FIA WEC Sebring: Saturday Morning Paddock Notes

Glickenhaus eager to get up to speed with new Michelin tyres

After a quiet off-season for Glickenhaus, Olivier Pla says the Prologue test is set to be extremely important for the team. Due to the team’s limited resources, it opted to go the whole off-season without testing the 007 or developing any updates.

“We need to concentrate on what we can achieve. Our car is the same since the programme began,” he told DSC when asked about the team’s goals for the Prologue.

“We know where we need to improve the car here in terms of set up after lats year’s event. We’ve also never tested the new Michelin tyres, and haven’t experienced running the car on cold tyres (due to the ban on tyre warmers for this season). Understanding the tyres is the main thing, we need to work out how quickly they can get up to temperature and how long they can last.”

Toyota to test at Sebring after ‘Super Sebring’ race weekend

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s technical director Pascal Vasselon has revealed that the Japanese marque will stay on at Sebring after the race weekend to undergo an endurance test to aid its Le Mans preparations.

The team will run a single GR010 HYBRID for all six drivers, and Kazuki Nakajima. For this the team will not use one of the GR010 HYBRIDs that is entered in the 1000 Miles race, instead it has brought a third car to America purely for the test.

“We have been testing very little this year, we needed a third test. When Portimao was added to the calendar we had to move our last test. It isn’t ideal,” he said. “It’s our last test.”

Bamber, Cadillac eager to win Le Mans

Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber says part of the reason he made the decision to join Cadillac’s Hypercar programme is because of the team’s drive to win Le Mans for the first time.

“It’s refreshing to do something new,” he told DSC. “I’m hungry to get big wins for Cadillac. One of the key things for me joining these guys is I know how bad they want to win Le Mans. Everyone here is like minded. It would be really cool to win that race overall with a US manufacturer.”

Bamber, who was a key part of Porsche’s LMP1 programme, winning Le Mans overall twice with the German brand, is also impressed with the new breed of cars in the Hypercar class and expects the racing to be exciting at every circuit this season.

“The ACO and FIA have done well with the regulations to create something spectacular from a driving point of view,” he continued. “We don’t have as much downforce, they are quite heavy and tricky to drive, they are a different beast to an LMP1. It’s a real challenge, but they race really well, you can really follow each other closely, and with such a big field for Le Mans it’s going to be amazing. We said before in 2019 when we had the huge field of GTE Pro cars that it would be the pinncale, but I feel we’re going to beat that this year.”

United brings new driver suits

United Autosports has revealed new driver suits for the 2023 season.

Looking fresh for WEC ‘23

What do we think team?#BeUnited #racing #sebring #wec pic.twitter.com/006FLw5c6W

— United Autosports (@UnitedAutosport) March 10, 2023

VP Racing SportsCar Challenge teams ready

The VP Racing SportsCar Challenge teams and drivers are all set up at Sebring for this weekend. The IMSA-supporting series is going through practice and qualifying today, ahead of a pair of two 45-minute races tomorrow.

The field for this weekend sees 30 cars on the entry, with the usual mix of LMP3s and GT4s.

ENTRY LIST >>>

Lots of nice motors in the @VP_Racing_Fuels SportsCar Challenge paddock.#IMSA pic.twitter.com/33zrLFbGiM

— Stephen Kilbey (@stephenk22) March 11, 2023

Unfortunately, there is no TV or radio broadcast of either race this weekend. The series will revert back to its usual broadcast format from the next round onwards.

Catsburg ready to be lead driver at Corvette

Corvette Racing’s newcomers Ben Keating and Nico Varonne will have to lean on Nicky Catsburg this weekend as they get up to speed fully with the C8.R. The duo have only had a couple of chances to test the Corvette ahead of this weekend’s Prologue, at the Bahrain Rookie Test and during a test at Sebring, so they’ll be relying on the Dutchman to help get them up to speed.

“It’s definitely going to be different,” Catsburg admits. “I was always the third driver at Corvette so I was filling in for the few endurance races — Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans and Le Mans. So this is the first time I’m doing a full season with Corvette Racing with two new teammates. I’m the one with the most experience in the car, which is a first for me. It’s definitely going to be a change.”