Le Mans Saturday Notebook

***Scrutineering for the 24 Hours of Le Mans wrapped up on Saturday afternoon as the remaining 23 cars passed through the technical and sporting checks in the Place de la Republique. Ferrari’s three 499Ps kicked off the day’s proceedings, with the factory Porsche 963s and Toyota GR010 Hybrids, including the No. 7 car with its GT-One tribute livery, following later. RLR Msport’s LMP2 car was the final car to pass the checks.

***The now-traditional ‘Roulage’ parade was held in the city center after the conclusion of scrutineering, with 19 cars completing two laps of a circular route beginning and ending in the Place des Jacobins. Each Hypercar and LMGT3 manufacturer was represented by a single car, with an additional pair of LMP2 cars also participating.

***Toyota driver/team principal Kamui Kobayashi comes to Le Mans having recently sampled Formula 1 machinery for the first time in over a decade. The Japanese driver drove a Haas VF-23 at Paul Ricard for two days, marking his first time in a grand prix car since his final season in F1 with Caterham in 2014.

***On the rationale for taking part in the test, Kobayashi quipped: “It’s not that I want to get back to F1! I just wanted to understand how is the current F1 car, and how we can deliver more opportunities for Toyota young drivers who are racing in Europe.”

***A BMW spokesperson has confirmed that Marco Wittmann is also on standby as a reserve driver for the Bavarian marque in next week’s race as well as Philipp Eng, who is present for the test day and is listed on the entry for both M Hybrid V8s. Wittmann is otherwise engaged in this weekend’s DTM round at Zandvoort.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury cast doubt on whether Jose Maria Lopez would drive the GR010 Hybrid in Sunday’s test day, with the Argentine driver dovetailing Toyota Hypercar reserve duties with his full-time drive in the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.

***Floury told Sportscar365: “At the moment we need to decide how we manage things, because he also has to focus on the Lexus GT3. He is our reserve driver but we don’t want to mess up his preparation. Also, our six race drivers are here, they are fit, and there’s very little chance [Lopez] will be needed.”

***Floury said that Ben Barnicoat narrowly missed the cut-off for his recovery from his mountain biking incident that ruled him out of racing the sister No. 78 Lexus at La Sarthe this year. “A couple of weeks ago we had a deadline by which we had to decide on the lineup for Le Mans, and unfortunately at that time, he was not cleared by the doctors, which is the case now,” he said. “It’s a bit unfortunate but I am sure Ben has many more strong Le Mans in front of him.”

***Floury says a decision has been made on who will replace Barnicoat for the next round of the WEC in Sao Paulo, saying only it will “most likely” be one of the drivers (Esteban Masson or Yuichi Nakayama) that has already replaced the Briton earlier this year.

***Ex-SUPER GT driver Nakayama, who made his WEC debut last month at Spa, will be on call for the ASP Lexus team in the event Lopez should be needed by the Toyota Hypercar team, Floury confirmed.

***Alpine sporting director Nicolas Lapierre said that AF Corse LMP2 driver Matthieu Vaxiviere was part of the team’s Le Mans preparations as he participated in a 24-hour simulation test at Aragon in March. Lapierre said: “He is on call any time we need him.”

***Lapierre added his full focus will be on his Alpine duties even as the CLX Motorsport team (formerly Cool Racing), for which he serves as team principal, races in the LMP2 class. He joked: “But we are in neighboring boxes, so it will be quite convenient for me to have a look and check!”

***Action Express Racing Cadillac driver Frederik Vesti experienced scrutineering for the first time this year, as he skipped the ceremonies last year ahead of his Le Mans debut to be on call as Mercedes F1 reserve driver in Canada.

***Vesti told Sportscar365: “Last year, I landed in Paris on the morning of the test day from Canada, and basically got straight off the train and into the car. But it was really helpful to have done it last year, especially now I’m in the top class. You’re more relaxed, you know what is going on and you can perform much better and with less pressure.”

***RLR MSport’s LMP2 entry is being run in cooperation with Vector Sport, which was placed on the reserve list for this year’s race. Vector Sport team principal Gary Holland told Sportscar365 that the two British teams have been working with each other since RLR MSport moved into Vector’s workshop last November.

***Michael Jensen, who secured the team’s auto-invite for winning the 2024 European Le Mans Series LMP3 title with RLR MSport, is joined by Vector regular Ryan Cullen, as well as Patrick Pilet for next weekend’s race.

***Holland told Sportscar365 that RLR/Vector are targeting to have a presence in both the LMP2 and LMP3 classes of the 2025-26 Asian Le Mans Series season, as part of an effort to secure automatic invites to next year’s Le Mans.

***Algarve Pro Racing’s Nicky Catsburg arrived at Le Mans on Saturday fresh from Zandvoort, where he became one of two new names added to the Dutch venue’s ‘National Motorsport Monument‘ along with another former Le Mans racer, Larry ten Voorde. Catsburg was honored for his achievements in sports car racing, including class victories at Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, overall honors in the Nürburgring 24, as well as the 2023 WEC title in the GTE-Am class.

***For the sixth consecutive year, the Goodyear Blimp is set to fly over the Circuit de la Sarthe during next week’s race. The iconic airship has already made visits to the WEC rounds at Imola and Spa as part of a special tour to mark Goodyear’s 100th anniversary.

***Attention now turns to Sunday’s test day, which comprises two sessions. The morning session runs from 10 a.m. local time to 1 p.m. (4 a.m. to 7 a.m. EST), while the afternoon session begins at 3:30 p.m. and concludes at 6:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST). In between the two sessions, the Ligier European Series is also set for a one-hour race.

John Dagys & Davey Euwema contributed to this report