WEC is anyone's game after the Prologue

With 14 hours of Prologue testing in the books, there’s plenty to analyze during the off-days to come before the 36 FIA WEC cars fire up again in the paddock on Wednesday for the first Free Practice session of the 2025 season.

You can never read too much into testing, especially in a Balance of Performance-governed formula. But you can get a feel for what’s to come by combining the data at hand with conversations in the paddock.

The general consensus in Hypercar is that the days of the category being dominated by three manufacturers – Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche – may have been short-lived and are over. Progress made by BMW, Alpine, Peugeot and Cadillac looks to have closed the gap between the front-runners and the midfield.

For evidence, look no further than the top of the timing screens. Throughout the test on the modified Lusail circuit (with new kerbing, track limits lines and gravel beds), teams experimented with both qualifying simulations and longer runs with Michelin’s available medium and hard compounds. And it appeared that everyone, bar the two brand new Aston Martin Valkyries and Proton Competition’s Porsche, was ‘in the ballpark’.

Each session on Friday and Saturday was led by a different marque, with Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche and BMW all setting benchmark times as the track evolved and the temperature fluctuated. In the combined times, 15 of the 18 cars posted their fastest laps late on, in Session 4 on Saturday night. The 10 fastest cars of the test (covering six different makes) also all broke 1m40s and were separated by nine-tenths of a second.

BMW with Robin Frijns set the best lap, but remarkably, five cars bettered last year’s pole time – a 1:39.347 from Porsche. Both BMWs, both Cadillacs and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari all eclipsed it, suggesting that Thursday’s Qualifying sessions could produce some truly epic laps.

As a result, Vincent Vosse, BMW M Team WRT’s team boss, is energised by his team’s performance, but keen to avoid becoming overconfident.

“One thing is clear, we made a step in terms of performance,” he told RACER. “We could see this in the last three races of 2024, when we could match the best teams. We have worked hard over the winter, and we appear to be in a good window, so let’s see. It’s a tricky track, the differences are big when the sun goes down, temperature plays a role, but we feel confident.”

As for mileage, reigning Manufacturers’ Champion Toyota Gazoo Racing completed the most laps. Across the four sessions, its GR010 HYBRIDS toured the Lusail circuit 792 times. It spent Friday working on car setup and assessing the two tire options before spending Saturday preparing for the 10-hour race.

There was no flex in raw speed, and like last year, voices from within the team are making it clear they don’t expect the team to be the fastest in the field. But Toyota is a shrewd operator, and should never be underestimated.

Amongst the drivers, Robert Kubica enjoyed the most track time of anyone in the No. 83 AF Corse 499P, with 183 laps under his belt, 36 more than anyone else. That is almost four times more than Neel Jani, who completed just 47 laps in Proton’s Porsche. Jean-Eric Vergne came closest to Kubica’s total for Peugeot.

The Aston Martin Valkyries – the only brand new Hypercars in the field – completed 549 laps, interestingly, almost the exact figure in miles, as the race is in kilometres, 1812.

As a whole, it was a very encouraging public debut for the Multimatic-supported Aston Martin THOR team and its pair of V12 screamers, which gave a strong first impression. They look spectacular, sound impressive and ran pretty much like clockwork. There’s a lot more to come too.

“We were really pleased. It’s taken a lot of effort and the team,” Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s endurance boss, said in summary. “To see the momentum from testing continue here with a lot of laps, the car running faultlessly and the team gelling. We look forward to competing next weekend.

“It’s a very visceral experience to watch a Valkyrie on track, like on the road. It’s very special.”

In LMGT3, three brands set a session-topping time. Lexus sprung a surprise and ran fastest on both Friday sessions, while Corvette and Ferrari split the fast times on Saturday.

It was tight, as the top 12 cars (and 35 drivers) were separated by a single second in the combined ranking. Bottom of the times was the No. 77 Proton Ford Mustang, which missed three of the four sessions after a fire on Friday afternoon.

