Spa Wednesday Notebook

***This weekend’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa marks the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 11th visit to the 4.35-mile circuit in Belgium. It is one of two events that has featured in every WEC season, along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps looks significantly different compared to when the WEC last visited 12 months ago. Most notable upon entry to the track is a huge bank of earth where the grandstands between La Source and Eau Rouge have been removed. There is also an imposing new grandstand overlooking the Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex, and more gravel run-off.

***An opening ceremony was held for the new Eau Rouge grandstand on Wednesday afternoon.

***Scrutineering took place on Wednesday, one day before the first track action. There was also a track walk in the afternoon, giving some drivers the chance to see the circuit infrastructure changes up close for the first time.

***The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo is sporting a stripe in the black, yellow and red of the Belgian flag, running parallel to the Italian tricolor stripe usually found on the team’s WEC cars. It had a stripe based on the U.S-flag at Sebring, implying this as something that will change at each round.

***A handful of prototype teams including WEC competitors WRT and Vector Sport took part in a test at Monza last week. Also present were Nielsen Racing, DKR Engineering, Cool Racing and TDS Racing, all of which are due to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans and will also take part in the European Le Mans Series race at the Italian venue later this year.

***Porsche hopes to bring its IMSA-based LMDh cars to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, according to its motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach. “If I had a free choice, I would love to have four cars on the grid,” he told Sportscar365. “But we have to see if it’s possible. It’s also a budget thing: it does cost money. But it is mainly down to the ACO.”

***Porsche is planning “something special” for the last GTE-Pro race at Le Mans with its factory team. Laudenbach wouldn’t be drawn to state what the manufacturer envisions, but said: “I think that car deserves some attention in its last year. We are considering doing something special, properly.” Porsche has previously rolled out special liveries for Le Mans.

***Laudenbach stressed that, beyond commemorations, he wants the Porsches to be more competitive at their last Le Mans in GTE-Pro. “We had two years with the RSR which were not good for us,” he said. “I trust in the ACO and the FIA, and I’m confident. But the first thing for us, beside every special thing, is that we need the right BoP. The most important thing is that we have the possibility to go for victory in its last year.”

***GR Racing driver Ben Barker has recently taken on a new business venture with the purchase and opening of a cafe in the UK. Barker is a co-founder of the SmallTown Cafe located in Clare, Suffolk and intends to open a second outlet soon.

***Head of Stellantis Motorsport Jean-Marc Finot, who is in charge of the Peugeot LMH program, is only a few miles down the road at the Nürburgring this weekend participating in the N24 Qualifiers. Finot is listed to drive an Opel Astra OPC. Fellow Stellantis executives Jean-Philippe Imparato and Francois Wales are also taking part.

***Glickenhaus’ 007 LMH chassis is the same one used in the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring. Team principal Luca Ciancetti told Sportscar365 that the team has not swapped the cars though the No. 709 was transported back to Europe before the Sebring event took place. “When you see a car running with number 708 it is usually our chassis eight and 709 is chassis nine,” Ciancetti said.

***Glickenhaus and its operational partner Podium Advanced Technologies are racing at both Spa and the N24 Qualifiers this weekend. TF Sport is also in both the Ardennes and Eifel this weekend, utilizing separate teams. The only full-time member of the WEC squad who has been posted to the Nürburgring is a mechanic from the No. 777 D’station Racing entry. Team principal Tom Ferrier will be at Spa for the full WEC event before heading to Germany for the second qualifying race on Sunday.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe vice-chairman and three-time Le Mans winner Kazuki Nakajima recently took a Toyota GR010 Hybrid on a tour of Japan, bringing the car to some of the technical partners that have worked on the Toyota LMH project.

***TGR has donated one of its Toyota TS050 Hybrids to the Louwman Museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The car in question is the No. 7 that finished third overall at the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans in the hands of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.

***London-based supercar dealership Joe Macari has listed an Audi R18 e-tron quattro for sale, marking the first time a hybrid LMP1 car has hit the open market. The car, chassis 416, was driven by Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval in multiple rounds of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship.

***Spa will see the return of the fan pit walk for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two separate sessions will be held, one shortly before the start of final practice on Friday and one at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning.

***Team WRT plans to test all three of its Le Mans-contending Oreca 07 Gibsons at Aragon next month. The Belgian squad is utilizing its spare LMP2 car, which was sent to Sebring as a backup, for the entry with Mirko Bortolotti, Rolf Ineichen and Dries Vanthoor. It is understood that the crew for that effort will bring together GT3 team members who have prior LMP2 experience.

***Vanthoor, who is not at Spa, told Sportscar365 that the adjournment of Audi’s LMDh program affected him “quite a bit” as he was due to drive for the manufacturer. “It was one week before we were planning to do all the [rollout] stuff,” he said. “My flights were booked and everything. It was annoying. Let’s see in the next few months what happens. They said they want to put it on hold, so maybe it comes back.”

***ARC Bratislava boss Miro Konopka told Sportscar365 that Mathias Beche is likely to return to the team’s LMP2 lineup for the 6 Hours of Monza after co-driving with Konopka and Tijmen van der Helm at Sebring.

***Bent Viscaal is making his WEC debut with the team this weekend, in preparation for Le Mans. Viscaal and Tristan Vautier are replacing Beche and van der Helm at Le Mans, due to both drivers being with TDS Racing x Vaillante. “For Fuji and Bahrain, it is still open at the moment,” Konopka said.

***Track action at Spa begins on Thursday afternoon with Free Practice 1 session starting at 3:30 p.m. CEST (9:30 a.m. ET) and lasting 90 minutes.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report