The sun has set, literally, on the FIA World Endurance Championship’s pre-season testing event, The Prologue. With track action for the Qatar 1812km, the opening race of the season, getting under way tomorrow, there’s not much time for the data to be analysed.
We’ve looked at both sessions all teams in the Hypercar class ran in, sessions 2 and 3, averaging out the longest stint from each session for each car to see what trends emerge.
First off, the caveat: as usual, this is only testing. No teams are truly pushing and some may be actively sandbagging in order to fool rivals into a false sense of security.
Then there’s the Balance of Performance, which governs how much power and weight each car runs with, plus when the hybrid motors kick in on the front axle for the LMH-rules cars from Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot and Isotta Fraschini. The BoP has been overhauled this year; more weight can now be added to the cars, and the new two-stage BoP system means different power levels can kick in after the cars reach a certain speed.
With that out the way, here are the average lap times for each team from sessions 2 and 3.
| Manufacturer (customer) | Average laptime | Gap to leader | Interval | Fastest single lap (order) |
| Cadillac | 01:43.7 | 1:40.548 (2) | ||
| JOTA (Porsche) | 01:43.8 | 0:00.070 | 0:00.070 | 1:40.541 (3) |
| Ferrari | 01:44.0 | 0:00.240 | 0:00.170 | 1:40.673 (4) |
| AF Corse (Ferrari) | 01:44.1 | 0:00.386 | 0:00.146 | 1:40.749 (5) |
| Peugeot | 01:44.3 | 0:00.540 | 0:00.154 | 1:41.260 (6) |
| Porsche | 01:44.4 | 0:00.672 | 0:00.132 | 1:40.404 (1) |
| BMW | 01:44.8 | 0:01.050 | 0:00.377 | 1:41.661 (8) |
| Toyota | 01:45.0 | 0:01.303 | 0:00.253 | 1:41.789 (9) |
| Alpine | 01:45.1 | 0:01.387 | 0:00.084 | 1:42.448 (10) |
| Proton (Porsche) | 01:45.2 | 0:01.502 | 0:00.116 | 1:41.452 (7) |
| Lamborghini | 01:45.6 | 0:01.869 | 0:00.366 | 1:42.556 (11) |
| Isotta Fraschini | 01:47.6 | 0:03.849 | 0:01.981 | 1:44.269 (12) |
As you see, Cadillac have come out quickest, with the customer JOTA Porsche squad just a smidge behind. Ferrari were the top LMH-rules car, followed by Peugeot, Porsche and BMW.
Cadillac, Porsche and Ferrari are all now in the second year of running their cars. The concept of diminishing returns means they have more to gain compared to Toyota, who have been running versions of the GR010 Hybrid since 2021.
Toyota were quite a bit down the order, 1.3 seconds off Cadillac. It’s pretty clear the German-Japanese team are not pushing at all here — don’t expect to see them in that position come Friday and Saturday. That said, they do have the heaviest, least powerful car.
The teams with new cars were, predictably, among the slowest. Alpine were not miles away, less than a tenth slower on average compared to Toyota. However, Lamborghini, with its Ligier-based car, weren’t as quick. Both will be hoping to use Wednesday to analyse the data on Wednesday to find those missing tenths to bridge the gap to the other teams.
It’s another story for the Isotta Fraschini team, though. Almost two seconds off Lamborghini ahead and coming up to four seconds off Cadillac. Hopefully they can find some pace in the Tipo 6 LMH Competizione before the race.
Peugeot, too, seem to be right up there. The Losail International Circuit’s track surface is billiard table smooth, suiting the still-rear-wing-less 9X8 more than other circuits, so it’s possible the French team could spring a surprise in Qatar.
BMW are right in the mix too. The car isn’t new like the Alpine or Lamborghini are — the BMW M Hybrid V8 has run in IMSA for a year now — but it’s new to WEC. That said, WRT have been testing with it for almost a year and have a mountain of data from the States to draw on. While Toyota will probably jump them in the order, they are right up there.
Taking a even a rough stab at an actual order is nigh on impossible, but I expect to see Toyota at the top, followed very closely by Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot and Cadillac, most likely intermixed in order. BMW should be next up, followed by Alpine, Lamborghini, and Isotta Fraschini.
But I’d also be happy to be completely wrong about this. Surprises are good!
The Qatar 1812km starts March 2nd at 11am local time.
