Centenary Le Mans: Wednesday Paddock Notes (Updated)

The field assembles!

The 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours field came together last night for the annual group shot. The sight of the 62 cars entered for the centenary running is simply magnificent.

New-look safety cars

The Porsche safety cars for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours have a striking new look, celebrating 75 years of Porsche.

Take a look at the livery of the @Porsche that will lead the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary to green!

The four Safety Cars also have a special livery for Porsche’s 75th anniversary. Looking good, huh?#LEMANS24 #LeMansCentenary #WEC pic.twitter.com/vpXiBB7Xyg

— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 7, 2023

Isotta still targeting Bahrain debut

The last we heard about the progress of the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 LMH programme was that it is targeting a debut at the FIA World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.

Gary Holland, the team principal of Vector Sport – the outfit entrusted to run this new car – confirmed that the project is still in the works and still making progress, and will pick up once Le Mans has concluded.

“To be clear, the car is still in the sort of ‘systems phase,’ and when we can get to go out for performance testing, then we’ll see a big ramp up,” Holland told DSC.

“But at the moment we’re still shaking the car down and making sure that it’s ready to race. We don’t want to bring a car to the racetrack that’s not going to be able to compete – that’s not good for us, that’s not good for Isotta Fraschini, and that’s not good for the championship.”

“We need to make absolutely sure when the car is ready to race, it’s at the level it needs to be.”

The team is still targeting a Bahrain debut – but as Holland explains, it’s not all in their control due to grid capacity. “It’s a very crowded space, with Proton having to swap a GTE Am entry for an LMDH. It’s not something where we can pick and choose. We’re literally at the mercy of other teams,” he explained.

“Our LMP2 will be here for the season – we’re not going to forego that.”

Action Express enjoying life as part of the Cadillac Le Mans attack

For Action Express Racing and its Whelen-liveried #311 V-Series.R it’s an exciting time. The IMSA full-season GTP team is over in France for its first crack at Le Mans, and forms a part of the three-pronged attack for Cadillac Racing in the 24 Hours.

Driver Jack Aitken, who was part of a small group of AXR personnel that were present at Spa for a fact-finding mission, says life is good for the team, which has had to adapt to its role as part of the Cadillac Racing factory outfit for the race.

“We’re all in the same garage, we share everything across the three cars, it’s working well,” driver Jack Aitken told DSC. “A few of the guys went to Spa, a few have worked here before. We aren’t completely blind, but there are a lot of guys who are experiencing Le Mans for the first time, and they are loving it.

“They’ve done a lot of prep to get a feel for the strategy and ruleset. But we are learning new things everything today, talking to teammates from Ganassi. We are doing our best to avoid any issues.

“For the most part, we are keeping things under one umbrella. There’s no partition. We are completely open and are treating this as one team. We are here for Cadillac and trying to get the best result for all three cars.”

Third factory 963 a useful asset for Porsche

Another team here with three cars is the Penske Porsche outfit, which has the #75 on-site racing alongside the two full-season FIA WEC 963s.

Driver Michael Christensen feels there is a real advantage to having three cars for an event like this.

“We are here as one team, especially because Roger (Penske) wants that,” he told DSC. “We have to work together. It’s a real advantage to test things. I really think it’s an advantage to have three cars plus JOTA on the grid. There’s a lot to learn from the three Michelin tyre compounds, which we are trying on each car. We are also doing a lot of set-up work. You get a lot more out of each session if you have more than two cars.”

So far it’s a mixed picture for Porsche in terms of performance. Christensen says he is encouraged by the 963’s speed through the high-speed corners. Looking at the speed trap figures though, shows that there is still work to be done to ensure the car doesn’t lose too much time on the straights.

“We are alright in terms of high speed – the Porsche Curves, in particular, are good for us. There is room to improve though through low-speed corners. The trick is to have a good balance here. But I am confident we can get there.

“We are still struggling for traction. But in terms of tyre wear, it’s not a high deg circuit, so I don’t think it will be too much of an issue.”

Garage 56 NASCAR Camaro told: ‘go for it!’

If you’ve read RJ’s feature on the Garage 56 NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, you’ll know it’s in a class of its own and won’t be classified in the final ranking at the end of the race.

But if anyone was worried about the possibility of the Camaro being dictated to run in a performance window below the car’s potential (to the original target laptime of 3:54), there’s good news.

DSC understands that the Hendrick Motorsports team will not need to run to a slower target time and has effectively said they can ‘go for it’ as far as running to its full potential, following the car’s showing on the Test Day.

Van Uitert reveals surprise tribute helmet to honour Panis

Job van Uitert kept this one a secret until today: He has a special Le Mans helmet of his own, in honour of Panis Racing founder Olivier Panis – and what a surprise it was!

Van Uitert’s new helmet is styled in an identical livery – with only a few changes of sponsor stickers – to the one that Panis wore when he recorded one of Formula One’s most memorable upset victories at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix.

D’station and Tower scramble for new cars

Both D’station Racing and Tower Motorsports have been forced to source new cars for the remainder of race week after the violent incident on the run to Tetre Rouge in Free Practice 1 earlier today.

RED FLAG

First red flag has been waved during FP1 after the #13 Tower Motorsports crashed into the #777 D’station Racing which had just been in the rail at Tertre Rouge.#WEC #LeMans24 #LeMansCentenary pic.twitter.com/NXyvRlCXxI

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) June 7, 2023

Casper Stevenson ended up stranded in the middle of the road in the #777 Aston after going nose-first into the Armco barriers on the exit to the Esses, and was collected by Steven Thomas’s Tower Motorsport Oreca at high speed.

Both cars were damaged beyond repair. Tower Motorsports has already sourced a replacement chassis, its mechanics spotted working on building up the brand-new car during Qualifying, while TF Sport which runs the D’Station effort is believed to have a spare on-site, though at the time of writing it is not clear yet what the team’s plan is. There is a lot of work to come for the mechanics in both garages…

Making matters worse for Tower, it will have to serve a 3-minute stop-and-go during the race for “causing a collision and not slowing down under double waved yellows”.

UPDATE: DSC understands that the #777 D’station Aston Martin will be replaced with a new chassis from the UK.

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