Porsche on Qatar pole, WEC's BOP changes, and Proton to star in another championship in 2024
Matt Campbell continues to shine, the changes bringing the field together, and Proton can't stop racing, OE Founder Tim Fullbrook brings you the stories from this week
The 2024 WEC season has begun with an undisputed banger of a qualifying session, more on that later, but there’s still been plenty of news this week worth catching up on.
Whilst eyes might well be locked on Qatar, the sportscar world continues to offer some exciting prospects for the 2024 season, with a number of championships edging closer to their opening events.
So if you’ve been too busy watching the live timing screens for the Prologue and Free Practice sessions at Lusail, here’s the key stories from the week.
Matt Campbell and Porsche take Qatar pole
On Friday afternoon Porsche and Matt Campbell scored the first pole position of the 2024 World Endurance Championship season, with the Australian delivering a late lap in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at the Lusail Circuit.
With the timer expired, Campbell knocked fellow Hypercar debutant Nyck de Vries and Toyota off pole by +0.164s.
In LMGT3, Tom van Rompuy claimed the first pole position for WEC’s newest category, setting a 1m52.327s in the #81 TF Sport Corvette to extend his lead at the top of the times to +0.807s.
Qualifying also saw the debut of WEC’s Hyperpole format which has been deployed across the full-season, having been used exclusively at Le Mans since 2020.
Read more about Qualifying in the OE Quali Debrief.
WEC trial new, two-stage BOP to be used from Imola
During the WEC’s delayed Prologue, the ACO trialled and new trialed a new BOP system for the Hypercar class that impacts the power deployment of cars after the 210kmh mark.
The new system will control how much power a team can deploy after that speed, to further balance the cars in terms of straight line performance – this could be a gain, reduction, or no change after that threshold speed.
WEC now target employing this new system for the first time at the 6H Imola in April.
At this weekend’s Qatar 1812KM a similar system will be used in the LMGT3 class, in addition to an energy-per-stint system that has been a feature in Hypercar.
Proton Competition pick up GTWC Ford entry
There was much reaction two weeks ago to the announcement of Dinamic GT and Ford ending their GT3 relationship ahead of the GTWC Europe season – but it has been confirmed that Proton Competition will now run the Mustang GT3 at Sprint and Endurance Cup events.
Officially confirmed on the entry lists as the #64 PRO-class entry, the German outfit will add the European series to their IMSA GTD and WEC LMGT3 commitments with the new Mustang racecar – in addition to 963 duties in GTP and Hypercar, and LMGT3 and LMP2 efforts in ELMS. Did you get all that?
Drivers are to be confirmed, but with factory drivers Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen previously assigned to Dinamic, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them transferred to the Proton effort.
Dinamic also confirmed their return to running Porsche machinery and should be present on the GTWC Europe grid in the Bronze class.
Jules Gounon to race two different Mercedes in GTWC Europe
Jules Gounon has been confirmed in two seperate Mercedes-AMG GT3 efforts in the GTWC Europe championships, with the Andorran driver set to race for two different squads in the Sprint and Endurance Cup rounds.
The reigning, and two-time Endurance Cup champion will compete with Team GetSpeed in the five-event series, sharing the #2 PRO car with fellow factory talent Luca Stolz and Fabian Schiller.
Gounon will then partner Maxi Götz in the #9 Boutsen VDS Mercedes-AMG for the Sprint Cup, in which the 29-year-old ran a part-season in 2022.
The two drives gives Gounon a shot at becoming the first-ever driver to win the overall series title while driving for two different teams.
Aston Martin launch new Vantage GT4
Not long after officially launching the new Vantage GT3, and in reality not that many months since confirming their LMH efforts, Aston Martin have lifted the covers on another car for the Vantage family; a revamped GT4 model.
Built alongside the new GT3, the updated GT4 benefits from the technical developments made to its bigger brother, but owing to strict regulations the race car shares around 80 per cent of the road car’s structural and mechanical architecture.
We should see this car in action in numerous championships around the world in 2024, and if you were particularly eagle-eyed, you will have a seen a camouflaged version already racing in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge…
Project 1 announce bankruptcy in 30th year
Team Project 1 Motorsport have publicly announced their filing for bankruptcy on the eve of their 30th year in motorsport competition.
The team most known for their exploits in the WEC GTE AM class, which included the class title in the 2018-19 season, have been forced to close their doors after conversations with potential investors “unable to achieve a positive result.”
Project 1 were involved in the WEC for a number of years, scored victory in the GTE AM class at the 24H Le Mans in 2021, and most recently ran the AO Racing ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the globe-trotting series. Beyond that, were behind Porsche Supercup, German Carrera Cup and DTM.
Hugh Chamberlain, long time Le Mans entrant, passes aged 84
Hugh Chamberlain passed earlier this week, best-known for his efforts running prototype and GT machinery at the 24H Le Mans and various championships.
In 21 years between 1987-2008, Chamberlain was behind a wide variety of entries in the French endurance classic, ranging from Spice C2 cars, to the Jaguar XJ220 C LM, to the iconic Chrysler Viper GTS-R.
Chamberlain was also known for his appearances on Le Mans radio and television coverage, where he offered his wealth of knowledge on the world’s most iconic endurance race.
Coming up this weekend…
The Qatar 1812KM kicks-off the 2024 WEC season with a race that’s set to offer surprises across the board.
There are plenty unknowns going into the 10-hour event, with teams still expressing tyre concerns at the Lusail Circuit, and many drivers still getting up to speed with navigating the traffic caused by the WEC’s now two-class arrangement.
With Porsche quick across the Prologue and Qualifying, and with LMGT3 somewhat of three-way fight between TF Sport, United Autosport, and Vista AF Corse, this is really one worth setting the alarms for.
The race is available via the WEC’s official website, available through a race-by-race or full-season subscription.