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)
This year’s race distance exceed last year’s GTP total due to more than 2 hours less yellow flag running (1:25:45.909 verses 3:35:54.850).
However it fell some way short of the 2019 record due to the slower running. Grosjean’s 2024 fastest lap was over thee seconds slower than Nasr’s 2019 effort (1:11.981 verses 1:08.869).
A quick look at the driver useage and laps times of the six JOTA drivers
All pretty close! We need to be a bit careful as who got the best track times and new tyres will influence this.
All got 40 odd decent laps in before stint length and other slow laps started impacted them. Interestingly Stevens and Hansen got more quick running in and more laps despite being the slowest over Top 25 average. In both cases they got their running out of the way early on and probably took care of the tyre useage leaving the others with shorter time on older tyres.
All three completed over 100 laps and were fast. With Bamber consistently fastest of all.
Let’s look at the spread of a selection of the fastest drivers from the race. the top three drivers and the rest of their crew was chosen. This includes the top two in the race and the pole winning Cadillac crew1
Driver time and Stint management
Looking at how these three crews and podium Alpine crew did shows some different approaches to driver and stint management.
Interesting split of driver time in the car for the #15 and #36. Alpine specifically, despite having three drivers, let their two strongest have the bulk of the time. Schumacher in #36 (shown) started and finished the race. Milesi in the #35 had a similar high lappage count.
In a previous post we saw the wining Porsche #6’s approach to stints. A fairly even split. It is slightly longer for the first driver. Obviously this is driven by how the race is panning out, but also has the advantage of getting the needed longer tyre stints over with early on.
The #2 Cadillac only has two drivers. They alternated between the two through the race, with Bamber having a shorted stint at the end due to retiring 20 laps early. If he had completed these he would have completed the most laps of any driver – he was still third in this table (see below).
This can introduce a situation where a new driver doesn’t get new tyres. Their pros so not a big issue, but it needs managing.
It is also interesting to note he got fastest lap. Mainly because he is fast and on pole, but also this lap had the advantage of the early running. The first laps of the race have give you best opportunity to get a quick on in. That ability to nicely warm the tyres up on two controlled warm up laps is a lot nicer than leaving the pits on cold tyres and in racing conditions. No traffic certainly helps too!
BMW have three driver’s like the winner, but look like they have a definite hierarchy in the drivers. As the race goes on the driver gets more opportunity. First driver still gets those sweet spot laps.
Alpine tried to maximise their chances by putting their strongest driver in twice and for over 100 laps!
Cadillac had the fastest lap. Porsche more consistent, but by less than 0.1s average over the Top 100 laps! The whole field was within 1s of each other!
When we look at how the different manufacturers compare we see a comparable spread within a single manufacturer (within a team and across teams) as we do across manufacturers.
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.
