Trackside: FIA WEC 6 Hours Spa Francorchamps 2022

Trackside: FIA WEC 6 Hours Spa Francorchamps 2022 – Gallery and Video

With the FIA WEC not coming to us in the UK, as Silverstone was left off the calendar again. We decided to go to them when they visited Spa Francorchamps. It was 2019 when we last saw the WEC trackside and after a botched Le Mans trip from 2020. It was long overdue that we saw this field live again, and who can say no to Spa? The place lived up to its reputation as well, the Saturday started sunny, and then the rain came…

The Race

The start of the race was watched from the start/finish grandstand, with Glickenhouse taking a lead that would not last. Both Toyota’s jumping the Alpine, United Autosport moving into the LMP 2 lead, Porsche driving into each other, and Aston Martin maintaining a 1-2 lead. All that and then no more than 3 minutes later, the safety car was out as the Pink Iron Dames Ferrari was beached in the gravel at La Source.

From there we moved into the paddock, using the tunnel at the La Source end of the start/finish straight. At first, we hung around the exit of T1, watching the cars accelerate down the hill to Eau Rouge. The first thing that hits you is the amount of acceleration the Hypercars lack compared to LMP1 Hybrids. The Toyotas looked to struggle out of the slow speed turn, and then you saw how LMP2’s are darting through and putting their power down a lot neater. Not long after that, while walking down behind the old pits, was that a spot of rain we just felt?

Oh was it, while up on top of the old pit buildings, it was just a few spots. By the time we had got down to the tunnel at Eau Rouge, we had a full-on rain shower. But as we “hiked” up to the new grandstand, something was happening on the track, a red flag was thrown. Once seated, we saw that the ARC Bratislava LMP2 had gone off into the barrier in a big fashion. That was when the fun really started. The rain came down heavily, but that was not the biggest thing to happen. Once the cars were back out behind the safety car, the number 8 Toyota had a Hybrid meltdown while in the lead.

After the extended break as a Toyota Tech was escorted to the car and left to neuter the hybrid system. Things got back underway, the rain eased and we left the new Raidillon grandstand. In a brilliant idea, we set off up the Kemmel Straight. Watching the cars fly past and the rooster tails fling water into the air. Halfway up the straight and this brilliant idea has turned into a complete cluster fuck of an idea. The rain was back, the hardest it had been on our side of the circuit. So much that before the VSC and red flag came out, the cars were struggling to keep full-throttle on the straight.

After the retreat to cover, back under the new stand, we waited for the rain to ease. Then we headed back out to the sound of cars coming down towards Eau Rouge again. It wasn’t long till we had transversed the paddock again, and were walking back under the start/finish straight. Before heading back to the grandstand, we shot off down to Blanchimont. Once we turned back and got into the stand, we caught up on the current positions.

United Autosport was spinning at the bus stop chicane, Toyota was leading, but been hounded by LMP2 cars. Porsche and Ferrari were battling for a good hour across 1st, 2nd and 3rd in GTE Pro. While in GTE Am, what looked like an Aston 1 – 2 before the final pitstop, turned into them both getting jumped by a sneaky Porsche.

All in all, the race was a blast to watch, and Spa is a venue we need to go back to again in the future. This just re-affirmed the need for the WEC to come back to Silverstone as it’s a massively missed opportunity, especially with what’s to come with LMDh and also the coming switch to GT3.
Please have a good look at the Gallery below and the Video at the top of the page if you have not already