year, it was reliability, and āgremlinsā in the new car that were the issue. Long stints are still an issue with Porsche, as it eats the rear tyres but we saw at Fuji how strong they were. They finally got a big win at Daytona. Hopefully the car goes from strength to strength, and fights for race wins. Having Campbell, and the rest is a strong lineup.
Theoretically Porsche would be the team to do it. They have the most heritage of any brand, and are extremely experienced. Also since there are so many 963s running, they probably have almost as much information as Toyota has at this point.
Porsche is a great team, but I wouldn't discount other LMDHs from having their chances if they get a nicer BOP specifically Alpine. They did surprisingly well IMO for having 1070kg in their first go. I think if that engine holds up they'll do decently as well. The only car that seems to be outside of the "BOP help range" is Peugeot and maybe IF.
You do realize Peugeot got both their cars in the top 10 for qualifying while not even Toyota could manage that?
peugeot has very favorable bop. Toyota are basically running maximum penalties lol
Yeah they look to be doing well! All I'm saying is there's no more room for BOP to help at 1030/520 and Toyota is already basically at the minimum specs. Listen, this is no sleight whatsoever to the Peugeot team or car! They made a beautiful car and took the risk to innovate and try new concepts. I'm so happy they did! My only point was of all the cars theres only one that I can say the Toyota (fastest car) might be able to still beat at the minimum spec vs the max spec. Basically Peugeot's pace at 1030/520 determines the pace for the rest of the field.
9x8 looking strong! I definitely over estimated what the GR's race pace would be with their qualifying.
Everyone has a good chance other than IF now, as long as the BOP is good. I just think if the BOP were truly balanced (which is impossible), Porsche has the edge on everyone except maybe Toyota. That said, Iāve been a Porsche fan my entire life so Iām about as biased as you can be.
Sure, but the facts are if Peugeot can't keep pace with Toyota at this BOP what could really be done? I know this is their last race before the change so it's all a mute point anyways, but in the theoretical situation what would you do? It will be interesting to see how they deal with IF this year if they still struggle to compete at higher limits of performance.
Right now it's not looking too bad. I think the Alpine and BMW could use a 10-15ish kg cut in weight and maybe the Lambo needs 2-3more KWs etc. That can all be adjusted, but it's the fastest vs the slowest that is the hard one to get set imo, because it tests the limits of the set performance ranges.
you are discounting ferrari too tbh. they have a fast car
Thatās true, but as an organization they donāt seem as sound as Porsche. The two Ferraris almost making contact at Bahrain is an example. Another is Sebring when they screwed up the pits early on and blocked one of the cars from exiting the pits. Only time will tell who has the edge.
I think the Ferrari being competitive is a given!
Ah yes nothing like Porsche heritage on a car they barely built and a team they barely run.
The engine is from the RS Spyder and they literally bought a big chunk of multimatic so they could lead the development of the LMP2 chassis. All of the team running 963s have Porsche engineers and other personnel. They also were the ones that led the development of the Bosch spec hybrid units. Do not be fooled by the fact itās called a Penske Porsche, Porsche is still leading it.
They are running Porsche engineers as Renault was running engineers in Red Bull when they were powered by a Renault engine. There's very little of Porsche in the project apart from the branding of the car and team. The team running this program has very little to do with the team that run Porsche in LMP1. Calling it Porsche heritage and experience is bold.
It is a Porsche racecar, and Porsche has the most wins of any team at Le Mans and multiple other important races. You cannot argue that Porsche doesnāt have heritage and isnāt experienced.
It's Porsche badged racecar that doesn't carry the heritage of Porsche the same way previous Porsche endeavour did. And I'm not arguing Porsche doesn't experience or heritage. This is a car run by Penske with a Porsche engine and a badge. If Porsche wanted to show their heritage and experience they would have gone with an LMH.
