Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI
Management figures from BMW, Ferrari and Toyota have voiced their opinion on two-driver lineups for the six-hour FIA World Endurance Championship races, stating that there are “pros and cons” to such usage.
Cadillac Racing and Hertz Team JOTA were among the teams to have utilized driver pairings at various stages of the 2024 season, with JOTA having won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with a two-man crew.
Porsche Penske Motorsport will largely use two drivers per car for the season next year, although hasn’t ruled out bringing in its third pilots for selected six-hour races.
It comes after a failed bid from several manufacturers to mandate three-driver lineups in all WEC races.
With Hypercar teams able to make their own decisions, it’s opened the door to debate in the WEC paddock if anyone else besides Porsche Penske will follow suit.
“I think every manufacturer at the end has to take his own decision,” BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos told Sportscar365.
“I don’t want to say that it’s clearly this direction or that direction. I think there are pros and cons for both sides going with two or three drivers.
“I have to be honest, the most important race in the year in the WEC is Le Mans. In Le Mans you do it definitely with three drivers. So for me it’s also a part of how you build up your team and and how you work as a team. There’s pros and cons.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury echoed Roos’ comments.
“Obviously we will be monitoring it,” he said. “It has pros and cons. It enables each driver to have more track time to prepare the event.
“But if you have a driver who is not feeling well or struggling with pace, you don’t have a backup.
“It means that your working point for some races, especially Le Mans, is different from the rest of the season.
“It’s not necessarily the best approach. We have a team approach, and we focus on developing people. So it’s better to develop the whole driver lineup all together [for the full season].”
Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta confirmed the Prancing Horse plans to remain with its three-driver squads next season.
“With two drivers, you have a chance to consider different strategies in six-hour races,” he said. “But in any case, we prefer to go ahead with the same lineup with three drivers for each car [in every race] and we will see.
“At the end, the choice of Porsche was the same choice we made in GTs.
“We had third drivers just for the 24 Hours [of Le Mans] and sometimes [in Bahrain] for the long races. Maximum respect for the choice of Porsche, but we need to see at the end of the season if this choice pays off or not.”
Roos said the third round of the season at Spa-Francorchamps, which clashes with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May, could result in two-driver squads from teams beyond Porsche, hinting that BMW could follow Porsche and Cadillac in using drivers for both series.
“We will most likely see, in my opinion, the clash with Spa and Laguna Seca where we maybe see only two drivers in some cars because I think some manufacturers will also share drivers between the IMSA championship and the WEC championships,” he said.
BMW, however, plans to remain with three-driver lineups in Team WRT’s BMW M Hybrid V8s for the majority of the season.
“This is at the moment our goal definitely to be there with three drivers,” Roos said. “But I don’t want to say that it’s positive or negative. There are pros and cons for both.”
Coletta: Consistency Important for 24 Hours of Le Mans
Ferrari’s Coletta, meanwhile, believes that there’s benefits of having three-driver crews especially in the build-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“I believe that the consistency in the team, the relations between each drivers and the team is very important,” he said. “Ferrari worked a lot on this from the first day. This is really important.
“Le Mans is one of the most important races in the world and for sure the most important race in our championship, so we need to arrive with maximum consistency.
“I remember in GT when you are joined by the third drivers, ok, they are factory Ferrari drivers, but in any case, the relationship with the [rest of] the lineup and the engineer is different. This is why I prefer to have the same lineup for every race.”
Roos added: “We have the 24 Hours [of Le Mans] anyway, [which] you will do with three drivers. I think [Bahrain] where it’s also hot and it’s an eight-hour race you will think about.
“So I don’t want to say you will see all the races with maybe two but some for sure will do it. But also like Austin which are super hot, I think that it can be also beneficial to have three drivers in the car.”
Jamie Klein & Davey Euwema contributed to this report
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