Toyota Gazoo Racing will be the only Hypercar running a hybrid energy system at this years 24 Hours of Le Mans. They are set to face up against new LMH category rivals Glickenhaus Racing and Alpine, who will run fuel-only energy management systems. Technical Director Pascal Vasselon explains how this is possible, and how the new regulations fit to make sure all three teams have a similar advantage. From Mobil 1 The Grid.
Monday, August 30, 2021
Thursday, August 26, 2021
FIA WEC headlines (continued)
Continuing to analyze more FIA World Endurance Championship news after the completion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
TF Sport "Talking About" One-Off Pro Aston Martin Entry
"No Margin for Error" in Peugeot 9X8 Pre-Track Testing Phase
Still more to come including a feature about Toyota and how they handle energy management during races especially an event with the magnitude of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Cadillac Announces LMDh Program with AXR, Ganassi
GM brand Cadillac enters LMDh with 2023 program covering entries in both IMSA and WEC...
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/cadillac-announces-lmdh-program-with-axr-ganassi/
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
24 Hours of Le Mans 2021 Full Race Highlights
Full race highlights from the 89th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Martin Haven narrates the action.
Monday, August 23, 2021
post-race news after the 24 Hours of Le Mans
A post-race recap and news after the 24 Hours of Le Mans for 2021.
Race Highlights:
Conway Leads Chaotic Opening Hour at Le Mans
Toyota Leads as Gomes Crashes Out in Hour 4
Third-Placed Alpine Loses Ground After Vaxiviere Spin
Kobayashi Leads Hartley with Toyota in Control at Halfway
Suspension Drama for No. 52 AF Corse Ferrari in Hour 15
No. 8 Toyota in Trouble With Six Hours to Go
Chasing Toyota Drops Off Lead Lap with Three Hours Left
Meeting the winners, and post-race News:
No. 51 Ferrari Wins Pro; AF Corse Claims Both GTE Classes
Toyota Holds On for First Hypercar Win at Le Mans
Fixing Fuel Issue Would Have Been "Game Over" for Toyota
Corvette "Tried Everything" to Close Gap to Ferrari
Derani: Short FCY Dashed Glickenhaus' Podium Chances
WRT's Frijns "Thought the Race Was Over" When Issues Struck
Broken Throttle Sensor Denies No. 41 WRT Oreca LMP2 Victory
Alpine Pushing for LMP1 Extension into 2022
Klauser: No GT3 Pro Class Would Be "Disappointing" for Corvette
Le Mans Post-Race Notebook
Sunday, August 22, 2021
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 23 & 24 (the finish)
Full Course Yellow now removed. Once more we see Alessandro Pier Guidi leading in the #51 AF Corse car. Pooe old Fred Makowiecki has come to the lane. Time to box the car to see about fixing it. The undertray and the bumper is gone. Corvette #64 also in pit lane for presumably what is their final stop/ It is all hands on deck at Porsche. Corvette C8.R #63 is some 56 seconds behind the AF Corse Ferrari leading GTE Pro. What will become of Porsche #91? They are changing the tires and have fixed as much of the car as they possibly can or so it appears. Whoa! What a wild ride! Makowiecki is back on track and the car is fixed. He may have made a mistake or said that he had a brake issue. Once again, refer to the racer's book of excuses.
Kazuki Nakajima is in the pit lane in the #8 Toyota. Corvette #63 in the lane for the final time. Antonio Garcia will finish the race. #91 Porsche did have a brake issue and had the front brakes changed. Has Alessandro Pier Guidi exceeded his drive time? It is so difficult for these programs to go to Le Mans especially with a combination crew from both the U.S.A. and Europe. Glickenhaus will have respect for sure. Job van Uitert goes way wide at Mulsanne into the gravel trap. The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin is second in GTE Am with Felipe Fraga onboard. Porsche #92 runs third with Kevin Estre. The #22 United Autosport car of Phil Hanson is making it's final stop. They had so many mechanical woes and everything got away from them even thought they won LMP2 last year.
Refueling for the #51 Ferrari and and there is a tire change as well. So glad to see fans back at Le Mans this year. It was not the same withought you guys. Takuma Aoki, Nigel Bailly, and Matthieu Lahaye are going to finish this race. Aoki is going to finish the race. He crashed in 1998 and became paralyzed. But he has done rallying and circuit racing, both. Olivier Pla has the #708 Glickenhaus still in fourth place. Alpine will not win today but, they will have a solid result. Next year, the Hypercars will surely improve and look ahead to the future. Just 34 minutes left in the race. Toyota come in for a final stop for Kamui Kobayashi, being a lap up on their team mates.
WRT pits the #41 car. Tom Blomqvist will take the #38 Jota Sport car to the end of this race. Ferrari has GTE Pro and GTE Am leads. Perrodo should have a gap and the same is true for his two co-drivers. They are over a minute ahead and Nicklas Nielsen will take it home. WRT #41 are in for their final pit stop of the race. Less than half an hour to go. Francois Perrodo is a man of commerce and industry and has reprogrammed himself to become a sportsman, a race car driver. You as a person, are exposed for everyone to see, from the board room, getting successful, and then getting into racing, especially sports cars.
Lindsay Owen-Jones was Presdient of L'Oreal cosmetics, and he was able to race in a McLaren F1 GTR. Final stop for the #8 Toyota. Pier Guidi is still leading in GTE Pro as we are in the final 23 minutes or is it 24 minutes? No one fighting for position in the podium places. Ferrari will do what Aston Martin did last year, winning GTE Pro and GTE Am. Ferrari will be back racing for overall wins in 2023. The future for sports car racing is bright. Hopefully it all works out. Matteo Cressoni might end up on the podium in GTE Am. He is sharing the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari sharing with Callum Illott and Rino Mastronardi.
17 minutes to go. Will Stevens and Panis Racing are pitting. 30 years ago, the Mazda 787B won in 1991. Beautiful car. Johnny Herbert fainted. Bertrand Gachot was arrested in an incident involving mace an a taxi driver. Volker Weidler lost his hearing because of the maniac shriek of the Mazda 4 rotor rotary motor. The final tire change for the #84 SRT41 car with Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailly! They are going to finish. 12 minutes to go now and the #8 Toyota is in the lane. Is this a splash and a dash? Yes. Leader #7 Toyota in the lane too. Now, it looks like they will wait for a photo finish.
One year, the Corvette was almost ready to win and they were so far ahead that they washed the car, and the fans booed! Fans want a winner to be dirty and authentic. Five Hypercars start and five will finish first through fifth. Hats off to Toyota as they could still win this race with two laps to go. The lap times of the Hypercars are slowe than LMP1 because of the difference in how the cars work. This is the penultimate lap. Jose Maria Lopez, Mike Conway, and Kamui Kobayashi, are about to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Mike Conway just turned 38 years old. He will win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is the final lap of the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Tears in eyes at Toyota. Oh my gosh! What has happened to WRT? Oh my gosh! No, no, no, no, no! WRT is stopped on the road! The sister car will win, but that's horrendous! Ouch! From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat for WRT's #41! Panis Racing will get an LMP2 victory. Talk about mixed emotions at WRT! Charles Milesi, Robin Frijns and Ferdinand Habsburg! They will win! Toyota are going to get their moment. The three men who have done everything at Toyota in the last three years. Half a lap left. Through Porsche Curves. Final lap. The clock is at zero.
For Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Jose Maria Lopez, are going to break the duck! They are going to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans!
Your winners:
Overall/Le Mans Hypercar: #7 Conway/Kobayashi/Lopez Toyota GR010 Hypercar
LMP2: #31 Frijns/Milesi/Habsburg Oreca 07
LMP2 Pro Am: #21 Hedman/Hanley/Montoya Oreca 07
LM GTE Pro: #51 Calado/Pier Guidi/Ledogar Ferrari 488 GTE
LM GTE Am: #83 Perrodo/Nielsen/Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE
Juan Pablo Montoya and his team mates will have to come back to see if they can win overall.
Wow! #7 breaks the duck! They finally taste the sweet champagne of victory! Congratulations to the other winners in the individual classes. If there was going to be a Toyota victory today, it had to be #7! Holy smokes! What a race here at the 24 Hours of Le Mans once again. So glad to have joined you again for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, having seen this race now 21 times. Mike Conway, World Champ in 2020, and now, a winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans! Jose Maria Lopez is the first Argentinian to win Le Mans since Jose Froilan Gonzalez winning for Ferrari with Maurice Trintignant in 1954.
We have seen royalty, an Archduke of Austria, win Le Mans. Toyota win their fourth race at Le Mans joining Ford and Alfa Romeo as manufacturers who have won four Le Mans races in a row. Mixed feelings for WRT. One of their cars wins and one must come in second at Le Mans. Robin Frijns had his own issues but is a winner. Mike Conway is extremely happy to win after all these years. It's a bit of everything working so hard for this win.
We look forward to a bright future at Le Mans and in sports car racing now that Hypercar is here and we will welcome LMDh coming in a few years from now. The winners make their way to the podium for the ceremonies. Le Mans always brings up a special race, and we, along with the 12 winners will always remember. The future looks bright for GT cars. Podiums for Ferrari, Porsche, and Corvette. Sports car racing purists will love it! Aston Martin also on the podium. That makes it better. Another Le Mans win will be great marketing for Toyota. But, Alpine and Glickenhaus, they will be back. Trust me.
