Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI
***The entry list for this weekend’s opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship features 36 cars, split evenly across the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes, with no changes compared to the confirmed full-season entry.
***The Qatar race will notably mark the much-anticipated global race debut for the all-new Aston Martin Valkyrie, while it will also mark the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s debut event in the WEC. The BMW M4 GT3 EVO will also make its first WEC appearance after success in the Michelin 24H Dubai and 6H Abu Dhabi.
***A total of 28 nationalities are represented in the field. The U.K. and France are the best represented drivers with 16 each, followed by Italy on 14, Denmark on seven, Switzerland on six and Belgium and the U.S. with five each.
***Christian Ried’s decision to come out of retirement to contest this year’s WEC with his Proton Competition LMGT3 team means that the German driver is poised to keep his crown as the championship’s most experienced driver. He goes into the Qatar round on 87 starts, one ahead of Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi.
***Manthey’s Richard Lietz is third on the all-time list on 84 starts ahead of the start of the new season, ahead of Toyota’s Mike Conway (79), Ferrari driver James Calado (76) and another member of the Toyota stable, Brendon Hartley (74).
***Calado does not expect the start time of next week’s Qatar 1812km being pushed back by two hours from midday to 2 p.m. local time to be have significant consequences with regards to race proceedings.
***The Briton told Sportscar365: “I don’t think it’ll have any impact, to be honest. Qatar normally is quite consistent from a certain time in the afternoon to the night. It doesn’t really change much. The temperature stays quite stable, so to me, it’s just two hours. It’s not a big difference.”
***Bernhard Demmer has been appointed by Team WRT as the new head of operations for the BMW Hypercar program. The German joins after a stint as head of track infrastructure and logistics at Sauber and previously also acted as general manager at Porsche Penske Motorsport and held various positions during a six-year spell at Manthey Racing.
***BMW has updated the liveries for its pair of M Hybrid V8s, with both cars now sporting graphics that closely resemble the launch livery for the M4 GT3 EVO. Additionally, the No. 20 car is now decked out red, yellow and black while the sister No. 15 car has retained the traditional motorsport colors for the Munich brand.
***More than a dozen drivers taking part in this weekend’s Prologue were in action during the Asian Le Mans Series finale in Abu Dhabi last weekend. The list includes Malthe Jakobsen, Alessio Rovera, Julien Andlauer, Davide Rigon, Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni, Nico Varrone, Celia Martin, Michelle Gatting, Mattia Drudi, Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera, Ben Barnicoat and Marco Sorensen.
***Three teams, meanwhile, have travelled directly from Abu Dhabi: Proton Competition (which also ran the Iron Dames entry), AF Corse and Manthey.
***While Ried makes his full-time WEC return as part of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG effort, his son Jonas, who raced in Abu Dhabi, is taking part in FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend, driving for AIX Racing.
***As part of the Hypercar Balance of Performance issued for the Qatar round, an additional ‘docking’ time has been added to each car’s pit stop, with the exception of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, which is notably the only non-hybrid car in the class. The docking time is one second for the LMDh cars, while for the the hybrid LMHs — the Ferrari 499P, Peugeot 9X8 and Toyota GR010 Hybrid — it is 1.2 seconds.
***It’s understood that the WEC has introduced a ballast rule designed to eliminate the disadvantaged faced by heavier drivers this season, as hinted at by the inclusion of mandatory driver weighing sessions for Hypercar and LMGT3 drivers over the course of the Prologue weekend.
***One source suggested to Sportscar365 that the reference weight has been set at 82 kg, which would mean a team whose drivers weigh an average of 70 kg would need to install 12 kg of ballast to meet the new requirement.
***Heart of Racing Team has submitted a request for clarification as to whether a fully-assembled test car that the team used for private testing in Qatar last December and has been stored in a container can be used as a source of spare parts without being disassembled. The request was rejected on the basis that “reserve cars are not permitted, whatever the intended use” by the regulations.
***Stewards clarified that used tires from private testing are allowed to be used during the Prologue following a request for clarification from Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA.
***Track action for the Prologue begins at 1 p.m. local time on Friday (5 a.m. ET) with the first of four test sessions. The opening session lasts for three hours, while the second session, starting at 6 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), lasts for four hours. Saturday’s running follows the same schedule, but with each session starting and ending one hour earlier.
Davey Euwema contributed to this report
