At Le Mans, according to The Racing Line's exclusive analysis, Toyota and Ferrari were the fastest cars all through the race. This came as no surprise to anyone.
Also coming as no surprise is how they've been pegged back significantly for the upcoming race, the 6 Hours of Interlagos, taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this weekend.
Let's have a look at some visual graphs to see how much Toyota and Ferrari have gained in weight or lost in power, since Le Mans. These charts are interactive, so you can hide races if you don't want to see them, or want to compare the weights or power from two races directly against each other.
Weight
While neither car is as heavy as they've been this year, both have had substantial weight increases for the Brazilian race. Ferrari have had by far the most, gaining 17 kilograms. Toyota have gained 7kg, which is actually less than Porsche has gained, at 9kg.
As we haven't had a WEC race at Interlagos for 10 years — yes, it has been that long — it's tricky to say how much this will affect Ferrari and Toyota's pace. It's also curious to see Porsche, who were slightly off the leading pair of manufacturers at Le Mans, gain slightly more than Toyota, who were categorically the quickest car in France last month. However, as we'll see in a moment, Porsche have also gained power.
Elsewhere, Alpine have gained 6kg and BMW 5kg, putting them equal on weight at 1044kg. Cadillac have gained three, meaning the V-Series.R will now weigh 5kg less than the Alpine A424 or the BMW V-Series.R. The Lamborghini remains at 1039kg, the same as Cadillac.
Most curious, though, is the fact Peugeot have been handed a weight increase of 4kg, putting them up to 1051kg — the same as Porsche. The French manufacturer was very off the pace at Le Mans so this is an interesting one.
Isotta Fraschini, meanwhile, have been given a huge weight break of 18kg, taking them down to 1030kg — the minimum Hypercar weight. as defined in the regulations. For a team that was vastly off the pace at Le Mans this makes sense, although for the small Italian-built car and French-run team, just getting to the end of the race was an achievement.
Power
Power, meanwhile, is a similar-ish story of Ferrari and Toyota losing power. Specifically, Ferrari has lost 5kW of power, while Toyota has lost 2kW, putting them on 503kW and 506kW respectively. Ferrari have, generally speaking, been fastest in a straight line this year, although this was significantly curtailed by the two-stage BoP, introduced at Le Mans.
Porsche have gained a single kilowatt, putting them up to 512kW, while Peugeot have gained 2Kw to put them up to 510Kw. Along with Peugeot's weight increase, it will be interesting to see if the French manufacturer is any quicker at Interlagos, where speed along the two straights is vital, but agility is also needed for the twisty middle sector.
The LMDh-rules cars are, as you'd expect, all more powerful than the LMH-rules cars, apart from Isotta Fraschini, which now has 520kW. This wasn't the case at Le Mans, with Ferrari and Toyota intermixed in amongst the cars, and Peugeot even more powerful.
The LMH-rules cars have a significant advantage in power terms as they are four-wheel-drive, meaning they can deploy electric power to the front wheels as well as the internal combustion engine powering the rear axle. While this is a significant advantage, it has been somewhat curtailed this year by the hybrid only kicking in after 250kph, and two-stage BoP takes this a level further.
Two-stage BoP
The key here is Ferrari will now gain 1.8% power after 250kph, while Toyota will gain even more than at 2.8%. Peugeot now won't lose power but also won't gain any, while Porsche remains not gaining any power at 250kph, the same as at Le Mans.
Cadillac and Alpine will also lose power after passing that threshold, will BMW, who gained 0.9% power at Le Mans now won't gain any. The same story goes for Isotta Fraschini. And finally, Lamborghini will now lose 1% power instead of 1.6%.