Celebrate, everybody! The champagne is sprayed. The winner takes it all. Another great 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021, and we'll see you next June, for another one. Can't wait until then. For now, au revoir from Le Mans in France. So long, everybody. Take care.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 22
WRT still run 1-2 in LMP2. You haven't missed a thing in that class. No risk of rain. A great view of the city of Le Mans. They run rebuilt cars up and down Le Mans aerodrome and the main runway. Great pictures from the Goodyear blimp. Alex Lynn in the lane for a pit stop with the #23 United Autosport entry. Robin Frijns and Yifei Ye are 1-2 in LMP2. WRT are dominating the class right now. Nissan tried front wheel drive for prototypes in 2015 or so. That was a scary car to drive. Maybe they did the same thing in the '80s. The Deltawing and the Nissan ZEOD RC, both of those cars were pretty insane. The ZEOD was a fully electric car. Our buddy Martin Haven, working the world feed this year called the Nissan Zeod and the Deltawing, "a Reliant Robin on steroids". Again, if you want to see a Reliant Robin, type into your computer and take a look. A wacky three wheeled car indeed.
Robin Frijns pits as the sun comes out. Paul di Resta is chasing down Renger van der Zande, although van der Zande is flying. He is a man on a mission right now. That's why the Dutch drivers are referred to as "the flying Dutchmen". #23 for United Autosport, they were going to be contenders, but it is quite sad because their race has gone downhill. A slow DragonSpeed in LMP2 Pro Am for Ben Hanley. Oh dear. DragonSpeed will lose time to the RealTeam entry. The DragonSpeed team is from Jupiter, Florida. Racing Engineering and Spanish Prince Alfonso de Orleans Bourbon is running the team. Hanley is in limp home mode at 80 clicks an hour. They are a lap up on the RealTeam car.
Racing Team Nederland could move up to second spot. Second spot in LMP2 that is. Hanley really has to watch out through the Porsche Curves where there's no place to hide except gravel. Hanley is breathing a sigh of relief coming to the pits. He's a lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, luck boy. Hanley was low on fuel and he continues. This is a get out of jail free card, mate. So, Norman Nato will be pushing, pushing, pushing for honors in LMP2 Pro Am! Yikes! Yifei Ye moves by Robin Frijns. WRT are saying "don't race each other! Don't take each other out!" Yifei Ye might have a superior car on speed to Frijns. Ferrari #51 into the pit lane. Ditto for our race leader, Toyota #7. Another lap and pit stop time now for the sister #8 Toyota.
Kazuki-san stays in the car. Giedo van der Garde pits the Racing Team Nederland car. We extend our condolences to Natalie Maille, one of the people who worked at Spa Francorchamps and was tragically murdered. We've lost a marshal and also Bernard Cottrell, organizer of the British Sports Car Club. An hour and a half to go now. Rolf Ineichen closes up on Sara Bovy in GTE Am. There's only a nine second gap between the TF Sport Aston Martin and the #83 AF Corse car. Iron Lynx is next in the serial. In LMP2, Paul di Resta is monstering Renger van der Zande right now. The AF Corse #83 Ferrari pits, Rovera gets out and Nicklas Nielsen gets in.
Nico Lapierre pits the Alpine from third in Hypercar. Glickenhaus #709 has also pitted. The hybrid system in the Toyota allow for silent takeoff and maybe they don't always use the hybrid system like they used to, but the sheer torque of an electric motor from a start. The #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari pits but it has damage. That's only cosmetic damage for Matteo Cressoni of Italy currently driving the car. Intereuropol pits the #34 car and Alex Brundle takes over the car. He's a driver who knows just too speeds. Flat out on the limit, or parked. 350 laps have been completed in this race so far.
Glickenhaus #708 is in the pit lane. So is one of the LMP2 cars. Louis Deletraz wants to do well here at Le Mans and his father Jean Denis ran three Formula 1 races but also raced McLaren F1 GTR's. He was also in one of the support races this weekend. Toyota #7 pits perhaps for the last time. Kamui Kobayashi taking over from Mike Conway. One of the Porsche's in GTE Pro also came in. Not sure, honestly, whether it was #91 or #92. Never mind. It was the #92 car coming out of the pit lane. Toyota #8 also has a routine pit stop. Just over an hour to go. Second place in LMP2, the #31 car is in the pit lane to match it's sister car.
Yikes! Fred Makowiecki has run off the road and ripped the rear bumper and the diffuser right off the car! Oh man, oh man, oh man! He had no brakes in the Ford chicane. A brake failure as well! Oh dear. 33rd place, Matthieu Lahaye, and the two quadriplegic drivers, Nigel Bailly and Takuma Aoki, they are still in it. Good for them. Merci beaucoup, Fred Sausset, who is a quadriplegic amputee. Full Course Yellow now on the speedway here at Le Mans. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow. Philippe Streiff, a former racer, who was paralyzed in the late '80s, he started to help drivers with disabilities and did a charity karting race. Now, the meatball flag has been given to #91.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 21
What's the scoop in pit lane? Well, Zak Brown and Richard Dean at United Autosport have a little demo of their pit stall. We hear the great Tom Kristensen describing the pit stop but cannot see it on the picture, sadly. Whoa! Lopez in the #7 Toyota cuts the chicane at Dunlop! That was close! 307 laps now on the board for the #7 car. Toyota, Toyota, Alpine, Glickenhaus, Glickenhaus. That is the top five in Hypercar and nothing has changed. Setting up a car to be fast on the straight here at Le Mans, on the Mulsanne, requires low downforce. Jota #38 is in the pit lane. Antonio Felix Da Costa at the controls. The sun will warm up the ambient and ground temperatures and that shall affect the tire pressures.
Francois Perrodo and Ben Keating, the battle for GTE Am victory is heating up. Callum Illott is even quicker but Illott, the young Briton from single seaters, is even quicker. He is the official test driver for the Ferrari Formula 1 team. He will want to go ahead and sign for Ferrari when they go to race Hypercar. The next few years will tell. Nicky Catsburg is getting faster and faster, putting and keeping the pressure on Ferrari. Kevin Estre runs third in GTE Pro over Gianmaria Bruni. Bruni is a former Ferrari factory driver and also tested for the now defunct Minardi Formula 1 team. Scheduled service for Toyota #8 as Brendon Hartley will stay in and do a triple stint.
Pipo Derani still runs fourth in the #708 Glickenhaus. At Porsche, Kevin Estre and Fred Makowiecki have had a great battle going on. At this pace, these cars will run 3,000 miles plus, from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States in a day! Holy mackerel! That's unbelievable. That's London to Rome to London and back to Rome! Blimey O'Reilly! Derani is still pushing and trying to get back to the podium. The top running Glickenhaus, as we've mentioned, is currently in fourth place. Derani is still chasing the Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere. Everyone is chasing the #7 Toyota in the hands of Jose Maria Lopez right now. Another yellow flag and another slow zone coming up.
Ah yes. There is debris on the road in the chicane on the Mulsanne straight and the marshals have to be extremely careful down there and thank goodness for the orange Army. They wear white uniforms in the United States and orange uniforms around the rest of the world but they do the same thing no matter what. Pit stop time for one of the LMP2's. Hard to say which one. Oh yes. It's Habsburg aboard the #31 WRT car. He has to slam onto the brakes so he could avoid careering into Tristan Gommendy! Once again, Blimey O'Reilly! Big damage done by the disheveled #388 Rinaldi Ferrari. In the slow zone, the #709 Glickenhaus has a probelm, or is he letting the Jota car go by? Ah. The Glickenhaus is not limping like I first thought.
The Glickenhaus has been into the lane and out again. #388 headed for the garage. The esses after the Dunlop bridge were changed to clean up the circuit configuration. It is hard to figure out why. We all know why the chicanes are on the Mulsanne and the Porsche Curves are because of John Wolf's accident. Maybe it was due to the reconstruction of the Bugatti circuit where the motorcycles race. The Alpine is now into pit lane, three minutes and 41 seconds of Pipo Derani. Alpine are flirting with being a lap up on the Glickenhaus. Many people are hoping for a podium for Glickenhaus.
The fuel allowance is 80.2 kilograms of fuel per hour which equals 1,924 kilograms. Toyota #7 has a jolly lucky save under braking! Lopez is pushing extremely hard and he is told not to conserve anything. He will go hell bent for leather here. With three and a half hours to go, the Lopez/Kobayashi/Conway team might earn their first win. We shall see. A wonderful circuit with wonderful cars. Technology has improved. The race matures like a fine French wine. There's still a mystique about this place. The Nurburgring stays as it is all the way through the year. Le Mans is only like this for a few days a year being a road circuit. It is still a dangerous circuit. Lopez misses a shift coming out of the hairpin. Are we seeing trouble for the gearbox? Oh dear. This is not over yet. Manage the issue.
You have to be able to keep fluid and food going through you. Pasta and carbohydrates sometimes work for drivers, but sometimes it doesn't. Both Toyota's may be dealing with gearbox trouble and we also see gray clouds in the sky. Will we see rain again? It normally comes from the west and over the Porsche Curves. Habsburg and Deletraz are 1-2 in LMP2 while Ferrari leads in both GTE classes for the time being. Pit stop time now for the race leading GTE Pro Ferrari, the AF Corse #51. The windscreen is cleaned and fuel is added. Also into the lane, the second place #63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
Repairs to the driver side window for Nicky Catsburg, or checking the window, along with tires and fuel. We have also seen the #91 Porsche make a pit stop and in third in GTE Pro now is the sister car #92 in the hands of Kevin Estre still. Corvette and Porsche are catching Ferrari in GTE Pro. Toyota run 1-2 in the overall. The Toyota will now deal with the Porsche easily and into the pit lane is Toyota. Jose Maria Lopez and the #7 look to be in good shape. A methodical race so far but there's trouble because they were held up in the pit lane. Jose Maria Lopez out and Mike Conway is likely going to do the final three plus hours. If he wins this, how fitting he would be in the car. But... we don't want to jinx this.
