WEC Preview: São Paulo
- Aaron Carroll
- Jul 9
- 7 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) grid will be in Brazil this weekend for the 6 Hours of São Paulo. Here is everything you need to know.
Championship picture
Hypercar
In the manufacturers championship, Ferrari still lead the way, with four wins from four races so far this season (Although the No.83’s triumph at Le Mans doesn’t count towards the manufacturers title since they are a privateer entry). They lead Toyota by a massive 77 points.
The battle for second is relatively tight, with Porsche trailing the Japanese Marque by 11 points, with Cadillac only eight behind the factory 963’s. BMW find themselves another 12 back, with Alpine only 10 behind them. Then finally comes Peugeot and Aston Martin, both well and truly out of the picture at this stage.
It seems to be Ferrari’s title to lose at this stage, with second down to sixth looking like it could change on a race-by-race basis.
In the World Cup for privateer teams, the No.83 AF Corse has a 57 point lead over the No.99 Proton Porsche. Another championship that will likely end in a Ferrari victory.
Finally, the drivers standings. The No.51 crew lead the way, on 105 points, ahead of the No.83 on 89. The Le Mans disqualification hurt the No.50 crew, who are a bit further back on 57 points. Nonetheless, the 499P still holds a 1-2-3.
Behind the Italian cars, it gets very interesting. The No.7 Toyota is fourth on 44 points, with both the No.6 Porsche (only Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell missed Spa) and No.12 Cadillac crews on 42 points. Matt Campbell stands alone in seventh on 40 points, with the No.8 Toyota on 37 points.
Another three points further back gets you to the No.36 Alpine, who hold a seven point lead over the two BMW’s, both on 27 points. Behind them, is the No.38 Cadillac, No.5 Porsche, both Peugeots and Aston Martins, and the No.99 Porsche. Both the Astons and the No.99 are yet to score a point.
LMGT3
At this point in the season, the GT championship is wide open. The No.92 Manthey Porsche currently leads on 81 points, after their Le Mans victory. The No.21 Ferrari are just five points back on 76. Then there is a slight gap to the No.33 Corvette, who are on 60 points.
The No.27 Aston Martin is fourth on 47 points. The gaps in the top four may seem too big to make the title ‘wide-open’, but crucially no team in the class has managed to score points at every race this year. Each car has at least one non-scoring race.
This shows that anything can happen, and with four races left the championship could still be flipped on its head.
Behind the top four, the No.78 Lexus and the No.81 Corvette are tied on 38 points. The No.87 Lexus is six points back, and one point ahead of the No.54 Ferrari. The No.59 McLaren is ninth, after coming second in Qatar and not scoring since. Rounding out the top 10 is the No.77 Ford.
Then comes both BMWs, the No.88 Ford, No.10 Aston Martin, No.95 McLaren, No.61 Mercedes, No.85 Iron Dames Porsche and the No.60 Mercedes, which is the only car that hasn’t scored a single point yet.
The track
The Autódromo José Carlos Pace is a 4.3 km (2.6 mile) circuit situated in the city of São Paulo. The track runs anti-clockwise, presenting a different than usual challenge for tyre management.
The circuit has held the 6 Hours of São Paulo three times from 2012 to 2014, and a fourth time in 2024. Toyota have two wins here, in both the 2012 and 2024 editions. Porsche and Audi also have one win each.
Last year's race featured a dominant performance from the Japanese marque. The No.7 looked set to win early on, but a technical issue held them in the pits for a while. They still managed to fight back to fourth, behind the Penske Porsches, and the sister No.8 Toyota which won by a minute.
The main overtaking opportunity can be found at turn one, after the long flat out section leading up to the braking zone for the Senna S. However, if drivers that get overtaken here can stay on the back of the car ahead through turns two and three, they will have an opportunity to regain the place at turn four.
After that the track tightens in the middle sector, with a lot of tight hairpins. Managing LMGT3 traffic through here will be crucial for the Hypercar drivers, and it could potentially gain or lose you multiple seconds on a lap.
It’s also worth to note, the short nature of the track means the Hypercars will encounter GT3 traffic much more frequently.
