Nick van der Meulen plonked himself in front of his telly to bring you this review of the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

The World Endurance Championship (WEC) begins in what can be termed as a bizarre race weekend at Sebring, United States. Bizarre, because WEC and IMSA race at the same circuit in two separate events on the same weekend. The regulation changes have allowed IMSA and WEC to converge their respective sports prototype rulesets into one class (as you can read here).

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As a result, an unusual situation occurs where 11 Hypercars race in the WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring. Another eight prototypes, dubbed GTP, race in the Mobil 12 Hours of Sebring 12 hours later. This is not taking the vast number of LMP2 and GT racers into consideration. This schedule has been a recent tradition, however, it is believed this will be discontinued in future.

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Full House

The Hypercar class is exciting and relatively new, so one can imagine the cars received much attention. Most people expected that Toyota would remain dominant in the class, as the team has the most experience. It was to much surprise and great joy that Ferrari, with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel, took pole position. It was Ferrari’s first appearance on the endurance scene, with their new 499P, for 50 years.

Early Leader

Fuoco led the field off the line, but the two Toyotas soon muscled their way past into an unassailable lead. Trackside experts were of the impression that the Toyota handled the bumpy surface of Sebring with ease. While Ferrari and Porsche drivers had to work a little harder, they still looked good. Vanwall, on the other hand, was suffering handling maladies due to lack of testing time.

Toyota #7, in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi, took the lead at the four-hour mark and was never headed. The Kobayashi/Conway/Lopez machine led its sister home (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa) by six seconds, with the Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen Ferrari a lap adrift in third. The sole Cadillac entry (Lynn/Westbrook/Bamber) finished a solid fourth ahead of the two Penske Porsches of Cameron/Christensen/Makowiecki and Vanthoor/Lotterer/Estre, respectively.

The second Ferrari 499P finished seventh, after Alessandro Pierguidi damaged the machine following a clash with a GT Ferrari. The Vanwall of Villeneuve/Dillmann/Guerrieri finished eighth in class. The Peugeot team had a nightmare of a race, with Duval/Menezes/Müller retiring early and Jensen/di Resta/Vergne staggering to the finish.

LMP2 Duel

The LMP2 category wasn’t the close race that one would expect from this class. The lead battle was due to strategy more than out-and-out dueling on track. Prema Racing #63 (Pin/Bortolotti/Kyvat), leading with five minutes remaining, had to dive into the pits for a splash of fuel. The late move cost them dearly, as they took the chequered flag in third place.

Jota #48 Beckmann/Ye/Stevens), vying for the lead for much of the race, took a fine victory. This, despite a late pit stop from Will Stevens, leaving the team thinking the race was lost. United Autosport #23 led for the first half of the race, but was forced to pit with technical maladies. The United Autosport sister machine #22 (Albuquerque/Lubin/Hanson) snatched second position with minutes left on the clock.

GT Cars

The GT class saw drama in the race’s early stages. A huge shunt saw the Richard Mille/AF Ferrari cartwheel after slamming into the tyre wall (see video below). Thankfully, the driver walked away unscathed, but the car was destroyed. The sole Corvette entry (Catsburg/Keating/Varonne) dominated the second half of the race, taking a fine victory.

The Dempsey-Proton Porsche (Pedersen/Ried/Andlauer) capitalized on a late fuel stop by Kessel Racing Ferrari (Kimura/Huffaker/Serra) to take second position. The pole-sitting Iron Dames Porsche (Frey/Bovy/Gatting) led the first half of the race, before running off the road, dislodging bodywork.

Teething Issues

While IMSA and WEC are running similar rules, it appears there are still a few tweaks to be ironed out. The WEC race did not feature the new BMW Hypercar, while they were entered for the 12-Hour IMSA event. Interestingly, Penske Porsche entered two new 963 machines for both events. The WEC race saw the Ferrari 488GT compete (GT class), while the new 296 GT3 entered the 12-Hour event.

The second round of the WEC world championship moves to Europe, for the 6 Hours of Portimao, Portugal, on 16 April 2023.