The #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 Hypercar crew saw the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue testing and Qatar 1812 km opener as “a learning week” according to Harry Tincknell.
The #99 Proton 963 trio of Harry Tincknell, Neel Jani, and Julien Andlauer finished in 10th position at the opening round of the 2024 season.
After securing the final point in the classification, Tincknell reflected on the race week which were preceded by two days of delayed pre-season testing.
“It was a kind of learning week for us. The last time I drove the car was in Bahrain in 2023.
“A lot of things were new and unfamiliar. It’s great to have Julien [Andlauer] on board. The teamwork runs smoothly.
“Our race pace was great at times but we need to maintain this even more consistently.”
From our Prologue analysis, Proton Competition’s average lap time was the lowest of all the Porsche entrants, including the works and customer Hypercars.
During the off-season, a minor change to Proton’s WEC driver lineup was made where Gianmaria Bruni was replaced by Proton GTE ace Julien Andlauer.
Over the course of the race weekend, the Porsche 963 package demonstrated strong form at the new-to-WEC Losail International Circuit, and during the race, all five 963s occupied the top-five positions.
The #99 however, as the #38 JOTA for different reasons, was not able to match their works cars in maintaining the top spots during a near-10 hour race highlighting the importance of both tyre management, and consistent race pace.
Andlauer debuted into the category having spent numerous years as an driver in the Dempsey-Proton former GTE collaboration in Porsche 911 RSR machinery, although he race in LMP2 machinery for the first time in Proton’s 2023-24 Asian Le Mans Series campaign.
The 24-year-old Frenchman qualified 13th with a time of 1:40.675, as 2016 champion Jani begun the #99 amidst an intense race start.
Altogether, they utilised the reliable 963 to challenge their rivals during the opening hours, even if their pace could not be withheld for the whole distance.
During a strong debut, Andlauer’s 1:41.414 set on Lap 154 was close to the other works cars, and unmatched by his teammates who were likely impacted from the tyre management aspect over outright race pace.
In the end, the team finished in 11th on-track, which was promoted to 10th place after the #93 Peugeot’s disqualification.
