Fred Makowiecki, Porsche factory driver, told Motorsport Week that the German manufacturer being labelled as favourites for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans is ‘politics’.
“This is politics, I would say. Because when you are the one which are pointing fingers at someone else, is to remove the intention on themselves. The most important is to concentrate on what we have to do.”
Having performed well in the opening three races of the season as well at the Test Day last weekend, setting the fastest time, the team have been widely namechecked by their rivals as the favourites for the 2024 edition of the French endurance classic.
“I think, definitely we have made a step to compare last year,” he continued.
“[I’m] proud about the team, of where we are right now, but after the race is a race and I don’t think we have a real advantage on anybody, especially Toyota and CRI which I think will and still be very strong.”
Makowiecki drives the #5 Porsche 963 alongside Matt Campbell and Michael Christensen. While Campbell qualified the car on pole at Qatar, the opening race of the season, and they finished third in the race, they haven’t yet won a race. Meanwhile, the sister #6 Porsche won in Qatar, the first WEC win an LMDh-rules car and the Porsche 963 as well.
Meanwhile, Mackowiecki’s believes Porsche’s supposed tyre warmup advantage — one reason they’ve been tagged as favourites — has advantages and disadvantages to it.
“Tyre warmup is linked to some aspect in general. You really have something which give it to you, only advantage. If you have an advantage in tyre warmup, do you have an advantage in consistency and tyre wear? Rarely. Because in general, when you activate the tyre quite fast, you also drop earlier.”
Tyre warmup is a big topic for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, with lower temperatures than often in France at this time of year. While some teams believe Porsche have made a step in warming up the tyres, Makowiecki believes it’s just about adaption to the conditions.
“To be sure, like a little bit we’ve done, and especially in Qatar to say okay, what do you need for this condition? And with this condition, I need to really adapt my car and find the best key factor to be capable to be there,” concluded the Frenchman.
Qualifying, when we’ll see the first indication of pace over one lap for every car in the field, takes place 7pm local time and lasts for one hour.
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