The only other cars to miss a session were the No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin and the No. 87 AKKODIS ASP Lexus. Both missed the final session.

Unlike Hypercar, the 2024 pole time was not bettered during the Prologue in LMGT3. Simon Mann’s hot lap in the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari yesterday was four-tenths off Tom Van Rompuy’s time in Hyperpole 12 months ago.

The quickest Bronze driver was TF Sport’s Ben Keating. The Texan set a 1m55.215s, just over four-tenths off Mann’s benchmark in the No. 33 Corvette. It looks like it’ll be a tight contest next week though, as 12 of the 18 Bronze-ranked racers ended up within a second.

“There are still some tweaks to come but I feel like I’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in two days of testing,” Keating said. “TF Sport clearly knows what they’re doing. It feels more comfortable and at home. I love running with TF Sport. I love racing in the Corvette. It’s easy to drive, and I know I will continue to improve throughout the week.

“I’m still making improvements in the comfort level and ergonomics of the car in learning about it on this track. I’ve never been on this circuit so it’s been nice to have time to get up to speed.”

Fellow American Ryan Hardwick, fresh from two weeks in the UAE contesting the Asian Le Mans Series with his full-season WEC team and team-mates, completed the most laps of anyone in the class, with 154 tours racked up over two days in the No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche. The fewest laps, perhaps unsurprisingly, were set by Ben Tuck, whose first run was interrupted by the serious fire that engulfed the No. 77 Mustang after just seven laps.

Mercedes-AMG’s new partner team Iron Lynx was also in the spotlight. It pounded out a strong total of laps with its new AMG GT3s, with both cars completing around 1,500 kilometres. Its fastest time came from Maxime Martin in the final session, a 1m55.571s. His time was almost matched by the No. 61 car’s young Dutch driver, Lin Hodenius.

The 2025 FIA WEC Prologue didn’t run without incident and misfortune for some of the runners in both classes. The three off days between now and Wednesday are going to be busy for every team, with plenty of prep work and post-test analysis to be completed. However, the ‘rest days’ are set to be particularly challenging for three outfits.

In Hypercar, Porsche’s staff back at Weissach are looking into the engine failure for the No. 6 963 on Friday.

Urs Kuratle, director of factory racing at Porsche, confirmed to reporters that the failure was the first ever for the 963 program. The Penske-run team believes it has already diagnosed the issue, though it has sent the engine back to Germany for further analysis, which should be completed before track action resumes next week.

Despite the interruption, he said that the team is happy with its performance. It managed to complete “perhaps 75 percent” of its planned program, with some positive results.

“We are happy with progress,” Kuratle continued. “While we are pushing for repeated success here, the field is now very tight. There is barely a single factory team, with the potential exception of the brand new Aston Martin effort, that you can count out.”

As for LMGT3, there’s a lot of work to be done in the Proton Competition and Racing Spirit of Leman garages. Proton’s No. 77 Mustang is being rebuilt from the bare frame following the car’s previously mentioned engine bay fire on Friday afternoon. After missing three whole sessions, the car is believed to be on track to make it out for Free Practice 1 on Wednesday.

Racing Spirit of Leman meanwhile, is having to repair the major front-end and side damage on its Vantage from Derek Debour’s off into the barriers yesterday. Like Proton, the team reports that it is confident it will be ready to go on Wednesday for FP1. The team is being supported by Prodrive/AMR, with elements on both the No. 10 and No. 27 crew engaged in the rebuild during the test.

“The team is one of the best in the business, and they’ll bounce back from it,” Adam Carter added.

As an aside, AKKODIS ASP’s No. 87 RC F LMGT3 didn’t make it out for the final session yesterday, but this is not a cause for concern. A team source told RACER today that there are no issues being looked at, it simply chose to use the time to work on the car.

The next time we see the cars running in anger, it’ll be in a more competitive setting. The race meeting beckons in Qatar, and at this point, it feels like almost anybody’s game.