Road to Le Mans: Ferrari rivals seek revenge in Brazil

With the hype of the 24 Hour now just a brilliant memory, the Road to next year’s Le Mans commences with the first FIA World Endurance Race to visit Brazil’s Interlagos’ Autódromo José Carlos Pace in a decade for Sunday’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo.

And with the rest smarting at Ferrari’s Le Mans double, the race certainly is on for WEC glory in South America this weekend.

It’s been a spectacular World Endurance Championship so far in 2024. Porsche leads the Hypercar chase on 108 points, just nine clear of Ferrari on 99 and Toyota just three points further adrift. Four different teams have won the four races so far too, so it’s super competitive, whichever way you look at it.

Porsche Penske’s 963 won the Bahrain opener, champions Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 Hybrid took the Imola win and the privateer JOTA’s Porsche 963 grabbed the Spa victory. Ferrari of course completed its 499 double at Le Mans. The WEC reverts to a 19-Hypercar field, with LMGT3 back to 18 cars.

Mike Conway is back in the 7 Toyota Gazoo GR010, while Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer will race alone in the Proton Porsche 963 as regular third man Harry Tincknell races IMSA this weekend. Conway’s Le Mans substitute, Jose Maria Lopez returns to the 87 LMGT3 Lexus and Clemens Schmid replaces Timur Boguslavskiy in the sister 78 car.

It’s just as close in LMGT3 where the two Manthey Porsche 911s are tied at the top, just two points clear of the WRT BMW M3. Brazilian interest centres around LMGT3 drivers, BMW man Augusto Farfus and Nicolas Costa in a Lamborghini. The all-girl Iron Dames Lamborghini is always popular with race fans too.

#7 Toyota driver and team principal Kamui Kobayashi said of the challenge ahead: “Le Mans was not long ago but right after the race we started looking towards the future. The second half of our season begins in Sao Paulo and now our full focus is on fighting for the World Championships.

"Our second place in Le Mans puts us in a better position, even though we still face a big challenge to close the gap. We haven’t driven our GR010 HYBRID at Interlagos before so we don’t know exactly what to expect but I am sure it will be a big fight.

"I remember the Brazilian fans are very enthusiastic and I think they will create a special atmosphere; I’m looking forward to it," added Kobayashi, who made his F1 debut at Interlagos in 2009 and contested a further three GPs in Sao Paulo.

The 15-turn Interlagos is the shortest WEC track for 2024. The Hypercars will still be full throttle for half the lap and should top 305 km/h on the straight. All of which makes the Balance of Performance changes since Le Mans something of a moot point. The different demands of the circuits should rather see Interlagos’ BoP compared to Spa.

Still, it may come as a surprise that Le Mans winner Ferrari has a 16 MJ energy bonus for Brazil. Albeit offset by 5 kW less power and a 17 kg weight gain. Ferrari shares its 1060 kg mass with the now 7kg heavier Toyotas, which gain 6 MJ but lose 2 kW. Porsche will run with an extra kilowatt, four more MJ and 9 kg heavier. Isotta Fraschini gains 5 kW, loses 18 kg at the same energy, while the rest all gain weight, power and energy.

So, with more than 104 championship points on the WEC table in Brazil, the USA, Japan and Bahrain, the 2024 World Endurance Title Fight is well and truly on. The São Paulo weekend commences with Friday practice, qualifying and Hyperpole Saturday.

The race starts 11:30 local time Sunday 14 July. Follow the race via the official FIA WEC app, with live streaming available on wec.tv.

Round five of the 2024 FIA WEC season will get underway later this week at Interlagos in São Paulo, Brazil, and here’s everything you need to know about where you can watch it!

Action from Free Practice 3 on Saturday (13 July) will be live to watch on the FIA WEC YouTube channel. For 8.99 Euros, all race action will be available via the official FIA WEC app (more info below).

For Brazilian residents who are unable to go and watch the race itself, Band will broadcast most of the action live free-to-air in Brazil.

The agreement will see the race shown on FTA Band plus pay-TV channel BandSports, digital platform Bandplay on YouTube (showing full race live) as well as on Grande Premio.

DirecTV Sports will show the WEC across central and South America plus the Caribbean (excluding Mexico and Brazil) on its channel DSports Motor.

Fox Sports has the rights in Mexico and will broadcast free practice, qualifying and the full race live on Fox Sports 2.

Eurosport platforms will broadcast the WEC action across all Europe including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK showing the full race on Sunday (16:00 – 23:30 CEST) via Eurosport 2. FP3, qualifying and the race will be available on Eurosport digital platforms (Eurosport Player or Discovery+ depending on territories), as well as Max.

Free-to-air La Chaine L’Equipe will televise live to fans who are residents in France. The full race will also be shown on L’Equipe.FR (17:30 – 00:30 CEST). Meanwhile, Germany will show parts of the race live on Sport1 (live from 20:15 – 22:45) as well as the full race on Eurosport. In Italy, fans can tune in live via Sky Sport Arena.

For American fans, digital platform MAX, will broadcast FP3, qualifying and the full race live. Through MAX’s B/R Sports Add-On, live and on-demand coverage of the WEC will benefit from extensive production 30 minutes before and after races including a dedicated pit reporter to bring viewers closer to the action.

Alongside MAX, MotorTrend TV channel will also be broadcasting the race live in the USA (10:00 – 11:30; 15:30 – 17:00).

In Canada, fans can tune in via Discovery Velocity (full race live from 10:00 – 17:00).

A pan-Asian TV deal with Eurosport for the continent of Asia sees the race from Interlagos broadcast on Eurosport Asia which also includes India.

Japan has the full race live on J Sports 3 while online channel StanSport will televise the WEC in Australia. Online platform Doujin will cover the race in China.

Long-term WEC broadcast partner SuperSport will televise the race to residents living in Sub-Saharan Africa.

FIAWEC.TV will broadcast the WEC race from Brazil live on its online platform. This is available worldwide. Individual race packages are available to buy for 8.99 Euros.

Available on the app will be qualifying, race replays and full English commentary from experts Anthony Davidson, Martin Haven, Graham Goodwin as well as pitlane reporter, Bruce Jouanny. For more information about the app, click HERE.