2024 Hyercar Champions Work In Progress at Lusail

WECHyperCar

Feb 24

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Lusail. #5 Porsche 963 & #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid

Both winners of the 2024 FIA Hypercar Championships (Toyota Gazoo Racing and the duo Estre - Vanthoor) admit lacking pace at Lusail International Circuit after two days prologue but will turnaround for the race even though competition is stronger than last year during 2024 prologue.

Toyota GR010 Hybrid 7th and 11th

At Toyota Gazoo Racing, engineers and drivers worked intensively together throughout the two days to refine car performance, while mechanics also practiced pit stops to optimise human performance for the race, when each Hypercar typically visits the pits around 10 times. Still Kamui Kobayashi had to conclude: “Obviously in terms of pace we seem to be lacking a bit at the moment.”

#7 GR010 fastest with De Vries

Nick De Vries fastest lap with #7 Toyota was 0.578 seconds short of Robin Frijns’ prologue. De Vries drove his fastest lap in 1:39.549 while his teammates Mike Conway’s fastest lap was 1:41.730 (2.759 slower than Frijns) and Kamui Kobayashi ruled in 1:41.880 (2.909 short).

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Lusail. #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “We tried to get the best out of these two days to prepare ourselves well for the race week. Generally, we had no problems through the two days and managed to complete a lot of laps on both cars. Obviously in terms of pace we seem to be lacking a bit at the moment. But we will work on that in the next few days and try to find more performance. There is a lot of work still to do so let’s see how it goes next week.”
Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “It’s been a busy two days here in Qatar. We ran through a pretty comprehensive programme of set-up comparisons and tyre work with no issues and that’s very positive. Over one lap our pace looked decent, but we still need to work on our performance on longer runs. We will continue to push hard and see what we can come up with next week.”
Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “It’s nice to be back together with the team ahead of a new season. We completed a lot of laps over the two days and learned a lot. It’s hard to get an initial reading but it looks like it could be a challenging race for us. We will look into everything we tested and see what we can learn to help us optimise our package for the race.”

#8 Toyota 11th overall

Sébastien Buemi with #8 Toyota GR010 - Hybrid was the second fastest Toyota Gazoo Racing driver in 1:40.128 (1.157 short of benchmark). His teammates, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley, were slower respectively in 1:41.297 and 1:41.795. Sébastien Buemi concluded: “I’m happy to be back in Qatar, although this is not an easy track for us. We had two long days of running but, like last year, we seem to be struggling a little. We have a few days before free practice so we will work hard with the data that we gathered here and the experience of last year. The race is long, but it looks like it might not be easy. We will have to do a perfect job to maximise everything.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It was beautiful to see all the cars on track for the first time this year. We had a smooth test, and we can be satisfied with our two days. We had no mechanical issues, and we worked well as a crew on both cars. We are not the fastest right now and I doubt we will be, but we are trying hard to extract all the car’s potential so we can score as many points as possible in the race.”
Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “We already knew this track is not the strongest for our car based on our performance last year. The whole team worked hard, and we did a lot of running without any problems so we have good data, which we will use to improve the car for next week. It could be a challenging event for us, but we are focused on getting the most out of it.” Source: Toyota Gazoo Racing

Porsche 963 are not at the party

Despite being on top in the results list in the second morning session thanks to Kevin Estre driving the fastest lap of session 3, 9 drivers with 9 different hypercars were faster than the first Porsche in the Prologue’s fastest lap by driver hierarchy. Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport concluded: “After the prologue, we do not know where everybody stands, but I can tell you it is going to be very tight next Friday; all the manufacturers are really competitive.” Urs Kuratle, Head of Factory Motorsport LMDh added. “This morning we were . We did not let ourselves go crazy in the evening, focused on preparing for the race and consistently worked through our long runs. Both Porsche 963 ran inconspicuously. The lap times are okay and definitely no drama. But we can also see that the competition is very, very strong – so we have to do everything right and analyse our data well.”

Julien Andlauer fastest of Porsche Works drivers.

Julien Andlauer did set the 10th fastest lap of the Prologue in 1:39.873 with #5 Porsche 963. Andlauer was the last driver under the 1:40” mark.

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #5): “A lot of things are new to me – the team and the engineers, for example. Their approach is a bit more European and therefore more like what I am used to. I also had to familiarise myself with the track first, as this is my first time racing here in Qatar. So far, everything has gone smoothly for us. I had fun and was able to enjoy my first contact with the World Endurance Championship, even though I arrived here a little ill. But now I'm feeling better every day. We have done a lot of set-up work, even if we are lacking some performance compared to our competitors. But the team has collected a lot of data, which they can now analyse in order to draw the right conclusions for next week's race.”

2024 Champions Estre - Vanthoor 14th

Kevin Estre drove the 14th fastest lap with #6 Porsche 963 in 1:40.428.

Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 963 #6): “In testing, you never know who is trying out what and who is where in terms of performance. Last year we were very good here in Qatar. Now we're trying to be even better. Our car is comparatively heavy, which plays a pretty big role on this track. We have completed our programme and now have three days to analyse everything. It's part of testing to try out things that don't work so well. Now we will put everything together to be in the best possible position for the race.”

Qatar 1812 km schedule.

Two 90-minute free practice sessions kick off the race week on Wednesday February 26, including one which ends after sunset. The starting grid will be determined in qualifying and Hyperpole on Thursday (5.40pm local, 3.40pm CET) while the race starts at 2pm (midday CET) on Friday 28 February.