Tryouts of new tires and talents at Goodyear’s Portimao WEC GT test

With the specifications of the first of Goodyear’s two 2024 dry-spec tires now frozen and ready for next season, this week’s two-day tire test in Portimao provided an ideal opportunity for eight manufacturers and teams planning to field cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new GT division to get a feel for the new LMGT3 rubber and assess new drivers.

It was a busy two days, with teams getting plenty of mileage during the 12 hours of track time, with only a small handful of stoppages.

Of the manufacturers present, Aston Martin with its new-for-2024 Vantage AMR GT3 EVO, Audi, BMW and Lexus with its RC F GT3, were all sampling the LMGT3 Eagle F1 Supersports for the first time.

Aston Martin’s test and development 2024-spec Vantage Evo chassis, which was first spied earlier this month running at Silverstone, was being driven for the most part by Heart of Racing’s current FIA WEC GTE Am drivers. Ian James, Roman de Angelis and Alex Riberas all turned laps, in addition to 2023 TF Sport driver Ben Tuck.

Heart of Racing — Aston Martin’s current IMSA GTD Pro team and future Valkyrie Hypercar entrant — is expected to run one of two Vantages in the WEC next year, should AMR receive its pair of entries. The car has been extremely well received by the drivers that have sampled it to this point. One experienced GT driver told RACER that it was “the easiest GT car” they’d ever driven.

Audi, meanwhile, remains an outside possibility for the FIA WEC, if the full-season entry is capped at 36 cars with 18 cars in each of the two classes (Hypercar and LMGT3) as expected. Nevertheless, a full Audi Sport Customer Racing truck rolled into the paddock and supported French Audi Sport customer Team Sainteloc with senior technical staff and works driver Christopher Haase.

Haase was the only designated driver for the R8 that turned laps in Portimao, with its newly developed and installed closed-loop torque sensors. His feedback on both Goodyear’s tires and level of service was overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s my first time with the Goodyear tires and in this environment,” Haase said. “I have been really surprised — the car worked straight away out of the box. I was so happy with the level of grip and feedback. It was joyous.

“We have put mileage on tires for long runs, and on our first long run it was so promising.”

Team director Frederic Thalamy echoed Haase’s thoughts and described Goodyear’s support as “very impressive.”

The BMWs on site were being run by Belgian outfit Team WRT, which will run both the Hypercar and LMGT3 effort in the WEC for the Bavarian brand next year.

The two M4 GT3s were current-spec cars, not the EVO package that has been out testing recently and will debut in 2025. One car was in its full Valentino Rossi GT World Challenge Europe livery and driven by factory ace Augusto Farfus; the other was a bare carbon chassis that was being shared by Bronze-rated drivers Giorgio Roda, Arnold Robin and Tim Whale.

Tuesday’s running included one near-double stint for one of the M4s, with tire wear and life report to be significantly better than the team had expected.

“The Goodyears are very good –we have been pleasantly surprised, though there is some work to do to get to the point where double stinting is possible,” Kurt Mollekens, WRT’s GT3 program manager told RACER. “It’s been a very constructive couple of days. We will be testing again at Paul Ricard, where we will have a number of other Bronze-rated drivers with us.”

The presence of Lexus was a surprise to some. However, in the background, longstanding Mercedes-AMG GT3 team AKKODIS ASP has been plotting a switch of brands to ensure it can fulfill owner Jerome Policand’s WEC ambitions. With Mercedes believed to be on the outside looking in for next season in terms of entry prospects, a move to Lexus to take up the grid slots that will be handed on behalf of Toyota in LMGT3, is an entirely sensible move.

IMSA champion Jack Hawksworth and WEC champ Jose Maria Lopez shared the car this week. The chassis used is from 2016 and has been campaigned in Japan, the U.S. and Europe ahead of being handed to ASP. It is now the dedicated test car.