Qatar Friday Notebook

***Porsche Penske Motorsport bagged the first pole position of the new WEC season, as Matt Campbell annexed pole with a best lap of 1:39.347 aboard the No. 5 Porsche 963. TF Sport Corvette driver Tom van Rompuy meanwhile became the first pole winner of 2024 in LMGT3.

***Campbell gave Porsche its first overall pole in WEC competition since Neel Jani and Nick Tandy took the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid to top qualifying honors at Bahrain 2017 back in the LMP1 hybrid era.

***It marked a continuation of success for the 29-year-old Australian, who kicked off the year with victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona before coming out victorious in last month’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, also in a Porsche. Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said: “I was joking with him walking over here, I said, ‘Matt, are you gonna let anyone else this year?’ and he said, ‘I’m working hard not to!’”

***Chevrolet became the first manufacturer to have claimed poles in all three of the WEC’s GT categories, following previous top qualifying runs in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. TF Sport also earned its 10th pole, having taken nine of those with Aston Martin machinery.

***The No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, which was the only car not to set a time in qualifying, battled electrical issues. Ryan Hardwick was due to qualify the car but did not turn any laps in the session.

***Both Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3s ran with the wrong engine mapping in the opening day of the Prologue, team boss Jerome Policand confirmed to Sportscar365, explaining the car’s quickest top speed from the official pre-season test. Policand estimated they lost roughly one second as a result of running to the confirmed Balance of Performance specifications.

***The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 suffered gearbox-related issues in the closing minutes of Thursday’s Free Practice 2 that forced Mirko Bortolotti to abandon the car on track while it was engaged in third gear. Detailed in a stewards’ bulletin, Bortolotti said he saw smoke and decided to get out off the car “as quickly as possible” for safety reasons.

***The car returned to action in FP3 and qualified 18th in the hands of Daniil Kvyat in the debuting Ligier-chassied LMDh car.

***While Lamborghini President and CEO Stephan Winkelmann and chief technical officer Rouven Mohr are on-site for the competition debut of the Lamborghini SC63, the manufacturer’s motorsport boss Giorgio Sanna is not in Qatar due to personal reasons according to a Lamborghini spokesperson.

***In a change to last year’s qualifying format, the ten Hypercar entries that make it to Hyperpole must run on the same Michelin tire compound, as declared by the French tire manufacturer. Hypercar teams qualified on hards on Friday.

***The Hyperpole tires will be retrieved at the end of the session and be made available to Michelin’s partners for private testing at a later date.

***GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser believes that Cadillac Racing is definitely “building momentum” from its WEC debut last year despite remaining with a single-car season-long Cadillac V-Series.R effort.

***Klauser said: “We’ve put a lot of effort into preparing to be here and spent some time on the simulator getting the team oriented with the track. It is a new track to us, so there’s a lot of lessons learned. With the single car, you have to be very careful of how you set up your test plan for that and the team has done a nice job organizing themselves and getting ready.”

***Klauser wouldn’t be drawn on whether the Chip Ganassi Racing-run No. 2 car would utilize a third driver for the six-hour races this season. Sebastien Bourdais is in the car this weekend while two-time and reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou is confirmed as Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber’s co-drivers for Le Mans.

***Ferrari’s new race engineer for the No. 51 AF Corse 499P has been revealed to be Baptiste Allain, who replaces Cadillac-bound Justin Taylor. Allain moves to Ferrari from the Nissan e.dams Formula E squad, where he engineered Norman Nato in 2023 and Sebastien Buemi in 2022.

***Ferrari driver James Calado warned that Lusail International Circuit could be a potential car breaker, because of the aggressive nature of the curbs and the damage that can do to the floor of Hypercar class contenders. “This track can destroy the car,” he said. “The curbs are not really designed for these cars.”

***The reigning 24 Hours of Le Mans winner added: “It’s nothing to do with ride height. No matter what ride height you use, the curbs are so aggressive. Because we’re at such high speed, the car is obviously compressed and it just touches the middle of the plank. At the moment we need to back off to try and keep the car intact.”

***Work on Goodyear’s second LMGT3 tire compound, to be introduced later this season, is proceeding as planned according to endurance program manager Mike McGregor. The American manufacturer is working towards the next development stage, which will include testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya later this month and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in April.

***McGregor told Sportscar365 that an introduction date for the new compound is still to be determined, although he repeated previous comments that it will be after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The second compound was previously known as the ‘C’ specification but was referred to by McGregor as ‘Medium Plus.’

***Goodyear has brought 2,500 tires to the Qatar season opener, a number that is set to grow to 7,000 at Le Mans where it also services the LMP2 class. “It’s a big scale up for us,” McGregor said. “Our overall operation will nearly be double the size of what we did last year. Obviously with the quantity of cars, our whole track engineering team has had to grow to match to that.”

***TF Sport driver Hiroshi Koizumi admits his lack of proficiency in English has made his start to the season “really tough.” He told Sportscar365: “TF Sport are very kind people who have put together a great environment for me. On the other hand, the team radio is in English. The Corvette is also a new car, most of the circuits are new to me, and so it’s hard for me to listen to the radio as I drive.” 

***Koizumi added that his translator Taki Inoue, the ex-Formula 1 driver, is someone who he only started working with recently. “He is helping me a lot, but on the other hand, he wants me to be able to stand on my own two feet… so actually, he is not saying that much, just certain phrases. I guess he thinks, ‘Koizumi must have got that!’”

***The Lusail Classic support race took place on Friday evening post-qualifying, and was won by Ludovic Caron in a Chevron B31. Other notable names in action included Le Mans veteran Ralf Kelleners, who drove a De Tomaso Pantera, former IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 regular Kyle Tilley in a Chevron B27S and ACO President Pierre Fillon in a Chevron B19.

***Former Pescarolo LMP1 driver Bruce Jouanny has joined the WEC broadcast team, serving as a second pit lane reporter alongside Louise Beckett this weekend. Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson and Graham Goodwin remain in the booth, providing coverage to the FIA WEC app and across channels including MotorTrend and Max in the U.S.

***Radio Le Mans will provide free on-site coverage of the Qatar 1812km with coverage led by Jonny Palmer, Bruce Jones and John Hindhaugh, who is on-site in the Lusail International Circuit media center providing updates. Action gets underway Saturday at 11 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

John Dagys & Davey Euwema contributed to this report