The Aston got down to some testing in an IMSA sanctioned test. Lap times weren’t super fast, but I doubt that was what it was about.
It got in a decent 4th session with 85 laps. This was mainly eight 10 lap stints. With some in and outs. That was actually more than Lamborghini did and both suffer with just one car.
And look at the #6. Lots and lots of running and mainly long stints too. Aston’s stints tended to be shorter. I guess for more stops to check up on the car and/or to change things?
(apologizes for the weird title, I just ran it through my normal program)
A very competitive field battled it out. BMW grabs it’s first podium. Alpine couldn’t overcome problems to really challenge Porsche. Caddy’s race fell apart. It was a good race by the winning crew – the most under control of all.
The gap to leader chart shows the Penske Porsche #6 and lone Cadillac were closely matched. Alpine had a strong recovery.
Although the battle was very much not just these three.
Nice consistent approach from the winning car. Track conditions improved, but Estre’s first stint sealed the deal. Tyre degradation is evident.
Cadillac have grabbed pole and it was great to see. Pole isn’t everything in endurance racing (although you do get a point nowadays). They are looking for their first win and it seems that they have the pace across a stint…
#15 BMW leads the practice lappery
Peugeot, on the other hand…
Their one car hasn’t got as many laps in as others. #15 BMW led the way there. Alpine with their two cars have a good combined total in that team, but as normal Porsche scores high here across several teams.
Different ways to achieve the same lap time
The different approaches we’ve seen all year continues. this can be confusing for those trying to decipher BoP and it remains an intriguing part of this rule set.
The pole sitting Cadillac1 owns sector 2 and sector 3, but doesn’t have the speed trap speed.
This is similar for Toyota. The spread of the speed trap data hints that they are using the lift and coast for energy use. As we’ve seen before they are concentrating on the race.
Looking at lap time consistency Cadillac leads the way. Just.
As is the way in this era it is super close. Alex Lynn said that the car was great over one lap:
“It feels so good. This car is amazing over one lap, massive congrats to Cadillac. I just wanted to give the team a pole position this year as we’ve come close so many times. I’ve proud we’ve done it.”
It is more than one lap. Fastest one lap, 10, 25, 50 averages show it is quick. Alpine up there too, with Porsche and Toyota following closely. Even Peugeot, who are slightly ahead of Lamborghini, are within one second with their fastest Top 50 lap average.
The spread chart shows these cars all got 50 or more fast laps in. With BMW getting close to the 100 lap mark before we see slow running or in and out laps impacting this.
Can Cadillac maintain this consistency in the race?2
How did the teams approach practice and qualifying?
It doesn’t look like the average above are influenced by short stints or anything. They don’t have unlimited practice, and in the context of that there is generally a good mix of long stints thrown in.
Continuing the can the Caddy keep a good pace for a stint. It’s looking OK. The averages are good and it did a decent stint in FP2. These charts shows all the running (in order) so far. Blue lines are end of sessions, grey lines are when they pitted.
You can see some of the difference in approaches through practice. A lot of teams went for a qualifying run at the beginning of FP2. Alpine #35 went for this at the beginning of FP3. Some did both.
Some went for a long stint, like the BMW and Cadillac shown here.
I don’t know if they did, but it looks like Toyota might have done pit stops and changed, but kept the same tyres on in FP2.
For completeness here are the fastest cars from the other makes.
Vanthoor got the most running and had the speed, vying with his co-driver Estre in the #6. They ended up the strongest Porsche runner. Lotterer had noticeably less time in the car.
#5 split their running almost equally 104 or 103 laps for all.
The chart demonstrates that there was dry running and wet running. The really slow SC laps are not shown on this scale. For example Matt Campbell’s Top 40 is hinder by some obvious wet running, as are others. Estre and Christensen benefit from this with their Top 40.
Changing the scale to look at the dry running shows the differences better for that regime.
FIA World Endurance Championship WEC: Porsche 963 #5: Julien Andlauer (F) / Michael Christensen (DK) / Mathieu Jaminet (F)* Porsche 963 #6: Kévin Estre (F) / Laurens Vanthoor (B) / Matt Campbell (AUS)* * selected races only, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Porsche 963 #6: Matt Campbell (AUS) / Mathieu Jaminet (F) / Kévin Estre (F)* Porsche 963 #7: Felipe Nasr (BR) / Nick Tandy (UK) / Laurens Vanthoor (B)* * selected races only, IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup
Moving on to Hertz Team JOTA and Proton Competition:
8th
#12
W. STEVENS / N. NATO / C. ILOTT
JOTA
311 laps
9th
#38
O. RASMUSSEN / P. HANSON / J. BUTTON
JOTA
311 laps
45th
#99
M. JAMINET / F. NASR / N. TANDY
Proton
251 laps
Hanson led the way for JOTA in terms of speed and laps. Stevens got the running in the other JOTA and Jani in the Proton. Nato and Button got a lot of laps, but they tended to be in the wet. Tinknell got most of his running in the wet for Proton.
There was a much more equitable split for many of the drivers when it came to dry running. With the notable exceptions of Button, Nato and Tinknell.
Looking at the dry running regime Hanson stands out as the strongest. He was second fastest of all Porsche drivers over Top 20 with only Vanthoor being quicker.
