Pascal Vasselon, technical director at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, would only say that the times the GR010 was doing weren’t a surprise. Finding those all-important missing tenths was, he said, “our job and we will just get on with it”.
Ferrari came out of the Test Day looking good after topping the two sessions with Antonio Fuoco and then Antonio Giovinazzi aboard its pair of 499P LMHs. But then the one-lap pace of the car was never in doubt after the former pulled out a sensational pole position on its debut at the Sebring 1000 Miles back in March. Giovinazzi produced a lap good enough to the top the qualifying times at Spa, too, though that one was scrubbed out for a track-limits violations.
Ferrari knows that the job that lies ahead if it is to win Le Mans on its factory return with the prototype 50 years on from its last such campaign is to hone the 499P into a consistent race car. There were signs of progress in that direction at Spa as James Calado swept through to maintain the Italian manufacturer’s run of podiums on the final lap. Ferrari, however, was among the losers in the BoP shake-up: it had 24kg added to its minimum weight, which will have an inevitable effect on the car’s ability to look after its tyres.
Calado, who shares his 499P with Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, took the final piece of silverware last time out in the WEC from Porsche. The German manufacturer has endured a difficult start to its return to the WEC after just four seasons out since the end of its 919 Hybrid LMP1 programme, but its car showed some real pace at the Test Day.
Ferrari remains a frontrunner despite losing out in BoP re-evaluation
Ferrari
A 963 LMDh was in the top three in both sessions and Laurens Vanthoor ended up second, just over a tenth behind Giovinazzi in the quicker, afternoon session. He actually posted a time that should have given him the top spot in the timesheets aboard his Porsche Penske Motorsport factory entry. He best lap was lost, however to a four-wheels-off infraction at Tertre Rouge.
Real progress appears to have been made over the course of three tests since Spa. The 963 has been plagued by instability under braking and project leader Urs Kuratle reckoned Porsche has “improved a lot in this area” in the past month of so.
Peugeot, which is racing with an unchanged BoP, showed some form, too, with its 9X8 LMH. Gustavo Menezes was second-fastest to Fuoco in the opening session, the first time one of the French cars has been anywhere near the sharp end of the times this year.
The drivers of the 9X8 reckon it’s too early to draw conclusions. They’re right, of course; it really is too early to start making predictions before the first sessions of practice and qualifying on Wednesday. But what we can say is that predictions will be required rather than writing this one off as another Toyota walkover.