Brendon Hartley is still second and the weird part of this race is how we wondered about track limits and it seems Edoardo Freitas and company have been a wee bit more lenient this weekend. Both Toyota's and both Porsche's have been straight lining Tertre Rouge and the pit lane exit. Toyota #8 in the pit lane as well and will they make their final driver change? We shall see. Brendon Hartley might just be triple stinting. Would you use Kazuki Nakajima or Sebastien Buemi? Brendon Hartley will do a triple stint so this might be the last one. Matthieu Vaxiviere is third and half a lap behind is the Glickenhaus of Pipo Derani. The #7 Toyota is still managing issues.
This motor race is not over yet. Romain Dumas is closing up on the second WRT LMP2 car and five seconds quicker than the leading LMP2 for WRT. 27 and 29 pit stops for Toyota and 24 and 25 pit stops for Glickenhaus. They might not have the fastest one lap pace in the race. They did have it at teh test day last weekend. Are the Toyota's having issues matching their shifts on the downshifts and upshifts? That's another logical, valid question. DragonSpeed #21 pits. Porsche #91 is also in the pit lane. Pipo Derani will have to truly push althougn he has, he has set two blue sectors. Ferdinand Habsburg, too, just uncorked a 3:35.
32 and a half seconds in the gap in GTE Pro between Calado and Catsburg. Ferrari vs. Corvette. 3:49 for Calado and 3:52 for Catsburg. That gap in GTE Pro and see sawing. 3:31.435 for Nyck de Vries and G-Drive. Michael Christensen has just made a pit stop in the #92 Porsche. Could WRT be signaling to Audi they want to run their factory LMDh car? We'll have to find out. Norman Nato still has the #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca in a good spot but is the car smoking? Can't quite tell. #41 pits putting the #709 Glickenhaus in sixth spot. Ferrari building a Hypercar will be absolutely off the wall. In Group C, there were seven brands in the prototype class and we will have even more for Hypercar and LMDh. Business thrives on stability. Invest in a business. Invest in this racing formula. Ferrari, Corvette, and Porsche still fighting for honors in GTE Pro.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 20
Winning races on merit instead of the misfortune of others is a better approach. Porsche continues to battle each other but they know they can't touch each other either. Easier said than done. So, #92 passes #91. Kevin Estre seems satisfied with the car at this point in the motor race. Makowiecki is on much older tires. Pit stop time for Racing Team Nederland but it was a close shave for those boyus and Giedo van der Garde almost gets t boned by the United Autosports car! So easy to drop a wheel at Tertre Rouge because of the camber of that turn. Jose Maria Lopez pits from the lead of the motor race in Toyota #7. Lopez almost overcooked the pit entry. Duqueine Team and Rene Binder were stone last in LMP2 at the start of the motor race but now they are up to ninth overall. Maybe they were stone last on the whole field when the race began. Cannot remember.
Less than five hours remaining. Job van Uitert is now at the controls of the #29. Something happened but I wasn't sure. Look at the TV screen and the team manager looks and says, "yeah right, sunshine." Racing driver's book of excuses, table of contents? I don't think so. Sorry, mate. G-Drive and Duqueine continue to battle each other. Porsche into the gravel pit off Mulsanne corner? Say what? That was a close shave! Oliver Jarvis in the #82 Risi Competizione LMP2 car has smoke coming out of the left exhaust pipe. Something is wrong in the left bank of cylinders on that Gibson Technologies 4.2 liter V8. Coughing and sputtering it's way into the lane. Terminal engine failure.
We have a slow moving Ferrari and it is the #54 AF Corse Ferrari of the Swiss driver Thomas Flohr sharing with Francesco Castellaci and Giancarlo Fisichella. He is going slowly through Indianapolis and Arnage. The #82 Risi Competizione LMP2 is in the garage being repaired. Spmething was on fire. Maybe a blown head gasket cooked the motor. Brendon Hartley is very tentative through the turns. Do they have the positions for a 1-2? They know they are nursing issues on the #8 car. Peugeot, Ferrari, ByKolles, and many others who are coming for LMDh like Porsche, Proton, Lotus, Tata, Jaguar, Murray, Nissan, Brabham, Cadillac, BMW, Acura/Honda, Peugeot, and others. When you have a long lead time for development, you might be able to come in with an advantage. WRT have nearly signed, sealed, and delivered a possible class win in LMP2.
Come Ledogar and AF Corse lead LM GTE Pro ahead of Corvette. Aston Martin and Dylan Periera are second in GTE Am and they are having a whale of a time trying to challenge the #83 AF Corse Ferrari. Ben Keating is back into the car for TF Sport Aston Martin. Ferrari #83 have really been in the pound seats since hour two of the race yesterday. Fourth in GTE-Am, the Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Jaxon Evans, Matt Campbell, and Christian Ried. Drivers of the past did not have the runoff they do today and so, there are more incidents because some drivers drive in over their heads. Safety breeds complacency and this is especially so in the last decade.
Juan Pablo Montoya has pitted and is now back on track in the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca. Scratch that. It is Ben Hanley. Jota have not given up on a plausible LMP2 victory. You've missed nothing in LMP2 as WRT still run 1-2. James Allen from Australia, he is running well aboard the #65 Panis Racing Oreca. Full Course Yellow in 20 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We are under Full Course Yellow. Marshals will be able to retrieve debris from the circuit. There could have been a monumental wreck at Arnage. Wow! We don't know how the future landscape of sports car racing is going to fall yet.
We've talked about that a lot this week. Full Course Yellow withdrawn. #34 for Intereuropol and the #41 WRT car is in the lane, the Yifei Ye, Ferdinand von Habsburg, and Louis Deletraz who has taken over the car. An overtake in LMP2. Yours truly missed it. Brendon Hartley in the lane in Toyota #8 and he will stay aboard. Habsburg and Deletraz still battle. Stoffel Vandoorne closing up in the sole remaining Jota car. Alpine back on track out of the pits. They are five laps down and #8, they are a lap down. Glickenhaus are banking on a podium as well but they will have to close up on the Alpine. Pipo Derani will have to reel in Matthieu Vaxiviere.
It is no mean feat for a team to introduce a brand new race car here at Le Mans and Glickenhaus despite all their testing program woes at Vallelunga in Italy, they have come leaps and bounds from where everyone thought the'd be, going for the podium. This isn't just a flash in the pan for them. Correction. TF Sport were just a second behind Francois Perrodo and AF Corse. Ben Keating is a minute and a half away. Rene Binder earns a warning flag for abusing track limits. Ben Hanley uncorks the fastest lap for DragonSpeed at 3:34.436. Job van Uitert pits the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
Ricky Taylor has the controls of the #20 High Class Racing Oreca as well that he shares with Dennis Andersen and Marco Sorensen. Jose Maria Lopez continues to lead in the #7 Toyota. Jose Maria Lopez tries to take a major risk through traffic and he didn't need to do it. Lopez hits the pit lane for service. Francois Perrodo continues to lead GTE Am. Now, you just (as the leader), cannot let your guard down. Times are tumbling in GTE Pro meaning, a new lap record? We'll see. Jose Maria Lopez into the pit lane for service. They can keep doing what they're doing and finish things in style. It is not done yet. Porsche #92 in the lane for a scheduled pit stop. Kevin Estre wants to leapfrog team mate Gianmaria Bruni.
Calado, Catsburg, Estre, Bruni, the top four in GTE Pro. Roman Rusinov is gaining on Rene Binder little by little in the scrum for LMP2. This is actually a battle for ninth place in class. You would not know that from the intensity. This is quite the showdown here at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the greatest motor race in the world. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss a thing as we get closer and closer to the end of this motor race.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 19
274 laps run, 3/4 of the race run already. This year's distance will be fairly shorter compared to the 2020 race. Back in the 1950s, all the trees on this course were saplings. 275 laps now done and dusted as Toyota #7 leads the sister car. Both GTE classes are being led by Ferrari, so, they could replicate the feat of sweeping the GT classes as Aston Martin did last year in 2020. Toyota still lead while Andre Negrao stays third and Franck Mailleux has fourth spot in the #708 Glickenhaus. The #709 Glickenhaus is catching up. Porsche #92 is in the lane for service. Corvette #64 has had a fraught race but Tommy Milner and company they will continue to keep going because it is all they can do. Come Ledogar, the Frenchman is now in the leading #51 AF Corse Ferrari in GTE Pro.
Ben Barnicoat has brought the much delayed #71 Inception Racing Ferrari to the pit lane. Juan Pablo Montoya in the #21 DragonSpeed car has Antonio Felix Da Costa in the #38 Jota Sport entry chasing him down. Kazuki Nakajima says he has gear selection woes on the #8 Toyota. The car also has fuel issues and might have to make extra pit stops. This could open the door for the sister Toyota, for Alpine, or for Glickenhaus. Glickenhaus might not have the pace but they could perhaps finish well. Nicky Catsburg and Antonio Garcia on the team for the #63 Corvette C8.R, they are keeping the blowtorch on the Ferrari #51. There's a long way to go, but speed is imperative.
Tom Kristensen's 1997 win here at Le Mans with a TWR Porsche Spyder, that car was on Goodyear tires, and that was the last time a non-Michelin tire company won this race. Wow! Who ever thought of that statistic? Egad! Yikes! A close shave there for Fred Makowiecki! Those tire walls at least didn't hurt the car. Sam Bird remains in the garage. After four hours into a stint, Jordan Taylor will have to vacate the #63 Corvette C8.R and hand over to either Nicky Catsburg or Antonio Garcia. Kobayashi in from the race lead and Jose Maria Lopez is the next driver into Toyota #7. How many times have we been here at Le Mans with Mike Conway trying to win? It has all faded away. This is his biggest chance to try and win this fabled motor race.
