Category: News

Oh well…

Against all my wishes, Maranello wins again… 🤣 At least it was a privateer (whatever the brand, I’ll always side with the little guy). Nonetheless, a nice race, and contrary to last year, almost no safety car. After the hyperpole I had hopes specially for Cadillac and perhaps, Alpine and BMW. Yet, Cadillac never got close to the lead, just like BMW and Alpine. About Toyota, on the other hand, I was sure they would be up in the front, with Ferrari and Porsche, but they had a very slow race.

Nonetheless, my money was on Ferrari to win again, unless they had their F1 team to manage things in La Sarthe 😂. I didn’t think the 963 had a great chance and I was glad to see the Valkyries finishing the race. In LMP2, my favorite, the ORECA 07 #199 “Spike the Dragon”, finished in third (well, first in LMP2 Pro-Am). For GT3 I was routing for the Iron Dames’ #85, but they finished all the way in the back 😥.

A nice race overall, with not much drama on track. In terms of 1:43rd, I really want the Spike ORECA, BMW’s M Hybrid V8 #20 (beautiful!) and the Dames’ #85. Oh, and possibly Mercedes AMG-GT3 #61.

What do you know? Toyota CAN make cool liveries…

Revealed yesterday, a special livery for La Sarthe this year. It’s not something original or particularly artsy, but a homage to the beautiful TS-020 (GT-One) of 1998. Even so, still MUCH better than the bland, tasteless, weak, flavorless, vapid, insipid, uninspired, flat, dull, mild and savorless current black-red-and-white liveries.

So, is there hope for Toyota? 🤔

Hypercar is getting crowdy…

One more brand for the LMH class: Genesis, from Korea. Yesterday they reveled their GMR-001 hypercar, to race in the WEC starting in 2026. GMR stands for “Genesis Magma Racing”, and Genesis is developing the prototype in a partnership with ORECA. The presentation yesterday showed the prototype without an engine, since that is still in development. Magma Racing seems to be serious about their race intentions: not only do they have a VERY hot-looking car, they also contracted André Lotterer and Pipo Derani for the team. Head over to Jalopnik for more info.

As I kind of expected (predicted?), LMH is becoming the GT1 of the 20s, with everybody wanting to get in. I only hope that the FIA, ACO and manufacturers keep up the enthusiasm for a long time.