Fuji Thursday Notebook

***The FIA World Endurance Championship paddock is preparing for the arrival of Typhoon Yun-yeung that is set to bring heavy rain and strong winds on Friday. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, it originated in the Philippine Sea and has moved towards Japan’s south coast where Fuji Speedway is located.

***Teams have prepared for different Free Practice scenarios based on the likely adverse weather. “There are still some models telling us that the small typhoon will stay on the sea,” said Toyota’s WEC technical director Pascal Vasselon. “We are preparing two run plans tomorrow: an optimistic one with some dry tire testing, and one with wet tires.”

***Peugeot’s technical director Olivier Jansonnie added: “There’s no doubt the first session in the morning will be very wet, if any session. We have several options for the afternoon depending on how things are developing during the day. It’s a bit of a headache to prepare all of this.”

***Peugeot completed a three-day test at Portimao that was focused on finding a solution to the shifting problems that had impacted the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 in the last race at Monza. It also took the time to work on “pure race performance” development, with a plan to again test prior to the season finale in Bahrain.

***The Peugeots will be running at a lower hybrid deployment speed this weekend and in Bahrain, as part of the Balance of Performance instated for the final three races of the season. Previously, the 9X8 was at 150 km/h but will now be able to activate its front axle hybrid system at 135 km/h in dry conditions, compared to 190 km/h for the Ferrari 499P and Toyota GR010 Hybrid. The Peugeot remains at 150 km/h in the wet.

***Jansonnie said: “We’re quite interested to see what it does, really. We did some tests ourselves and have some good ideas on some tracks, but never [at Fuji]. The rest we’ve done in simulation, so it’s all a matter of how well correlated our simulation models are.”

***Twenty-seven schoolchildren from SEIBI Elementary School in nearby Oyama visited the circuit today, receiving garage tours from the likes of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Cadillac Racing and Corvette Racing. An additional 23 schoolchildren will be on-site tomorrow to participate in the pre-event press conference. The initiative has been a local tradition dating back to the first modern-era WEC race here in 2012.

***Proton Competition is debuting its second Porsche 963 chassis this weekend, which completed a shakedown on Aug. 21 at Porsche’s Weissach test track in the hands of Michael Christensen before being air-freighted to Japan.

***Proton’s car that ran the 6 Hours of Monza went on to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America and will complete the season in the U.S. “Doing something the second time is easier for the guys,” team boss Christian Ried told Sportscar365. “They did well, so all good.”

***Toyota is unsure if it will be as dominant over its Hypercar rivals compared to the last round at Monza. “The big advantage was had was definitely the second stint,” said Vasselon. “It is difficult to know if we will replicate it here because the ambient conditions may not be as hot as Monza. So we may not have the circumstances where we can generate a big gain in terms of tire consistency.”

***Michelin has brought its medium and hard compound slick tires to Fuji for the Hypercar class, repeating the allocation from Monza.

***Laurens Vanthoor, who is one of several Hypercar drivers that are making their debut at Fuji Speedway, said there’s a “decent amount of unknowns” given that Porsche Penske Motorsport has also not tested at the circuit with its Porsche 963s.

***The Belgian, however, told Sportscar365 that he expects the performance gap between LMH and LMDh machinery to be the same as recent rounds. The changes in the BoP values from Monza to Fuji are based on track-specific adjustments.

***Vanthoor told Sportscar365: “Unfortunately I don’t expect it to be any different than what we’ve seen this season so far, which means it’s going to be difficult for an LMDh car to beat a [Le Mans] Hypercar at the moment. Unless the characteristics of the track are going to be completely different that it suits one car. But besides that, what I can see, I don’t see a different story than the races we’ve had so far this season unfortunately. That’s obviously on paper. We’ll see what that brings in reality.”

***There have been no changes to the GTE-Am Balance of Performance for Fuji outside of the usual success ballast. It comes despite Aston Martin team TF Sport calling for an adjustment after Monza.

***The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R has shed 10kg in the success ballast since Monza, although it is still carrying the most ballast out of the 14 cars. Click Here for the Fuji table.

***The bodywork from the 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Corvette C8.R has been installed on a spare chassis at Pratt Miller Motorsports’ headquarters in Michigan. It will be re-fitted on the actual race-winning chassis following the conclusion of the season.

***Chip Ganassi Racing recently tested a Cadillac V-Series.R at Circuit of The Americas, sharing the track with the upcoming GT3 car from sister General Motors brand Chevrolet. The Cadillac was run by a hybrid crew of WEC and IMSA staff, operating an IMSA car set up in WEC trim to prepare for the world championship’s return to COTA next year.

***Ticket sales for the Lone Star Le Mans went on sale last Friday. The WEC’s return to COTA is scheduled for Labor Day weekend in 2024. Click Here for ticket details.

***In addition to the ‘Rexy’ livery adapted from its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship car, both Charles Hamm (race engineer) and Kelly Brouillet (PR) are on-site this weekend with Team Project 1 – AO, with Hamm having been embedded with the German squad all season.

***Kessel Racing will “for sure” continue in the European Le Mans Series next year upon the switch from GTE to GT3 machinery, according to team manager Tiziana Borghi. The Swiss team’s status in the WEC is less clear, with AF Corse expected to get both LMGT3 entries from Ferrari.

***Kessel sold its No. 74 Ferrari that raced at Le Mans to Yorikatsu Tsujiko, who drove the car at Le Mans. Borghi said that the two parties have agreed to keep it with Kessel until the end of the season, in case either the WEC or ELMS car needs to be replaced, before shipping it to Japan.

***A replica of the MissionH24 LMPH2G prototype will be on display this weekend alongside the Toyota GR H2 Racing Concept, which was unveiled by the Japanese manufacturer at Le Mans in June. The hydrogen exhibition is part of the ACO’s plans to introduce an all-hydrogen class beginning in 2026.

***Friday’s track action is scheduled to start with Free Practice 1 at 11 a.m. local time (10 p.m. EDT Thursday).

John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report