24 hours of Le Mans 2014

Just catching up on reading the race reports for Silverstone 6 and upcoming Spa 6 this weekend. So it looks like Audi made some pretty epic errors at Silverstone which cost them both cars, and hence an easy win for Toyota and a lot of catching up for Audi to do to get their points back. They’ve entered 3 cars in Spa which on the face of it looks a bit sneaky to me. On paper they know they can win against Toyota, so why not enter 3 cars and get an Audi 1-2-3 to deny Toyota of any podium points. Hmmm.
 
Jonny69 said:
Just catching up on reading the race reports for Silverstone 6 and upcoming Spa 6 this weekend. So it looks like Audi made some pretty epic errors at Silverstone which cost them both cars, and hence an easy win for Toyota and a lot of catching up for Audi to do to get their points back. They’ve entered 3 cars in Spa which on the face of it looks a bit sneaky to me. On paper they know they can win against Toyota, so why not enter 3 cars and get an Audi 1-2-3 to deny Toyota of any podium points. Hmmm.
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Audi always enter three cars in Spa as its a rehearsal for LM. Only #1 and #2 score championship points at Spa anyway. #3 will be the longtail (Le Mans spec) as well.

Blackvault
 
Blackvault said:
Audi always enter three cars in Spa as its a rehearsal for LM. Only #1 and #2 score championship points at Spa anyway. #3 will be the longtail (Le Mans spec) as well.

Blackvault
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While they don't score points, are they classified in the results, which would artificially bump those below them down a position points wise?
 
Cleisthenes said:
Are any of you lot going down this year?

This will be my 5th year if I remember correctly, been going on a off since I was 12 (20 now) with my Dad and some of my Dad's mates.

It'll be our 4th time time staying in the 'Team Langoustine' site, which is on the inside of Tetre Rouge (best spot on the track for regular watching imho!). We also get grandstand seats, inside the main ACO building, as it has a cafe, shelter, drinks etc.

So, who's going? And what method of transport are you taking, and when do you go down? We go down on the Wednesday, and back on the Monday :).
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I'm going with some mates this year - never been before and I'm really looking forward to it. We'll be staying at Bleu Nord with Pistonheads and will be driving down in my friend's silver S Type and my black XJ, which will hopefully look like this:

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Watching the Spa WEC round on and off on Motors TV and Audi are well down on speed...or so it would seem. I suspect we have sand bagging of epic proportions so they can get a tickle on their power prior to Le Mans. Thoughts?
 
Housey said:
Watching the Spa WEC round on and off on Motors TV and Audi are well down on speed...or so it would seem. I suspect we have sand bagging of epic proportions so they can get a tickle on their power prior to Le Mans. Thoughts?
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Aren't the balance of power tests done with an independent driver and dyno readouts? I can't imagine they would just 'take the teams word for it' regarding their performance.
 
Housey said:
Watching the Spa WEC round on and off on Motors TV and Audi are well down on speed...or so it would seem. I suspect we have sand bagging of epic proportions so they can get a tickle on their power prior to Le Mans. Thoughts?
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The ACO have already stated that if any of the teams are caught sand bagging after the first two races they will face serious penalties at Le Mans.
 
Weren't Audi seriously annoyed by a recent change to the rules which has handed both Toyota and Porsche an advantage, or so they claim?

I don't think they were sandbagging at all and could struggle a bit at Le Mans this year :(

I wouldn't mind seeing Toyota win it and they'd deserve to, I just don't want any one team to run away with it - want a decent race! :)
 
Vertigo1 said:
Weren't Audi seriously annoyed by a recent change to the rules which has handed both Toyota and Porsche an advantage, or so they claim?

I don't think they were sandbagging at all and could struggle a bit at Le Mans this year :(

I wouldn't mind seeing Toyota win it and they'd deserve to, I just don't want any one team to run away with it - want a decent race! :)
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If Porsche can get on top of their reliability niggles I think they'll be very close to Toyota. I really have no idea where Audi are at the moment. Saying that they've got a lot of experience to draw on and still a month to work on things. I don't think they're sandbagging but I also expect it'll be a lot closer than it looks at the moment.

I cannot wait :D
 
Audi quite regularly don't turn up at Le Mans with the fastest car. Last year the Toyota was getting round the track faster than they were and, go back a few years, so were the Peugeots. They rely on bulletproof reliability, efficiency and impeccable pitting activity. Their cars can also take a proper battering when they crash and still get back to the pits, which has been an advantage for them a number of times.
 
I just had a look at the Silverstone highlights. Looks like they had terrible snap oversteer on braking going into bends, but not immediately on hitting the brakes. I wonder if they were having a few issues with the hybrid system set up. That one on the bend coming out the pits shouldn't have happened.
 
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