WEC: Toyota and Ferrari prepare for Portimao

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The WEC teams are already arriving in Portimao and preparing for next week’s 6-hour race.

After the long journey to Sebring for the 1,000-mile season opener, it’s back to Europe.

Two of the top protagonists, Ferrari and Toyota tell their story of their preparations for the race. They join Cadillac, Peugeot and Glickenhaus as the battle for the 2023 FIA Hypercar World Endurance Championship title heats up.

There’s also 12 LMP2 entries, as well as 14 LMGTE Am cars at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal.

Entry List

Ferrari

Ferrari is ready to make a comeback in the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the 6 Hours of Portimão to be held over the weekend of 16 April. For the second time in its recent history, the Portuguese circuit, which opened in 2008, will host a round of the World Endurance Championship.

The two Ferrari 499P crews arrive in the Algarve after a positive debut on 17 March on American soil, where the no. 50 Le Mans Hypercar driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen took pole position and third place in the race, while the no. 51, crewed by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, crossed the line in seventh place.

After the opening round the Ferrari – AF Corse team occupies second position in the Constructors’ standings, 14 points behind Toyota, while in the Drivers’ standings the crew of the no. 50 499P is third on 24 points and their no. 51 teammates hold seventh spot with 9 points.

The weekend at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão gets underway on Friday, 14 April with two free practice sessions scheduled for 10:30am and 3:30pm; on Saturday 15, after the third free practice session at 11:15am, there will be the qualifying session reserved for the Hypercar class at 4:20pm to determine the starting grid for the 6 Hours which will get underway at 12:00pm on Sunday, 16 April (all times indicated are local).

The first episode of “The Red Line”, an account of the World Endurance Championship weekends experienced alongside the Ferrari 499P team and drivers, is available on the “Ferrari” YouTube channel. The format offers exclusive images and an unprecedented point of view to tell the story of the Prancing Horse’s return to the FIA WEC top class. The episodes will be replayed in the following championship rounds, with a video released two weeks after the event.

TECH INSIGHT – THE STEERING WHEEL

This compact object houses cutting-edge technology, the fruit of the technical and sporting experience of years of endurance racing. A racing car’s steering wheel is a concentration of solutions and is the primary interface between the 499P driver and their Hypercar. This instrument allows you to manage the power of the hybrid powertrain, communicate with the garage, and adjust the drive settings, adapting them to changing asphalt conditions. The touch controls, the central screen, and the levers that fashion this high-tech electronic gem with over 500 components are the product of the Maranello engineers’ creativity and intuition, plus the invaluable feedback from the Prancing Horse’s official drivers.

“From the first sketch to the prototypes used in testing all the way to the inaugural race of the FIA WEC 2023, the steering wheel has evolved to adapt to the demands of performance and functionality,” explains Benedicte Prioul, GT & Sports Race Cars Electronics and Controls Manager.

Development. A team of around 10 people worked for over a year and a half to create the final version of the 499P steering wheel. “The starting point was the 296 GT3, which we had conceived from scratch. We evolved that steering wheel to create a new interface for the Hypercar,” explains Prioul. The main difference? It is clear in the dash integrated into the steering wheel compared to the GT car”. 

Technicians and drivers. The engineers designed the steering wheel in 3D, defining its layout, ergonomics, the association of button functions, dials and knobs, and thus determining the electronic interface. Then the drivers entered the fray. “Their support was essential. Only drivers can turn what we imagined into a tool to achieve top performance.” The decision of how to display the information on the central screen by organizing it on different pages played a key role. “The drivers must be able to monitor the most important data and communications at all times,” continues Prioul: “day and night, at top speeds, when cornering and when the cockpit is exposed to considerable vibrations”.

Electronic brain. The Ferrari 499P transfers a maximum output of 680 horsepower to the ground – limited by the regulation –, achieved by combining the V6 combustion engine and the electric unit on the front axle. On the track, the drivers need to take full advantage of these figures by plotting the best trajectories, adjusting various parameters, and communicating with the engineers following the race from the garage. “The most frequently used function is known as ‘Radio’, with its corresponding button in the top left-hand corner, allowing the driver to communicate continually with the Race Engineer,” explains Benedicte Prioul. “When the temperature in the passenger compartment climbs above 30°C inside in summer, the ‘Drink’ button on the right side of the crown is invaluable, allowing the drivers to switch on the pump that delivers water to the helmet.”

Some of the most familiar steering wheel buttons to racing enthusiasts on the 499P are those associated with re-entering and restarting from the pit lane (“Pit” limits the speed to 60 km/h, “Fuel Reset” resets the mileage data after refueling) or Full Course Yellows. The driver limits the Hypercar’s speed by pressing the “FCY” button, protected by a crown, to prevent unintentional triggering.

