Then team strategy on when Cassidy should take his Attack Mode power boost, and how Evans should back up Wehrlein for his team-mate’s benefit, left the pair with glum faces as Jaguar celebrated its first world championship since the Group C sports car days. An odd scene.
But what did for Evans in the end was the Formula E equivalent of an own goal: he fa i led to trigger the activation point when attempting to pick up his final dose of Attack Mode, which meant he had to try again – and that allowed Wehrlein to get past. It made the difference as the ex-F1 driver claimed his first world championship.
World Endurance Championship
Honours were shared three ways at the pinnacle of sports car racing in 2024. Porsche’s drivers became world champions, Toyota claimed the manufacturers’ crown and Ferrari won the Le Mans 24 Hours.
From a bigger-picture perspective, Le Mans always trumps the world titles as the defining factor in how an endurance racing season is judged. But the rich influx of manufacturers – eight in the top Hypercar class, nine in the new LMGT3 category – has shifted the dial.
Winning the WEC is now much more than a consolation, at least to those in the paddock and pit lane. Ferrari even circled a WEC crown as its target for 2024, following the 499P’s historic debut win at Le Mans’ 100th-anniversary edition last year.
Nevertheless, the Prancing Horse will take a second consecutive victory at the Big One and the 11th in its long history at the race. A troublesome open door on the 499P driven by Nicklas Nielsen caused a flutter in the closing stages, but the Dane kept his head to deliver another narrow defeat of Toyota for Ferrari and a first Le Mans victory for himself, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.
The trio eventually finished a distant second in the WEC points to Porsche crew Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and André Lotterer – the last-named a WEC champion for a second time at 42.
The Penske-run Porsche team put a surprisingly troubled first season with the 963 behind it to uncover both pace and reliability in the car ’s sophomore campaign. Estre and co won twice, at the Qatar season opener and the penultimate round at Fuji, and scored consistently in between to earn their crown. British team Jota added a historic first privateer win in this Hypercar era, as Will Stevens and Callum Ilot t steered their Hertz-backed 963 to victory at Spa.
