Second half of FIA World Endurance Championship season set for blast-off in Brazil
The FIA World Endurance Championship returns to Brazil this weekend for the fifth outing of its 2025 marketing campaign, with the collection’ quickest drivers and most formidable vehicles set to placed on a scintillating present on the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo.
The historic Autódromo José Carlos Tempo, higher often called Interlagos, named for its location ‘between lakes’, is South America’s premier motor sport venue and is celebrating its eighty fifth anniversary this yr.
A daily fixture in FIA WEC through the collection’ early seasons, the favored venue rejoined the schedule final summer season following a ten-year absence, with a trackside crowd of greater than 73,000 followers having fun with the motion.
At simply 4.309km, the anti-clockwise structure is the shortest circuit on the calendar, however its gradient adjustments and flowing structure make for a substantial problem. Hypercars hit speeds within the area of 305kph, with roughly half of the lap spent at full throttle, whereas the lengthy pit straight and again straight invariably generate loads of overtaking alternatives.
TITLE FIGHT INTENSIFIES IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
Ferrari arrives in São Paulo in dominant type, having prevailed in each spherical of the marketing campaign so far with its trio of all-conquering 499P Hypercars. For many who imagine in superstition, it ought to be identified that just one automobile quantity has beforehand gained in Brazil greater than as soon as – the #51 AF Corse Ferrari within the LMGTE Professional class in 2012 and 2013. Which of the Italian marque’s three Hypercar line-ups at present sits on the high of the standings? The #51…
If the statistics are on the facet of world championship leaders Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, then the omens are arguably much less auspicious for final month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning #83 AF Corse entry.
On only one event has the identical crew triumphed at each La Sarthe and Interlagos in a single season – and even then, not within the headlining class – and neither the Hypercar nor LMGT3 winner in France final yr took the chequered flag inside the highest 5 in Brazil.
Emphasising the significance of qualifying, the race has by no means been gained from decrease than the entrance row of the grid, with Toyota’s Hyperpole hegemony within the southern hemisphere’s largest metropolis in 2024 paving the best way to the Japanese model’s forty seventh FIA WEC victory, on the identical circuit the place it claimed its first. The reigning Producers’ champion has but to achieve the podium this season.
Fellow title-holder Porsche clinched its personal first podium of the marketing campaign final month at Le Mans courtesy of an impressed effort by Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell to separate the Ferraris within the #6 963. The Frenchman and Belgian can be with out the assist of their Australian team-mate in Brazil, however will nonetheless be buoyed by their optimistic momentum because the German carmaker returns to the scene of its maiden triumph in FIA WEC’s top-tier, and the primary of its 14 entrance row lockouts so far.
LOCAL STARS PRIMED TO SHINE IN LMGT3
Like in Hypercar, the LMGT3 area consists of 18 ultra-high-calibre protagonists – with two of them that includes a homegrown hero amongst their ranks. Augusto Farfus shares The Bend Staff WRT’s race-winning #31 BMW with Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin, and having already ascended the podium as soon as this season, the Curitiba native is eager to take action once more in entrance of his enthusiastic followers.
For FIA WEC rookie Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello, in the meantime, São Paulo really is residence, for the reason that 23-year-old – son of two-time Method 1 World Championship runner-up Rubens Barrichello – was born within the Latin American megalopolis. Competing for Racing Spirit of Léman in an Aston Martin Vantage, the Paulista can take encouragement from the truth that no GT marque has achieved extra podiums in Brazil than the well-known British model.
KEY INFO
The on-track periods will start with free observe on Friday, 11 July. Qualifying – and the all-important Hyperpole high ten shootout – begins at 14:45 native time (19:45 CEST) on Saturday, 12 July, with the race getting underway at 11:30 native time (16:30 CEST) on Sunday, 13 July.
For additional particulars, together with the complete occasion timetable and entry listing, click on HERE.
