WEC Hypercar Grades - Who has earned passing marks with one race to go?
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Unfortunately there's only one race remaining in the 2024 WEC season, it's crazy how quickly time flies when you're having a shit ton of fun.
After the checker flag waves in the desert on November 2 it'll mark the conclusion of arguably the best WEC season since this new iteration of the championship was introduced back in 2012 when factoring in the health and size of the grid, the level of competition between manufactures and record attendance numbers across the globe.
Following the 6 Hours of Fuji, it's time to hand out the penultimum report card for each Hypercar team, and remember, we're tough graders here so sit back and let the hot takes singe your eyebrows.
A - Porsche Penske Motorsport, Toyota Gazoo Racing
The only two manufacturers that still have a realistic shot at winning the constructors' title (sorry Ferrari). It'll be a dogfight between these two legendary racing programs, and one of two things will happen once the dust (sand?) settles in early November - either Porsche will reclaim the throne as a world champion program for the first time since 2017, or Toyota will continue their dominance in the sport and earn their sixth-straight constructors' championship. There's also the added angle of the No. 6 PPM sitting pretty for the drivers' title as well, so if things go right for The Captain and Co., we'll be treated to a double championship finish for the Penske contingent.
(Remember, it's a two car vs. two car battle between the No. 5 and No. 6 of PPM and the No. 7 and No. 8 of TGR; the other Porsche 963s on the grid do not factor into the constructors' battle, as the Hertz Team Jota and Proton cars duke it out in the separate World Cup battle, a battle that the No. 12 HTJ has already claimed).
B - Alpine
Arguably the only program on the grid to exceed expectations in 2024, is that fair to say? With their two most recent performances at COTA and Fuji, Alpine and their A424 have pulled off something most media/fans/casuals/random people on the street/God didn't think was capable - they have a competitive car! The first half of the season was a bit rocky, lowlighted by the double retirement at Le Mans (woof) which was followed by a tough outing in Brasil. Yet the last two times out in Austin and in Fuji, both the No. 35 and the No. 36 have scored a points finish, and those guys currently sit P4 in the HY standings with 52 points. When Alpine entered back into the top flight of endurance racing, and when it was revealed that they were rolling with the Mecachrome V634 as their engine of choice, the jokes basically wrote themselves. The 36 had an especially rough time coming out the gates with finishes of 11th/16th/12th/retired to begin things. Yeah not good. However, they've stuck with the development of the car and have made the right adjustments, and coming off a podium finish in Fuji as well as a fastest lap, they can now feel better about their fortunes with one race to go and ideally some momentum building into 2025. Nice job Alpine.
C - BMW
The only thing preventing BMW from grading out as a D thus far was their P2 finish at Fuji for the No. 15, and boy did they need that. Similar to what RLL just pulled off at the Battle of the Bricks, the WRT team was fiending for something that they could feel good about, and it took until the 6 Hours of Fuji to find that result. For their first season competing in the WEC, the M Hybrid V8 has worked through the same growing pains that Alpine and the soon-to-be-mentioned Lamborghini SC63 have but without even asking them for an official quote on the matter you know that anyone involved with the M program is going to hold themselves to an incredibly high standard of excellence. They didn't enter the dance to fight for 10th place finishes and just hang about the paddock. There's a lot of pressure on the program to perform, and their first podium is finally something tangible that they can build from. Everything all in, they come out with a C.
D - Ferrari, Cadillac
Is this too harsh for Ferrari? Maybe, I mean, they did win Le Mans right? Right?! Listen, we all know Le Mans is the crown jewel and that any racing team on the planet would trade just short of anything to win Le Grand, which Ferrari has done the last two seasons with the No. 51 and then the No. 50, which by its own merits is an incredible achievement as a program. Would Ferrari ever admit that the 499P was basically invented to recreate their legendary run in the 60s that saw them capture six Le Mans victories in seven years? If so, mission accomplished, no? It depends on how you view it. If we're to believe that Ferrari are a marquee outfit, then they should be in the business of competing for world championships, not just fighting to win one race a year, no matter how legendary that race might be. Looking through that lens, Ferrari are projected to finish 3rd in the constructors' behind Porsche and Toyota unless an absolute miracle of a finish reverses their fortunes; it starts with having to claim a Hyperpole victory for the extra point as well as needing to win outright, while also seeing both Porsche/Toyota's finish worse than 5th. Anything can happen, sure, but it isn't likely. We'll see how they approach things in Bahrain.
Cadillac -
When we look back on this version of Cadillac in the WEC it'll be quite difficult to dissect exacly what happened to their championship aspirations. Let's give it a shot - they saw their P5 finish at Qatar wiped away due to a technical infringement, they crossed the finish line P10 at Imola in Round 2, and then we all experienced the absolutely insane wreck that Earl Bamber pulled out of his pocket when coming down the Kemmel Straight at Spa in Round 3. Three races into the season and Cadillac only had two points to show for their efforts. At Le Mans the No. 2 was tantalizingly close to pulling off an American Triumph but ultimately fell off the pace late and finished two minutes and 30 seconds short on the lead lap. Brasil was struggle bus city. They rebounded nicely in Austin with a strong Hyperpole session but ultimately missed out on the podium with a P4 finish (taking out privateer entries, technically they did finish P3 for the manufactures' race so this gets a little upside down, but the overall point remains). And then FINALLY in Fuji, they secured their first-ever Hyperpole and then ran strong as hell for a large majority of the outing, yet with just 30 flipping minutes to go on the clock Bamber flew off track and into the tire barrier after running high into the marbles, and that was the end of that. It's been mostly sour for Cadillac in 2024 and that misfortune earns them their D, and after Bahrain we will officially close this chapter of the V-Series.R and welcome Hertz Team Jota as the new stewards of the glorious LMC55.R V8.
F - Peugeot
Peugeot have a lot they need to figure out. Let me contradict myself a bit here by saying that they did have their best day of the year running at Fuji, with the No. 93 finishing P4 and the No. 94 finishing P8, which is the kind of break I just gave to Alpine and BMW earlier. Yet taking a total view of the season, up until Fuji they had just a handful of points to their name and experienced a whole lot of trouble on track. The R&D team deserve credit for trying something different with the original wingless 9x8 Peugeot, which they reversed in 2024 after the car struggled to compete at a consistent top-three level. In May, the CEO commented that the car will need to start contending for wins to justify the investment they've made into the program and framed it in a three year window starting this season. They haven't done enough to make the bosses totally thrilled I imagine. Data on the car is always great and Peugeot are poised to introduce more Evo joker updates in time for the start of the 2025 season. For the rest of the HY teams on the grid, Peugeot is the only one that faces questions of uncertainty about their future. Here's to hoping they can finish the season on a high note with a solid result in Bahrain.
Incomplete - Lamborghini
The goal for the Iron Lynx and their SC63 this debut season was always going to be simple: manage to stay on the track for as many laps as humanly possible, and record as much data on the new prototype LMDh as humanly possible. Have they achieved those goals? Eh, sort of? Their results have come through as - 10th/10th/retired/8th/14th/11th/retired, which amasses to 11 points. That 8th place finish at Le Mans certainly is nice! We'll also give them this - the car looks absolutely magnificent out on the track. You also can't forget that the Lynx are only running the single car this season before they double their efforts in 2025, so again, this year has been all about developing a prototype endurance racing program from the ground up and learning how to compete with the established programs on the grid. Let's see what they can muster in the insane heat of Bahrain (likely another DNF, who knows).
Dead - Isotta Fraschini
Will the IF program be reborn for 2025? We can only hope.
(photo via xpbimages.com)
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