Faced with the "lack of overtaking in WEC", Sébastien Buemi wants to see solutions being studied

On the sidelines of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sébastien Buemi (Toyota) looked back on the start of the FIA ​​WEC season, where Toyota shone with a victory at Imola, but where overtaking was not very frequent, according to the Swiss driver.

While trains of cars were expected at Imola, on the most twisty and narrowest circuit of the season, seeing the same pattern repeated at Spa-Francorchamps, for the second round of the season on a much faster track, was surprising. Winner of the opening round with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi has not lost sight of the fact that overtaking now seems more difficult in the top category of the world championship.Endurance. If the 24 Hours of Le MansThe long straights in the Mulsanne Straight could mitigate the problem, the former driver of F1 would like to see the governing bodies tackle the problem head-on.

"I don't like very artificial overtaking maneuvers, but for me in WEC "There are practically no overtakes anymore, let's be objective. It's something the FIA ​​and the ACO need to work on, perhaps provide opportunities to have a bit more power, things that can help us. At Imola, I maybe saw one overtake during the race, which objectively isn't enough. Here at Le Mans, it's less of an issue because there are long straights, so if you have more performance, you should be able to overtake, but you'll lose time because it's unlikely you can get behind someone and overtake them directly; you'll need to take some time to do it."

While the Hypercar regulations have now been in place for five years, and the 2021 season, Buemi believes that it's not the convergence of performance under these specific regulations that is actually leveling the playing field, making the field tighter and producing superb qualifying sessions since the start of the year, but rather the top speeds that are now stabilizing. The driver of the Toyota Number 8 would therefore like to see an additional device, like push-to-pass, which would add a strategic element to a race, while also offering drivers the possibility of using it to defend themselves.

“When everyone starts to have the same top speed, it’s difficult to overtake. It happens when there’s a lot of tire degradation, when someone is on new tires against someone on worn tires, they’re much faster and therefore overtake, but on a track with little degradation, it’s very difficult. For me, they should start working on that, with, I don’t know, maybe one or two minutes over the whole race with more power to allow for overtaking. Not something artificial like DRS in F1, but something that gives a little boost. If you’re clearly faster, you should still be able to overtake. Today, if you’re behind a Peugeot "At Imola, for example, imagine she's a second a lap slower during the race; it's impossible to overtake her. He puts a huge gap on the straights, and you can't pass. Difficult overtakes are also part of what makes the sport beautiful, because if it's too easy, it's pointless. Now, we've reached a point where there are practically no overtakes anymore; if there is one, it's an unusual maneuver."

As Toyota arrives at Le Mans with the evolution of its machine, the TR010 Hybrid, Sébastien Buemi expects to have to rely much more on Sunday's Test Day, given that even if it is not radically different from its predecessor, the new car requires precise adjustments to the settings, which only the track can help to identify.

“The Test Day will be more important than last year, that’s for sure. Last year, we had a setup philosophy that we optimized year after year. Now, with this new car, it requires different rigidities; there are lots of little details that need to be modified, and we’ll have to experiment with them as quickly as possible to see the best way to optimize the setup. We’re going to work hard on Sunday, so we’d like to have a good day without any problems and where everything goes smoothly.”

While a large part of the field considers the Japanese team among the favorites to win Le Mans this year, Buemi sees other rivals close behind: « Classic Ferrari for sale They've won three times in a row, they've proven they're the favorites. We've seen Cadillac in good form, I think BMW will be very strong. I'd really say Ferrari and BMW would be the biggest rivals, then maybe Cadillac and Alpine"You have to stay strong for 24 hours, it's a very long time, but I would say Ferrari in first place and maybe BMW in second."

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Comments collected by Michaël Duforest, in Le Mans.