Put simply, the combination of Manthey, the Porsche 911 GT3 R and Malykhin has proven irresistible so far in 2024, with the UK-based Belarusian driver’s speed rivaled only by Iron Dames driver Sarah Bovy among the Bronze drivers on this grid.
Malykhin’s speed and consistency belies the fact this is only his third year in GT3s, and his fourth in sports car racing in general, the 37-year-old having only begun racing in 2021 driving in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain in a 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
But the warning signs that Malykhin and PureRaxing could dominate the WEC were there in the Asian Le Mans Series last winter, when Bachler, Sturm and Malykhin won the championship with two wins out of five. Without rain at Sepang and two doses of misfortune at Abu Dhabi, it could have conceivably been a clean sweep.
By this time, Malykhin’s FIA driver grading of Bronze was set in stone. He was automatically classified Bronze as he was older than 30 at the time of applying for his first license, and there wasn’t much in his Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup campaign last year to suggest he warranted an immediate upgrade.
It seems highly likely Malykhin will be upgraded to Silver next season, but in the meantime he and the No. 92 Manthey crew will remain extremely difficult, almost impossible even, to beat - an “outlier”, to quote TF Sport Corvette driver Charlie Eastwood.
Admittedly there has always been a relatively big spread of abilities among the Bronze drivers racing in the WEC, measured in seconds per lap rather than tenths. Last year, in the final year of GTE-Am, Corvette Racing romped to an early title helped by the talents of Ben Keating, long regarded as the benchmark Bronze, and Nico Varrone, who was rated Silver at the time and was deservedly bumped up to Gold over the winter.
But now LMGT3 is one of only two categories making up the overall product, rather than one of three or four as GTE-Am was previously, it’s more important than ever that things are kept as close and unpredictable as possible.
As well as Balance of Performance, the system of success ballast in LMGT3 is aimed at doing that, but it hasn’t had much of an impact. Malykhin’s Porsche was saddled with an additional 20 kg of ballast at Sao Paulo and that didn’t appear to make much difference as he picked off Bovy’s Lamborghini with ease in his second stint.
One option could be to tweak the success ballast system so it packs more of a punch, closer to how the system works in SUPER GT. But perhaps more fundamentally, the sporting regulations in LMGT3 could be tweaked so that the Bronze driver doesn’t have quite the outsize impact on the outcome that they have now.
For example, the current rules dictate that the Bronze driver must always be at the wheel for both segments of qualifying, and as such it has become easy to predict which cars will be making the cut for Hyperpole, and then which cars have drivers fast enough to fight for pole (in the last four races, Malykhin and Bovy have shared out the poles between them).
Understandably, most teams opt to get their respective Bronze driver’s mandatory drive times out of the way at the start of the race. But, with the quickest Bronzes qualifying up front, this has the inevitable result of simply stringing out the pack in the first two stints, with the Silver and Gold/Platinum drivers facing a mountain to climb to reverse the tide without the help of a well-timed full-course yellow or safety car.
To promote more mixed up grids, one solution could be to have Bronze drivers only taking part in one segment of qualifying. This could be left to the discretion of each team, although this could lead to cases where the Bronze driver doesn’t get to appear in qualifying, so it could also be mandated that the Bronze driver does Q1 and then driver choice is made free for Q2 - which would at least have the effect of breaking the Malykhin/Bovy duopoly.
Then there’s minimum drive time, currently set at 1 hour and 45 minutes for Bronzes in a six-hour race. A blunt solution would be to reduce this figure so that a super-fast Bronze can’t build up a huge advantage, but alternatively, a system could be implemented whereby a certain proportion of the drive time must be completed within a certain timeframe.
If, say, 40 percent of the Bronze drive time (42 minutes if the total of 1h 45m is left unchanged), had to be completed within the final two hours, it could lead to more jeopardy, and would be an improvement on the likes of Malykhin simply starting at the front and handing over the reins to the Silver and Gold/Platinum driver after his first two stints.
Then, of course, there is the driver grading system itself. With more than 5,000 drivers ranked, there will always be exceptions or cases that fall through the cracks, and re-grading drivers mid-season is a non-starter owing to year-long contracts being the norm.
But the likes of Malykin, Bovy and Keating sharing a classification with inexperienced drivers who are in some cases multiple seconds a lap slower doesn’t make much sense. Equally, a young driver being upgraded from Silver to Gold can be deeply damaging for their career prospects, as the rules as they are now means there’s relatively little demand for Golds.
Perhaps in future the FIA could consider a system whereby, instead of drivers being split into one of four groups, they could be assigned a number from one to ten, with this ranking fluctuating every season automatically depending on a driver’s speed the previous year.
A rating of one would represent the ultra-fast Hypercar driver, while ten would be reserved for the least experienced (and slowest) amateurs, with all levels in between catered for.
This would then allow more flexibility when it comes to building driver LMGT3 driver crews, with a minimum combined figure imposed. If this was set at, for example, 15, it could allow for three drivers rated ‘five’, or perhaps one driver rated ‘eight’ and two drivers rated ‘three’. Signing a driver rated ‘one’ would require signing two drivers rated at least ‘seven’.
The possibilities would be near endless, and if executed correctly, would make for a much more compelling and varied set of driver lineups across the class.
And while Bronze-rated drivers have traditionally provided the money for these car crews, the current system, if left unchecked, could see this model up-ended anyway. Financially speaking, it could be worthwhile for teams to start offering quick Bronzes better deals in future and seek to make up more of the budget from the Silver driver, as the competitive advantage of having the fastest Bronze is much more significant than a quick Silver.
One LMGT3 driver suggested that a Bronze driver of Keating’s caliber could even command a salary should he decide to return to the WEC full-time.
And while Keating’s one-off return with Proton Competition at the Circuit of The Americas should make qualifying and the first couple of stints in LMGT3 more interesting than usual, the dominance of one team and driver so far in 2024 means it’s time for the WEC to consider how to make its secondary category more compelling going forward.
Ben Keating wrote:
I should probably leave this alone, but I think it is important to point out…. I am 53 years old. I have a huge regular day job. I have typically paid for my whole season and my whole car with the teams I have run with. Look at my times in LMP2 and I am not the quickest over the full season. I fit the Bronze category perfectly. Additionally, I remind you that the goal of this racing stuff is to win. I have worked very hard on myself personally but also on the entire organization of each car I’ve been in to outperform the other cars, because that is the goal. Whether running a business or racing cars, I have been able to put together a winning team. You describe my success as a problem, and I have a problem with that. I play by the rules and compete well. Would you be upset with Michael Phelps for winning too many gold medals?? If you want everyone to get a participation trophy then it is not a competition.
