The 2023 1000 Miles of Sebring was an endurance sportscar racing event held at the Sebring International Raceway, Florida, United States on 17 March 2023, as the opening round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship. [1] It was the third running of the event.
The 1000 Miles of Sebring was the first race for new and returning manufacturers to the top class of endurance racing: Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac and Vanwall entered cars in the Hypercar category for the race. They joined returning manufacturers Toyota, Peugeot and Glickenhaus. Alpine was forced to leave the Hypercar class for a 1-year hiatus, with plans of returning for the 2024 season.
Customer teams also joined the Hypercar grid. Both Proton Competition and Jota Sport will receive a Porsche 963 later in the year. Unfortunately, these cars will not be delivered to the teams until at least mid-April, but in Proton's case probably until after Le Mans. [2]
This is the first year of the World Endurance Championship without the LMGTE Pro category, after it got dropped in 2022 since manufacturers did not express enough interest in the class. [3]
During the last 17 minutes of the race, on the official stream, the Falcon 9 carrying the SES-18 and SES-19 satellites was visible from the track.
The entry list was revealed on 1 March 2023. The list of entries for the event consisted of 37 cars across three classes. There were 11 entries in Hypercar, 12 entries in LMP2, and 14 entries in LMGTE Am. Porsche customer Hertz Team Jota entered the No. 48 car in the LMP2 class, due to the fact that the customer Porsche 963's were not yet ready to be delivered. [4]
After an accident in FP2, Proton Competition withdrew their No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR-19 from the event after a collision with the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R. The car sustained extensive chassis damage that prevented it from taking part in the race. This withdrawal brought the amount of starting cars down to 36. [5]
| Date | Time (local: ET) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 15 March | 10:55 | Free Practice 1 |
| 16:35 | Free Practice 2 | |
| Thursday, 16 March | 11:55 | Free Practice 3 |
| 18:30 | Qualifying - LMGTE Am | |
| 18:55 | Qualifying - LMP2 | |
| 19:20 | Qualifying - Hypercar | |
| Friday, 17 March | 12:00 | Race |
| Source: [6] | ||
| Free Practice 1 | Class | No. | Entrant | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypercar | 8 |  Toyota Gazoo Racing | Ryo Hirakawa | 1:47.649 | |
| LMP2 | 63 |  Prema Racing | Mirko Bortolotti | 1:50.074 | |
| LMGTE Am | 85 | Iron Dames |  Michelle Gatting | 1:59.028 | |
| Free Practice 2 | Class | No. | Entrant | Driver | Time |
| Hypercar | 7 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Kamui Kobayashi | 1:46.954 | |
| LMP2 | 28 |  Jota |  Pietro Fittipaldi | 1:50.326 | |
| LMGTE Am | 57 |  Kessel Racing | Daniel Serra | 1:58.845 | |
| Free Practice 3 | Class | No. | Entrant | Driver | Time |
| Hypercar | 7 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Kamui Kobayashi | 1:45.783 | |
| LMP2 | 28 | Jota | Pietro Fittipaldi | 1:50.128 | |
| LMGTE Am | 98 |  Northwest AMR | Nicki Thiim | 1:59.030 | |
| Source: [7] [8] [9] | |||||
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.
| Pos | Class | No. | Team | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hypercar | 50 | Ferrari AF Corse | 1:45.067 | - | 1 |
| 2 | Hypercar | 8 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 1:45.281 | +0.214 | 2 |
| 3 | Hypercar | 7 | Toyota Gazoo Racing | 1:45.548 | +0.481 | 3 |
| 4 | Hypercar | 51 | Ferrari AF Corse | 1:45.874 | +0.807 | 4 |
| 5 | Hypercar | 2 |  Cadillac Racing | 1:46.082 | +1.015 | 5 |
| 6 | Hypercar | 6 |  Porsche Penske Motorsport | 1:47.193 | +2.126 | 6 |
| 7 | Hypercar | 5 | Porsche Penske Motorsport | 1:47.210 | +2.143 | 7 |
| 8 | Hypercar | 94 |  Peugeot TotalEnergies | 1:47.455 | +2.388 | 8 |
| 9 | Hypercar | 93 | Peugeot TotalEnergies | 1:48.205 | +3.138 | 9 |
| 10 | Hypercar | 708 | Glickenhaus Racing | 1:49.164 | +4.097 | 10 |
| 11 | Hypercar | 4 |  Floyd Vanwall Racing Team | 1:49.329 | +4.262 | 11 |
| 12 | LMP2 | 23 | United Autosports | 1:49.974 | +4.907 | 12 |
| 13 | LMP2 | 28 | Jota | 1:50.067 | +5.000 | 13 |
| 14 | LMP2 | 31 |  Team WRT | 1:50.155 | +5.088 | 14 |
| 15 | LMP2 | 36 | Alpine Elf Team | 1:50.174 | +5.107 | 15 |
| 16 | LMP2 | 48 | Hertz Team Jota | 1:50.218 | +5.151 | 16 |
| 17 | LMP2 | 41 | Team WRT | 1:50.291 | +5.224 | 17 |
| 18 | LMP2 | 22 | United Autosports | 1:50.408 | +5.341 | 18 |
| 19 | LMP2 | 9 | Prema Racing | 1:50.417 | +5.350 | 19 |
| 20 | LMP2 | 10 | Vector Sport | 1:50.710 | +5.643 | 20 |
| 21 | LMP2 | 63 | Prema Racing | 1:50.726 | +5.659 | 21 |
| 22 | LMP2 | 34 |  Inter Europol Competition | 1:50.889 | +5.822 | 22 |
| 23 | LMP2 | 35 | Alpine Elf Team | 1:51.284 | +6.217 | 23 |
| 24 | LMGTE Am | 85 | Iron Dames | 1:58.949 | +13.882 | 24 |
| 25 | LMGTE Am | 33 | Corvette Racing | 1:59.345 | +14.278 | 25 |
| 26 | LMGTE Am | 25 |  ORT by TF | 1:59.657 | +14.590 | 26 |
| 27 | LMGTE Am | 83 | Richard Mille AF Corse | 1:59.733 | +14.666 | 27 |
| 28 | LMGTE Am | 21 | AF Corse | 1:59.992 | +14.925 | 28 |
| 29 | LMGTE Am | 56 | Project 1 – AO | 2:00.588 | +15.521 | 29 |
| 30 | LMGTE Am | 57 | Kessel Racing | 2:00.591 | +15.524 | 30 |
| 31 | LMGTE Am | 98 | Northwest AMR | 2:00.807 | +15.740 | 31 |
| 32 | LMGTE Am | 777 | D'Station Racing | 2:00.941 | +15.874 | 32 |
| 33 | LMGTE Am | 54 | AF Corse | 2:01.041 | +15.974 | 33 |
| 34 | LMGTE Am | 77 | Dempsey-Proton Racing | 2:01.054 | +15.987 | 34 |
| 35 | LMGTE Am | 86 | GR Racing | 2:02.588 | +17.521 | 35 |
| 36 | LMGTE Am | 60 | Iron Lynx | 2:02.820 | +17.753 | 36 |
| Source: [10] | ||||||
The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of overall winning car's distance) was 136 laps. Class winners are in bold and ‡.
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Source: [12]
The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercontinental Le Mans Cup which began in 2010 and is the first endurance series of world championship status since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship at the end of 1992. The World Endurance Championship name was previously used by the FIA from 1981 to 1985.
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