Portimao Thursday Notebook

***The first European round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season brings a different paddock atmosphere, as the cargo containers and portable offices that were used for the 1000 Miles of Sebring give way to trucks and large hospitality units.

***Portimao is hosting the WEC for the second time this weekend, having joined the 2021 calendar as a replacement for Sebring, which was canceled that season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

***The 6 Hours of Portimao marks the first GTE-Am race with success ballast this season. After winning at Sebring and taking an early championship lead, the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R has gained 30 kg, putting it 1295 kg in total and making it the heaviest car in the field.

***The No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 is carrying an additional 20 kg, while the Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo is 10 kg heavier than it was at the previous round. Aside from the success ballast amounts, there have been no changes to the GTE-Am BoP since Sebring.

***Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating had a session in GM’s driver-in-the-loop simulator to prepare for Portimao. “It feels like we are so much better prepared because we have the ability to use the simulator,” he said. “Portimao is one of those tracks that isn’t on iRacing, so I can’t hop on that on my simulator at home and drive on that.”

***The Project 1-AO Porsche is running in the same livery that it had for Sebring despite AO Racing’s Gunnar Jeannette and PJ Hyett being absent due to a date clash with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

***Hyett’s stand-in for the Portuguese round, Miguel Ramos, is making his first appearance in ACO rules racing since the 2009 Le Mans Series when he drove for the Aston Martin Racing LMP1 program.

***Isotta Fraschini completed its maiden test with the Tipo 6 LMH Competizione on Wednesday, following on from the car’s first mileage. According to the Italian constructor, the second day at Vallelunga “concentrated on the calibration of the hybrid system.”

***Toyota calculates that its truck journey from the team’s WEC headquarters in Cologne, Germany to Portimao covers around 2,500 km or 538 laps of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, which would take around 14 and a half hours for a Hypercar to complete. Five Toyota trucks departed Cologne last Thursday, arriving last Sunday.

***TF Sport team principal Tom Ferrier addressed rumors about his organization potentially moving away from Aston Martin next year. Sportscar365 understands that TF has been in contact with Ford, which is developing a GT3-spec Mustang. “We’re happy where we are,” he said. “It’s more of a focus on how we get on the grid. I hope we’ve got a good chance.”

***Ferrier explained that his team is waiting to see how entries will be allocated in the WEC’s new LMGT3 class before deciding on its program for next season. The idea of two cars per manufacturer has been suggested for a while but the series has not yet communicated an official policy.

***TF Sport was recently presented with its FIA Endurance Trophy for winning last season’s GTE-Am title with the No. 33 Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

***Several teams including Ferrari AF Corse, Porsche Penske Motorsport, United Autosports, JOTA, Team WRT and Kessel Racing tested at Spa-Francorchamps towards the end of March in preparation for the third round of the WEC season.

***United Autosports is “trying to move on” from the events surrounding the freak issue that caused its No. 23 Oreca to retire from the lead at Sebring. The team recently completed a report on the circumstances surrounding how the car’s onboard camera came loose to engage the ignition off switch.

***According to Dean, United was asked to change the camera’s mounting, which had been in place for over a year. “There’s an element of responsibility we should have taken,” he said. “We were put into a position that I wish we hadn’t been put into. We had the opportunity to say we weren’t happy with that, but we didn’t.”

***Toyota Gazoo Racing completed “a bit more than 30 hours” of running in a three-day test at Sebring during the week after the 1000 Miles, according to technical director Pascal Vasselon. “It went well,” he said. “We could run quite long endurance runs, even if we did not go overnight. We had to stop at 10 p.m.”

***Ryo Hirakawa is returning to the site of his first outing in the Toyota GR010 Hybrid two years ago. The test ultimately led to his inclusion in the No. 8 lineup for a title-winning campaign. “I remember I was stressed for the audition because I didn’t know I could make the seat for the year after,” Hirakawa told Sportscar365. “I tried everything [during] the testing, and now I come back as a regular driver. Of course, I was trying to get the seat, but if I said to me two years ago [that I got it], I would be surprised.”

***Hirakawa and his Toyota teammate Kamui Kobayashi are in the midst of an intensive double schedule of racing across Europe and Japan. Both drivers competed in the Super Formula season opener at Fuji last week and will travel to Suzuka for round two after Portimao, before flying back to Europe to compete in the 6 Hours of Spa.

***Hirakawa said: “I try to do some sports during the day. That helps a lot (with jet lag). This morning I did some running. Sometimes I take a nap, but very short. Normally after one or two days, I’m OK. Today, after two days I’m feeling nice.”

***A field of 40 esports drivers from Le Mans Virtual Series teams took part in simulations of the new safety car period rules that will be introduced at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gerard Neveu, executive director of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, told Sportscar365 that the procedure was tested multiple times and included a meeting with race director Eduardo Freitas. “It was a pure demonstration of how virtual can help reality,” Neveu said, citing the cost and safety benefits of a virtual rehearsal.

***Mirko Bortolotti is absent from this weekend’s DTM pre-season test at the Red Bull Ring, instead focusing on his Portimao commitments with Prema. Bortolotti told Sportscar365 that Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell will be stepping in to pilot his SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 at the two-day test instead.

***Bortolotti will travel to Zandvoort after this weekend’s WEC round, where SSR Performance will host another test. The Dutch venue hosts the second round of the championship in June.

***Track action for the 6 Hours of Portimao starts on Friday with a pair of 90-minute Free Practice sessions. The first is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. local (5:30 a.m. ET) and the second gets underway at 3:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. ET).

Davey Euwema contributed to this report