What Did We Learn From The 6 Hours Of Fuji?

With the 6 Hours of Fuji in the books, just one FIA WEC race remains in 2023. From Porsche’s newfound form to Corvette Racing’s astonishing fuel-saving strategy, there is plenty to discuss from DSC’s visit to Japan.

Here’s a look at five talking points from the weekend:

Enter the outsider…

Of the talking points that emerged from Sunday’s race, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s performance was almost certainly the most impressive. After a rather underwhelming run between Sebring and Monza, the #6 car in particular turned heads come race day.

On previous occasions this season, the Ferrari AF Corse effort has consistently proved to be Toyota’s greatest threat; it was therefore hugely encouraging from a neutral perspective that on a weekend where the 499Ps struggled for outright pace, another manufacturer was able to step up.

Enter Porsche, which led almost four of the six hours, thanks to Porsche nailing car set up and a herculean effort from Laurens Vanthoor, and later Kevin Estre, in the #6 963.

When the two Toyotas finally caught the #6 during Estre’s middle stint, it was fascinating to watch as Estre put in a methodical, confident performance through traffic to hold Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 at bay.

“You could see the effect that sitting behind someone has on your grip over a stint, it really forces you to eat your tyres,” Conway pointed out to DSC after the race when asked to analyse Porsche’s pace.

“He made no mistakes and in the places where I could pass he was spot on,” Lopez added. “He gave me no chance to take the lead. So when Ryo (Hirakawa) came up behind me, he was on fresher tyres so it was only fair he was allowed to have a go.”

In the end, it wasn’t meant to be for Porsche as Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 and Brendon Hartley in the #8 came home a lap ahead of everyone in the Hypercar field bar the #6 Porsche. Andre Lotterer ended up crossing the line 47 seconds off the #7 too, the German unable to keep up once the floodgates opened before his stint and Toyota took the lead.

The million-dollar question is whether or not Toyota always had a little bit extra in reserve. Was anyone in its garage actually concerned by Vanthoor’s ability to create a healthy lead in the race’s opening stint, after pushing past Conway at the start?

Experience counts for Toyota

Few would have bet against Toyota winning at Fuji on Sunday and extending its win streak on home ground to six races, but in practice its 1-2 finish was still an impressive performance.

While missing out on victory at the centenary edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours back in June came as an enormous disappointment for everyone involved in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Hypercar programme, securing the FIA World Endurance Hypercar Manufacturer’s title with a 1-2 finish ensured that its 2023 campaign will still be considered a hugely successful one.

The pressure has been on Toyota Gazoo Racing to perform all season long, up against renewed competition in the Hypercar category. By winning races and a Manufacturer’s title this year, its unmatched performances since Porsche departed LMP1 in 2017 look far more impressive. If it had struggled to do so against this new crop of competition, questions would need to be asked about the level of time and resources pumped into its WEC programme.

It’s been clear since the cars hit the track at Sebring that Toyota has never been more desperate to dominate. It will come as somewhat of a relief then, that Ferrari’s historic performance at Le Mans represents a blip on an otherwise stellar season for the Japanese brand.

Toyota has been the class of the field in 2023, with a mature GR010 HYBRID platform and a set of drivers that more often than not have been both relentless and ruthless in their execution.

When the Manufacturer’s trophy reaches the monstrous cabinet in the foyer of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s European headquarters in Cologne, it will take pride of place. In a season in which Toyota was pushed to its limits for the first time in years and challenged with setting the bar each weekend, it has passed almost every test.

The next task for Toyota is ensuring one of its two crews takes the Driver’s World Championship in November when the WEC heads to Bahrain. Currently, the #8 crew hold the advantage over the trio in the #7.

With a 31-point deficit to overcome, Ferrari’s Le Mans winners in the #51 are still technically in the hunt. But James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovanazzi will be under no illusions that things must go horribly wrong for Toyota for them to claim the title.

With that in mind, will Toyota let its crews race, or manage the race and attempt to reduce all risks when the sun sets on race day at the Sakhir-based circuit?

“In Bahrain, it will be a straight fight,” Lopez told DSC. “It always has been this year.”

Keating can do it all

Just when you think you’ve seen it all from 52-year-old Texan Ben Keating, he puts in another performance you can’t ignore.

With Kessel’s post-race penalty applied, Corvette Racing somehow managed to claim second place in GTE Am, despite losing time to two penalties and a door change. This was largely due to the efforts of Keating, who put in one of the most remarkable fuel-save runs in recent memory, in an attempt to complete the race with only four stops.

“I am a right-foot braker. Because I only use my right foot on the pedals, I use a lot less fuel. Turn 1 is downhill, Turn 3 is downhill, and you can save without losing much lap time too,” he explained during the race when asked how he was able to stretch his stints to 70 minutes and eek out an extra 12 laps on fuel during the first two hours.

Not only did Keating save a significant amount of fuel during each stint, he was fast too, keeping the car in the hunt for the win despite his efforts to life and coast.

Not only did Keating save a significant amount of fuel during each stint, he was fast too

Where he let himself down was in the incident with Thomas Flohr, who went on to win the Am class. His swipe to the side of the #54 Ferrari, sending Flohr onto the grass on the run down to Turn 10, ultimately cost Corvette a win, the 30-second stop-hold penalty doled out proving to be extremely costly by the end of the race, as Nicky Catsburg crossed the line 22 seconds behind Davide Rigon.

