***Official Le Mans 24 Hours Thread***

ng93 said:
A very interesting interview with Ulrich Baretzky (head of engine development at Audi).

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Wow, there's some interesting stuff there. Just as I suspected about Peugeot - they weren't using anything they learned in the racing team to homologate into road cars. Audi on the other hand are using their team to find solutions to current and future problems. As he said, Audi can come to them with a problem and they can provide either a solution or at the least, an idea for a solution. VERY interesting what he said about Peugeot pulling out - he is evidently very irritated about this. It can't be solely financial reasons because, to pull on out in January, most of the money had already been spent on developing four cars and it is just a small cost to then take them to two races.
 
I don't think Toyota have the experience if anything else. A few years ago Peugeot could have beaten Audi but made a schoolboy error early in the race in their pitting and damaged a car, then pretty much lost the race off the back of it. Toyota have even less experience and unknown technology, so I don't have high hopes for them.

There is no race in LMP1 this year. It's just the conventional Audis vs. the hybrid Audis. The good news is all the other classes look set to provide some pretty damn good racing, like the years of Aston vs. Corvette in GT1. I don't remember watching much of LMP1 back then either :D
 
If the Deltawing can stay out of the garage, it could achieve a top 10 finish…

The revolutionary Nissan DeltaWing completed its first running on the famous 8.5 mile Circuit de la Sarthe today – the home of the upcoming 80th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Invited to compete under the Automobile Club de l'Ouest’s “Garage 56” classification that showcases new and innovative technology, the Nissan DeltaWing completed 54 laps with drivers Michael Krumm, Satoshi Motoyama and Marino Franchitti at the wheel.

The team enjoyed a virtually trouble-free day and completed every lap but one on a single set of Michelin slick tires. A sole lap on wet tires during a brief rain shower was the only time the team switched tires all day.

Motoyama completed the fastest lap of the day at 3 minutes, 47.980 seconds. The Nissan DeltaWing technical, team led by concept originator Ben Bowlby, believe they are comfortably within reach of their target pace of 3 minutes, 45 seconds as requested by race officials.
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53 laps on one set of tyres!

http://www.lemans.org/en/races/test...tawing-enjoys-a-successful-test-day_7299.html
 
I got back last night :)

Ok-ish race. I've seen better, but the first 6 or so hours were pretty epic. The Delta Wing was doing well and everyone was really into it, including the commentators. There was an amazing battle in both the GT classes all the way through. Toyota started closing on Audi and eventually took the lead. I thought it was going to be a race. However, Toyota started making some pretty stupid overtaking manoeuvres that in my opinion led to the demise of two other cars. I was watching down at Porsche curves during one and Arnage during the other, and they were going in waaaay too aggressively and basically endangering the other cars. They didn't seem to understand the way Le Mans works and I'm hoping they won't make the same foolish errors next year because it's a good car.

The weather was completely crazy. Thursday was pretty good on the drive down but turned into rain shortly after we had pitched up. Friday was wet and it got VERY cold. Saturday morning was deluged with rain and the Group C boys had a tough time in a lot of standing water on the track. We were out in full waterproofs, umbrellas and thermals. Then at about 1pm it suddenly cleared, the sun came out and the temperature soared. It stayed clear and sunny for the whole race, cooked us alive and stayed dry until early hours on Monday morning. We had a brief sunny window when we packed up and it then rained hard as we left. Completely mad!
 
I'm quite looking forward to the upcoming regulation changes in regards to fuel consumption. I like the idea of a maximum fuel flow rate rather than air restrictors. I'm guessing we'll see extreme lean-burn engines kicking out huge amounts of NOx instead of CO2 :D
 
I don't think I fully understand the rules at Le Mans. I don't think the crew are allowed to bring tools out so presumably that screwdriver and pair of pliers Motoyama was using must have been in the car. I swear if I was a team boss I'd probably stick a folding multi-tool in the car and probably a hammer :p

So if the car can't make it back to the pits under its own power it is retired. So if it runs out of fuel or it's too damaged to drive, it's game over. That bit I'm ok with. How does it work now when the marshals get involved? I'm sure I've seen cars get retired when they've ended up in the gravel traps and not been able to get themselves out, but then on other occasions I swear cars have been pushed, winched or lifted out and allowed to continue?

What's different about the ALMS regs?
 
I can't help thinking it might promote more reckless driving like the Toyotas did, if they know they can always have the car recovered. One of the things at Le Mans is the more relaxed style they have to adopt around the other cars to ensure survival.
 
If it was in a dangerous position they typically red flag and move the car out the way so the driver can deal with the car in relative safety. Recovering the car wouldn't prevent Dumas doing what he did.

That's by the by. You only have to see McNish's crash last year to see that the French aren't as tight on safety as other countries. Nothing changed this year.

What do you mean by 3 wheeled wagons and trundling?
 
Skeeter said:
Its not normally a problem though, but the Delta Wing just showed how cruel the rules can be.
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I'll agree with that
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