{"id":71960,"date":"2024-07-13T03:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T03:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racer.com\/?p=361410"},"modified":"2024-07-13T03:00:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T03:00:11","slug":"return-to-brazil-kicks-off-wec-hypercars-multi-brand-fight-to-the-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/return-to-brazil-kicks-off-wec-hypercars-multi-brand-fight-to-the-finish\/","title":{"rendered":"Return to Brazil kicks off WEC Hypercar\u2019s multi-brand fight to the finish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A month on from the thrilling 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the FIA World Endurance Championship teams find themselves at Interlagos for the championships\u2019 first venture to Brazil in a decade.<\/p>\n

Looking back at footage and images of the 2014 edition of the 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo presents a stark contrast. That weekend featured nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen\u2019s swansong with Audi, the first win for Porsche with the 919 and Toyota\u2019s first title with the TS040.<\/p>\n

But this weekend isn\u2019t about the past, it\u2019s about the future, and the title battles in Hypercar are red hot with four races to go.<\/p>\n

In the top category, it\u2019s Porsche vs Ferrari vs Toyota in the Hypercar manufacturers\u2019 championship race. Porsche leads Ferrari by just nine points, with Toyota just three points further adrift.<\/p>\n

The drivers\u2019 standings are tight too. Porsche\u2019s No. 6 trio of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor hold a slim nine-point lead this weekend. A fourth-place finish at Le Mans ensured they held station at the top of the table, but the result didn\u2019t match their ambition after such a promising run for the 963 through the opening races of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really challenging track, and is going to make for a challenging weekend for us,\u201d Lotterer said. \u201cIt\u2019s very abrasive, so managing tires during a stint will be tricky. But we must work through it and score points. You come here to do the best you can and hopefully, you have a package that can win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 6 trio\u2019s closest challengers come from the Ferrari camp, with the Le Mans winners in the No. 50 — Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco — second in the standings after scoring 50 points at La Sarthe.<\/p>\n

Ferrari hopes that despite the BoP-enforced 17 kg weight increase to its 499Ps for this weekend, it will benefit from a momentum boost generated by the Le Mans win, and gains from its new evo “Joker” (brake cooling and aero) upgrades that are being debuted this weekend.<\/p>\n

While Nielsen feels the changes to the car will make the most difference at Fuji (a circuit which is tough on brakes), he is confident that it will have a positive impact at every circuit on the calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the focus is on the championship — we are still excited about Le Mans but we are now just nine points behind and we will try to make things closer this weekend,\u201d he told RACER.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend is our first true test for the update with other cars on track. Testing alone and then running with other cars is always different, but I am confident it will work well. Our car has worked well at every track this year, and I believe we will be strong again here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyota and Hertz Team JOTA also have cars in this fight and are looking to reduce the gap in the points ahead of Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span> Having got the band together, Toyota\u2019s No. 7 team are hopeful of putting together a title run. JEP\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

The No. 7 Toyota, which won at Imola and finished second at Le Mans, is now 17 points back in the standings and all eyes are on its driver crew. The band of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway is back together after a biking incident forced Conway to withdraw from Le Mans on short notice.<\/p>\n

The British veteran’s absence in France — where he was replaced by Jose Maria Lopez — means he is now out of the title race as his teammates scored points and he didn’t, but that will not affect his commitment to the cause. He\u2019s a fighter, and according to the project leader at Toyota Motorsport GmbH John Litjens, is ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike would not be here (if he wasn\u2019t fit enough),” he told the media. “If something happened anyway, we would have the option to run with two drivers,” noting that you can race with two Hypercar drivers in a six-hour WEC race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis healing process went on and on — he had regular checks and he was in the simulator last week to get him back in the rhythm again. The doctors here from the WEC did additional checks here too and he passed them, so we don\u2019t expect any issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Toyota can rediscover the consistency that won the No. 8 the title in 2023, then the No. 7 could emerge as the championship-winning car for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n

What about JOTA\u2019s No. 12 Porsche, which became a surprise contender after its shock win at Spa\u00a0Le Mans didn\u2019t produce another head-turning result, but it did showcase the grit and determination that the British team possesses. The full rebuild of the car ahead of the race following Callum Illot\u2019s shunt in night practice was nothing short of remarkable and will form a part of the event\u2019s folklore for decades to come. Here in Brazil the No. 12 crew return with the same chassis used for the race at Le Mans, which all being well, will be used for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span> Perseverance against all odds earned Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 a much bigger place in Le Mans lore than its eighth-place finish. JEP\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

Eighth place at Le Mans saw the full-season duo of Will Stevens and Ilott drop to fourth and 39 points off the lead. Winning the title from here by no means is not impossible, but it is improbable.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go through Le Mans with no mechanical issues and finish the race, from where we were, was unbelievable and a real achievement,\u201d Stevens told RACER. \u201cBut, going into race week we hoped for more than P8.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important though in this championship is maximizing what you can get and I honestly think the pace we had in the race reflects where we finished. We know Le Mans can make for a huge swing in the championship fight if you have a good or bad result and we could have come away with no points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still P4 and we are going one weekend at a time. We are not looking at the championship, we are just looking to get the best out of each event. If we want to be fighting in the top three we need to be attacking and gaining points on those in front of us, so the mentality is to take things race-by-race.\u201d<\/p>\n

JOTA is fighting on two fronts, though. While not as important or prestigious, the FIA WEC World Cup for privateer Hypercar teams is still there for the taking. The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari\u2019s retirement while fighting for the win at Le Mans did serious damage to its hopes for that title and has seen it drop to third behind the No. 99 Proton Porsche. JOTA\u2019s No. 12 crew now leads by a huge 57-point margin.<\/p>\n

With all the teams working from a blank sheet of paper at the Aut\u00f3dromo Jos\u00e9 Carlos Pace — and some forecasts predicting rain at various intervals over the next two days — this weekend\u2019s race could prove to be pivotal. Grab yourself a bucket of popcorn because we have a proper multi-car, multi-brand title fight to look forward to; it\u2019s game on in South America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A month on from the thrilling 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the FIA World Endurance Championship teams find themselves at Interlagos for the championships\u2019 first venture to Brazil in a decade. Looking back at footage and images of the 2014 edition of the 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo presents a stark contrast. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}