DRIVER PROFILE – MIGUEL MOLINA

Miguel Molina has recorded 33 FIA WEC starts, with two wins in the series-derived classes, including one in Bahrain in November 2022 at the race that brought the LMGTE Pro era to an end. “Sport has always been part of my family: my father was a driver, my mother played handball,” says the Spanish driver, born in 1989. “The first race won? I was eight years old, when this amazing, intense but sometimes tough journey began, but the satisfactions achieved have repaid any sacrifices made. With the Hypercar I am at the peak of my career: to race for the Ferrari Scudetto is an incredible thrill.”

THE HISTORY – SHORT BUT SUCCESSFUL 

Inaugurated in 2008, the circuit hosting the 6 Hours of Portimão, the second round of the 2023 calendar, is 4.684 kilometers in length and includes 16 turns. The Portuguese venue has only hosted the World Endurance Championship on one occasion, in 2021, when the 8-hour race saw the LMGTE Pro class triumph for the AF Corse-run 488 GTE driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, ahead of teammates Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina, and the LMGTE Am class success of the Cetilar Racing car driven by Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto.

FACTS AND FIGURES 

2008: inauguration year of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve

4.684: length of the circuit (in kilometers)

2021: the year in which the Portuguese track hosted an FIA WEC race over the 8-hour distance for the first time

2: Ferrari’s LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am class wins in the only previous championship race held at Portimão

24: the points in the Constructors’ standings, placing Ferrari in second position in the run-up to the round in Portugal

Toyota

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing aims to maintain its dominant start to the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season when it competes in Europe for the first time this year, at the 6 Hours of Portimão.

At the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring, perfect team operations, exceptional driver consistency and smart tire management delivered a one-two victory over a packed Hypercar field featuring other legendary endurance racing marques, such as Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot and Porsche.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López hold the advantage in the drivers’ standings after victory at Sebring in their #7 GR010 HYBRID. Reigning World Champions, and last year’s Le Mans winners, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa began their title defense with a narrow second place.

After the unique challenges over the bumps in Sebring four weeks ago, Portimão marks the start of an important and intense European-based preparation period prior to the Le Mans 24 Hours, which includes the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at the end of this month.

Sébastien and Brendon already have a Portimão victory to their name, achieved when leading home a TOYOTA GAZOO Racing one-two on WEC’s first race there, in the second round of the 2021 season. That was also Toyota’s 100th FIA World Championship sportscar race.

As well as being a challenging circuit for drivers, Portimão is also a challenge for team logistics. An epic road journey to deliver the GR010 HYBRIDs and working equipment to Portugal began on Thursday 6 April when five trucks left the team’s base in Cologne, Germany.

The trip will end on Sunday, after the team’s five trucks have passed through five countries and covered 2,500km on the way to the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, near the town of Portimão on Portugal’s southern coast. That distance is the equivalent to 538 laps of the 4.653km circuit, which would take a Hypercar around 14-and-a-half hours to complete at typical race pace and accounting for pit stops.

Preparation for the second race of the season begins on Friday, with a pair of 90-minute practice sessions, during which drivers and engineers will evaluate different aerodynamic and mechanical settings on the GR010 HYBRIDs, whilst also comparing the different compounds of Michelin tires.

After a late-morning final practice on Saturday, the starting grid will be decided by a 15-minute qualifying session at 4.20pm that afternoon. The 6 Hours of Portimão, the second round of the seven-race 2023 WEC season, begins at midday local time (1pm CEST) on Sunday.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7):

“Thanks to the big team effort, strongly supported by our colleagues in Japan and our partners, we made the perfect start to the season in Sebring. We could not achieve more than a one-two victory, and I think we deserved it. But Portimão is a new race and we have to start again with another team effort to prepare the most competitive cars possible. Portimão is a very different track compared to Sebring and we can expect our Hypercar competitors to be even closer. Many of our rivals have tested there recently, but we will be driving there for the first time since April last year. This means we need to work hard during the practice sessions to find the right set-ups and tire strategies. At this stage of the season, every race is part of our Le Mans preparation, so next week is another important step. We are looking forward to the fight with our Hypercar competitors; I am sure it will be exciting again for all the fans.”

José María López (Driver, car #7):

“I am happy to be racing again at Portimão. It’s a nice circuit, fun to drive and quite challenging. We’re starting a very busy part of the season which will be tough on everyone as we prepare for Le Mans with Portimão, then Spa only two weeks later. I think we’re in good shape; the team did a great job in Sebring so we go into this race leading both World Championships and we want to stay there. Our target is to stand in the middle of the podium again.”