Laurens Vanthoor says Porsche Penske Motorsport’s performance at the Fuji 6 Hours will “carry over” to this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship season finale, the Bahrain 8 Hours, as the team takes its first LMDh victory in the series. I look forward to competing with you.
Belgian co-drivers Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer led the No. 6 Porsche 963 for more than half the race, taking the team’s second podium of the season in Japan and making it the team’s strongest in WEC competition to date. I marked my grades. .
Bahrain’s platform BoP changes, coupled with a 7 kg reduction in minimum weight and 1 MJ energy reduction for both Porsche and Cadillac V-Series.R, have given rise to optimism within the Porsche camp for continued good performance. is spreading.
“I hope it continues,” Vanthoor told Sportscar365. “It’s obviously very difficult to say or predict how things will be on a different track. It’s quite a different weather.
“Generally, the course here is quite different from Fuji in terms of degrees, tires, etc.
“We’ve also seen great progress at IMSA in the last couple of months, and I’m very confident that will continue here.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to finish the season two steps up on the podium and win my first LMDh win in WEC. I think this will be a good ending and a hopeful winter for 2024. , let’s wait and see.”
Vanthoor said that even he was surprised by the No. 6 Porsche’s performance at Fuji. Especially in the opening laps of the race, he was able to close a considerable gap against his hypercar class rivals.
“Everyone had already seen the start, and after that it was like, ‘Look after yourself, look after your tires, look after your fuel,'” he said. I looked in the mirror and thought, “Where are they and when are they coming?”
“I was really surprised at that moment because we were opening up a gap to Ferrari. I was checking to see if I was pushing too hard or damaging the tyres, but we just stayed in our own way.
“When the Toyotas finally got through the traffic, they caught up to us with a little bit more pace.
“I was surprised, but in a good way.”
With Thursday’s opening practice session affected by the storm and the general flow of a typical WEC weekend, Vanthoor doesn’t expect to know Porsche’s position until Saturday’s eight-hour race finale. are doing.
“Typically in the WEC you know the result in the race,” he said. “In practice you get metrics, but what you see on the board is one lap time. It’s totally irrelevant in WEC, especially at this track.
“The real strength is going to be in the double stint to see what the car and average lap times are like. This doesn’t show up on the actual scoreboard.
“Qualifying is even less important. It’s totally different in WEC. You have to wait until the race to really understand where you are.”
Petit Le Mans makes cameo appearance on WEC program
Vanthoor believes competing in the one-off IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at last month’s MOTUL Petit Le Mans with Porsche Penske’s U.S. team has helped move both programs forward. .
Vanthoor’s No. 6 Porsche was taken out of contention in an early multi-car accident before the Belgian had his own accident, but gained from the weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. I feel there are still positive lessons to be learned.
“I was able to bring some knowledge from here to there, including things that we were doing that they didn’t really do and vice versa,” Vanthoor explained.
“It was definitely very interesting. Also, when you work with different people in different environments, you see how they work and what they’re good at. I think it was definitely very positive.
“There’s always a transfer in between, but there’s a difference between a transfer in a PDF document and actually being there, seeing it, experiencing it.
“I definitely learned some things, and from my experience, that’s going to be a plus here.”