LE Mans 2023 - All the details

The 2023 edition of World Endurance Championship’s centrepiece round will feature a class of vehicles that is fit for such an event. There are 16 entries in the Hypercar category from seven different brands. This is where the winner, barring a set of near-unprecedented circumstances, will emerge.

What is the wording in the form book? Recent technical changes have this on its back? Why is NASCAR on the field? These questions, and many more, have been answered in advance of Wednesday’s practice.

The Fight at the Front

It was less than a week ago that it seemed certain that Toyota would be the only team to challenge. The first three races of the season, which saw a whitewash of both GR010 teams, suggested that the answer was probably ‘no.’

What now? But now?

Toyota, who is said to be very unhappy with the decision, is believed to be very upset about it.

Toyota had a slight advantage over its competitors – the GR010 was first seen in action back in May 2021 – but the gap it had between itself and its Hypercar rivals was still impressive. Both cars finished the season-opener with two laps to spare.

The #8 car of Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hardley, and Ryo Hirakawa, who won the Le Mans race in 2016, leads the standings. However, the #7 sister car has also been successful, winning both the first and third rounds, and finishing ninth at Portimao after Toyota replaced a torque sensing on the car.

Mike Conway, who shares the #7 car with Kamui Kobiayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, was also late during the test session after he crashed in the morning at Tetre Rouge (the fast right-hander leading onto Mulsanne Straight), causing only minor damage to the bodywork.

The sister car finished the day ninth, while the car that ended up third in the timed test was the car that finished the day third.

Ferrari is the best placed of all the other contenders to take the lead. It has always been Toyota’s main rival in the top-class sportscar class and will be again at Le Mans. The car was fast on the first lap – Antonio Fuoco put it on the pole for the Sebring 1000 Miles Season opener. It has improved its consistency over the years in race conditions.

There was a lot of sandbagging in the paddock, but expect to see sub-3m27s times in qualifying.

Chip Ganassi Racing, on behalf of Cadillac, is running the only full-season Cadillac V-Series.R to split the Ferrari crews at the end of three rounds. The Cadillac V-Series.R #2 driven by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn has yet to win a podium, but it is still in the top five.

The sister #3 car, which won the 12 Hour IMSA race at Sebring, is also in action.

Porsche has the most cars in WEC – three factory-run Penske cars and a Jota customer entry.

Will that change? The #6 car finished second in the test, but would’ve been first if Laurens Vanthoor hadn’t had his fastest time scrubbed.

Porsche’s greatest obstacle has been vehicle dynamics. But Andre Lotterer noted that, even though the “impression” he got was that “the bumps were more extreme”, in corners like Indianapolis, compared to the previous year, “the 963’s driveability improved”. Porsche’s release from the pre-event stated that a 20th win in the race was their “one goal”.

What about Peugeot?

Peugeot is the only ‘big’ Hypercar manufacturer not listed above.

After an off-season that saw more than 10,000kms of driving “to improve performance and validate reliability”, Stellantis Motorsport Senior VP Jean Marc Finot stated that Peugeot aims to “fight for the win, in every race” even though he admitted that “nothing should be taken as a given and that it will be difficult, since we are not alone on the grid”.

Even so, the 2023 campaign was a rude wake-up call. The Sebring grid had a promising start with cars ranked fourth and fifth. However, both cars experienced gearbox problems in the first half hour, while the #93 car then encountered an ignition issue in the last hour. The #94 car had a hybrid problem and was stopped. It took the checkered flag just like its sister car but without being classified.

Peugeot’s results at Portimao were not as good, but they still remain impressive. They finished fifth and seventh, even though it was two and three laps behind.

The 9X8 wasn’t affected by the BoP changes, and the #94 car completed 70 laps, the most of any Hypercar, during the test, while the sister car was only a second behind.

Two independents complete the Hypercar entries: the Vanwall Racing fronted ByKolles car that was in the news in the run-up to Le Mans 24 Hours after its split – with contradictory statements from both sides – with 1997 Formula 1 World champion Jacques Villeneuve leading up to the event and the Glickenhaus Racing outfit.

Tristan Vautier will replace Villeneuve in the Gibson-powered Vanwall Vanderwell 680-powered naturally aspirated car. He will be joined by Ester Guerrieri, Tom Dillmann and Glickenhaus, the only Hypercar team fielding an extra car, which will only race at Le Mans this year.

The full HYPERCAR entry

#2 Cadillac Racing (Cadillac V-Series.R) – Earl Bamber; Alex Lynn; Richard Westbrook
#3 Cadillac Racing (Cadillac V-Series.R) – Sebastien Bourdais; Renger Van Der Zande; Scott Dixon
#4 Vanwall Racing Team – Tom Dillmann, Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier
#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche 963) – Dane Cameron; Michael Christensen; Fred Makowiecki
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche 963) – Kevin Estre; Andre Lotterer; Laurens Vanthoor
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Toyota GR010 – Hybrid) – Mike Conway; Kamui Kobayashi; Jose Maria Lopez
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Toyota GR010 – Hybrid) – Sebastien Buemi; Brendon Hartley; Ryo Hirakawa
#38 Jota (Porsche 963) – Antonio Felix Da Costa; Will Stevens; P Yifei Ye
#50 Ferrari AF Corse (Ferrari 499P) – Antonio Fuoco; Miguel Molina; Nicklas Nielsen
#51 Ferrari AF Corse (Ferrari 499P) – Alessandro Pier Guidi; James Calado; Antonio Giovinazzi
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport (Porsche 963) – Felipe Nasr; Mathieu Jaminet; Nicholas Tandy
#93 Peugeot (Peugeot 9X8) – Paul Di Resta; Mikkel Jensen; Jean-Eric Vergne
#94 Peugeot (Peugeot 9X8) – Loic Duval; Gustavo Menezes; Nico Mueller
#311 Action Express Racing – Pipo derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken (Cadillac V-Series.R).
#708 Glickenhaus Racing (Glickenhaus 007) – Romain Dumas; Olivier Pla; Ryan Briscoe
#709 Glickenhaus Racing (Glickenhaus 007) – Franck Mailleux; Nathanael Berthon; Esteban Gutierrez

WHAT’S THE NEW BOP?