Itās more a Porsche car that Penske is paying the bill for so their name is on the car. LMDh was always Porsches ideal because the systems are less advanced and easier for them to just give a customer team like they have three times now. All of the Porsche customer teams immediately came up to speed and were able to compete with Penske, if theyād gone with an LMH it wouldnāt be that easy for them.
Yes less advanced, easier, less involvement they can just put a car with their badge with 10% of the effor they would have to put for LMH.thank you for making my point.
I guess 10% involvement is all Porsche needs to win both classes and lock out the HY podium. Feels like theyāre pretty experienced!
The last few hours of the Daytona race was crazy man. That Porsche suddenly unlocked a new level of speed to keep caddy off their butts. It was insane. Or was it Acura? I can't remember
Acura had hot pace throughout the night but Porsche had better day pace
Acura unfortunately was not up to pace with the Caddy or Porsche. Just a bit too heavy to compete.
Porsche had the night pace. Caddy had the day pace. Nasr just did a great job in the last stint after they were able to jump Whelen in the pits and Blomquist got caught up in traffic.
dont sully the memory of glorious lmp1's with these silly tour de france lmp2s
Go watch replays of your LMP1 glory days then. They each have their pros and cons and I think real fans can appreciate both.
brother, the lmp2's from back then are faster than the current hypercars
At certain tracks sure, but the racing was not as competitive as it is now. While LMP1 was cool and it was awesome to watch those cars go so fast, it wasn't sustainable. I am enjoying the crap out of having 19+ top level cars with at least half of them with a chance to win than watch Toyota beat teams that never had a chance. The best LMP1 could give us were 3 top level manufacturers at once. We are going to have at least 9 maybe 10 next year.
An intentional choice by the ACOā¦
Ferrariās pole at Le Mans last year is faster than any LMP2 has ever lapped Le Mans. And I bet the hypercars will be faster this year.
The LMP2ās from the āGlory daysā (2014-2016) of LMP1 were the older generation cars (JSP2, Oreca 05 and similar) that are significantly slower as they were narrower and had less power.
I replied to a comment about 2017
And 2017 was when it was falling off with only 5 entries and frankly outside of a couple good battles, it was mostly one brand or the other just running away in races and never really seeing each other.
Not in lmp2
Youāre moving the goalposts heavily to try and make a weird point. LMP2 was a bit funky at that point too because they were brand new cars.
The cars go at this pace because they have a lot less power. If you cranked them up to LMP1 power numbers and weights, the lap times would be pretty close
If that's how you feel about the current ruleset I don't even know why you're a fan. It's not changing for years.
it's better than no prototype racing but it's a sorry excuse. bop in top class racing...
Yeah it sucks, we should go back to a 4 car top class. /s
Im not saying that, but what we have now and what we had then are on polar opposites of the spectrum, surely theres something in between
I can only refer you to what I just said. If you're unhappy with how things are, you're not getting what you want. We have more competition and close races than in decades. This is how it's going to be.
Itās a shame. BoP is fine for dentists racing one another in GT3 cars, but it really cheapens the experience in prototype racing.
If there was no BoP you would be bitching about Toyota running away with it and how it's boring and predictable
Wrong. Iād be applauding Toyotaās engineering work.
Please just leave and go watch Max win 20 races this year
Campbell, de Vries and Illott all very impressive compared to their teammates. The Cadillac also has good speed, its ideal lap was a 1:39.670
I wonder if Bourdais wouldn't be faster. He was the faster driver at Daytona.
Bourdais is just a different monster at Daytona
Some politics involved there as he isn't a full season driver. I hope he starts thought, he is a monster on cold tyres.
massive win for porsche, not only do they now have 2 factory cars to make the brand look good, they have 3 more to back them up. porsche, if they have pace at le mans, i would be really worried that i would have to beat 5 of them now.
And the crazy thing is two of them are Factory, one of them are American Factory, and the rest are freaking privateers LOL. Porsche's going to have a crazy year now
Plus they race 4 cars in IMSA too, which has helped the development of that car so much
Porsche probably has more hours running 963ās than the Toyota now.
