2024 WEC Fuji | 6 talking points

A six-hour sprint

Good lord, what a race. How on earth could you tear yourself away from any moment when the World Endurance Championship just keeps throwing action at you. Some of the drivers need reminding that it’s a six-hour race – specifically two Ferrari drivers, but mainly Robert Kubica for going bowling rather than racing on lap two. 

But even after you expect an endurance race to calm down, it just didn’t. A large part of that is due to the rule-makers’ decision to severely limit the number of tyres the teams can use. That meant at some stage each car would have to at least double-stint some tyres, so you had mixtures of cars on fresh rubber coming back through the field and cars struggling on old tyres dropping back. Which produced a Hypercar race filled with overtakes and intrigue, one in which you could not tell who was going to be on the podium until literally the last minute.

Porsche has one hand on the trophy...

What a year for the three drivers of the Porsche #6. Even the WEC world feed commentary team referred to the way that certain sections of the internet had spoken about the trio of Andre Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in the run up to the current season: Andre’s old, Kévin’s “past his Bestre”, Laurens isn’t the best Vanthoor. 

Well, they’ve absolutely shoved it to those doubters. At Fuji, the trio became the only one to win for a second time in 2024, and with it, and the #7 Toyota and #50 Ferrari’s failures, basically secured the crown. It would take a really bad performance at Bahrain to lose Porsche another WEC crown. They didn’t luck into it either. Lotterer had to battle to take the lead mid-race, Estre and Vanthoor’s speed meant the #6 could not be caught. It was a performance worthy of the title, especially as everyone else seemed to lose their heads.

...and both on another trophy

And Porsche has a 2024 WEC title already. The Manthey Pure Rxcing trio of Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm haven’t had their best races recently, but simply not falling off the track has seen them finish consistently on the podium. When the other Manthey run car, the Manthey EMA team of Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin, was taken out by one of the Hypercars, it was #92’s title. 

GT3 doesn’t feel like it’s truly taken off in the World Endurance Championship yet. But the race at Fuji was enjoyable, with McLaren, BMW, Porsche and Corvette all seemingly within reach of victory at certain points. And we finally saw a victory for Ferrari, astonishingly its first GT win of the year. 

But there is no denying that Manthey has been the star of the year. Consistency has been key. Even though the #92 had a disaster at Le Mans, it still finished tenth and added some points to the mix. That was what pushed them over the line a race early. 

Toyota falls apart

Toyota owns the Fuji Speedway. It is literally its home. In the World Endurance Championship it has also been dominant on home turf. But this weekend was one to forget for Gazoo Racing. If it could have gone wrong, it did, and a lot of it was of the drivers’ own making.

The #7? Well, Kamui Kobayashi all but handed the championship to Porsche and the #6 car by attempting to overtake the #5 Porsche 963 into turn 3 when it was absolutely not on. The Japanese’s ill-fated overtaking attempt took out both cars and ended both races.

The #8? Running quite well at times and on for an easy podium until it was handed a drive-through penalty. Ryo Hirakawa had taken the completely unnecessary decision to race the leading Porsche while on cold tyres just out of the pits as it was trying to lap the Toyota, ignoring blue flags in the process and pushing his own car off track. It was a deserved penalty and sent the car from a podium to 10^th.

Toyota has done a fair amount of complaining about the state of the championship and the Balance of Performance it’s been given. Perhaps at times it has been fair. But two wins is as many as any other team, and in Fuji it was still one of the fastest cars. At the end, Toyota had no one to blame but itself. But, miraculously, still has a shot at the manufacturers’ title. 

BMW, Peugeot, Alpine

Toyota and Ferrari’s poor weekends were a boon for some of the teams that really needed a good one. But to say BMW, Alpine and Peugeot finished high up because of the others’ misfortunes would be highly unfair.

The Alpines had genuine pace, running just behind, and often ahead, of the leading Porsches and Toyotas. Charles Milesi’s performance was a showcase of his young talent (until he blotted his copybook with a penalty) and a battling run for third showed that Mick Schumacher might be finally settling into his role as a sportscar driver, rather than constantly making sad eyes at F1.

BMW’s #15 was a consistent threat at the head of the field, with some good strategic work ensuring that it was strongly in the mix for a podium long before penalties befell those around it. The M Hybrid V8 has still struggled in IMSA into its second season with RLL, but Vincent Vosse’s WRT team seems to have a handle on it much better. 

A word as well for Peugeot, which might not have run consistently up top, but with a strong tyre strategy roared through the field for a fourth place. The team quite rightly celebrated as if they had won and will now look to build into the final race of the season. There can’t be another team in the championship feeling the pressure more, and this was a wonderful release valve.

Jota are champions

We have two champions in the World Endurance Championship going into the final round. Hertz Team Jota clinched the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams, the championship for independent cars, with a fourth-place finish overall. Its only real rival, the #83, was the car that Robert Kubica decided to use as a cruise missile on lap two, and from that point there was no real chance of the title race continuing. 

But that didn’t matter to the drivers of the #12. They wanted to win. Will Stevens was getting pretty angry at his team on the radio as he felt he was stuck behind the sister #38, telling them that he “was there to win.”

It showed the importance of what might seem like a minor title. The existence of a championship for the independents encourages them to take part. It’s why Jota has been there, and has given them a chance to showcase what they can do – leading to a factory Cadillac programme next year.

We’re good friends with the team at Jota here at Goodwood, and a thoroughly deserved championship victory is enough to make us all smile on a Monday. 

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.