WEC Road to Le Mans
Vanwall Hypercar suffering loss of power in Le Mans heat
Vanwall’s Le Mans Hypercar has been suffering from a loss of power in the hot conditions seen so far in the build up to this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jun 10, 2023, 9:29 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The solo Vanwall Vandervell 680 was 15th-fastest of the 16 cars in the Hypercar field for the World Endurance Championship blue riband, ahead of only the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh that failed to set a lap due to hybrid issues.
Tom Dillmann set the car’s best lap of 3m29.745s, which put it some 4.5 seconds slower than the pace-setting Ferrari 499P, and more than a second behind the best of the Glickenhaus 007s, the only other non-hybrid car in the Hypercar field.
Cars in the Hypercar class are limited to a maximum power output of 520kW (697bhp), before Balance of Performance is applied, but this is only applicable in so-called ‘reference’ conditions of 20 degrees Celsius and 1010 millibars of atmospheric pressure.
But a source within Vanwall suggested that its performance deficit to its Hypercar rivals has been exacerbated at Le Mans by the ‘correction factor’ seen in other rounds of the WEC, as the lower night-time temperatures in the 24-hour race are taken into account.
When the correction factor is closer to 1, meaning that the turbo-powered cars that make up the bulk of the Hypercar field run closer to their full potential, it puts the normally-aspirated Gibson-powered Vanwall at a larger disadvantage.
“We are lacking a bit of power and it is costing quite some laptime,” Dillmann told Motorsport.com. “We know that if it’s hot we are limited. Therefore, during the day, it’s tough and during the night it’s better.
“We can improve on the chassis side, but we are in a reasonable window. The car is not easy to drive, but not too bad. But when you lose power like this, it’s costing quite a bit.”
Dillmann added a sensor issue in first qualifying cost the Vanwall further performance, without which he felt splitting the two Glickenhaus entries could have been possible.
“I think we had the potential to split the Glickenhauses, I think we could have done a low 3m29s or a high 3m28s, but with the issue we had, we couldn’t,” he said.
The Vanwall squad previously known as ByKolles is making its first appearance at Le Mans since 2020, when it last raced the unreliable CLM P1/01 LMP1 car.
Dillmann, who was part of the ByKolles line-ups that failed to finish in 2018, ‘19 and ‘20, believes that he and team-mates Tristan Vautier and Esteban Guerrieri can be cautiously optimistic of seeing the chequered flag on Sunday.
“We have never done 24 hours in a row, the most we have done was eight hours in Sebring, so we need to do triple that,” he admitted. “We ran solidly during the test day and free practice, although [on Thursday] we limited the mileage as we are on our race engine.
“We are a lot more confident about finishing, because everything we learned with the old car has been applied to this car. It has been quite solid, no big headaches on reliability, just one or two isolated events that we fixed.
“We are humble but we can have more confidence compared to previous years.”
Read Also:
- IMSA drivers defend ‘Americanised’ Le Mans safety car changes
- LMP2 class axed by WEC for 2024, but will stay at Le Mans
- Jani completes Proton's LMDh line-up for 2023 WEC season
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Toyota first WEC manufacturer to develop hydrogen prototype concept
Next article Toyota concept validates Le Mans hydrogen push, says ACO
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jamie Klein
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
More from
Tom Dillmann
Tom Dillmann goes ‘max attack’ for IMSA LMP2 title at Petit Le Mans
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans
Tom Dillmann goes ‘max attack’ for IMSA LMP2 title at Petit Le Mans
Rolex 24, Hour 24: Porsche Penske take third consecutive victory
IMSA
IMSA
Rolex 24 Hours
Rolex 24, Hour 24: Porsche Penske take third consecutive victory
Dillmann parts ways with Vanwall after latest Le Mans DNF
WEC
WEC
Dillmann parts ways with Vanwall after latest Le Mans DNF
More from
Kolles Racing
Villeneuve "not worried" about getting on pace in Vanwall at Sebring
WEC
WEC
Sebring
Villeneuve "not worried" about getting on pace in Vanwall at Sebring
Glickenhaus, Vanwall plan additional Le Mans 24 Hours entries
WEC
WEC
Glickenhaus, Vanwall plan additional Le Mans 24 Hours entries
ByKolles "surprised" by Vanwall LMH reliability in latest test
WEC
WEC
ByKolles "surprised" by Vanwall LMH reliability in latest test
Latest news
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
43 min
F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1
George Russell reveals he lost sleep over his own driving, not the F1 championship
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
George Russell reveals he lost sleep over his own driving, not the F1 championship
F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Ferrari leads FP1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Ferrari leads FP1
Max Papis announces departure as IndyCar chief steward
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 2 h
Max Papis announces departure as IndyCar chief steward
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe