One of the most highly anticipated World Endurance Championship campaigns in recent history swings into action this weekend with the official prologue at Sebring International Raceway.
A massive 11 Hypercars from 7 teams are confirmed to take part in a full-time championship tilt once the season kicks off with the 1000 miles of Sebring next weekend.
Before that, however, competitors have an opportunity to see how they stack up against their rivals with four testing sessions this weekend, two each on Saturday and Sunday.
Two Kiwis are set to take part in the prologue including defending WEC Champion Brendon Hartley, who competes for Toyota Gazoo Racing, and Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber.
Hartley is competing with the same duo he won the 2022 title with in Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa but will have his work cut out for him in 2023 with more than double the entrants in the premier class compared to last season.
One of those new entrants is Bamber who is racing for Chip Ganassi’s Cadillac Racing entry. He’s partnering Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook as Cadillac burst into the WEC Hypercar scene for the very first time.
In addition to this Porsche Penske Motorsport will field two Porsche 963s, joined on track by two Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P, a Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680, two Peugeot Total Energies Peugeot 9X8, a Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 and a second Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid.
Drivers will run four sessions over the weekend with the first taking place at 2.45am NZ time. This is followed by the afternoon run at 7.30am NZ time.
Monday morning will bring the final two practices, the first at 3am and the second at 8.30am.
Prologues are not televised however times can be followed through the WEC website.
Header image: CGR
