Autosport Plus

How sportscar racing's big three stack up

Last weekend's WEC opener offered up some more clues about the competitive picture between Audi, Toyota and Porsche. GARY WATKINS reveals what he learned

Time was when a trip out to Becketts at Silverstone to watch the cars in free practice would have been followed by my arrival back in the press room with a pretty accurate 'guesstimate' of the top positions on the time sheets. Not any more, at least in the brave new world of the LMP1 class.

New rules for the premier class of the World Endurance Championship this season mean a new approach to getting around a lap. That much was evident when I ventured out to what these days we generically call Becketts - but is actually a sequence comprising Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel - for opening practice at the Silverstone WEC opener last Friday.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.