Charles Milesi leads LMP2 in the #31 WRT Oreca. What's for breakfast? Nutella and croissants. Yum. Jan Magnussen is still pounding around aboard the beleaguered #49 High Class Racing Oreca in LMP2 as it is pit stop time from third spot for Andre Negrao in the Alpine A480 Hypercar. This is really a grandfathered LMP1 car but it seems to work out wall, sponsored once again by Matmut insurance. Toyota sending messages about the #8 Toyota. Sebastien Buemi has stabilized whatever issues have been going on. The #7 is managing another situation as well. It sounds like you need an engineering degree to work these cars. We thought that the LMP1 cars were spaceships and that the Hypercars would be simpler. Not even close.
Dylan Periera brings the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin into the lane from second in GTE Am and here's Toyota #8. Time for a pit stop for Sebastien Buemi and this is a scheduled stop, and now he is equal with the #7 car. Actually, Jose Maria Lopez has one more stop and Franck Mailleux, they have had only 21 pit stops for Glickenhaus. Toyota goes at full burn, while downforce is king with the Alpine but the fuel burn on the Glickenhaus means that a podium on debut is not out of the question for the boys at Glickenhaus. WRT #41 in the lane and Jan Magnussen nearly bins it at Arnage corner. That car for Kevin and Jan Magnussen and Anders Fjordbach, has been off the road again.
Charles Milesi still leads LMP2. We were told earlier that the #8 Toyota has had vibration and fuel woes. Maybe this is true for the leading #7 entry. Patrick Pilet, makes a porridge out of one of the corners. Sam Bird is back on the button and now, Come Ledogar has the lead aboard the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. The two AF Corse machines are 17 laps apart. Jordan Taylor runs over a minute behind Come Ledogar. Corvette also run ahead of the Porsche's. We've had Porsche vs. Ferrari all over town in GTE Pro for the last 18 months, and now, Corvette is upsetting the apple cart, putting the cat among the pigeons.
Iron Lynx just pitted the #80 Ferrari 488 GTE. Flat on the throttle down to Indianapolis, riding the crest of the curbs and the crest of the apexes. Come Ledogar is now in the lane from the lead in GTE Pro watching what Corvette and Porsche are up to. Fuel only at AF Corse? What is going on? Oh dear. The car is on the dollies headed into the garage! Wowzers! Corvette #63 pitting as well, look. Driver change, presumably to Antonio Garcia. Ferrari #51 is now back on track. What happened there? Lance David Arnold in GTE Am gets the rough end of the pineapple with a puncture on the left rear, headed for Mulsanne corner. Scratch that. It's still the rough end of the pineapple, but it is a left front tire down on that automobile.
Nicky Catsburg now back behind the wheel in the #63 Corvette just behind Come Ledogar. Ledogar in the Ferrari, Nicky Catsburg in the Corvette. Off the road, the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca. Neel Jani continues to run third in LM GTE Pro in factory Porsche #92. We have three factory cars in the top three. That #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche is still in limp home mode. Discussion at WRT with team boss Vincent Vosse. The weather here at Le Mans is so deceptive. You just never know what it will do and Fred Makowiecki runs a wee bit wide out of the Ford chicane. Jani and Makowiecki are still fighting. We have slightly less than a full typical six hour FIA WEC race left.
Mercifully, Lance David Arnold does not have a flailing tire and they can change this flat left front quickly. There may have some splitter damage from dragging on the floor. Lance David Arnold has been on the podium at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and so he is used to having a puncture and nursing the car around a long track because the Nurburgring is double the length of Le Mans and a totally different circuit. Ferrari could have the win in the bag in both GTE classes but you cannot think that way or it can slip through your fingers. You can't rest on your laurels one bit.
Dylan Pereira is still second in GTE Am. Corvette #63 is gaining ground on the #51 Ferrari of Come Ledogar. Nicky Catsburg has uncorked a new record lap in GTE Pro! Holy smokes! Fred Makowiecki is also a man on a mission running his personal best lap in sector two. Romain Rusinov chases Rene Binder in LMP2, in a similar battle to what they had in the Asian Le Mans Series and we watch in replay as the #388 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari swerves and spins his way into the gravel. He has beached it into Tertre Rouge. Christian Hook at the wheel of it, the German. We have just seen a pit stop for the #54 AF Corse Ferrari and for one of the LMP2 cars, the #41 WRT car.
We have a slow zone because of the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari spinning through the gravel trap. There was no contact but Christian Hook bailed out of the corner and skittered it's way into the gravel trap, beaching itself. The gravel here at Le Mans is not small. It's a myriad of large stones. These drivers are starting to get extremely tired. Sebastien Buemi pits from second in Toyota #8. Andre Negrao pits the Alpine for fuel and now for tires. Philippe Sinault has a well oiled team at Signatech Alpine. Wondering if maybe they borrowed some of the pit crew from Alpine's Formula 1 team. The Pierre Ehret owned Ferrari is back on track now.
Frank Mailleux in the Glickenhaus is 12 seconds behind for third place. Now then, Fred Makowiecki is catching Kevin Estre, the two French Porsche drivers. Traffuc ahead and the United Autosport car splits the two Porsche's and goes in as an automatic pit. Pipo Derani says that Glickenhaus is showing they might just be able to finish a 24 hour race. They are fighting with a reliable and proven car that is the Alpine which is the Rebellion LMP1 car from last year. Le Mans is not an easy track to get a hold of. At the moment, it is tight between Glickenhaus and Alpine, but they still feel confident about getting on the podium. The situation with Toyota is out of the hands of Glickenhaus. They will see what happens.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 18
Robert Kubica pits the #41 WRT LMP2 car from second in class. This is the point when the race starts to come alive. Michael Christensen is in the lane from third in GTE Pro in factory Porsche #92. This is the car that has had the troubles, Kevin Estre, Neel Jani, and Michael Christensen, driving through their issues. This is a double points race for the championships with only two races to go coming up in Bahrain in the fall. Jordan Taylor now aboard the #63 Corvette C8.R running in second spot in GTE Pro. Smoke, and big damage from a locked brake for the #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari! That may be the all-female team as the second place Toyota hits the lane. Mike Conway in #7 continues to lead. The gap between the two Toyota's is about 3 minutes. Glickenhaus are in third and Alpine are third and fourth. Richard Westbrook is climbing up the order in the #709 Glickenhaus.
Loic Duval has the wheel in the #70 RealTeam Racing LMP2 car. They pit. Glickenhaus could go to Bahrain at the end of the season and run one or both of the races as there's an eight hour race and a six hour race. The race at Fuji in Japan is cancelled. The Sakhir circuit is not hugely popular and we'll have 14 hours of racing in total at a boring circuit. Fuji always had huge crowds not only in the modern era but also during the heyday of Group C in the 1980s. Glickenhaus #708 in the lane. Andre Negrao takes third away from Olivier Pla. IDEC and Panis each pit in LMP2. Will Stevens vs. Charles Milesi who is a lap up on the Panis car.
So, Charles Milesi is leading in LMP2. WRT are running really well right now with both of their cars and their six drivers. Paul di Resta pits the #23 United Autosport Oreca, sixth in class in LMP2 and they are amazingly surviving even with their damage. Tom Blomqvist runs third for Jota Sport. The #21 DragonDpeed LMP2 car is in the lane and Henrik Hedman from Sweden, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is back on track. Check that. Juan Pablo Montoya is into the car now. Montoya had a colossal crash on Thursday night but was rebuilt. Toyota #7 into the pits for service and Kamui Kobayashi takes over from Mike Conway.
Conway, Buemi, Negrao, the top three in the motor race. Tommy Milner back in the garage in Corvette #64. They have more woes. The Toyota has a much wider windscreen than the Alpine which is a grandfathered LMP1 car. #64 Corvette, status update. They have alternator troubles on top of the gearbox troubles as well. AF Corse boss Amato Ferrari looks on, no relation to the Scuderia Ferrari car though. But, AF Corse will be running the Ferrari Hypercar in 2023. Dylan Pereira chases Nicklas Nielsen for the lead in GTE Am.
Check that. He is chasing a couple of the GTE Pro Porsche's. Aston Martin had a GT sweep last year in Pro and Am. They could win Am this year. A long way to go, though. A long way to go. Aston Martin #33 in the pit lane for service. Fuel only and a change of the drink bottle for Dylan Pereira. Matteo Cressoni is at the wheel of the damaged #80 Iron Lynx Ferrari. Nicklas Nielsen has the lead of GTE Am in AF Corse Ferrari #83. Juan Pablo Montoya is catching Robert Gonzalez for 11th place in class in LMP2. Yellow flag on the course, and we do have a Full Course Yellow? Maybe not. Hang on. Ah. We had a spin for the Dempsey Proton Porsche, Dominique Bastien I believe, spins the car.
Mike Conway says everything is working well for the #7 Toyota. #8, that car still has a vibration or something. Official retirements. #72 HubAuto Porsche, #57 Kessel Racing CarGuy Ferrari, #66 JMW Motorsports Ferrari, #25, G-Drive Oreca, #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari, #32 United Autosports Oreca, #99 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE Am, #98 Aston Martin for AMR and Paul Dalla Lana in a horrid accident, the #56 Project 1 Mentos Porsche, and the #1 Richard Mille Racing LMP2 car of Sophia Floresch. We could have other retirements.
Amato Ferrari is the owner of AF Corse, not Antonio Ferrari. Wrong name. Andre Negrao brings the #36 Alpine into the pits for routine service with the Glickenhaus behind, #708. There's a huge hole in the headlight of the #36 Alpine. Andre Negrao leads Olivier Pla and Glickenhaus are triple stinting their tires. No chance of rain today, but you never know. There's been on and off rain all week. It did rain yesterday as we saw. The Gonzalez and Montoya scrap continues. Richard Westbrook is fifth in Hypercar and seventh overall, hauling itself back up the order in the #709, the sister Glickenhaus. In 20 minutes, we will have the length of an entire regular World Endurance race to go.
