Spa Wednesday Notebook

***A total of 37 cars are entered for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the entry list featuring numerous changes from the previous race at Imola last month.

***No fewer than five of the 19 Hypercar crews have only two drivers sharing duties at the Belgian venue, with the No. 2 Cadillac Racing entry joined by both Peugeot crews, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 and the Proton Competition Porsche.

***It marks the first time multiple crews in the WEC’s top class have run two-driver lineups since the 2018 6 Hours of Silverstone. On that occasion, Rebellion Racing’s No. 1 car (Andre Lotterer/Neel Jani), SMP Racing’s No. 17 car (Stephane Sarrazin/Egor Orudzhev) and ByKolles (Oliver Webb/Rene Binder) all ran with only two drivers.

***The following race at Fuji, where DragonSpeed ran James Allen and Ben Hanley as a pair, remained the last time any top-class team attempted to race with two drivers until Cadillac did so with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn at Imola last month.

***Peugeot technical director Olivier Jansonnie says the marque’s decision not to give reserve driver Malthe Jakobsen his race debut in the 9X8 this weekend in the absence of both Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne is related to its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Jansonnie said: “We are looking for stability in our crew, making sure we can maximize the driving time for the drivers going to Le Mans. We’ve been giving Malthe driving time in testing, and it was all very positive, but now we are really preparing for Le Mans and it’s good for us to have this kind of repeat, even if it’s only with two drivers.”

***Jakobsen himself says he is understanding of Peugeot’s decision. The Danish driver commented: “I’m a racing driver and at the end of the day I would prefer to be sitting in a race car with the steering wheel between my hands, but I understand the importance of keeping the team environment with a brand new car and preparing themselves as best as possible for Le Mans.”

***On whether running only two drivers per car provides a performance benefit, Jansonnie replied: “We expect it to make life much easier in free practice, as you don’t have to share the driving time so much and you can work more on the set-up. But in the race, it depends on the actual number of stints. If it’s six stints, it’s easy, but if it’s seven stints, we have to scratch our heads and see how we do that.”

***Newly-minted Stellantis Motorsport junior driver Nico Pino, who races for the United Autosports team in LMGT3, could be an option to test the 9X8 later in the year, confirmed Jansonnie. “There is no plan as such right now, but everything is open,” he said. “We have opportunities to test, we have the rookie test [in Bahrain] as well.”

***Pino is one of five WEC drivers heading to Berlin for Monday’s Formula E rookie test. The Chilean, who joins Maserati MSG, will share a track with United Autosports stablemate Gregoire Saucy (McLaren) as well as BMW pair Sheldon van der Linde (Jaguar) and Dries Vanthoor (Envision) and AF Corse’s Robert Shwartzman (DS Penske).

***It’s understood that talks have been held between representatives of WEC and Formula E regarding ensuring next year’s calendars do not feature any date clashes, following the disruption resulting from the conflict between this weekend’s Spa 6H and the all-electric series’ Berlin event.

***Andrea Caldarelli (Lamborghini Iron Lynx) and Ritomo Miyata (Akkodis ASP) are both making their first WEC outings since last year’s 6 Hours of Fuji, deputising for Edoardo Mortara and Kelvin van der Linde respectively.

***Miyata being in action for Akkodis ASP means that he is unavailable to the Toyota Hypercar squad as a reserve driver for the second time this season, as he was also absent from the Qatar season opener due to a clash with his Formula 2 program.

***Toyota is aiming for its eighth consecutive WEC victory this weekend at Spa, its streak having begun in 2017. The last manufacturer other than Toyota to win overall at the Belgian track was Audi back in 2016.

***Toyota’s Hypercar project leader John Litjens confirmed that the Cologne-based squad will return to Spa for its traditional shakedown ahead of next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The marque has no other running planned before the blue riband race, having already completed endurance tests at Motorland Aragon, Paul Ricard and Portimao in recent months.

***Absent Alpine driver Ferdinand Habsburg has posted a social media update on his recovery from the injuries that have kept him out of the A424 since the opening round at Qatar, as he targets a return to action for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***In the video, he said: “Super-weird not to be Spa in this weekend with Alpine. My heart is with them and my teammates Paul-Loup [Chatin] and Charles [Milesi], of course Jules [Gounon, Habsburg’s replacement] as well. I’m making sure that when I get the chance to get back in a racing car, I will be 100 percent and better than I was before the crash.”

***TF Sport Corvette driver Sebastien Baud won the Goodyear Wingfoot Award for the fastest double stint in the LMGT3 class last time out at Imola. Unlike at Qatar, the identity of the winner was not announced immediately post-race.

***D’station Racing’s Satoshi Hoshino has been given special dispensation to use a Japanese translator for radio communication when he returns to the cockpit of the No. 777 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, similar to his fellow countrymen Hiroshi Koizumi (TF Sport) and Takeshi Kimura (Akkodis ASP).

***Alex Brundle is back in the WEC paddock this weekend as part of Eurosport’s broadcast team for the 6H Spa. The Briton last raced in the series in 2022 with LMP2 squad Inter Europol Competition.

***Track action begins on Thursday with Free Practice 1 at 11:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. EDT), with Free Practice 2 set to follow at 5.30 p.m. local time (11.30 a.m. EDT).