Lone Star Le Mans: Friday Paddock Notes

It’s Friday at a WEC meeting and there’s no track action. All the teams are set up in the garages here in Austin ahead of the two days of running tomorrow and Sunday, for what will be the first WEC race at CoTA since the 2017 season.

While there’s been WEC cars turning laps today, only a slew of GT cars of all sizes touring the circuit as part of a track day, there is plenty to talk about.

On its first tour of the pit lane DSC caught a glimpse of the new Wynns-liveried #57 Project 1 Porsche (featured). It looks stunning!

The team heads into this weekend confident that Ben Keating, Felipe Fraga and Jeroen Bleekemolen will have a strong showing, and that Laurents Hörr, who is in the sister car in place of David Heinemeier Hansson has the ability to get up to speed quickly.

Corvette Racing’s C8.R is also present and ready to go. The team is running a brand new chassis for this weekend, which only has a short shakedown at Sebring to its name prior to this meeting.

Once it races here, then at Sebring in the WEC 1000 Miles, it will serve as the team’s spare car for Le Mans in June. As it stands there are no plans to race it beyond Sebring in the WEC, the team confirming to to DSC that it hasn’t filed for a third car at Le Mans.

DSC also spoke to driver Jan Magnussen, who said he is thrilled to be a part of the effort here and at Sebring, racing with Mike Rockenfeller as the team uses the chance to get further experience with its new chariot.

“I don’t know what the future brings right now,” he said when asked about his commitments with Corvette beyond Sebring. “It’s just a deal for CoTA and Sebring, we’ll see what happens after that. I’m so thrilled though, it’s nice to be back with the guys I’ve worked with for so long. I’m so pleased to be back, I wanted to be a part of the C8.R’s history.”

Prior to this week, Magnussen (who was released from his full-time role at Corvette after the 2019 IMSA season) was part of the C8.R’s development programme, so he isn’t completely new to the car.

“I had a chance to drive it up Road America, a little bit of Sebring, and then quite a bit at the last year,” he explained. “But obviously, no laps around here in the, or on the new surface. So I’ve done some time in the simulator last week to get ready. Tomorrow we’ll have two times two-hour practice sessions, and we better get to know it quickly.

“The whole sensation when driving this new car is different. It’s a big step from the (front-engined) C7, which was an old design. Even though it’s the same weight, the balance of the car is in the middle and it feels more nimble. It’s early days, but you can navigate fast corners easier, it’s a great experience. It has so much potential.”

The new track surface that Magnussen is referring too is a big talking point. The expectation is that the work over the winter
on the circuit will result in more pleasant driving experience with fewer bumps. How long it will take to get to grips with the surface, and the impact it will have on lap times though, remains an unknown.

But it is Corvette Racing, interestingly enough, which may have a small advantage in getting to grips with the new surface despite it running the C8.R here for the first time. IndyCar held a test here this month, meaning Chevrolet already has data and impressions of the changes, which Magnussen told DSC it has shared with the GT team.

Down at Aston Martin, Paul Howarth, the team manager, told DSC he doesn’t feel it will have much of an impact though, and won’t take a long time to get to grips with.

“We didn’t ever find the bumps an issue before, as the Vantage has always had a good ride quality,” he said.

The more intriguing change, Howarth says, will be the climate. In years past the WEC has turned up at CoTA in searing heat, this week it’s going to be consistently cold and windy.

In GTE Am, while the feeling ahead of the race is that Ben Keating will be the Am to beat after his stunning performance at Bahrain and his history of success at the CoTA circuit, Gulf Racing and TF Sport in particular are targeting strong finishes.

Andrew Watson, who already has races at Daytona and Bathurst under his belt this year, says he expects Mike Wainwright to have another strong race, CoTA is a circuit he knows and enjoys. Watson hasn’t driven here before but has done some sim work, and is confident he can hit the ground running after a busy start to the year.

At TF, Salih Yoluc has turned laps here on the new surface in a GT4 Porsche Cayman, spending a day here earlier in the week preparing for this one. This has given him a feel ahead of stepping in the team’s Vantage.

LMP1 is down to three cars, nevertheless Toyota expects a fight.

The single Rebellion is running with a significant advantage in the Success Handicap department, which could make this a re-run of Shanghai where the Swiss-flagged outfit managed to score a win.

“The Success Handicap is quite big here,” Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Pascal Vasselon told the media. “Unlike Bahrain, this track is a little bit power dominated. We have to handle the situation.

“If we have good results here we will have an even bigger handicap at Sebring. It balances quite nicely across the season to deliver the best team at the end winning the championship.”