2013 Le Mans 24 Hours

Reasonable race. Over 5 hours lost to safety cars though. I believe it was a new record of number of safety cars, length of safety car time and strangely least retirements. Next year should be better. Audi, Porsche, Toyota amongst other LMP1's

Surprised by Aston's lack of success. They looked to have GTE Pro well in control until the #99 Aston paid a visit to the the barriers. Definitely a year to forget for them.

Huge congrats to Audi for another Le Mans win, 12 in 15 I think. An amazing strike rate. Bigger congrats to Kristensen for a 9th win. Have to admit that after seeing the shots of him after the race, I'm wondering if he's contemplating retirement now.

Toyota surprised me, they were at points, genuinely fast. Not fast enough though. Maybe next year. Also, can we have the red and white colourscheme back? As it is they look so much like the Peugeots that I sometimes forget they are Toyotas. :D
 
Is it just me that thinks Audi have nothing left to prove in Endurance racing anymore and should move on? VW Group are doing Rallying with VW themselves, I doubt NASCAR interests them at all considering they sell very few cars in the NASCAR heartland of the south, Indycar? Just lol. Which leaves F1. They should, I think they've become too comfortable. It's not easy, but its looking like its easy.
 
Audi in f1 would be great, can't see it thou as its to locked down and they can't use there tech.

Now Audi FormulaE team would be great, but I doubt they would do it for a few years and FE can prove spectator numbers etc.
 
I could see next year as Audi's last for a while. Porsche are coming in and the combined board won't want a) the cost of two programmes and b) (beyond the first year at least) one marque taking wins away from the other. The first year is win-win, either Porsche win and everything is sunny or Audi win and it's just a learning year for Porsche. Beyond that it becomes tricky.

EDIT: I don't think we'll see Audi in F1 either. I can't see what there is for them to gain from it, it just doesn't suit the marketing image they've built up. Everything from the original Quattro, through touring cars to Le Mans (and especially the diesels) has been about selling cars based on new technologies brought into those series. With F1 everything is so tightly tied down there's no "we're better than Mercedes because..." factor.
 
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I made it to 0400 and was back around 9, a tragic race of course but interesting to follow - i really wanted a Toyota win but 2nd and 4th is pretty decent given the lack of pace or number of stops advantage.

Had a blast in GT5 in an R10, epic fun and i have suggested a nice little holiday to France next year to the wife, unfortunately as i was watching Le Mans at the time she clocked it ;)

Sad couple of days for racing.
 
First death to occur during the race for 27 years, since Jo Gartner was killed in in 1986.
There was the death of Sebastien Enjolras who was killed in practice for the 1997.
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I was a mechanic at TWR Nissan running a R390 GT1 car in the garage next door to Sebastiens WR team at the Test weekend. Remember this like it was yesterday, shall never forget his teams grief as it happened, we just didn't know how to react it was a truly awful day I shall never forget......
 
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