Who can still win the WEC title at the end of the 8 Hours of Bahrain?

The outcome of the 2023 World Championship seasonEndurance approach ! The 8 Hours of Bahrain closes this exceptional year for the WEC, with a field in the premier category that has never been so extensive. This final round is not without challenges, since three titles are still to be distributed at the end of the Bahraini round: the Drivers' title in Hypercar, and the Drivers' and Teams' titles in LM P2.

In the Hypercars, the advantage is on the side of Toyota. The Japanese firm, already titled among the Manufacturers in Fuji, will try to do the double. The crew of No. 8, namely Sébastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley, is 16 points ahead of the sister car, the No. 7 Toyota of José Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi et Mike conway. A gap which widened slightly on Friday with the pole position of the No. 8 for the 8 Hours of Bahrain. A podium finish for the Buemi – Hirakawa – Hartley trio in Saturday’s race will guarantee them the drivers’ world championship title.

To do this, it will be necessary to resist both Classic Ferrari for sale who, despite a significant handicap in the championship, still have a small chance of winning the Drivers' title. The n°51 of the Giovinazzi – Calado – Pier Guidi trio, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will have to make up a gap of 32 points on the leading car.

In LM P2, however, the suspense is less: barring an accident, the No. 41 Oreca of the Team WRT team, driven by Louis Delétraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade, should be crowned at the end of the 8 Hours of Bahrain. The Belgian team is 33 points ahead of Inter Europol Competition, still in the running for the title thanks in particular to its victory at Le Mans, and 34 points ahead of United Autosports. As a reminder, this weekend, 39 points are distributed (38 points for the race, 1 point for pole).

WEC – Rankings before the 8H in Bahrain

Scale : 1st – 38 points, 2nd – 27 points, 3rd – 23 points, 4th – 18 points, 5th – 15 points, 6th – 12 points, 7th – 9 points, 8th – 6 points, 9th – 3 points, 10th – 2 points .

Hypercar

1 – Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 (Buemi – Hirakawa – Hartley) – 134 points
2 – Toyota Gazzo Racing #7 (Lopez – Kobayashi – Conway) – 118 points (-16)
3 – Ferrari AF Corse #51 (Giovinazzi – Calado – Pier Guidi) – 102 points (-32)
4 – Ferrari AF Corse #50 (Fuoco – Nielsen – Molina) – 97 points (-37)

LM P2

1 – Team WRT #41 (Delétraz – Kubica – Andrade) – 135 points
2 – Inter Europol Competition #34 (Costa – Scherer – Smiechowski) – 102 points (-33)
3 – United Autosports #22 (Lubin – Hanson) – 101 points (-34)

The GTE Am title has already been awarded to the crew of the No. 33 Corvette (Keating – Varrone – Catsburg).

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