The lap times will start tumbling in the next half an hour or so. Robert Kubica finishes his stint aboard the #41 WRT car and we wonder who is now into the car. It is Yifei Ye into the car. Their pit work has been slick for the whole race for both cars. Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota is slow! Oh my goodness! This is big news! Sebastien Buemi is crawling heading down after Mulsanne corner and he is stopping at the old signaling pits. The car is slowing. He's back at it now. He is not coming into the lane. Maybe the Control, Alt, Delete worked.
The Gonzalez and Montoya battle continues. Sam Bird has a blown right front tire on the #52 AF Corse Ferrari! Man oh man! Pop! There it goes, and it was at lower speed out of Mulsanne corner! Yikes! Jordan Taylor in the Corvette C8.R still runs second in GTE Pro. A couple of LMP2 car cars have pitted and poor old Sam Bird has finally trudged back to the lane. Back in the 1980s and '90s during the Group C era, there was a tire made by Dunlop called the Denlok where the tire didn't whack the bodywork when it failed. We wish those were still around.
They need the air jacks to get the trolley's underneath and get the car repaired ASAP. Keep on trucking. Sam Bird and company will be still having to play catch up. Franco Colapinto massively locks the brakes heading for the 80 kilometers an hour zone. Kobayashi leads Buemi at Toyota and then come Alpine and Glickenhaus. Six hours left in the motor race. So, we are into the last quarter of this event.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 17
Sebastien Buemi consorting with the team on the pit wall. Drivers will be more in tune with how their cars are running right now. We welcome Mark Cole back to the broadcast booth. Alessandro Pier Guidi leads GTE Pro with Antonio Garcia in second place. Porsche #92 in the lane and we have seen after 16 hours, the Ferrari, Corvette, and Porsche are all on the same lap in GTE Pro! Unbelievable! Michael Christensen takes over from Kevin Estre. New boots coming for the Porsche and the #36 Alpine is in the pit lane and the gap will tighten between the Alpine and the Glickenhaus. The fog is on the front straight. It looks very murky going up to Tertre Rouge. Goodness knows why.
Yes indeed. There is fog in Tertre Rouge. Glickenhaus have proven they can stay with it and they can run with the big dogs. They are consistently running in the 3:32 range on lap times right with the Toyota's. They have good, experienced drivers as well. Paul Lafargue locks the brake on the #48 IDEC Sport entry into Arnage corner. Toyota #8 has a gearbox issue. Through the fog, we saw a great battle between the #70 RealTeam car and the #21 DragonSpeed car. Norman Nato and Henrik Hedman. Into the pits, Satoshi Hoshino in the #777 Aston Martin. Ferrari might be the only team to ever win Le Mans and an F1 race in the same year. We see these cars coming through the mist, kind of like the 1980s when the Group C cars ran here. Those cars would come through morning mist and fog all the time here at Le Mans.
Nico Lapierre runs third. GTE Am battle for 11th between two Porsche's. Dominique Bastien vs. Rolf Ineichen. Herberth moves past the Dempsey Proton entry. Behind them, in 16th place overall, the #30 Duqueine LMP2 car has come back after being stone last earlier in the motor race. We have had a little bit of attrition in this race. The WeatherTech Porsche has been retired according to Laurens Vanthoor and will finish 50th. Plans were to build more garages and a new press room, but everything was delayed due to the global pandemic. There's no race that captures the beauty of engineering and the travails of fighting the weather and the track, like Le Mans. Daytona comes close, but nothing tops Le Mans.
Toyota #8 in the lane. Sebastien Buemi is now climbing into a car that has a gearbox problem and he is going to go flat out. Will Toyota nurse the sister car home as well? Maybe they've backed it off. They have it in the bag if they can keep it going. The fog is starting to burn off but there could be some dampness on the road from the dew. Glickenhaus #708 pits. This is not typical summer weather in France but it could be in England. Jota passes Panis in LMP2. Dries Vanthoor stopped on the road in the #72 HubAuto Porsche 911 RSR-19. We have a local yellow here, before the esses. Ben Keating brings the #33 Aston Martin into the pits and hands the car to Dylan Pereira, the Luxembourgish driver.
A couple more slow zones being prepared as there is that stricken Porsche on the road. Dries Vanthoor goes straight on and this is the GTE-Pro polesitter. Maxime Martin, Dries Vanthoor, and Alvaro Parente. He cannot walk away from the car or it will be disqualified. Birthday boy Mike Conway is leading the motor race and he has been knocking on the door year after year here at this race. Something terminal for the #72 HubAuto Porsche being lifted out by the crane. #28 takes a quick splash and dash pit stop. That's the Jota Sport car. Sad to see HubAuto out of this race. They were euphoric on Thursday night, but now, they are out. Charles Milesi leads LMP2.
HubAuto team owner Morris Chen has been running here at Le Mans since 2015. Ferrari in 1963 still has to be the only team that has won Le Mans and a Grand Prix. Ford did not make their own car even though they built engines for F1. Actually, Matra won three straight here at Le Mans in 1972, '73, and '74. Matra won a championship in 1969 with Sir Jackie Stewart as well. Claudio Schiavoni is in the #60. Sauber won Le Mans with Mercedes in 1989 but didn't start building Formula 1 cars until 1993. Lots of carbon brake dust coming off that Ferrari. The Glickenhaus had a load of brake dust coming off of it.
Nope. Matra did not win F1 races after 1969. The years of winning Le Mans in 1972, '73, and '74 did not include Formula 1. Ferrari has been the only team to do it. All five Hypercars have been extremely reliable which is amazing. Francois Perrodo leads GTE Am. Now, the only issue in Hypercar is the #8's small troubles, but every one of the five cars are still hanging right in there. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari has had a faultless race so far, the only one to do so. Argy bargy in replay between the #20 car and the #86 GR Racing Porsche. Mike Conway leads the motor race by just over a minute as Olivier Pla and Nicolas Lapierre are laps behind but still staying with it.
So much for the prediction of the Hypercars having issues and the LMP2 cars picking up the scraps. That prediction may yet by ripped to shreds and thrown out the window. AF Corse's #83 GTE Am leading Ferrari is in the lane and Francois Peroodo takes over. Toyota #8 pits from second spot and Sebastien Buemi takes over. Check that. He has taken over and now, he has had two pit stops or maybe it is a early bird pit stop. Maybe the pit stop schedule needed to be redressed. Nico Lapierre now pits the Alpine for third and we are going to have a driver change. Andre Negrao is into the car.
Dries Vanthoor had a drivetrain issue in the #72 HubAuto Porsche. Game over. It is curtains for those boys. Alfa Romeo and Tazio Nuvolari, run by Enzo Ferrari, won Le Mans and in Grand Prix, in the pre-Formula 1 era in the 1920s and '30s. Olivier Pla is back up to third spot in the #708 Glickenhaus. They arue a pit stop and just have gone out in front of the Alpine. The Glickenhaus needs to make a pit stop. Richard Westbrook just cut a 3:30.6 in the sister Glickenhaus. Richard Westbrook is in the pit lane for service. He locked the brakes up big style into the lane.
Richard Lietz pits the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 from fourth in GTE-Pro, the Porsche factory GTE Pro car. Tom Blomqvist has his hands full with Will Stevens. It's the battle of the fast food restaurants, KFC vs. McDonald's that we talked about earlier. Andre Negrao chasing Olivier Pla and around the outside, Negrao passes Pla and says, I'll have third place, thanks. Cheers, mate. Olivier Pla will try gettng negrao back into Mulsanne corner. Not yet, as they run down to Indianapolis.
Saturday, August 21, 2021
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 16
#49 is still amazingly mobile. Unbelievable! Jan Magnussen was sure the engine in that car was toast. Now, we have a yellow on the course. Ah. It was short. Ten seconds added to the next pit stop for the #709 Glickenhaus. Ben Hanley and Dragonspeed pit as Kamui Kobayashi pits the #7 Toyota, a minute down on their sister #8 car. In these races, there can be technicalities as we saw with the Toyota's at a race years ago where both were disqualified for wearing down a plywood legality plank at the bottom of the car. There's a Ferrari spun out on the road someplace. That could be the beleaguered #71 machine. The #34 Intereuropol Oreca is in the lane, Alex Brundle at the controls. He might just get out of the car. Don't overrun the drive time. They are allowed only two run four hours in a stint out of a six hour window and cars get excluded for that.
Ferrari #71 did slowly enter the pit lane. Porsche still have a chance in GTE Pro. Louis Deletraz sets fastest first sector for the #41 WRT car and Tristan Gommendy does the same for the #30 car for Duqueine. Norman Nato brings the #70 RealTeam Oreca to the pit lane for service. Formidable for Duqueine. A yellow flag on the road. Not sure for what. Someone maybe went off and on. 14,987 overtakes in this race! Wow! We could get to 20,000. Don't say anything to the folks at Formula 1, thank you. The screen on the fuel hose is a counter. 9,000 overtakes in LMP2 alone! Holy cow! That's insane! Kazuki Nakajima runs second.
Toyota #7 pits from the lead. Renger van der Zande is now in the #34 Intereuropol LMP2 car. Alex Brundle did maximum drive time of four hours. A small wake me up for Toyota #7 missing your braking point by half a meter at Mulsanne. Oh no! Trouble for wheels on the #7! Now,. let's hope this is not too much of a concern. Lopez now leads Nakajima by 26 seconds. Anthony Davidson is pitting the #38 Jota LMP2 car. Daniel Serra pits the #52 AF Corse Ferrari from sixth place in GTE Pro. Alex Lynn runs seventh for United Autosports in LMP2. Both of them exit the pit lane together. Sean Gelael and Will Stevens are running well. There was a Formula 1 French Grand Prix here at Le Mans years ago.
