Meanwhile Ferrari and Toyota are WEC’s heavyweights in every sense, heaving round 1075kg and 1089kg respectively — a difference that ranges between 2.5% and 6%.

Sports car racing’s top championship is running at Lusail circuit for the first time, one which features a large number of fast corners that put a huge amount of energy through tyres, meaning increased wear for the Michelin rubber. The heavier your car, the more it runs through the compounds.

WEC’s BoP is the opaque and slightly mysterious technical system which, via stipulated weight and power output adjustments, is supposed to eliminate any advantage gained or lost by choosing a particular power unit and chassis philosophy. It often causes controversy. The changes for this season were published two weeks ago until “further notice.”

“It’s the problem of this race,” said Coletta to Motor Sport on matters of weight. “In fact, if you saw the times after the Prologue or the end of the two practice sessions concession, all the lighter cars than LMH – BMW, Cadillac, Porsche – are very, very fast.

“We have more or less 45 to 50 kilos difference. Firstly, speaking for me it’s ridiculous because all my staff don’t understand this difference of weight – we can’t imagine why this choice on the ballast [has been made].

“It is very stupid that we are putting weight on the car. And in the other way, we have drivers that make more and more sacrifices to lose one kilo, two kilos. I believe this is dangerous.”

The almost 20-deep Hypercar field means the competition is now that much tougher for Ferrari and Toyota, which dominated proceedings last year. Coletta admits this only adds to the heavy headache.

“I believe that this weekend will be very complicated,” he says. “The track is probably better for MotoGP – we have only one line, otherwise it’s dirty [off-line].

“We need to make a lot of overtakes due to all the GT cars. The consumption of the tyres probably will be one of the most important things of the race. We just have to try and manage them – but we haven’t a chance [of winning].”

“It’s a long race, we saw that it’s really difficult to overtake,” said Ferrari driver Antonio Giovinazzi in the pre-race press conference. “The difference between Hypercar and GT3 is quite big, so the traffic will be key.

“So qualifying will be a lot more important. Last year there were like eight or nine Hypercars, so if you did not do a great lap you were at seventh or eighth. Now you can be 15th or 16th and you have 14 cars in front – so that [field] is difficult to overtake as well.”

This is the latest chapter in arguments over BoP. Prior to Le Mans last year, an unexpected change was made which appeared to peg back Toyota, helping Ferrari on its way to the Le Sarthe win.

The Japanese firm’s chairman Akio Toyoda said his team had “lost to politics” in a rare outburst, given that public dissent over BoP decisions is banned under WEC rules.

Ferrari then found itself subject to extra weight and less power at the following round in Italy, leading it to release a statement saying “The conditions imposed at Monza put the team at a disadvantage compared to its rivals”.

Speaking this weekend after the 2024 BoP changes, competition director Thierry Bouvet said: “What the BoP will not do is compensate for the lack of optimisation in racing — tyre choice, driver form, strategy decisions. We want to leave that up to the teams; we want to let them race.”

However it’s not all doom and gloom through the entire WEC grid. After a difficult return to endurance racing’s top tier last season, Porsche appears to have got on top of its gremlins and is also enjoying the benefit of the BoP changes – at least according to Coletta and co. The Ferrari boss thought a five-car 963 lockout at the front in qualifying was possible.

While his worst fears weren’t necessarily confirmed, Porsche Penske’s Matt Campbell did rocket to pole with a 1min 39.347sec at Lusail, while Callum Ilott slotted the next Porsche into third – in between the Toyota of Nyck de Vries and Antonio Fuoco’s Ferrari in fourth.

In the expanded Stuttgart customer team Jota, new WEC charger Ilott will be taking on the qualifying duties for the No12 car. He could emulate the likes of Vic Elford, Derek Bell and Brian Redman by becoming the latest Brit to win for the Stuttgart marque – but hesitates to expand on where Porsche’s advantage lies.

“We came in strongly,” he admits. “Everyone’s happy with the programme. It’s hard to say [why the car is going to well in Qatar].

“For me, it just feels good. We managed to carry good corner speed, spent a bit of time developing stuff. Who knows what the others are doing as well?”

Porsche team boss Jonathan Diuguid meanwhile attributes it to the circuit quite simply suiting the 963 car.

“This is the smoothest place I’ve been to in 20 years of auto racing,” he says. “All the cars are running really low, generating a lot of downforce – just because of certain characteristics.”

Whatever the reason, Porsche’s opening salvo under a setting desert sun in qualifying was the first of WEC’s fierce 2024 fight – before the gruelling ten-hour race tomorrow.