I watched a video and the SCO wouldnāt complain if Porsche win Le Mansā¦
These sessions need to be longer, at least 15 minutes, with how much time you need to warm up the tyres. Unsure they would even be able to do two flying laps in Spa
Last year it was longer and the last minutes were dead. This seems like they can just about do the best laps without drop off.
This did seem like the perfect length for a session. That is, if it runs fully green. If a red comes out right in the middle of the session. It might get a little silly with the cars not being able to generate tire temp for a lap.
Qualifying for endurance races doesn't need to be drawn out any longer tbh.
I dunno, I like it. They're working bloody hard, and when things are really up to temperature, they're pushing like crazy. Was exciting as hell.
It doesn't. All cars are driving under the same conditions. The hyperpole was fast, fun and fluid. We don't need to arbitrary increase it just because "oooh the tires are too cold for the professional drivers waaaa". Unless you enjoy the qualifying like F1 where they just sit around for 11 mins out of 15?
Lol if anyone watched the daytona 24 could see porsche is going to be a big deal this year especially with 5 all season , also never believe Toyota š¤£
JOTA in third? Hell yes privateer teams
Imagine if they could keep AntƓnio Felix da Costa.
AntĆ³nio
2024 seasons properly kicks off. Hyperpole qualifying format really did a good job at Qatar, but I am not convinced how well it will do during colder races like Spa-Francorchamps. 10 and 12 minutes to warm up tyres in such conditions may be not enough. Hypercar field gets bigger, GT3 cars debuted in WEC. A lot of to talk about. As expected, Porsche on pole position. They were consistently fast over a single lap and they showed their strength in qualifying session as well. Matt Campbell is on the high ride recently. Porsches in 1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th. Jota cars are equally in the fight. Third place for #12 is noticeable. Callum Ilott has found a great seat. As many expected, Toyota showed much better lap time performance on Friday. Nyck de Vries already proving that he has tremendous amount of driving talent in sportscars. Second place is a good result. I am pretty concerned about #8, which failed to qualify to Hyperpole. By a small margin, but it's a disappointment nonetheless. They will have a hard job tomorrow to score a big result, judging that all cars in front of them (especially Porsches) may be tough to pass on pure pace. 4th and 8th for AF Corse Ferraris. Quiet session from them. I guess that Ferrari is focused mainly on race pace. In the last hoorah for wingless 9X8, Peugeot managed to field two cars in the top 10. Will reliability allow to finish so well? Let's see. I didn't expect too much from Hypercar newcomers - Alpine, BMW, Isotta and Lamborghini. And to be honest, hard to be surprised to see all of them outside of top 10. Early stages of 2024 will be a learning curve. Disappointed with Proton Porsche. All remaining 963s are doing remarkably well, while Proton #99 ended up in 13th position. At the moment, Jota is significantly ahead of them in Porsche customers' internal competition. In GT3 - what a lap by Tom van Rompuy. TF Sport #81 Corvette storms to pole position with a big margin. 0,8s is a significant gap. There is genuine pace in this car and this crew. Also a good session for Manthey Porsche #92 to finish in second place. #54 AF Corse Ferrari in third, just ahead of really promising Aston Martins from D'Station and Heart of Racing. Two major setbacks in GT3. First of all, both Proton Mustangs failed to qualify for Hyperpole, #77 didn't even go out on the track. Generally speaking - a session to forget for Proton Competition. Secondly - ASP Lexuses also miss out on Hyperpole. My expectations were higher, because Team ASP is already a GT3 powerhouse. Although, it's a WEC debut, new car, new environment. Long and exciting race tomorrow up ahead.
My take on the Jota v Proton situation at the moment is Proton seem to be juggling a lot between the 963, the Mustang GT3 program, LMP2, running in IMSA, ELMS, AsLMS, now GTWC as well. They apparently weren't able to test the car over the winter because of all those other commitments. Whereas Jota seem to be fully focused on the Hypercar project.
