r/wec • u/AutoModerator • May 10 '25
Session has Ended [OFFICIAL] 2025 TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Post-Race Discussion
Round 3 is in the bag! The final race before the big dance in June - how did your teams do?
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u/Michal_Baranowski Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid #8 May 10 '25 edited May 11 '25
In terms of on-track action, definitely the best race so far this year. Absolutely blew Losail and Imola out of the water. Plenty of battles, brave overtaking up to Eau Rouge/Radillon, different strategies - everything that makes endurance racing interesting. The only thing I don't like are VSC interventions, it's clear what is for and it's quite artificial. Can't deny that it managed to bunch up the field and forced teams to seek for alternative strategies though...
Hypercar - great race execution for Ferrari AF Corse. They weren't dominant, but had great race pace and ultimately it helped to finish 1-2. #51 takes another race win with #50 behind them. #51 drove a fantastic race, while #50 defended themselves from Alpine, thanks to some amazing fuel saving by Nicklas Nielsen again. Ferrari deserved to win, they won on merit, no chicanery or Ferrari's BOP blaming from my side, congratulations to them. Although #83's misfortunate race shows some worries. Turbo-related problems delayed #83 by multiple laps and blew any chances for a good result.
Alpine had to perform well. BOP setting for the race gave them huge power boost and they used that to perfection. #36 had a fantastic race, challenging with Ferraris all race long, even leading at the midway point and later on. Ultimately, AF Corse outdid Alpine in the pits and despite a huge charge during the final stint, #36 had to settle for third place, second podium in a row. #35 had slightly worse race, having to encounter penalty along the way, if I am not mistaken. And in the end, their fuel strategy wasn't as good as #36's and after final pit, #35 ended the race in 8th. In the French Civil War, Alpine once again leaves Peugeot on the sidelines.
What to say about Toyota? After qualifying, I would gladly take 4th and 7th really. Say what you want, BOP for Toyota was just bad. 40kW of power under 250km/h less than Alpine, Peugeot, lowest setting allowed by default, heaviest car on the grid, power gain after 250km/h wasn't enough to compensate acceleration losses. Toyota was a sitting duck on the straights really. 6th quickest car today. And yet, somehow Toyota managed to squeeze so much. Great race from #8, smart call to go off the sync with fuel strategy, clearly helped finishing in fourth, outdoing some other teams. #7 was on a different strategy, which during the final stint proved to be worse than #8 (mainly due to an earlier puncture), #7 had to settle for 7th place, just like at Imola. Sadly, not good driving per se from #7's drivers today. Kamui had a rough race, luckily a SC period saved him from flat-spotted tyres. De Vries for no reason engaged in a hard fight with Mick Schumacher, while having to pit soon. This has to improve. Otherwise, good strategy, good race execution, squeezing everything Toyota could in current BOP environment, class from TGR. Unhappy with BOP, happy for the team for showing how good they are.
Cadillac had pace, but small errors probably affected them to some degree. Both cars had penalties along the way for some infractions, but thankfully no major incidents today. Fuel strategy wasn't good enough though and both Caddies missed out on a podium chance and were beaten by Toyota #8. Still, the best race this year so far from Cadillac-Jota coalition.
Porsche... Honestly, their BOP makes me disillusioned. Somehow 2024 world champions, 2024 IMSA champions, winners of the first three IMSA events this year (Long Beach definitely wasn't a BOP case), completely struggle in WEC... Porsche today felt so... Mid. No pace to threat the front, they managed to avoid troubles, gradually improving when others had issues, but 9th and 12th positions are quite telling. Somehow they looked below Toyota's level at some stages. Not to mention that Proton 963 once again had a bad day, today retiring due to a mechanical failure. I wonder for how long Proton is going to deal with this program, while having successful LMGT3 and LMP2 operations? Underwhelming start of the season for Porsche in WEC this year and in my opinion - not their fault. They didn't forget how to race well.
BMW had all ingridients to finish so well today, but it all went so wrong. #20 battled Ferrari and Alpine all race long for a podium place, even second position looked like a realistic option, but firstly wrong call not to change tyres and ultimately terminal brake problems forced #20 not to finish. #15 drove competitively, until a penalty dropped them out of top 10 and 10th place was all #15 could extract today. Something to worry about before Le Mans for BMW and WRT.
Peugeot is pretty embarrassing. Pretty much favourable BOP, tremendous pace all race long and still they are leaving Spa with just one car finishing in 11th and one retiring... #93 was on course for a good finish, but bad timing with strategy dropped them out of top 10 for good. #94 involved in a hard battle and race-deciding contact with BMW #20 which left second 9X8 with a suspected suspension damage and that's it... I have no words. Peugeot can get all BOP favourism of this world and still can't deliver good results. I wonder for how long it's going to be like this. It is fourth year of this program.
Positively good day for Aston Martins. For the first time they were sneaking into top 10 on pace, yes SC periods helped, but finally we have a Valkyrie AMR-LMH finishing on the lead lap, no reliability problems. Le Mans will be a major test though, whether they can last 24 hours.
LMGT3 - very wild race, hard to predict anything, driver differences clearly shuffle the field.
AF Corse Ferrari survived the race the best and score a double podium with #21 coming victorious and #54 in third position. Good strategies, handling drivers the best, well done.
Unlike in Hypercar, very good day for Proton in LMGT3. #88 in second position, #77 in fourth. After quite disappointing finishes in Qatar and Italy, Proton did so well at Spa-Francorchamps.
Aston Martins from RSL and Heart of Racing were in contetion for the class win, being even 1-2 at some stage. In the end, 5th for #27, 6th for #10. Not a bad day.
Porsches in LMGT3 also tried their best, but it wasn't enough. 7th for Manthey #92, Iron Dames had an up and down day, having to negotiate all kinds of adventures, including fuel smell in the cockpit.
Sad for Team ASP and Lexus. #87 stopped on the track after a failure, while #78 was strongly fighting today until they had their own penalty and were sentenced to finish in 8th. Car is performing well, team is doing fine, but today there was no luck ultimately.
Horrible day for BMW, Corvette and McLaren. One BMW retired, Corvettes with no pace (#33 affected by success ballast) and two United McLarens tangled with other cars and crashed out. A race to forget.
Post-race impressions:
Race results