Keating felt the penalty applied was harsh, he was also flummoxed why Flohr’s apparent retaliation wasn’t penalised too. One glance at his post-race comments makes it clear that there could be fireworks at Bahrain if Keating and Flohr find themselves fighting for position.

“I can understand why they (the stewards) viewed it the way they did. To me, we came together,” Keating said. “I was right up next to him and it was my intention to make his braking line tighter. As I went to get close to him, he came over to get into the braking line and the fact is that we came together. But because the normal line is to go out wide for the brake zone, they deemed I went into him more than he went into me. I felt like it was a racing incident.

“I was not happy with the retaliation, either. Flohr caught up to me and ran me off the track at the last turn. I don’t feel like that was the right way to go about a solution. I’m sure he’s mad at me, and I’m mad at him. It’s not the first time we’ve had this conversation.”

A word on the C8.R too. All season long it’s been rapid and reliable. The combination of the team’s three drivers, quick pit work, bold strategy calls and the C8.R as a platform has been near-unbeatable at times. Corvette’s GTE Am rivals will surely continue their head-scratching ahead of the finale, wondering how such a fairytale season for the Pratt Miller-run team has been possible and whether there was anything they could have done to prevent it…

We’re going to miss LMP2 when it’s gone

While the decision to reduce the FIA WEC to two classes next year is both sensible and understandable, races like the one on Sunday served as a reminder of the level of entertainment that the LMP2 category can provide.

The United vs WRT battle was a thriller. Just when it appeared United had the race sewn up and under control, Vincent Vosse’s crews struck back and came into their own in the second half of the race, claiming a race win and a third place.

There were multiple standout performances in the field. Robert Kubica was instrumental in securing the win for the #41 crew towards the end of the race. Filipe Albuquerque reminded us that he won’t be messed with and (off camera on the broadcast) made what may have been the move of the race, fighting back past Robin Frijns in the dying laps to prevent a 1-2 for WRT. Frederick Lubin was also a standout, ensuring the #22 crew had a shot at victory into the second half of the contest.

The only disappointment was the absence of JOTA in the fight for the win. Its #28 crew looked up to the task early on, before Antonio Felix Da Costa made a clumsy move in the team’s Hypercar, tagging ORECA into a spin. That moment felt like a turning point, as its pace faded towards the end and it failed to feature.

LMP2 will of course make a return to the WEC for Le Mans each year going forward, and the level of competition in the ELMS, IMSA and Asian Le Mans Series has become so high that fans of the category still have plenty to look forward to in the years to come. But DSC has little doubt that it will be missed from the WEC package when it’s gone.

On so many occasions over the years, during lulls for the LMP1/Hypercar and GTE classes during races, the LMP2 action has been blockbuster. So many talented drivers have made names for themselves with Iron Man stints, late race heroics and rocket starts in this class.

It’s a formula that by its very nature separates the elite from the mediocre, with equal equipment (since the ORECA chassis became dominant) and a chassis and engine combination that requires real skill to master; there’s nowhere to hide. For those reasons, and many more, DSC remains sad to see it go.

The 2024 picture is becoming clearer…

With the end of the 2023 season now in sight, teams and drivers are beginning to increase their levels of focus on what comes next. The 2024 FIA WEC season brings with it a lot of promise, as the ACO and FIA look to build on the strong foundation that was laid this year by the increase in the number of Hypercar entries.

When the WEC reduces to a two-class structure next year and introduces GT3 machinery to the mix for the first time, the championship will feel very different. In some ways it will be totally unrecognisable from the inaugural season in 2012, with all four categories from that campaign gone.

Paddock conversations in recent weeks have flagged up some interesting developments, principally concerning the size of the LMGT3 class and which manufacturers will make the cut. The pieces are beginning to fall into place for the bulk of the manufacturers believed to be in play, but until the entry is released, there will be nerves aplenty for a significant number of teams and manufacturers.

The pieces are beginning to fall into place for the bulk of the manufacturers believed to be in play

What do we know at this stage? Porsche, Lamborghini, Lexus, Corvette, Ferrari and BMW should be considered locked in with two cars apiece, due to the organiser’s wish to give priority to manufacturers that also compete in Hypercar.

Where things get interesting is when you study the manufacturers that don’t have a top class effort to lean on, because they’re technically all at risk. Primarily, this is due to two factors: the size of the Hypercar field and the full-season entry cap.

DSC expects the full-season entry to feature 36 cars, this is due to the limit in the space available when air-freighting the cars during the back end of the season. (DSC believes just one leg of the WEC’s global tour will require air freight: the trip to Fuji after the race in CoTA.)

It remains to be seen whether or not we could see that rise to 37 or fall to 35 if there is an odd number of Hypercars…

If the cap is indeed 36 and no solution has been found to bump the number to 38 or even 40 (which would in turn create additional headaches with garage space at some circuits) and the number of Hypercars tops out at 18 or 20, then tough decisions will need to be made.

Even at this stage, the level of growth in Hypercar could be anything from seven cars, to 12, and that will have a significant impact on which GT3 manufacturers that have no Hypercar programme make the cut.

Aston Martin, Audi, Ford, Honda, McLaren and Mercedes are in the mix here and all six can make a credible case for being granted entries, in particular as the WEC management has made it clear that they wish to be as loyal as possible to long-term existing teams.

Which ones will prove to have the most convincing case, and how many will miss out? We will soon find out…

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