Spherical two of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Imola, is about to get underway later this week because the sequence makes its debut on the iconic Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari positioned within the coronary heart of the Emilia-Romagna area and with monitor motion set to begin between 19 and 21 April
Regardless of enjoying host to a WEC spherical for the primary time, the venue isn’t any stranger to endurance racing, with the historical past courting again half a century, to the inaugural 1000km of Imola race, which was first held in 1974. Extra just lately, the circuit has been an everyday fixture on the European Le Mans Sequence calendar, which makes it a well-recognized territory for a number of rivals participating on this Sunday’s six-hour WEC occasion.
With 14 producers (Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Isotta Fraschini, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota), 37 vehicles (19 Hypercars and 18 LMGT3s), and a star-studded entry record comprising of 110 drivers from 28 completely different nations, the WEC is experiencing a golden period this season.
Spherical two of this 12 months’s season will mark the primary aggressive outing for the all-new, 2024-spec 9X8 Hypercar from Peugeot TotalEnergies, that includes radical aerodynamic upgrades together with an addition of a rear wing.
There may even be two adjustments on the entry record versus the curtain-raiser in Qatar. GT3 ace and three-time Bathurst 12 Hour race winner Jules Gounon will stand in for Ferdinand Habsburg at Alpine Endurance Group, following a testing accident that left the Austrian with two fractured vertebrae.
The #2 Cadillac may have simply two drivers, with Britain’s Alex Lynn and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber confirmed to drive the Cadillac V-Sequence R, and with Sebastien Bourdais (who joined the duo within the season-opening race) being on IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship responsibility at Lengthy Seashore this weekend.
The entry additionally options a number of native groups and drivers, giving the Tifosi loads of choices when it comes to assist, together with final 12 months’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Ferrari, in addition to new-for-2024 Hypercar-class entries, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini.
A complete of 12 Italian drivers will compete on house soil this weekend, together with Ferrari AF Corse’s trio Antonio Giovinazzi, Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi and Lamborghini Iron Lynx’s duo Mirko Bortolotti and Edoardo Mortara. There may even be nice anticipation for the house hero and a number of MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, who’s in his WEC rookie season in an LMGT3-class BMW M4 operated by Group WRT.
The anti-clockwise circuit is characterised by its distinctive old-school really feel and watching Hypercars across the 4.909-kilometre format shall be a sight to recollect. Throughout every tour, drivers of the top-class equipment attain speeds of round 312kph and are full-throttle for roughly 50 per cent of the lap.
Finally month’s Qatar’s 10-hour curtain-raiser, Porsche was victorious in each Hypercar and LMGT3. Nonetheless, with the energy of this 12 months’s grid, there shall be no scarcity of contenders trying to dethrone the German producer.
With a really completely different circuit format and contrasting climate circumstances possible, the second spherical of the WEC must be a special ball recreation altogether, and it will likely be fascinating to see which vehicles turn into greatest suited to the distinctive problem of one in all motor sport’s most hallowed grounds.