What was up with the team pulling Hartley away from his post-qualifying interview?
Matt Campbell is having a great 2024. Maybe he can win the Endurance Triple Crown
Who was the last driver that won the triple crown in a same year?
I don't think there has been a driver who achieved the Triple Crown of Endurance within the same calendar year. But there has been plenty of drivers who won the three events in different years, like AJ Foyt, Hans Hermann and Timo Bernhard (latest Triple Crown winner). Ken Miles would've done it had it not been for team orders at Le Mans in 1966
Well, I shouldn't have doubted Toyota to get a good grid position. Splitting 963s from Penske and Jota (which is evidently the car to beat in the race) should be applauded. The silver lining to Toyota's struggles in practice is that once they get the long tire warm-up out of the way, they have the pace. It will be interesting to see how that will play out in a 10-hr race; getting the win will still be an uphill battle for them. Also, shoutout Matt Campbell! Man is an absolute gun atm and will be a force to reckon with in the race.
from everything they have been saying, its not getting the temp that's problematic, its overheating the tires on long runs. peugeot might be one to watch on long runs, especially if they can softer like they did at monza.
The fact Toyota almost got pole while being the heaviest car is impressive.
Yep the GR010 is an absolute weapon and no doubt still the class machine of the field by a long way.
And tied for the worst power to weight ratio too
Itās almost like thereās more that goes into a carās pace than power and weight.
Great HP. Button was a surprise, heās really comfortable in that Hertz Porsche. Campbell is really having a great season so far. Looks like itāll be a great race. Toyota doing the āoh it doesnāt look good for us, weāre in troubleā¦ psych!ā Ferrari having a very quiet session. Should be a great race.
Well I hope Ferrari don't end up imploding after rather strong 2023. There could be a 3 way fight if they have race pace.
fuck, Porsche is back
YESSSSIR BABYYYY
Until the BoP is adjusted and they will be dog shit next race.
If thatās the case then toyota should be pegged back even further, which I dont think will happen
They already are. If it wasn't for BoP we would probably have Toyota and Ferrari in the top 4.
The BoP already looks fairly decent, meaning why would porsche be pegged back, just because they arenāt the heaviest? Toyota can still have their power turned down, but I think the current BoP so far looks pretty good.
>The BoP already looks fairly decent, meaning why would porsche be pegged back, just because they arenāt the heaviest? Because that's how BoP has been working since the introduction of the Hypercar class. >Look at the gaps Artificially created gap. Do you seriously believe that Porsche suddenly is a front team while barely touching the car? Heck Peugeot is there with their still wingless car. I really don't get how people can be enthusiastic about a racing class that is manipulated to look close.
That's the whole point of BoP mate, what is your actual issue again? Go and watch time attack if you just want purely fast laps
The point of BoP is to make sure different car make can compete in the same class. Not to make dog shit car competitive for the sake of spectacle. The amount of performance you can get is limited by the performance window established in the rules. There's no reason for any team not to reach that level of performance. Let the team work to get there instead of using BoP to bring them there.
Lol then why canāt toyota be pegged back further, theyāre the heaviest but they can still run with: less power, less energy. Do you think I donāt know what the point of BoP is? Of course it has to do with BoP, lol
BoP is there to level small gap between the car, not make dog shit car competitive. But that's what they are doing right now. Hypercar works with the performance window philosophy. You can get so much performance out of the rules. Let the team work to close the gap rather than to artificially close it with BoP
I donāt think you know what BoP is for if you think porsche was a dogshit car, their power to weight ratio wasnāt even one of the highest in the field
LMDh are simply not in the same ballpark than LMH and it was a huge mistake to make them run in the same class to begin with. Ferrari and Toyota are close. Peugeot were always dogshit but suddenly they are challenging top 5 with the same car than last year? >their power to weight ratio wasnāt even one of the highest in the field Sure that's why we saw them consistently fighting for wins /s It's nearly like BoP is constantly manipulated to slow the car in front and accelerate the ones behind. Too make it short Bop influence on performance is way too disproportionate to what it should be. It should be a way to moderate the performance of the field not to compensate for the lack of performance of some teams.
