It has been a challenging season for TF Sport in the LMGT3 class of the World Endurance Championship in 2024.
The British team are currently sat 13th in the LMGT3 teams’ standings after seven rounds of the championship with just 23 points.
TF Sport are running two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s in the WEC in 2024, with Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom van Dompuy piloting the No. 81 car and Sebastien Baud, Daniel Juncadella and Hiroshi Koizumi driving the No. 82.
Both cars have found points finishes hard to come back this year, registering points seven times across the two machines, with them only finishing in the points together once in Imola.
The team have suffered five retirements across the season as the No. 81 car sits 16th in the drivers’ championship, with the No. 82 down in 22nd.
Charlie Eastwood slams Alpine punishment after collision in Fuji
Chevrolet looked to have found some performance at the latest round at the Six Hours of Fuji. While the No. 82 retired, the No. 81 achieved their best result of the season.
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Charlie Eastwood brought the Z06 GT3 R home to finish the race fourth as the No. 54 Ferrari 296 GT3 took victory in the LMGT3 class.
The No. 81 Chevrolet had lost ground earlier on in the race after it was hit by Charles Milesi in the No. 35 Alpine Hypercar. The French outfit were handed a drive-through penalty for the collision and went on to finish seventh, 54 seconds behind the winners Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor.
Despite registering TF Sport’s best result of 2024, Eastwood told Sportscar365 that a win could have been on the cards if it were not for ‘someone else’s mistake.’
“We were in a really good spot the whole race,” he said.
“Unfortunately a Hypercar missed his braking into the last corner and spun us around. He [Milesi] got a drive-through for it, but it was no real consolation to what it did to our race.
“A podium at a minimum and probably a win today got away through someone else’s mistake.”
Porsche’s Manthey PureRxcing team have won the LMGT3 championship with one race to go
Heading into the final round of the 2024 WEC season, Porsche have control over both the Hypercar and the LMGT3 championship.
Estre, Lotterer and Vanthoor lead the Hypercar drivers’ standings by 35 points over the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, with a maximum of 39 points available at the Eight Hours of Bahrain.
In LMGT3, Porsche’s Lithuanian outfit Manthey PureRxcing have clinched the title with a round to spare through Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm, having finished on the podium in all but one of the seven races so far, winning two of them.
The second Manthey squad – German outfit Manthey EMA – are second in the championship with Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin also grabbing two victories this season.