That French Grand Prix was in 1967. Ryan Briscoe hops aboard the #709 Glickenhaus. Panis Racing are challenging Jota for third spot. Nico Lapierre pits the #36 Alpine from third place. 26 seconds is the gap between Toyota's #7 and #8 and they aren't running laps lower than the 3:30 bracket. When Mazda won Le Mans in 1991, 30 years ago, well, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and more, and the following week, Mazda sold $500 million worth of cars after they won. This is the epitome of the saying "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." When Ford won this race four times with the GT40, their image was totally changed.
Alpine would dearly love to get one over on Toyota because they have already won in Formula 1 and they want to win Le Mans. Ferrari did it. Porsche perhaps did get a Grand Prix win and a Le Mans class win. Dan Gurney won a Formula 1 race for Porsche. Alpine is essentially Renault that won in the first Grand Prix in 1906 at Le Mans. Two years away, is the 100th anniversary of Le Mans and Peugeot and Renault would love to win Le Mans again. Will Stevens continues to chase Sean Gelael. The Panis Racing crew are still motivated to pass. Stevens raced in karting and also ran briefly in Formula 1 and has had a great sports car career too.
Takuma Aoki in the pit lane in the #84 SRT41 LMP2 car modified for drivers with disabilities and there is a driver change. Also, Ben Keating brings the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin to the lane. Mechanic's are catching whatever sleep they possibly can. Mike Conway now leads Kazuki Nakajima by 25 seconds as we see Panis Racing still chasing Jota Sport. Pit stop time for Hub Auto Racing and their Porsche with Maxime Martin at the wheel. This is the first Asian team to get a pole at Le Mans. Toyota are a Japanese team but run from Cologne in Germany. Vibrations being reported in the #49 High Class Racing Oreca.
The engine has something wrong and the team does not know how to make it run cleanly. They are monitoring the car. Pipo Derani pits for service and hands third back to the Alpine. Antonio Garcia brings the #63 Corvette C8.R to the pit lane, second in GTE Pro, still storming after James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. Cleaning the radiators, making sure the car does not overheat. The C8.R Corvette is relatively new to Le Mans. The car started in Daytona last year. Next year, the GTE cars will be obsolete in IMSA because IMSA is going GT3. Will we see Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes, McLaren, BMW, and Porsche? There will be a GT3 platform in 2024.
The ACO would like the teams to be amateurs and not supported by the factories. Gelael and Stevens still chase each other and Renger van der Zande, fifth in LMP2 is keeping Intereuropol right in the fight. Team WRT have really run well in LMP2. They are stepping it up even though they have also run so well in GT3 racing for the better part of a decade. WRT run 1-2. Robin Frijns leads Robert Kubica. The sun is rising over Tertre Rouge at the moment. The glare makes it so hard to judge the corners. In the night time, the drivers would have a clear vistor and a darker one for the daylight hours.
Tbe atmosphere of the campsites are back at Le Mans in spite of the pandemic still being around. We had no fans here last year. Kazuki Nakajima in the pit lane from the lead. Run like clockwork. That's the key. There are still complications. You can't rest on your laurels in this race. All of Toyota's investment from the past, they see it paying off now and have been in the sport of sports car racing off and on for the better part of over 30 years, maybe 35+ years. A drive through penalty for someone. Could not exactly see who it was. Robin Frijns pits from the lead in LMP2.
Sean Gelael pits the #38 Jota Sport car as well. Just a shade over 1/3rd of the race left to run. The rain at the start of the race really upset the apple cart, but we won't have any more rain to worry about. Gearbox trouble for the #8 Toyota? Oh dear. We shall have to watch and see what is going on. What a weird joke, at 8AM in the morning there are two LMP2 cars. One sponsored by McDonald's and the other by KFC. Two fast food restaurants! Unbelievable! Comical if you ask me. The spirit of Le Mans means you don't give up. Gianmaria Bruni is in the pit lane for service on the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19. Bruni hands the car to Richard Lietz and the tires are changed as well as fuel added to the tank.
Straight out of the pits, the Porsche factory cars end up overshooting the chicane on cold tires. It cannot be coincidence though. What counts as track limits? We have a mist coming down. Rain is coming back? Wait. Say what? OK. This will really make the racing interesting as Toyota #7 is in. They are actually on the #8 and that car seems to have a gearbox issue. Toyota #8 needs to check and see what is going on. There's mist everywhere. Maybe the sun will burn it off.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 15
Philippe Sinault, boss of Alpine says they are continuing their fight with the Glickenhaus. Matthieu Vaxiviere moves up to third now after pit stops for Glickenhaus. Come Ledogar pits the #51 Ferrari and Alessandro Pier Guidi will get into the car. Job van Uitert is told to be careful of the curbs. He says the car is really nice to drive. He is very relaxed in that car right now. Nick Tandy battles Ross Gunn. GTE Pro Corvette vs. GTE Am Aston Martin. The #31 Team WRT LMP2 car still leads in that class. Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel of it. The #84 SRT41 car has spun at Arnage. Takuma Aoki off the road. John Hartshorne is now at the wheel of the #95 car for TF Sport. Alpine and Glickenhaus are on the same lap. Trouble for Miguel Molina in the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.
Paul Loup Chatin wants to change the balance on the #48 IDEC Sport LMP2 car. This is the last hour of darkness before the sun rises. Brendon Hartley told to box this lap and there will be a driver change for the #8 Toyota. Is the #8 Toyota losing some time? They could be losing aerodynamics on that car. We don't know why he is losing the downforce on the car. Toyota running 3:33 laps with the Alpine running 3:35s. This is the 17th pit stop for Toyota #8. Driver change to Kazuki Nakajima in Toyota #8. The front nose is also being changed as dawn will be coming fairly soon. New bodywork for the #8 with a paler white nose. "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Ah! Good song! Anyhow, front brake temperatures are too low in the #7 car! Oh dear.
Jose Maria Lopez is suffering with low brake temps. A possible radio issue at Porsche and the #52 Ferrari 488 GTE for AF Corse in the garage now. Porsche are now up to third and fourth in the overall. Ben Keating still is in contention with Aston Martin and TF Sport. The #84 La Filiere Fred Sausset car is back on track. Game over for Laurens Vanthoor and company in the #79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19. Alexander Sims in the pit lane in the #4 Corvette C8.R.
Toyota, Toyota, Alpine, Glickenhaus. Good spots to watch on the track are spots like the Ford Chicane and also in Indianapolis and Arnage. We have a smoking car out on the road, one of the Porsche's. Hard to tell which one. Julien Andlauer has a puncture on the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche. Glickenhaus #709 is in the pit lane. Dempsey Proton with the #88 car are still fixing their car. Alpine and Glickenhaus continue to run behind the Toyota's. Robin Frijns leads LMP2 over Louis Deletraz. Both of these cars are running well. Rumors say that Audi could supply an LMDh car for Team WRT.
Ferrari, Corvette, and Porsche still running together in GTE Pro as Daniel Serra is now back on track and move ahead of the #64 Corvette C8.R of Alexander Sims. Takuma Aoki and company have run 195 laps in 37th place and two drivers with disabilities are still running very, very well. The #20 High Class Racing LMP2 car of Marco Sorensen is in the garage. Pit stop time now too for the Alpine. Nico Lapierre is into the car after Andre Negrao's stint.
Billy Monger might just be able to get into a sports car. He won a race in single seaters without use of his legs. We hope Alex Zanardi pulls through after his paracycling accident as we now see the first glimmers of daylight approaching Le Mans. Paolo Ruberti is at the wheel of the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari in the lane for a pit stop. Filipe Albuquerque as well is in the garage. More repairs necessary on Oreca #22. Sector times are beginning to be personal bests. The driver's regain their peripheral vision. We are seeing some of the best sector times drivers have uncorked for the whole race. Rahel Frey, Sara Bovy, and Michelle Gatting have moved up very well, picking up the mantle where the #1 Richard Mille Racing team car left off. Sophia Floresch, Tatiana Calderon, and Beitske Visser will be back. Nicklas Nielsen is in the lane in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari.
Kevin Magnussen believes the engine is cooked in the #49 High Class LMP2 car. Is that motor on the way to going ka-blammo? Pipo Derani is back to third in the #708 Glickenhaus. He is 40 seconds only, ahead of the Alpine. Pipo Derani has now pitted the Glickenhaus and he may be done with a stint. It may still be Derani at the controls screaming back out onto the Mulsanne straight. NASCAR drivers have run the 24 Hours of Daytona. Hopefully more will be able to come to Le Mans. Sean Gelael from Indonesia, from Jakarta, he is third in LMP2 in the #38 Jota Oreca in LMP2. #49 is still in the garage.
James Calado leading GTE Pro for Ferrari with just a hair over nine hours to go. WRT #41 in and out for quick and routine service. Porsche #91 also in the pit lane for service. Dawn is getting closer. This is Happy Hour. The sun is coming back out and the drivers are perking up. Nyck de Vries uncorks a 3:33.33. Again, James Calado leads GTE Pro. Ferrari leads Corvette and Porsche.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 14
Roses are red, violets are blue. I smell another Toyota 1-2. Now, will that happen? We'll have to wait and find out. Both teams want to win and the #7 have been knocking on the door forever in this race. They are closing in on the Glickenhaus up ahead. Not sure which one. Finally, the #49 High Class Racing car has made it to the garage for repairs. Poor old Jan Magnussen has crashed twice. Toyota team manager Rob Leupen says that the #7 has been delayed. He hopes the cars can be kept in one piece. Toyota enjoys competition and it's good for them to have a new car as the TS050 was four years old already. Kamui Kobayashi is fine even after that scare he had on track earlier on.
