Lilou Wadoux ends successful debut season in Super GT

"I was able to compete with strong rivals and get on the podium, and I was also able to learn about tyre development, so it was a year with a lot of positive things for me." - Lilou Wadoux concluded her debut season in the Super GT championship with a challenging Suzuka finale, nevertheless ending 11th in the standings and collecting valuable experience.

In the fifth round of the Japanese Super GT sports car championship, which was postponed from September to December due to a typhoon, Frenchwoman Lilou Wadoux had to deal with cold temperatures and deteriorating tyres. Nevertheless, her debut season was a positive one overall.

The Suzuka 300km race was originally scheduled for September, but was moved to December due to Typhoon Shanshan. This is the first time that a race in this championship has taken place so late in the year. The conditions were therefore accordingly cold and new for all the drivers, who last tested at this track in such cold conditions in March.

In her first season in the highly-competitive Super GT, Japan's premier sports car series, Lilou Wadoux and her teammate Kei Cozzolino were able to achieve three top-10 results in the Ponos Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. In Sugo, she achieved her first podium with a second place. At the summer race in Suzuka, in much warmer temperatures, the team managed to achieve sixth place, and the chances of achieving a good position at the postponed season finale were therefore encouraging.

Qualifying day for the last race of the 30th anniversary season of the Japanese sports car championship started with the official practice session, where Cozzolino drove for 10 laps before handing over to Lilou, who aimed to familiarize herself with the conditions. However, two red flags shortened her driving time, and tyre issues in the low temperatures were already apparent. They finished 17th fastest, with a best time of 1:58.280.

Qualifying was up next and the Ponos 296 team took to the track 10 minutes into the session, hoping to have a warmer and clearer track. This strategy paid off in the first qualifying session, when the Ferrari moved up to ninth place midway through the session. Wadoux’s teammate Kei Cozzolino was able to quickly reduce this gap and improve the position further. Nevertheless, the team was pushed down the order in the closing minutes; in the end, Cozzolino finished Q1 2.1 seconds off, in 18th place.

Lilou Wadoux thus tackled the second qualification. However, this was interrupted on the out lap: the #22 Mercedes came to a stop on the side of the track shortly after leaving the pits and triggered a red flag.

After the interruption, Wadoux drove the fastest lap up to that point; in her second lap, now with warmer tyres, she was able to beat her teammate's best time from Q1 and lower the fastest overall time to 3:54.501.

However, her best lap of 1:57.224 was later deleted for track limits - and Lilou was left her 1:58.968 as the only remaining lap, pushing the Ponos Ferrari down to 11th in group, with a combined result of 24th for Sunday's race.

In cold temperatures on Sunday, Lilou Wadoux took the start of the race. The opening stages were rather calm after a second formation lap, with no major changes in position or incidents.

Despite tyres proved once again to be the deciding factor in this race, with Wadoux's Ferrari struggling to adapt to the Michelin tyre compound in these conditions, Lilou started moving up the order, gaining one place on the first lap, move into 23rd position at the start of the race, sandwiched between the two #9 and #22 Mercedes.

On lap 10, Sakaguchi hit the tyre wall with his Lamborghini at the end of the S-curves after coming together with a Nissan from the GT500 class during lapping. The crash triggered the first full course yellow phase.

At the end of the eleventh lap, the green flag waved again, allowing Wadoux, who had meanwhile overtaken the Mercedes, to close the gap to 19th place. At the end of lap 14, she held this position for a short time until the first round of pit stops.

Due to a longer first stop on lap 18, when Kei Cozzolino took over the cockpit, the Ponos team briefly fell outside the top 20. It was only a few laps later that Cozzolino was able to take the hard-fought 19th position.

On lap 30, a full course yellow phase was triggered again when a GT300-class machine got stranded on the inside of the Degner 1 corner. The restart caused a stir in the GT500 class when the second-placed Nissan spun on its cool tyres while accelerating out of the Degner 2 corner.

However, Miyake was able to continue without problems. When the green flag waved, the #45 Ferrari with Cozzolino now at the wheel was still within attacking distance of the car in front. However, the latter could not quite keep up with the pace and progressively lost time, struggling with tyres.

The Pacific Mercedes, which was catching up as a result, fought closely with the Ponos Ferrari for several laps and was able to overtake it 8 laps before the end, which pushed Cozzolino into 20th place. Just one lap later, the following Toyota also got past. In the end, Lilou Wadoux and Kei Cozzolino finished 22nd.

"The final race was as tough as I expected", Lilou commented. "I have to accept this result, but I was able to collect various data and gain a lot of experience, so it would be great if I can use this for the next opportunity", she added.

With this result, Ponos Racing, at its first season in the championship, finished in a solid 11th place in the GT300 class, level on points with the JLOC team with 44 points each. Lilou Wadoux thus finished her debut season in the Super GT in the top half of the rankings, and thus completed a positive first Japanese experience.

"This was my first time competing in Super GT, but the team did a great job", the Ferrari factory driver continued. "I was able to compete with strong rivals and get on the podium, and I was also able to learn about tyre development, so it was a year with a lot of positive things for me."

Tyre management and adaptation proved to be the key in this year's Super GT, with several other competitors on Michelin tyres also struggling in the dry, colder temperatures.

She nevertheless concludes the year with three top-ten results and a podium to her name, crucially completing every race.

"I don't know what the situation will be like next year, and both I and the team still have a lot to learn, but Ponos Racing is a very professional team, so I think this year's experience will be a strength for the future", Wadoux concluded.

In April 2025, the Japanese championship will enter its 31st season at the Okayama International Circuit.