Analysing the First Race for WEC’s New ‘Behind Closed Doors’ BoP

The opening race of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in Qatar saw Porsche dominate with its 963 prototype. The German manufacturer scored the first pole position and win for an LMDh car in WEC history, recorded the fastest lap by some margin and left the others literally in its dust.

Australian driver Matt Campbell, recently part of the winning Porsche crews at the Daytona 24 Hours and Bathurst 12 Hour, recorded the fastest lap time in the 10-hour race of 1m39.748s. His No. 5 Porsche was the only car to break the 1m40s barrier, and went nearly a second quicker than the sister Penske-run car, which won the race and recorded a best lap of 1m40.592s. Porsche filled the top three positions, and the eyes immediately turned towards the WEC’s new balance of performance system which takes some details of the process behind closed doors.

However, there were a few mitigating circumstances to this early-season result, which have to be explained before getting into the BoP.

The first was that the track particularly suited the 963 and its aero performance window. The smooth surface, with low-degradation tarmac, played into the Porsche’s hands. The minimum race weight of the car, at 1048kg per the BoP table, was higher than the Peugeot 9X8 at 1030kg and the Cadillac V-Series.R at 1032kg. But it was still lighter than the Ferrari 499P (1075kg) and Toyota GR010 Hybrid (1089kg). On a track that was particularly sensitive to the weight of the car, Porsche had an advantage over its nearest Hypercar challengers.

In addition to the two-car Penske works effort, Porsche was represented by customer teams Proton Competition and JOTA, and so there was no option to hide performance in a bid to outsmart the BoP. The customer teams run flat out, and Penske therefore needs to do the same. Ferrari now also supplies a customer car, but that is very much under control of the AF Corse team which also runs two factory entries, making it less clear-cut.

Aside from Porsche, Peugeot also had a strong race. The wingless 9X8 will be replaced by a major evolution for the next WEC round at Imola in April. In Qatar, the French marque led during the opening hour and was on course to finish second before its No. 93 car ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap. The team was still working to establish what happened at the last pit stop, whether it…