In order to avoid an increase in costs, the Hypercar class will be populated in 2023 by Le Mans Daytona h cars (LMDh), as well as Le Mans Hypercars (LMH), some of which were in the category in 2018. A balance of performance system has been implemented to ensure parity between brands, and to adhere to two different rulesets – three if the non-hybrid LMHs run by Vanwall and Glickenhaus are included. Why would you spend money on an arms race when your performance will be limited by an external body.

The WEC Committee, comprised of figures from the FIA as well as Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s (ACO) Le Mans organiser, issued the original BoP before the start the season. It should have been applicable to the first four races of the year – including Le Mans. The LMH and LMDh vehicles were allowed to make small adjustments in order to balance them.

A bulletin published last Wednesday made changes to the minimum weights of the Toyota and Ferrari LMH and the Cadillac and Porsche LMDh, as well as to the maximum energy that can be used in each stop for Toyota, Ferrari, and Cadillac.

PRE-LE MANS 24 HOURS MINIMUM WEIGHT INCREASES

Toyota +37kg
Ferrari +24kg
Cadillac +11kg
Porsche +3kg

A joint statement from the FIA and ACO described the changes – which were enforced ahead of the test day – as a “correction” on account of the opening rounds of the WEC season having “shown differences between different LMH-spec cars competing in the Hypercar class to be greater than initially anticipated”.

The statement continued, “Considering these facts, and after an in-depth data analysis, the WEC Committee decided that it would be best to achieve the goal of ensuring level playing fields within the Hypercar Class by implementing corrective measures between, but also within, the LMH/LMDh platforms.”

How are the other classes looking?

Hypercar’s entry in the Le Mans 24 Hours is a huge increase from the previous editions, which featured only five LMP1 (2021-22) or Hypercar (2020-21) entries. However, they are still dwarfed by allocations to the LMP2 category and GTE Am.

The Cool Racing team set the fastest time in the morning session, but the Jota entry, with Pietro Fittipaldi behind the wheel, was the fastest in the afternoon.

Signatech, which represents Alpine in the WEC’s secondary division, was also in contention. The United Autosports team and the single-seater powerhouse Prema are other names worth watching. Prema is a sister outfit to the Iron Lynx outfit, and will be Lamborghini factory LMDh when it joins the Hypercar ranks.

Corvette Racing’s line-up, consisting of Nick Catsburg, Ben Keating, and Nicolas Varrone, has led the GTE Am field this season. They have won two races and taken a second in the first three rounds. However, the British JMW Motorsport Ferrari was the fastest of all 21 cars at the test.

Thomas Neubauer’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo’s best time was 3m56.088s, but it was 2.3s slower that the remaining car.

There’s a NASCAR taking part

You read it right, a heavily modified Next Gen NASCAR Cup car is the last vehicle on the 62 strong entry. This is what is commonly called the “Garage 56” entry.

The one-car category, also known as innovative car entry and reserved for new technologies that are being tested, was used for the first time at Le Mans 2012 The Garage 56 banner has been used for projects such as the DeltaWing, a radical, narrow-fronted car originally designed as an IndyCar, or the DeltaWing inspired hybrid electric Nissan Zeod RC. It also included a modified Morgan LMP2 vehicle for quadruple-amputee Frederic Sausset.

The Garage 56 project, led by NASCAR, is a collaboration between the series and its most successful team Hendrick Motorsports. It also involves Chevrolet, IMSA and tyre manufacturer Goodyear. This year, the driver lineup includes seven-time NASCAR Cup winner Jimmie Johnson, Jenson Button, 2009 F1 World Champion and 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours Winner Mike Rockenfeller. Rockenfeller set the fastest time for the car during the test session last Sunday.

The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that will compete at Le Mans was based on the Next Gen Version currently racing in NASCAR Cup. It features a number of aerodynamic improvements including a diffuser, enhanced bodywork and carbon brakes. There are also paddleshift systems, lights and a system of carbon brakes. However, the manual jack, which is standard in NASCAR, remains for Le Mans.

These changes were estimated to have made the car 7-10s quicker than the standard version of the GTE Am on a normal track, which was enough to put it comfortably ahead of the other GTE Am cars.

Johnson, who made no secret about his desire to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours race, completed the 10 mandatory laps required for all rookies. He described the experience as “just crazy”.

Johnson said, “One of the best things about this track is the length of the straights. You can sit down and enjoy the moment.”

The fun I had out there increased with each lap. “That was amazing.”

THE TIMETABLE

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7,

1pm FP1
Qualifying 1, 6pm HTML0
9pm FP2

Thursday, June 8

2pm FP3
Hyperpole 7pm
9pm FP4

Friday, June 9

No track activity

SUNDAY, JUNE 10,

11am FP5
3pm Le Mans 24 Hours race start

SUNDAY, JUNE 11,

3pm Le Mans 24 Hours race finish

LE Mans 2023 – All the details