Toyota #7 and Jose Maria Lopez have passed for the lead, and they lead by 1.4 seconds and a slow car looks like a Ferrari. It could be the Inception Racing automobile with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel of it. Porsche #92, fourth in GTE Pro and on the same lap as the AF Corse Ferrari, making a scheduled pit stop. A whole slew of LMP2's are in the pit lane and we are watching the Pansi Racing #65 and the #22 United Autosport car is in trouble with alternator failure. Now then, Ben Barnicoat is reported to be slow at marshal post six. Alpine in the lane, three laps down to the Toyota's. Louis Deletraz and the sister WRT car are in the lane as is the #36 Alpine.
There's still a long way to go. Ten hours and 50 minutes remaining. Ben Barnicoat is trundling his way back to the pits but is called by the stewards for running extremely slowly headed for marshal post eight. #20, the High Class LMP2 is in the pit lane, the Ricky Taylor, Anders Fjordbach, Dennis Andersen car. Inception Racing are readying to receive the Ferrari when it arrives in the lane. You've missed nothing at the front as Toyota #8, Brendon Hartley, pursues the team car #7 of Jose Maria Lopez, who is a couple seconds up the road. Tata was mentioned coming back for Hypercar which means we could see Jaguar back at Le Mans. Geely, from China, also owns Lotus. Could Lotus also come back to Le Mans? That's something to think about for car lovers and racing fans. Glickenhaus #709 is hanging on.
Both Corvette Racing crews are swarming the #64 team. All hands on deck. Oh dear. Oliver Jarvis gets out of the #82 Risi Competizione car which is having trouble. Ben Barnicoat's Ferrari is still crawling around the circuit and it has only three wheels on my wagon! Oh deary me. That's a bad deal. Left front, gone. Could they not recover that car? You have to run a full lap. Oh no. He's pulling off the croad, shrotcuttitng the corner. That small error in the pit stop has cost Inception Racing any good chance of a result. This is a bloody nightmare not only for Ben Barnicoat but for the other drivers. Goodness gracious! This is a bad deal.
Ben Barnicoat, mercifully makes it back to the pit lane. The team will have to check the car. The man with the rattle gun must be totally embarrassed and they will have to change the brake disc as well. They are the very last garage at the end of the pit lane. Alternator woes at United Autosport and Filipe Albuquerque, Paul di Resta, and Fabio Scherer are out. We wonder if the Hypercars will last. LMP2 car for the overall win. It is a tough call. WRT have done a stellar job so far. They've run faultlessly with both cars and Stoffel Vandoorne has the #38 Jota Sport car up there and the #34 Inter Europol Oreca have been up there with Renger van der Zande, Alex Brundle, and Jakub Smiechowski.
United Autosports stays in the race but they are out of contention for the race win. Corvette #64 has a fresh clutch and Alexander Sims is now going to give it all he has. Duqueine vs. High Class look, in LMP2. Pit stop time now for the #8 Toyota. Fuel and a driver change at the very least. Feverish work at Inception Racing still. Both Toyota's have 16 pit stops under their belts. This is a complete splitter change for the car, under ten and a half hours left as the first signs of dawn are coming. 200 laps completed for Toyota. Glickenhaus are hanging in there. LMP2 Pro Am is being led by Dragonspeed in the #21 with Juan Pablo Montoya at the wheel of it.
We have had several retirements that have been well documented. Good battle between Duqueine and High Class. This is for tenth overall. Tristan Gommendy vs. Marco Sorensen. But this is not for tenth, it is for some other place. Tenth and eleventh I should say. Alex Brundle is also running well and the same is true for Patrick Pilet in the #48 IDEC Sport entry. Toyota #7 in the pit lane. This race is not done and dusted yet by any means. Jose "Pechito" Lopez continues to stay in the car. He was run in World Endurance, World Touring Car Championship, and Formula E. Le Mans is the jewel in the crown. The Duqueine and High Class battle continues.
Ten hours and 20 minutes to go. You cannot box early. Trust me. The #71 Inception Racing Ferrari is back on the road with a new front end and splitter. Tough pill to swallow for these chaps. Alex Brundle is now in the lane in the #34 Intereuropol Oreca heading for a podium in LMP2. He and his co-drivers have fought their way forward indeed. The scrap is hot in GTE Am for fifth in class has Jaxon Evans vs. Paolo Ruberti. Dempsey Proton Porsche #77 vs. Iron Lynx Ferrari #60. It is some experience to see the headlights of these cars piercing the darkness. Yours truly experienced it at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and surely it is just as intoxicating at Le Mans.
The #22 United Autosports car, again, is out of contention due to a bad alternator. Nicky Catsburg has pitted the #63 Corvette C8.R. Alessio Picariello is next into the #18 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19. That is in GTE Am. The Alpine and the Glickenhaus are on the same lap, pushing each other hard, the #36 and #708. Glickenhaus looking for a podium. Pipo Derani is in the car now. Juan Pablo Montoya is looking for a class win here at Le Mans, so he won't get the triple crown. He will have to sign up for a factory team in Le Mans Hypercar.
A Ferrari pitted. Cannot tell which one and also we see the #26 G-Drive car in the lane as well. It is easy to lose downforce due to tire pickup, tire clag. Wow! Lopez in #7 nearly gets chopped by one of the Iron Lynx Ferrari's! Yikes! Water can help keep you hydrated. Don't use energy drinks because they will cause a crash. High Class Racing in, the #20 car is in the lane. Ben Hanley is now in the #21 Dragonspeed car. Toyota 1-2, but again, this is not done and dusted at all as Gianmaria Bruni looks on. Ferrari, Corvette, Porsche, Porsche. Glickenhaus #708 passes the #36 Alpine. Pipo Derani passes Matthieu Vaxiviere. A pressurized oil canister forces oil into the motor for an oil refill.
Nicky Catsburg is really setting a pace in GTE Pro and the Ferrari is 7/10ths of a second slower. The leading Porsche is close behind and we can see Gianmaria Bruni in the lane with Porsche #91. Fred Makowiecki will take over the car.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 13
Nicky Catsburg is still pushing hard, and monstering Nicky Catsburg. Have Sam Bird's tires given up? That Ferrari may be a very loose race car. Don't pull out too early to hit a wall of air. Mulsanne straight now, and Sam Bird is a very steely nerved driver. Flashing the lights won't help. Into the second chicane he has a run. Side by side, look, and there goes Nicky Catsburg right 'round Sam Bird. Wow! This is very much game on for GM and Chevrolet. 49-51 cars out of the 61 have started. In replay, we see it is a straight ahead move, done and dusted, as Catsburg goes by Bird. We are highlighting the retirements and we have seen a couple Ferrari's that have indeed dropped out. Project 1 and Richard Mille Racing are listed as retirements from the race but we have more. The #79 WeatherTech Porsche, the #56 Project 1 Porsche, the #57 Kessel Racing, the #47 Cetilar, Proton, the #98 Aston Martin, and the #1 Richard Mille Racing car, all have headed for the bench.
Corvette manager, Laura Wontrop Klauser says that with the #64 there was crash damage at the beginning. The drivers are happy, and they hope to land in a good spot. They have been running great in IMSA all year. Simulation really helps and learning from their past. We see the #64 car in the garage and Nick Tandy is in the car. They have been looking at their cars with key races like Le Mans in mind. The correlation has made it stronger. The drivers are thrilled with what the car is doing and they feel comfortable driving the car hard. Corvette is showing what they can do against the Ferrari's and the Porsche's with half the race still to go.
We hope Cadillac can come to Le Mans and WEC. They will be announcing an LMDh car soon. Laura Wontrop Klauser has taken the helm at Corvette Racing just like Lena Gade did at Audi. Lena Gade really broke the barriers for women in motorsports and she is astonishing. HubAuto, Lucy Paine got the job on Monday and that team scored the GTE Am pole. There is a documentary about Lena Gade and her wins with Audi as race engineer here at Le Mans. Take a look for it. I cannot give you the title because I don't quite know what it is.
Giedo van der Garde is in hot pursuit of one of the two Robin brothers aboard the #39 SO24 Graff Racing car. Maxime Robin at the controls of the #39 right now. WRT runs 1-2 in LMP2 right now, #41 ahead of #31. Ir is beginning to get misty as we saw a move to unlap the #29 which is Giedo van der Garde at the controls. Pit stop time for the #34 Intereuropol Competition car, and Nick Tandy, who is a former race winner in GTE Pro. There's trouble with the #64 Corvette C8.R. Jan Magnussen pits the #49 High Class Racing car. So, there is a driveline issue in the #64 Corvette that had diffuser damage from contact with another car at the beginning of the race.
There was fluid around the driveline and now, there is a definite driveline issue on the car. It is an undiagnosed issue and hopefully they can fix it. The car is mega according to Tandy and as the track has rubbered up, the tires are working. The #63 car is still pressing on. Nick Tandy is not a happy camper. He was a Porsche man for years. The factory AF Corse Ferrari hit them. No love lost between Corvette and Ferrari. That rivalry has been going on since the 1960s. Kamui Kobayashi has had four poles at Le Mans. Well, he is one pole away from tying Jacky Ickx's record of five poles. The Toyota is right on the knife edge through the corner.
Yifei Ye pits the #41 WRT car followed by the team car of Charles Milesi and next up is the #22 United Autosports car. Driver change at #41. Louis Deletraz will get into the car. Hybrid could have an advantage in Hypercar. The Hypercar regulations are really clever because they are allowing for a major balance between hybrid and non hybrid cars, with windows to work in. The power, weight, and aero is balanced out, not perfectly yet, but it might be. We shall see what happens when LMDh comes along. The Hypercars have front wheel drive hybrid or 4 wheel drive, while the IMSA cars are going to have rear wheel drive with hybrid drive only on the rear wheels.
