The 2021 season of the WEC has offered great emotions, even if the first events of the year have been contested with a small volume of public. With everything, yet another World Endurance campaign comes to an end, in this case with about 8 Hours of Bahrain that promise to be vibrant. In fact, the drivers’ titles of the four categories that make up the WEC are up for grabs, to which must be added the fight for several of the constructors’ titles. The emotion is served, since the second race in a row at Sakhir will have a large number of spotlights.
As we already said last week, the Bahrain circuit has a length of 5,412 meters rope, in which a total of 15 curves are ‘hidden’. It is a track with a fairly long main straight, although it is not the only acceleration zone. In fact, after turn 3 there is a small line, just like between curves 10 and 11 and between angles 13 and 14. However, Bahrain is a complex track in the aerodynamic compromise, since the second sector presents linked curves of great support and strong braking. To this must be added the greater term gradient between day and night as it is an 8-hour race.
As is logical, the last appointment of the WEC 2021 is written from the battle for the different titles at stake. In the hypercar class, the battle is reduced to the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids. The # 7 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María ‘Pechito’ López arrives with 145 points and if he achieves pole, he will be worth third -there are three hypercars- to be champion. For its part, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley’s Toyota # 8 has 130 units and he must get the pole and get the victory to complicate the life of his rival, since in that case it would only be worth the Toyota # 7 to finish second.
Accounts are more complex in LMP2, among other things because there are three prototypes in the fight for the title of the silver class. Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi lead with Oreca # 31 of Team WRT and 113 points in his locker. Five points behind looks like JOTA Sport’s Oreca # 28, prototype that is in the hands of Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist. Finally, the Oreca # 38, also from JOTA, has more limited optionsTherefore, António Félix Da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto González will have to wait for almost a miracle to be able to become champions.
On the contrary, in LMGTE-Pro no need to take out the calculator. James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi have a point advantage over Kévin Estre and Neel Jani, so the couple ahead will win the title. Although the pilots of the Ferrari # 51 start the weekend ahead, the ‘BoP’ favorable to Porsche can leave this duel in something insipid. Finally, in LMGTE-Am there are also two GTEs involved in the fight for the title, although with a more differentiated position. Nicklas Nielsen, François Perrodo and Alessio Rovera have 112 points, for the 90.5 of Felipe Fraga, Ben Keating and Dylan Pereira.