[WEC Race] WEC 2024: Round 6 - Lone Star Le Mans

[J Jay]

The sixth round of the 2024 FIA WEC comes to America this weekend for a six-hour race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Any teams or drivers with title hopes will be looking for a good result here heading into the season's final races.

All times are given in Central European Time (CET):

• FP1 - Friday 19:40
• FP2 - Saturday 00:10
• FP3 - Saturday 18:00
• Qualifying - Saturday 22:00
• Race - Sunday 20:00

Useful links:

Race schedule
Track Map
Spotter Guide
Live Timing (WEC)
Live Timing (Timing71)
Dailysportscar
Sportscar365
WEC Youtube (FP3 broadcast 18:00 CET)
Radio Le Mans (audio only)
FIA WEC TV (paid subscription/PPV)

[Adam43]

Thanks for starting the thread and all the links

Looking forward to it.

[J Jay]

Cheers. As it's eight hours ahead of me, I'll leave Fuji's race thread to someone geographically closer!


No paddock news yet, but in case you missed it:


Jota have an updated livery for the #38 to celebrate 50 years of Mobil 1.


Ben Keating will be part of the #88 Proton's driver crew (replacing Giorgi Roda), and Harry Tincknell will return to the #99 Proton from VIR in IMSA.

[Adam43]

Suggestion here from Corvette’s Charlie Eastwood that degradation will be a thing:

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2024/...-corvette.html

[TF110]

Not my favorite track, but at least there's a race in the states. I think the last section is too busy and a few turns could be dropped to extend the pit straight. I guess tire management will be key here with the Texas heat!

[flatlandsman]

I am guessing deg' will be a huge factor here, it is an F1 track so lots of very long high speed corners and heavy traction areas, the bikes always struggled here too until it was properly skimmed, so am guessing you will see a lot of the Caddy style tyre saving to bag an extra set early on for later in the race, but someone will do better, it seems always Toyota who seem able to get their car to work as well as others on softer tyres,

[Adam43]

First Practice is in the books. Porsche fastest, but Ferrari has put in more consistently fast laps. Caddy #2 hit the ground running too. BMW too. Oh and look how close it is with the Top 10 lap average!

Ferrari still fast in the speed trap.

BMW putting the laps in is probably the only take away at this stage.

VERY EARLY ON!

[Adam43]

I've set up something new for the data so please shout if you see anything odd. Anything in the data, formatting, typos, or anything.

Most stuff can be done at a touch of a button now, but some stuff isn't built yet.

[Articus]

Thanks Adam! Most of these teams tested here already so they shouldn't be far away from their ideal settings. Ferrari looks quick. BMW also looks like a podium contender, finally.

[broadrun96]

Bad weekend to make it look like anyone wants to go Labor Day, college football kickoff weekend and UT at home (#4 in polls and first season in new conference)

[Adam43]

No quality control here as I am just about to play poker.

Need to review why the laps for the BMW is different in each table. Weird.

Things are settling down.

[Articus]

Looks very tight between Ferrari, Cadillac, and Toyota. Penske seems a bit behind Jota.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by Adam43

No quality control here as I am just about to play poker.

Seems it's wrong in few places. For example the 5 Porsche has the fastest time way lower than this car ever did:
http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/Res...actice%201.PDF
FP1 1:53.574

http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/Res...actice%202.PDF
FP2 1:53.492
But in your table the fastest time is 1:52.473.

[S griffin]

It's very close at the moment. Could go anyway. Wouldn't want to predict this one

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Seems it's wrong in few places. For example the 5 Porsche has the fastest time way lower than this car ever did:
http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/Res...actice%201.PDF
FP1 1:53.574

http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/Res...actice%202.PDF
FP2 1:53.492
But in your table the fastest time is 1:52.473.

Thank you for looking. This is something I'd forgotten about the data, but now you've rediscovered it. Sort of Fermat's Last Theorem.

The data includes deleted laps. The Porsche did do a 1:52.473 on it's 30th lap in FP2, but due to something in sector 3 it got deleted. It was also the lap when it achieved it's highest Top Speed too. Although I don't think this impacted the Top Speed as I think that measurement is in sector 1.

I think I'd like to remove them, but it will be difficult.

It looks like a lap when the Porsche was going for a qualifying practice. It almost set it's fastest sector 1, did set it's fastest sector 2. Sector 3 would have been, but was deleted. If we replace the sector 3 time with the next best (and undeleted) time the Porsche would have set a 1:52.827.

I have worked out what the problem is with the Beemer's 80 / 81 lap thing. Sometimes a sector time doesn't register. This caused me to miss a lap as I, for a shortcut, use the sum of the sectors to get the lap time. I can fix this.

Thank you again.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It's very close at the moment. Could go anyway. Wouldn't want to predict this one

Go on, have a go.

[Articus]

BMW didn't look as strong in FP2.

Cadillac and Ferrari look very strong. Porsche and Toyota might be a hair behind.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Go on, have a go.

A car will win, it probably burns gasoline and uses rubber tires, and 17 fans will have seen it win and someone will cry foul and appeal the result

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

A car will win, it probably burns gasoline and uses rubber tires, and 17 fans will have seen it win and someone will cry foul and appeal the result

You can definitely be more specific
"A car will win, it probably burns gasoline and uses rubber tires, and 17 fans will have seen it win and Ferrari will cry foul and appeal the result"

[flatlandsman]

Oh dear, not best start to FOP3 onboard sound is about 10 seconds behind pictures, will leave this I think so damned amateur at times

[Adam43]

Mad close.

Ferrari has the top speed and is top of the lap times.
Peugeot has the top speed and is bottom of the lap times.
Cadillac is bottom of the speeds, but is up there with lap times.

Crikey.

There is much to enjoy / or hate depending on your disposition.

Qualifying soon. Presumably it's Ferrari's to lose? As you can see from the spread most have a quick lap or two, but probably no one has nailed a qualifying type lap yet.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Mad close.
Ferrari has the top speed and is top of the lap times.
Peugeot has the top speed and is bottom of the lap times.
Cadillac is bottom of the speeds, but is up there with lap times.
Crikey.

Yes puzzling. What about Lamborghini?

[Ferrari333SP]

Very excited here for quali

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Yes puzzling. What about Lamborghini?

Turns out they didn’t bring the NA car to this WEC race. Does that mean Indy gets the WEC car too?

Up there with top speed, lower down with lap time. But quicker than Peugeot.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

Very excited here for quali

Are we building up to a deleted time fest?

Everyone get ready to be outraged on the internet.