After the twist middle sector, the drivers come to the crucial turn 12. Named Junção (Junction), the 90 degree left hander leads onto the lengthy pit straight, so getting a good exit is imperative to a good lap time.
Entry list changes
Hypercar
In Hypercar, both of the Aston Martin Valkyries will cut their three driver lineups to two. Ross Gunn will be absent from the No.007 and Roman De Angelis will miss this round in the No.009.
Many other Hypercar teams will adopt this tactic for the six hour event too. Both factory Porsches will have only two drivers, missing Matt Campbell from the No.6 and Mathieu Jaminet from the No.5. Peugeot will follow suit, as Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne will be missing from the No.93 and No.94 respectively.
They will be joined by Sebastian Buemi in the No.8 Toyota, as the three drivers prioritise the Formula E round in Berlin. There are no other major changes in Hypercar.
LMGT3
In LMGT3, the No.10 Aston Martin will feature Anthony McIntosh instead of Derek Deboer. In the No.78 Lexus, Ben Barnicoat is back from injury, but will compete in IMSA this weekend instead of the WEC. This means that Yuichi Nakayama will take his spot once again.
Michelle Gatting will return for the Iron Dames, after a foot injury sustained in pit stop practice for Le Mans sidelined her for the blue ribbon event.
Finally the No.31 WRT BMW will feature a once off livery, sporting the Brazilian national colors for the race. Home hero Augusto Farfus will be joined by Yasser Shahin and newcomer Pedro Ebrahim. Ebrahim will replace Timur Boguslavskiy, meaning the lineup now consists of two Brazilian drivers.
Balance of Performance (BoP)
Hypercar
Championship leaders Ferrari have taken a hit in the latest edition of the BoP. They become the heaviest and least powerful car. They are joined in the heaviest category by Toyota. Significantly, the GR010 ran at this weight in Spa, whereas the 499P has gained 12 kg since the Belgian round.
It’s worth noting that this BoP is an evolution of the Spa bulletin, since Le Mans runs on a separate BoP due to the unique nature of the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Elsewhere, Alpine have taken a hit too. They gain eight kilograms, and lose eight KiloWatts of power before 250 kph. They also lose an extra 1.1% of power after the 250 kph threshold.
Aston Martin will maintain their 520 KW of power, and will benefit from a car that is five kilos lighter. Their rivals for the final places in the standings, Peugeot, have not received any updates except a 2.3% decrease in power after 250 kph.
BMW gains nine kilograms, and two KW of power, while Cadillac drops two kilos and gains a massive 15 extra KW. To combat this however, they lose an extra 5.5% of their power at 250 kph. Finally, Porsche lose two kg and gain an extra seven KW.
LMGT3
There have been some drastic weight changes for the LMGT3 class, with six of the nine manufacturers seeing double digit changes.
Those benefitting from the changes include; Aston Martin (-10 kg), Corvette (-25 kg), McLaren (-17 kg), Mercedes (-15 kg) and Porsche (-1 kg). Notably here, the Corvette loses a massive amount of weight, and goes up three positions on the power curve. The two TF Sport cars will surely be competitive this weekend.
The Porsche and McLaren both see the same power increase, while the Mercedes goes up two positions. The BMW M4 LMGT3 also goes up three positions, but they gain an extra 12 kg to combat this. Also gaining weight are the Ferrari (+4 kg) and the Ford (+19 kg).
Those two manufacturers will not have a change in power from Spa. The only car to not have a change in weight is the Lexus, which is also the only car to lose power. They go down one position on the power curve.
Schedule
Track action kicks off on Friday the 11th of July, with Free Practice 1 at 11am local time. The 90 minute session will be followed by Free Practice 2, of the same length at 3:45pm.
Saturday will see the cars take to the track for a final 60 minutes of practice in FP3 at 10:10am. That will be followed by qualifying, which kicks off with LMGT3 qualifying at 2:45pm. The GT class will go out for Hyperpole at 3:05, before the Hypercars go out at 3:25 for qualifying and for Hyperpole at 3:45.
The main event gets underway at 11:30am on Sunday morning, and runs all the way through the afternoon to 5:30pm, when the chequered flag will fall and the winner will be crowned.
Fans at the track will also be treated to action from the GT Series, with two 40 minute races.
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