WEC 2019/20: motorsport bids farewell to the flying prototypes

Image 1 of 4

The Japanese round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) gets under way this weekend as the top-tier sports car series moves on to the second round of the 2019/2020 season.

The WEC is the pinnacle of sports car racing, as Formula 1 is to open-wheel motorsport. In the past, motoring giants such as Audi, Porsche and Toyota have all dominated the endurance series, which features the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans every June.

But in recent years, many major manufacturers have departed the championship to focus on Formula E, an electric open-wheel racing series, with Toyota remaining as the sole car manufacturer alongside several teams of privately-run machines.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Next year, however, the championship will introduce one of the most significant rule shake-ups in sports car racing history.

The top-tier prototypes that blend Formula 1 levels of speed with highly efficient hybrid engines will be scrapped, in favour of road-car-based hypercars. It means that cars such as Aston Martin’s Valkyrie and Toyota’s GR Super Sport would be eligible to enter the series in its highest category.

There’s still one more year of the old prototype-based rule system, so we headed to the season opener in Silverstone, Britain, a few weeks ago as the older generation of cars set off on their farewell tour.

The cars and drivers

Before attending a WEC event, it’s worth familiarising yourself with the championship’s racing format.

Unlike F1, where 20 drivers across ten teams battle each other for outright victory, the WEC essentially features four races in one field.

First is the LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) category, featuring hi-tech prototypes that are driven by some of the best racing drivers in the world. Toyota has dominated the category in recent years, with double F1 champion Fernando Alonso clinching victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the past two years alongside ex-F1 stars Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.

Next is LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2). These cars are similar in design yet don’t have the high output hybrid engines of the LMP1 machines and are therefore far cheaper to run for private teams. The category still attracts big names, however, including former F1 drivers Paul di Resta and Anthony Davidson.

LMGTE is the final category, consisting of supercar and grand tourer-shaped machines, such as the Porsche 911 and Aston Martin Vantage, which are restricted on power to ensure close racing. The category is split into two classes. These are Pro, featuring professional racing drivers, and Am, which puts part-time drivers and team owners behind the wheel.

The race

With Toyota being the championship’s dominant force, it came as little surprise to see the Japanese carmaker’s two prototypes sprint off to a comfortable lead shortly after the race got under way.

Standing at the fast sweeping right-hand corner that is turn one at Silverstone, the LMP1 cars appear to take the corner without even the lightest tap on the brake. They’re so fast, in fact, that it’s possible to miss them. The prototypes enter view at such a rate, and almost silently, that we thought they had crashed out - only to spot them again a few laps later.

As there were only a handful of entries in the LMP1 category, and Toyota being the only big-budget manufacturer team, our attention quickly turned to the larger field of LMP2 machines.

While somewhat slower than their LMP1 counterparts, the LMP2 machines are simply a joy to watch. Their aerodynamic shape makes them particularly nimble in the corners, but they’re not considerably faster than the LMGTE cars on the straights. It means that the LMP2 cars have to fight hard to make their way through the slightly slower GT cars, while the LMP1 machines breeze past the competition with ease.

The LMGTE cars arguably offer the best racing, though. They’re closely matched, considerably heavier than their prototype competitors - meaning they sometimes slide around in the corners - and are more recognisable thanks to their product car shapes.

Not a lap went by without a gaggle of LMGTE cars scrapping over the same stretch of tarmac. Most of the overtakes were clean and professionally executed, but there were a few occasions when cars banged doors and spun into the tyre barriers.

What’s remarkable about watching multiple categories in one race is the diversity of sound. The LMP1 cars, for instance, are almost silent thanks to their complex hybrid systems converting as much wasted energy - such as sound - into power.

The LMGTE cars, meanwhile, have an eclectic mix of sounds, with the twin-turbo V8 engine of the Aston Martin Vantage playing baritone to the falsetto howl of Porsche’s previous-generation 911 RSR - the latter sending a cheer throughout the grandstand as it exited the pit lane.

As the race approached the four-hour mark, it became clear that nothing could stop Toyota from taking another one-two finish. It was a magnificent performance that suggests the Japanese outfit will once again be the team to beat.

Admittedly, the lack of competition at the front of the field does mean less drama in the race, but the rule changes for the 2020/21 season will see Aston Martin and US supercar maker Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus join Toyota in the top tier category.

Nevertheless, the WEC series gives British motorsport fans a chance to watch the pinnacle of endurance racing without having to make their way across the English Channel for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

WEC 2019/20 calendar

With the first round of the championship complete, here are the remaining races of the 2019/20 season:

• Japan, 6 Hours of Fuji - 6 October 2019
• China, 4 Hours of Shanghai - 10 November
• Bahrain, 8 Hours of Bahrain - 14 December
• Brazil, 6 Hours of Sao Paulo - 1 February 2020
• USA, 1000 miles of Sebring - 20 March
• Belgium, 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps - 25 April
• France, 24 Hours of Le Mans - 13 to 14 June

Top image credits: Ker Robertson/Getty Images