Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
All of the waiting in the off-season is done, and we are ready to see cars back on track in the WEC (World Endurance Championship) for the 2025 Qatar 1812 km at the Losail circuit.
Each of the 13 different manufacturers competing across Hypercar and LMGT3 will be going for glory in 2025, with a 36-car grid set for what will be a monumental season for on-track racing.
Some of the WEC hypercar manufacturers got their seasons started off in Florida in January at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in which Porsche Penske took the win. The German marque will be looking to continue the success found last season in both the WEC and IMSA with more silverware, and the seemingly elusive Le Mans win for the 963.
To help with this, Porsche used one of their ‘Evo Joker’ upgrades to improve the performance of the 963. This upgrade is targeted at the suspension setup of the car, which remains mostly the same but has been fine tuned to give the car that extra bit of performance.
The other German manufacturer also showed positive pace at Daytona, but failed to deliver a result due to a race plagued by incidents. They too have brought a ‘joker’ update, focused on the brakes of the M Hybrid V8 hoping to improve on their pace from last season and starting fighting at the front for podiums and wins.
Peugeot, similar to Porsche has confirmed the use of a ‘suspension focused’ ‘joker’, in an attempt to bring the 9X8 back to the front, similar to last years Qatar season opener, where the original 9X8 was on for a second place finish before a mechanical failure took them out of the race.
Alpine have also announced their use of an evo ‘joker’, mainly focused on the V6 engine of the A424 machine. Similar to Peugeot and BMW, Alpine will be hoping to make the jump up to the front of the Hypercar grid, challenging the likes of Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota.
Speaking of whom, Ferrari will be eyeing that third Le Mans win, while also hoping for more success elsewhere, and challenging for the title when the season comes to a close in Bahrain in November. Toyota will also be vying to keep up their pace at the front, and return to their dominance of the late LMP1 and early Hypercar era.
Cadillac will be hoping to be in the hunt for race wins consistently this season with their new partners in JOTA. The V Series R showed pace late last season in IMSA, so both JOTA and Cadillac will be hoping the pace translates into the WEC.
Finally, newcomers Aston Martin will be hoping the new Valkyries can be on the pace of others early into the season, but it may be a stretch for them to be fighting for wins out of the gates. Either way the British brand will be hoping for some successful development of the car.
LMGT3 can’t be ignored either. Nine unique manufacturers will be competing there for glory, with Mercedes being present in a Le Mans category for the first time in over a quarter of a century. Reigning champions Porsche will be fending off competition left, right and centre all season long, with all of the 18 entries hungry for victory.
All 18 of these entries, alongside the same number of Hypercars, took to the track on Friday and Saturday for the official prologue in Qatar, where we would finally get to see WEC cars on track again after the Winter break.
The new pair of Aston Martin Valkyries, run by the Heart of Racing team, didn’t manage to set the timing sheets alight in testing, but managed to complete over 500 laps of the Losail circuit, giving the engineers some good data to pour over before the first practice sessions on Wednesday.
In the first of the four test sessions on Friday morning, it was former Formula One star Robert Kubica on top of the timing sheets in the customer No.83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, but the session was headlined by the appearance of four red flags. Firstly for the No.21 AF Corse LMGT3 Ferrari, and then the No.60 Iron Lynx Mercedes GT3, both running into trouble in the first hour, and causing the first two red flags.
Next to fall to issues was the reigning champions in the No.6 Porsche Penske car, when the car came to a stop on track with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel. The Penske team decided to perform a precautionary engine change on the No.6 due to the issue, and had the car out and running again for the second of Friday’s two sessions.
The final red flag was for the No.77 Proton Competition Ford GT3, which seemingly caught fire, causing extensive damage to the car and forcing the team to miss the remainder of the prologue, and take on a massive rebuild to have the car ready ahead of Wednesday’s opening practice session.
In the day's second session, it was JOTA’s pair of Cadillacs that shone under the lights in Losail, as they ended up first and second on the timing sheets. Alex Lynn put the No.12 on top with a time of 1:39.5, the quickest time in testing so far, with Sebastian Bourdais in the sister No.38 car just two tenths back. It was a positive session for many up and down the order, with no notable incidents or stoppages.
Into the final day and the penultimate session on Saturday, there was a different story however. A crash early on for Derek Deboer in the No.10 Aston Martin LMGT3 brought out an hour-long red flag to repair barrier damage. Because of this lengthy interruption, the session was extended by an hour, to make up the time lost.
It was Kevin Estre in the No.6 Porsche who sat atop the timing tower at the end of the session, the crew showing some good pace after their precautionary engine change on Friday. The Porsche Penske car lead the pair of factory Ferraris in second and third, No.51 ahead of No.50.
In the evening session under the lights, Robin Frijns made it four manufacturers topping each of the four sessions, as the Dutchman put the No.25 BMW to the top with a time of 1:38.9, faster than Matt Campbell’s pole time from last year's race. Frijns led the No.38 JOTA Cadillac, and the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari, the latter two separated by just 0.025 seconds.
Notably in any of the four sessions, reigning manufacturers' champions Toyota didn’t challenge the top spots on the timing sheets, with no clear reason as to why. However, the Japanese marques cars are the heaviest on the Hypercar grid, per the latest BOP updates, matched only by Porsche, who didn’t seem to have the same struggles.
There was also no challenge from Peugeot with the 9X8, who managed similar pace to that of Toyota. It is possible both manufacturers may have just been running at a slightly reduced pace for the test, and we could see them both back at the front next weekend in Qatar.
It was a very quiet test for Alpine too, the French marque in a highest position of seventh in the final test, with both French teams looking for an improvement on results from last season.
The new pair of Aston Martin Valkyries, run by the Heart of Racing team, didn’t manage to set the timing sheets alight in testing, but managed to complete over 500 laps of the Losail circuit, giving the engineers some good data to pour over before the first practice sessions on Wednesday.
With testing behind us, we look forward to the first practice sessions on Wednesday morning (11am local time, 8am GMT) with the season set to get underway properly with the race on Friday (2pm local time, 11am GMT).
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