Hustling hypercars signal thrilling new age of endurance
With more manufacturers than you can shake a stick at, WEC is likely to have a halcyon season. James Elson was at the first race in Qatar
Kévin Estre is enjoying himself. He and his Porsche team-mates have been in control of the race for almost nine hours, everything running smoothly through the desert night. Then, suddenly, all is thrown into jeopardy. Within touching distance of the finish, Estre manages to clobber a GT backmarker not once, not twice, but three times in the closing stages.
Having smashed the LED race number on the side of his car, the Frenchman has to pit from the lead so an old-fashioned No6 sticker can be slapped onto the side of his 963.
A packed pit of Hypercars in qualifying
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It’s nail-biting stuff, but then the Peugeot 9X8 bearing down in second place runs out of fuel on the penultimate lap – while other top-class cars furiously fight it out behind.
In a thrilling climax, Estre clings on. Porsche takes its first overall WEC race win in almost seven years as well as team owner Roger Penske’s first triumph in the championship while the Stuttgart marque sweeps all three podium positions too.
“Estre clobbers a GT backmarker three times in the closing stages”
The Qatar 1812Kms represents a stunning start to the 2024 World Endurance Championship, the opening gambit to what could well be a classic year of sports car racing. WEC had gone searching for all that glitters in the desert but, judging by the 2024 field depth in both manufacturers and world-class drivers, it probably has enough riches already. Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot Hypercars are now joined by BMW, Lamborghini and Alpine, while the new GT3 class is packed to the rafters with marques like Mercedes, McLaren and the obligatory Prancing Horse representation too.
Lamborghini Iron Dukes finished five laps down on the winning Porsche.
DPPI
Along with gleaming machines, there’s motor sport royalty behind the wheel as well. The 2009 F1 champ Jenson Button has been hired by the crack privateer Porsche squad Jota, grand prix race winner Robert Kubica has been drafted into Ferrari AF Corse’s banana-yellow third Hypercar and Mick Schumacher has joined Alpine to pick up where his father Michael left off with Mercedes in Group C over 30 years ago.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi is also driving for the BMW team in the rebooted GT3 class – and there are 14 overall Le Mans winners present too: André Lotterer, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway to mention just a few.
“I’ve decided to go all out on a season of racing,” says a revved-up Button pre-race. “The way the championship has grown over the last couple of years is really exciting. So many manufacturers, so many teams!”
Car racing is still putting a smile on Roger Penske’s face, especially when he’s winning
Porsche AG
Rossi, himself no slouch behind the wheel, isn’t doubting WEC’s strength in depth either.
“This is my third season in cars and it’s difficult, because the level in the GT races is so high,” he says. “You have a lot of great drivers that can bring the car to the limit.”
The Italian admits he’d be open to join Hypercar’s heavyweights in the near future – it’s easy to understand the attraction. Under a setting sun, a brilliant qualifying shootout between the 12 fastest top-class cars sees Porsche take its first pole of the current era with a blistering lap from Matt Campbell.
The following day, when the lights go out and the 37-strong field thunders past to the strains of Thus Spoke Zarathustra on the PA system, the punches continue to be landed – Ferrari’s Miguel Molina pulls off an audacious move in the first corner to sweep into the lead.
Porsche Penske is off to a flyer with a win in the desert – even if there were a few bumps along the way.
Porsche AG
Both the Scuderia and Toyota have been weighed down by the FIA’s latest Balance of Performance though, see sidebar, and it begins to tell. The two teams who fought it out for Le Mans glory last year suffer from serious tyre graining in Qatar as the lead changes from Ferrari to Peugeot to Porsche in the first hour.
Over the 10 hours the GT fight is intense too, with the Manthey PureRxcing 911 seeing off the challenge from the two Aston Martin Vantages, while Rossi and co are fourth in the BMW – not a bad WEC debut.
The biggest plaudits though go to the winning Porsche 963 of Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Lotterer.
Jota’s No38 963 leads the line
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“This success is difficult to put into words,” says Porsche motor sport boss Thomas Laudenbach, with 87-year-old Penske adding that it’s “an exceptionally nice feeling”.
Filling out the podium is the best possible start for Porsche, but there’s still firepower to be wary of from the rest of the finishers with the next round coming up on April 21 at Imola.
One BoP ballast-laden Ferrari, that of Kubica and new works drivers Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, scored a top five, while Toyota finished sixth and ninth.
If Hypercar is the new golden era, 2024 looks set to be a real gem.