This 2023 WEC 6 Hours of Fuji race report is proudly brought to you by Toyota Gazoo Racing.
The sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship took place at Fuji. The circuit lies at the base of Mt. Fuji and it is notorious for its wet weather. It is here that James Hunt won the 1976 world championship when Niki Lauda pulled into the pits in torrential conditions to retire – where Mario Andretti won his first Grand Prix for Lotus (and his first in over five years). The first free practice for the WEC event began in wet, slippery conditions, but it soon dried up and the weather held for the remainder of the weekend.
Follow Double Apex on Instagram and Facebook where we share more car content.
Hometown Heroes
The circuit is home of Toyota – literally. The circuit was purchased by Toyota Motor Company in 2000. As a result, fans turned up in their droves (over 54000) to see their beloved team dominate. The team did not disappoint and dominated qualifying.
Both Toyotas were surprised by aggressive starts from Porsche #6 (Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor) and Ferrari #50 (Fuoco/Nielsen/Molina) from the second row of the grid, as both surged past to lead.
Polesitters Toyota #7 (Kobayashi/Conway/Lopez) eventually worked its way to the front after a three-way battle with Porsche #6 and Toyota #8 (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa). Both Toyotas eventually got the better of the American-German entrant, with team boss Kobayashi taking the chequered flag first. The result won Toyota the manufacturers’ title for the 2023 season.
The tenacious Penske Porsche squad were rewarded with a fine third position. Teammates, Porsche #5 (Christensen/Makowiecki/Cameron), however, suffered from issues early in the race and retired. Team Jota #38 (Da Costa/Stevens/Ye) also had a troubled start, but recovered to finish sixth. Proton Competition #99 (Bruni/Tincknell/Jani) lost a lot of time in the pits due to seatbelt issues and finished ninth in class.
Overly Confident…?
Ferrari did not test at Fuji earlier in the year, opting to test at their simulator at home instead. They paid dearly for this oversight, as the team struggled for grip throughout the weekend. The team attempted to use medium rubber in an attempt to improve their situation. Toyota, on the other hand, used the harder compound rubber. Ferrari #50 finished a distant fourth, with the sister #51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi) fifth.
Peugeot #94 (Duval/Menezes/Vandoorne – replacing the injured Nico Müller) finished sixth ahead of the Peugeot #93 (Vergne/diResta/Jensen). The sole Cadillac #2 entry (Bamber/Lynn/Westbrook) had a nightmare race, losing a wheel and a lot of time in the process. The team still managed to finish tenth in class.
Click here to check out our bespoke gallery of images from the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans.
LMP2
WRT #41 (Andrade/Kubica/Deletraz) took a brilliant victory in the LMP2 class, after passing early leaders United Autosport #22 (Albuquerque/Lubin/Hanson), who finished an eventual second. WRT #31 (Gelael/Frijns/Habsburg) took third position in the closing stages of the race ahead of United Autosport #23 (van der Gaarde/Pierson/Jarvis).
The #23 United Autosport machine was punted into a spin by the Vanwall Hypercar during the race, compromising their chances of a better result. Alpine #36 (Vaxiviere/Milesi/Canal) finished fifth.
GTE Class
The GTE Am class saw new world champions Corvette #33 (Catsburg/Keating/Varonne) cause havoc with eventual race winner AF Corse Ferrari #54 (Rigon/Flohr/Castelacci) in the race’s early stages. Ben Keating, driving at the time, was slapped with a 30-second stop/go penalty as a result.
The #54 machine surged to the front in the final hour of the race, beating the Kessel Ferrari #57 (Miyata/Kimura/Huffaker) into second place. Unfortunately for the Kessel squad, they were penalised post-race and conceded the position to Corvette #33.
Iron Dames Porsche #85 (Frey/Bovy/Gatting) finished fourth after leading the class for almost one third of the race. Proton-Dempsey Porsche #77 (Ried/Pedersen/Andlauer), leading into the final hour of the race, could only finish seventh in class.
Down To The Wire
The two Toyota machines’ drivers are still vying for the world championship. Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi lead the way with 133 points, while Lopez/Kobayashi/Conway have 118. The Ferrari pilots hold third (Pierguidi/Calado/Giovinazzi, 102) and fourth place (Fuoco/Melina/Nielsen, 97) in the standings, respectively.
The LMP2 class sees the WRT #41 pilots (135 points) extend their lead over Inter Europol Competition #34 racers (Costa/Scherer/Smiechowski, 102 points), with Lubin/Hanson one point further adrift. Catsburg/Keating and Varonne have already claimed the LmGTE Am class championship.
The final round of the 2023 WEC world championship takes place in Bahrain for an 8-hour event on 4 November 2023.
Having extracted myself from my warm bed at 03.30 on the Sunday in question so as to ensure I did not miss a single lap of the Fuji WEC event, I am not at all sure that I agree with the author’s summation of the day’s happenings. Firstly, Toyota most definitely did not DOMINATE. It took them two thirds of the race to take the lead! As Autosport reported, Toyota may have won but they did not have things their own way at all. The magazine rightly reported that the talking point of the event was the massive and largely unexpected upliftment in the performance of the Porsche 963. As close followers of the event will know, the Porsches represent the LMDh class which so far this season has been at a severe disadvantage to the LMH class represented by the season’s only WEC winners, Toyota and Ferrari. This turnaround was only hinted at in one sentence of your report which also failed to mention that the #6 Porsche led the hitherto much faster Ferraris all the way. Autosport’s comment that this turnaround from Porsche is hugely significant in that it promises to galvanise the previously one-sided series is surely of huge relevance? Note too that Harry Tincknell from the privateer Proton 963 team also made specific mention of the increased pace of his steed which he claims would have finished fourth without a 12 minute delay sorting out a recalcitrant seat belt buckle of all things. Secondly, the #5 Porsche 963 was classified as a finisher and did not retire as your article states.