WEC 2024: Tyre Warmer Ban Remains in Place for Le Mans 24 Hours

Despite calls for a U-turn, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) has decided to maintain the prohibition on tyre warmers for the 2024 season, including the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours event. This decision comes after a chilly Spa-Francorchamps round last year, which saw several crashes on cold tyres, including incidents involving Toyota’s Brendon Hartley and Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco.

As the WEC calendar 2023 heads to Circuit de la Sarthe, drivers are bracing themselves for the challenging conditions, with temperatures expected to dip close to 10°C (50°F) at night. Going out on track with cold tyres is a daunting task, and drivers are not looking forward to it.

“It’s like driving on black ice. It’s very similar,” Porsche’s Frederic Makowiecki describes. “You get there, you’re turning, it won’t turn, the car goes straight; you’re braking, it doesn’t brake.” The current cars, with their many systems, react even more unpredictably, making the situation even more treacherous.

Peugeot driver Loic Duval echoes Makowiecki’s sentiments, saying, “You know this feeling when you’re on a plane, there is big turbulence, and at some point there’s an air pocket. Woah! It’s similar for us.”

The nocturnal practice sessions will be crucial in understanding the situation, with two-hour running from 10pm to midnight on both Wednesday and Thursday. Makowiecki points out that the soft tyres work well in these conditions, especially in terms of warm-up. However, Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi notes that the soft tyres become too soft once they’re hot, making the car difficult to handle.

Buemi remains worried about the traffic situation, especially with cars on cold tyres encountering those with warm tyres. “It’s clear that when you get out of the box and you’re on cold tyres and someone comes with warm tyres, it’s a huge difference in the first sector. It’s massive.”

While the reason for the tyre warmer ban is ecological, Duval questions the actual gain from this “radical” measure, suggesting it could lead to crashes and the need for more spare parts. However, he acknowledges that the sport is a technological “laboratory” and that a better solution could be found.

Toyota team principal and driver Kamui Kobayashi, on the other hand, relishes the challenges posed by cold tyres. “We are paid for this, as a professional driver – any situation, even really bad conditions in terms of weather, like last year in the night. We need to survive, this is our job.”

As the FIA WEC prepares for the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours, drivers will need to adapt to the challenging conditions and make the most of their tyres. With the tyre warmer ban in place, it remains to be seen how the drivers will fare in the gruelling race.

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