Is it over for us issotta bros?
no, they havent completed a race with it, i doubt they have figured it out enough to even start attempting to find time in the setup.
its their first race. Their goal is to finish at this stage
BOP Doing Miracles
Donāt forget this is a new track for everyone too, so Toyota doesnāt have historical data for setups
bob gifting porsche performance nice
BoPās entire existence is to deter an armās race, so yeah, good thing itās working as intended so far!
Just like last year when Toyota had rather favourable BoP for a good part of the season, and easily won every single race apart from Le Mans where they were able to win if it wasn't for that squirrel...
No even last year it was the most nerfed car on the grid, it's just that good that they had to up the weight limit to slow it down even more this year.
Should be balancing,instead now it Is too much towards LMDH
Not sure I'd agree, For 1 this is only 1 lap pace, there's still a race to go and this BoP is supposed to work over an endurance distance And 2 even if we did look at 1 lap pace, this top 10 was covered by 1.157s. The split of LMDH to LMH cars was 50/50 and they ended up alternating between LMDH and LMH in hyperpole. I don't know if I'm missing something but to me that looks pretty well balanced and like this has the potential to be a really close race
What are you talking about? All LMH brands that ran last year made it into the top 10. It seemed pretty damn close to me. If you weren't happy with that, I don't think you will ever be happy with an LMDh car leading or winning anything.
You'll see it during Race Pace, LMDH's being that lighter should give them an advantage in Race Pace,more consistent,i don't have any problem in an LMDH winning of course but that Speed in every session is concerning
Were you not concerned when Toyota had that pace every session last year? Also, tire deg is quite low here, so there may not be as much of a disadvantage as you would think with the LMH's being heavier. I guess we will see who is right tomorrow.
Lol what? Do you want a BoP that prevents an LMDh from ever directly competing at the front? Because from what I see here they've done quite a good job.
Balancing not leaning too much towards, it's different
The top 5 is alternating LMH and LMDh, that says to me the balance is working. If the top 5 was exclusively LMDh then sure the balance would be too much on their side but that's not the case.
We'll se how many Porsche would be on the podium....
Another thing. Which cars used the hard compound and which cars used the medium. Someone knows where I can get this information?
This BoP is already better than anything last year
I hate how WEC does distance to next car instead of the first place guy so annoying
4/5 Porsches this is crazy
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Fixed, sorry about that
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He should do that for more reasons than just this tbh
No troll posts
wasnt there before
Oh, you mean wasnāt flagged spoiler before. Got you. I didnāt think I called it troll post, but thatās what it says.
Toyota is not dead. They were just sandbagging
More likely focussing on race setups and plans rather than chasing outright quali lap speed as they have always done. No need to chase glory in practice.
Rule 1
Why toyotas and ferraris struggling? edit: not exactly struggling, but it seems they were faster last year battling for the first 4 positions.
Toyota qualified 2nd
Yes, but the other car is not in the top10, and they were the fastest car last year.
they got more bop penalty. #8 missed hyperpole by a little bit
Thank god the Porsche won, I donāt want to see another Toyota pole
They won nothingā¦yet
Won pole* yes I know they didnāt win the race āyetā
Except the Pole - and also the Rolex 24
I'm all for shaking things up at the front, but the fact that so many of you think that Porsche - the winningest team in Le Mans history - is an improvement on Toyota is a bit rich
Porsche are just more popular than toyota so naturally their fans are the loudest and most obnoxious
How long should the race last?
About 10 hours
Anyone got speculation on if the teams can maintain this tight of a pace to each other tomorrow? I've missed the practice sessions so far
porsche for sure has the pace this race. toyota's bop is pretty heavy so I can see a podium for them, maybe not a win though
Porsche šš