Toyota begin WEC season with one-two as Ferrari reach podium on return

11 comments on “Toyota begin WEC season with one-two as Ferrari reach podium on return”

1. 

   Mariano (@mariano)
   18th March 2023, 2:18

   Congrats to Toyota and my fellow countryman José María López

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   1. 

      Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
      18th March 2023, 9:19

      @mariano
      Mariano,
      It’s great to have you back, all the best for you and the entire Argentinian nation. Many Congratulations for the world cup victory !

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      1. 

         Mariano (@mariano)
         19th March 2023, 6:29

         Thank you very much. Looks like Ferrari has managed to assemble a good team to compete in the WEC. Let’s see how they do the rest of the season. Many thanks for your kind words.

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2. 

   Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
   18th March 2023, 9:28

   Good start for Ferrari who showed real pace though if they want to seriously challenge Toyota they need ta raise their game and work like a Swiss watch. Too many mistakes, Fuoco alone got a silly drive though for overtaking I think under FCY and then a silly incident lapping a backmarker.

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   1. 

      hunocsi (@hunocsi)
      18th March 2023, 10:12

      That accident with the backmarker looked more unfortunate than silly with the GT car looking like wanting to enter the pitlane just as Pier Guidi wanting to go by him on the pit entrance – going too fast with the puncture and damaging the car was a bigger problem though. But the reliability was good, and they still have two more races to work out any issues, get some experience of running at the front.

      Cadillac looked promising and that V8 sound is cool, I was a bit surprised by Porsche’s lack of pace but the commentators suggested the car should be better when run by Jota. Hopefully Peugeot will be better on a less bumpy surface, but that was very disappointing.

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      1. 

         Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
         18th March 2023, 11:35

         @hunocsi
         I said silly because Fuoco was really pushing. If I recall correctly, he was the fastest man on the track at that point. That’s the issue lapping backmarkers. It’s a balance between getting through as fast as possible without the risk of a collision.

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   2. 

      RandomMallard
      18th March 2023, 11:49

      @tifoso1989 They were saying at one point on the broadcast that Toyota’s biggest advantage in WEC this season is that they never left, and I think this race was the perfect example of that. There pace appeared broadly similar to that of the Ferrari’s, but Toyota’s race ran much smoother and with far fewer drama’s, leading them to a very comfortable victory in the end.

      On the other hand, Porsche, Peugeot and Ferrari have been out of top class endurance racing for 5, 11 and about 50 years respectively, so a lot of knowledge and expertise about how to run and endurance race – as opposed to just build a fast car – has likely been lost, while Toyota’s team have been consistently involved in these races for over a decade now.

      As @hunocsi mentions, it is going to be interesting to see how Jota (a team with plenty of experience in WEC) will do running those Porsches, because I thought the Porsche-Penske entries both here and in Daytona were rather disappointing, although I also wouldn’t be entirely surprised if them or Peugeot are trying to game the BOP a bit before Le Mans, although the latter’s reliability is surely a bigger concern for them at the moment.

      Cadillac seemed to have a decent race, nice to see them in WEC for sure. Glickenhaus and Vanwall continue to seem to be a bit of an enigma. However, after a few rather barren years, it is great to see the top class in WEC start have a decent number of entries once again, and with the potential of more entries from Acura/Honda and BMW who already have LMDh cars ready, and Alpine and Lamborghini set to launch them in time for next season, it should be a very exciting future for WEC!

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      1. 

         Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
         18th March 2023, 15:12

         RandomMallard
         Couldn’t agree more. I was switching between the French and the Spanish commentary of Eurosport and they were saying the exact same thing. Having the car is the first ingredient of success in endurance racing but it’s not enough because it must be coupled with having an experienced team who know what to do and when to do it.

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      2. 

         MichaelN
         18th March 2023, 18:27

         It was indeed a very smooth run for Toyota, but it’s also easy to overvalue their experience. They weren’t newbies when they made quite the mess last year at Sebring; and the Monza race later on wasn’t much better. Any 8 hour race is a challenge, and these days it’s all very much on the limit so any small issue means a team loses significant ground.

         Also, the AF Corse team is not new to endurance racing, nor are the drivers. It’ll take some adjustments for sure to become a proper and full-fledged LMH-team, but they’re already quite close.

         Cadillac was definitely nice to see do decently, and Porsche is indeed a bit of a disappointment after all the hype around them being so well prepared with all these big and early long tests. With more teams coming, there’ll no doubt be some BoP drama and shenanigans, but so far so good.

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3. 

   Nick T.
   19th March 2023, 6:45

   I like WEC, but what do they average, like 30,000 viewers a race?

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4. 

   some racing fan
   19th March 2023, 17:44

   I was at this race. It was not too bad on the Friday WEC race day but on the 12 Hours IMSA race day (Saturday), it was damned hot- 88 degrees F (31C). There were also 236,000 people at this race- a 40 percent increase from last year. It was also quite dusty there- it hasnt rained in 2 1/2 months there.

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