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What a race at Circuit of the Americas, the first FIA World Endurance Championship since 2020.
The race had a bit of everything: unexpected pace from Toyota, expected pace from Ferrari, some surprises from other teams, strategy, and good old fashioned pressure in the closing stages between veteran endurance racer Kamui Kobayashi and young Robert Shwartzman.
However, before we look at Toyota vs Ferrari — plus the lack of pace from the Porsches — let's look at the ongoing progress of BMW and Alpine.
This chart takes the fastest 20% laps for each car and averages them out to find a car's average lap time. Taking only the top 20% means you find a car's true pace, with laps uninterrupted by variables such as traffic or local yellow flags.
As you can see, the #35 Alpine, of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Charles Milesi, was the second quickest car on average during the race.
While less than a tenth slower than the #50 Ferrari, which finished third, and the race winner the #83 Ferrari, being faster in any situation than the car which won Le Mans is a huge win for the French team and manufacturer.
The question's going to come up, so it might as well be addressed: was this down to Balance of Performance?
Well, maybe. In truth, it's hard to say. Alpine lost weight and gained power for COTA, but we also have to acknowledge the fact they've been getting better and better as the year has progressed (Le Mans excluded).
Just for comparison's sake: Alpine's weight at COTA was 1041kg while Ferrari's was 1055kg. That's 14kg gap in Alpine's favour. Plus, Alpine had 15kW more power - 515kW compared to 500kW. 15kW is around 20hp.
So, a car 14kg lighter with 20hp more power... Alpine did have an advantage there. But then, that is the point of BoP - to equalise the cars out. Contrastingly, in Ferrari's favour, they have a 4-wheel drive car (when the electric motor kicks in), and lost less power after 250kph in the still-new two stage BoP process - 3.2% in Alpine's case, 1.9% for Ferrari.
It's a similar story to Alpine with BMW. They were demonstrably quicker at COTA than they have been so far this year, with the German manufacturer leading for a considerable number of laps during the pitstop cycles.
While the #20, which had been the faster car for the majority of the race, was pinged for a technical infringement and landed a 100 second stop/go penalty, dropping them down the order, the pace the M Hybrid V8 had was clear. BMW will no doubt be annoyed they were beaten soundly by Alpine (and Cadillac), but will also be cheered by the increase in pace.
Speaking of Cadillac: finally a good result for them! After being quick in qualifying all year, the races haven't really gone to plan for the American squad. But COTA was a good race, with the only major issue occuring at the start whenm the #35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg made contact with Alex Lynn's Cadillac.
The incident caused them both to lose a few places, but both recovered to finish well — their best finishes of the season, in fact. Maybe they should make contact with each other on the first lap more often? (On second thoughts... maybe not.)
What happened to Porsche?
If you're a regular viewer of WEC, it won't have escaped your notice that Porsche were some way off the ultimate pace at COTA, around half a second at best for the #5 Porsche, the fastest 963 of the five on the grid.
This is very unlike the German manufacturer in recent races. Since the start of the year we've been used to seeing them at the front of the field — indeed, they've won two races this year and the #6 was, and still is, leading the drivers' world championship. Plus, they're in second in the manufacturers' championship.
We know the 963 doesn't fare well on bumpier tracks, with the team having to increase the ride height which decreases the ground effect generated by the floor. It's not as impactful as on Peugeot's wingless old 9X8, but it still has a noticeable effect.
COTA has recently been resurfaced, which has removed the worst of the bumps that F1 drivers in particular complain about every year at the Texas track.
However, due to the track's geography, with soft soil leading to water erosion, causing a sinking sub-surface, the bumps cannot be completely eliminated. So this may have contributed to Porsche's lack of pace at COTA. Whereas usually they're the fastest LMDh-rules Hypercar, at COTA they dropped to fourth quickest, behind Alpine, BMW, and Cadillac.
BoP may have played a part too. They gained 2kg in weight — 1051kg to 1053kg — and lost 3kW in power. That's around 4hp. But would BoP alone drop them behind Alpine, BMW, and Cadillac? It seems unlikely.
Toyota vs Ferrari
Once again, the Toyota vs Ferrari battle at COTA was the main attraction through the race.
As you can see from the average lap graph, the #7 Toyota, which finished second as Kobayashi was unable to close up on Shwartzman before the flag, was actually the quicker car.
That makes sense, given Kobayashi lost 25 seconds or so taking a drive through for not lifting for a local yellow flag, caused by the stricken #94 Peugeot on the back straight.
He was still able to mostly close up the 10-second gap he left the pits with, though, a show of pace in the GR010, even if it's heaviest, least powerful car.
Shwartzman, for his part, responded to the pressure fantastically, putting in consistent lap after lap in the final hour.
As you can see in the chart above, for the most part, Kobayashi was the quicker of the two over the final laps after Kobayashi took his drive through. The average lap time over this period confirms this — 01:53.727 for Kobayashi, and 01:54.054 for Shwartzman. Keep in mind the laps completed under full course yellow or local yellow have been removed.
That said, though, both were incredibly consistent: Shwartzman while under immense pressure from a car he knew he was faster and a driver who's raced the GR010 for four seasons and has won the world championship, and Kobayashi while seeing red mist from what he believed was an unjust penalty.
Great, great racing.
A word on Peugeot
Oh Peugeot. Just when it seemed like they were making progress, finishing eighth at Interlagos... at COTA they finished well out of the points and were even slower than the Lamborghini SC63.
While the new 9X8 isn't as susceptible to bumps as the old car was, it still uses a great deal of ground effect to generate downforce. So, it seems somewhat likely that, like Porsche, Peugeot struggled with the bumpy, uneven surface at COTA, not generating pace.
They did run in the top 10 at the start of the race, but soon dropped down the order and out of the points as the race progressed.
Even worse, though, the #94 car broke down out on the circuit, and was unable to return to the pits. The car had what Peugeot has only described as a 'hybrid issue' — not a particularly good sign considering Peugeot believed they'd fixed the reliability issues which plagued the previous-gen 9X8.
However, to be more than a second a lap on average off the pace, in the case of the #93 Peugeot, which did finish the race... that's not good.
In conclusion: what have we learnt?
- Alpine and BMW are getting better and better every race — helped by BoP, but also in understanding the car and developing the setups
- Porsche struggled at COTA, perhaps due to bumpy nature of the track
- Toyota are still the car and team to beat, but Ferrari are not far behind
- The pack is, generally speaking, closing up
- Peugeot struggled at COTA, no doubt about it. Maybe bumps? Lack of car understanding given the car is still new?
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