Vanthoor Hoping Fuji Form “Carries On” into Bahrain

Photo: Porsche

Laurens Vanthoor is hoping that Porsche Penske Motorsport’s performance from the 6 Hours of Fuji will ‘carry on’ into this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain to put the team in contention for the first LMDh win in the series.

The Belgian and co-drivers Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer scored the team’s second podium finish of the season in Japan after leading more than half of the race with its No. 6 Porsche 963, in what marked the team’s strongest showing to date in WEC competition.

Coupled with a Platform BoP change for Bahrain, which sees 7 kg decreases in minimum weight and a 1 MJ reduction in energy for both the Porsche and Cadillac V-Series.R, there is optimism within the Porsche camp for a continuation of form.

“I hope it carries on,” Vanthoor told Sportscar365. “It’s obviously very difficult to say or predict how things will be at a different track. There’s quite different weather.

“In general, the track here is quite different than Fuji in terms of deg and tires and so on.

“We’ve seen the past two or three months that we’ve made a lot of progress, also in IMSA. I’m quite confident it will carry on here.

“It wouldn’t be bad to end the season with two steps more on the podium, getting the first LMDh win in WEC. I think it would be a good end and a promising winter for 2024. But let’s see.”

Vanthoor said the performance of his No. 6 Porsche in Fuji even surprised himself, especially in the opening laps of the race, which saw him extend into a considerable gap over the competition in the Hypercar class.

“Everybody saw the start by now,” he said.”After, it was like ‘Do your own thing, manage your tires, manage your fuel. I was looking in the mirror and was like, ‘Where are they and when are they coming?’

“I was increasing the gap to the Ferrari, which really surprised me at that moment. I was checking if I was pushing too much or hurting my tires or anything but we were just staying in our thing.

“Eventually when the Toyotas got through traffic, they had a but of upper pace on us and they caught us.

“It surprised me but in a positive way.”

With Thursday’s opening Free Practice session affected by a storm and the general flow of a typical WEC weekend, Vanthoor doesn’t expect to know where the Porsches stand until Saturday’s eight-hour finale.

“In general, in WEC, you find out in the race,” he said. “You get an indication in practice but what you see on the boards is one lap time. It’s completely irrelevant in WEC and especially on this track.

“The true strength is going to be on a double stint to see how cars and the average lap times are there. This you don’t see on the scoreboard in practice.

“Qualifying is even less relevant. It’s quite different in WEC. You need to wait until the race to really figure out where you are.”

Petit Le Mans Cameo to Help WEC Program

Vanthoor believes his one-off IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship outing at last month’s Motul Petit Le Mans with Porsche Penske’s U.S. squad has helped push both programs forward.

While Vanthoor’s No. 6 Porsche was taken out of contention in a multi-car accident early before the Belgian had an accident of his own, he feels there were still positive lessons learned from the weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

“I was able to bring some knowledge from here to there, things we do which they maybe didn’t do as much, but also the other way around,” Vanthoor explained.

“It was definitely very interesting. Also, just to work in a different environment with different people, see how they work and where they are good at. I think it was definitely very positive.

“There’s always a transfer in between but there’s a difference between the transfer on PDF documents and actually being there, seeing and experiencing it.

“I definitely learned some stuff, which from my experience, will be positive over here.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John