IMSA are supposed to be very good at Balance of Performance. Sports cars have always been about technology. Matthieu Vaxiviere is at the wheel of the Alpine. Sports car racing as it is, develops street going cars. Everything on a modern road car has been defined by Le Mans over the last century. Sports car racing is ahead of Formula 1. Charles Milesi is in the lane for WRT leading LMP2. The #777 D'station Aston Martin pits too. It will be a long race for them. Keep pushing. Racing Team Nederland #29, Giedo van der Garde is off the road.
Spin for the #22 United Autosports car out of third as it is in third in class as we see a picture scramble right now and the fog is coming in. Oh boy. Trouble for Rinaldi Racing as Christian Hook has spun the #388 Rinaldi Racing Ferrari, beached, hung up in the gravel. This is at the exit of the esses. Christian Hook in the Dunlop essses, no, the first chicane, and that's a spot of bother for the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari. Hard to tell who is to blame and the #7 Toyota has stopped! How many times can we see the #7 stop?! This gives Brendon Hartley and the #8 car the lead! The #7 is back up and running after a Control, Alt, Delete.
A mistake with tire temperature and the instruction is to move brake bias to the rear. That's Kamui Kobayashi! He is so lucky to have stopped! Kobayashi almost went off the road on Thursday as well. Stay with us, ladies and gentlemen. This motor race is far from over. Oh la la la la! Toyota #7 very nearly hit the wall! It seems someone is stopped on the road unless the camera is frozen. Kamui Kobauashi though, he is the luckiest racing driver in France. They are adjusting the brake bias to the rear of the car.
Louis Deletraz and Charles Milesi battle for the lead in LMP2. Deletraz has made the move. Son of former Formula 1 driver, Jean Denis Deletraz who ran in the Road To Le Mans races earlier in the weekend. Daytona has had to stop the race due to fog on a number of occasions. The last time was with rain in 2019 that I can remember. There's more than 12 hours of darkness in January at Daytona. The #38 Jota Sport LMP2 car is 15th in class behind Juan Pablo Montoya. Now, the #8 Toyota is in the lane for service. Brendon Hartley at the wheel of it. Mike Conway is the top British sports car driver and he still has yet to win Le Mans.
We have a yellow on course, a local yellow, perhaps. Matthieu Lahaye is driving the #84 LMP2 car as Jan Magnussen has gone off the road. Does this car have a rear wing? Yes. He has spun or has he? He's been hit by the G-Drive car of Roman Rusinov in Arnage. No neutral and no reverse on that car. Very similar to Sophia Floresch's troubles earlier. Jan Magnussen is a legend. Jan has found reverse and we've lost the local yellow. But that was a great shame for his team, he and son Kevin. Stay hydrated. No need for energy drinks so you crash. Matthieu Vaxiviere still has the welly down. Meanwhile, AF Corse continues to lead GTE Am with the #83 car.
Ferrari #54 for AF Corse is in pit lane, Giancarlo Fisichella at the controls and so is the gray and green #30 Duqueine Automotive car. Not sure who is in that car as we have another slow car. Jan Magnussen has gotten back on track but he is creeping down the Mulsanne straight and we see in replay, Magnusseen snapping away from him into the Armco coming into Tertre Rouge. He has a porblme with the car. The other car that hit him, did so with quite a lick. He has a long way to go to get back to the pit lane. That's a demoralizing sight.
Magnussen says the steering is at 45 degrees. He has to drive back straight with the wheel at that kind of cockeyed angle as Kamui Kobayashi has a normal service for the Toyota GR010. He changed tires that were flatspotted. Stay up but ditch the energy drinks and get water. Maybe one jug of Gatorade but that's it. High Class Racing is preparing a new nose as Jan Magnussen is still struggling to get back. He is trundling back on the pit lane limiter. Filipe Albuquerque says let me sleep, but you have to go back into the car even though it is 4:47 A.M. Replacing the clutch in the #64 Corvette due to fluid loss. So, the #64 may finish but they won't get on the podium. Nicky Catsburg in the #63 is still in the fight.
But High Class Racing, their race is going pear shaped. #41 still leads #31 in LMP2, both of the WRT Oreca's. Deletraz in first and Habsburg in second spot in LMP2, Pit stop and a driver change for one of the Iron Lynx Ferrari's. Jose Maria Lopez and Brendon Hartley are going to be racing each other for the lead. The cardinal rule in racing, do not take your team mate out. Tehse chaps won't do anything silly. Keep it clean.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 12
Porsche #91 in pit lane for service. Yifei Ye brings the #41 WRT car to the lane and we have also seen the #7 Toyota in in the last few minutes. The graveyard shift has begun. At the end of this hour we will be halfway home. Of 61 cars that started, we have ten retirements. We have a double yellow at marshal post six as the #70 RealTeam Racing Oreca of Esteban Garcia spins off to the inside. That's an oddball deal. Sebastien Buemi pitted the #8 Toyota. The #95 Aston Martin is also in the pit lane. That's the TF Sport car of Ross Gunn, Ollie Hancock, and John Hartshorne. 162 laps now complete, four laps the margin between Toyota leading and the Alpine and the Glickenhaus behind. Ferrari are the bread with Corvette filling in GTE Pro.
Yours truly is about to eat dinner, and I shall be back to keep you updated on the race. Drivers are only allowed four hours in a six hour window and the maximum they do in all is 14 hours. While eating dinner, I watched pit stops for Glickenhaus among others. The cycle continues and now Vincent Capillaire is in the lane. We have been watching the order in GTE Pro, and remembering many people from the sports car and auto racing community who have died. Eventually, yours truly may write some kind of memorial post to some of those great drivers we've lost of the years. Not sure yet.
We are nearly at the halfway mark. Keep your head down and keep going. We've lost 21 people over the past year from the history of Le Mans and the history of this race and this place is so incredibly imporant. In two years we will see the 100th anniversary of the first race here in 1923. The basic shape still exists today. The Mulsanne straight is a national French highway. The top speeds in Le Mans Hypercar look to be fairly equal. Sebastien Buemi has not been a happy boy today so far as we approach half distance. Now, the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche has made it to the pit lane for service and we watch Andre Negrao who has three or so laps left in his stint.
Some or most of the pit crews are doing their darnedest to get some sleep. Porsche #72 in the pit lane for service as Dries Vanthoor might still be in the car and could hand over to Alvaro Parente or to Maxime Martin. Risi Competizione has Felipe Nasr in the #82 car right now. The mechanics are cleaning the windscreen and the car only needed fuel. Jakub Smiechowski is in the lane in the #34 Intereuropol LMP2. If Aston Martin cannot enter as a factory team, they might not get in. It has to have a factory entry. Alpine are being run by a privateer team. Glickenhaus is a specialty manufacturer or road cars.
Would Lawrence Stroll allow a Valkyrie to race? That would conflict with Aston Martin's Formula 1 team. Glickenhaus #708 has just pitted as well. Originally, Hypercar was only going to be for full race cars but road cars can be included. The #52 AF Corse Ferrari just pitted with Sam Bird at the controls. The Peugeot 9X8 is an unbelievable looking car. This question was from Tim Coronel, who's brother Tom has driven here at Le Mans before. The Coronel's a great racing family from Holland as the #36 Alpine is back into the pit lane from third spot with Andre Negrao on the road. Charles Milesi is now in fourth in the #41 WRT LMP2 car. His team mate Yifei Ye is running behind him and they have a minute and a half worth of an advantage over the next LMP2 car.
Corvette #63 is in the lane and now, Jordan Taylor will hand the car over to Nicky Catsburg. He is a longtime BMW driver now with Corvette. Aston Martin plan to make a spyder version of the Valkyrie. I don't think open cockpit cars will come back to Le Mans. The closed cockpit cars are safer and much more aerodynamic. We miss the days of the BMW and the Audi open spyders which ran in the '90s and 2000s. Dylan Pereira runs second in GTE Am to Nicklas Nielsen. Team boss Tom Ferrier and his eponymous team must be confident in what they are doing.
After winning the Spa 24 Hours Nicklas Nielsen tested positive for the Coronavirus. He was not allowed to drive at the test day until Sunday afternoon. Francois Perrodo is chairman of an oil company and owns many McLaren F1's as the #26 G-Drive LMP2 car pits. It sounds like it is either Roman Rusinov or Nyck de Vries in that car. Dylan Periera is in the lane. He is from Luxembourg and his father is from Portugal. Now then, GTE Am sees that car and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari into the pit lane. Ben Keating will be the next driver into the car. Nope. Nope. It is Felipe Fraga, the Brazilian into the car.
He is still second behind Nicklas Nielsen. High Class and GR Racing are both in the pit lane for scheduled stops. It is very close to being the witching hour with the 24 Hours of Le Mans almost half over. Toyota #7 leads the sister #8 by 26 seconds with the Alpine #36 three laps behind in third place. Sebastien Buemi is told to pit for a driver change. He is 27 seconds up on the Alpine. Ten minutes to go now before the end of another racing hour. Toyota #8 in the lane and there is a driver change. Ferrari say they have a great balance on their 488 GTE. Their next driver for a triple stint will be Miguel Molina I believe.
Brendon Hartley is now at the wheel of the #8 Toyota. Sleepy time for the pit crews at Le Mans as we are closer and closer to half distance and dawn will come in another four hours or so. AF Corse Ferrari #54 in the pit lane too. Toyota, Toyota, Alpine, Glickenhaus, that is the order in Le Mans Hypercar. Lots of mechanics now asleep as we watch Nicky Catsburg flying around Le Mans. The Corvette C8.R is third in GTE Pro. Nicky "Knight Rider" Catsburg is out there runing very well, thank you. Yifei Ye is just three seconds behind his WRT team mate Charles Milesi in LMP2.
Nicky Catsburg is closing up steadily on Sam Bird. 23 seconds now between Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley as the Corvette screams down the Mulsanne. For new technology, the Le Mans Hypercars have been extremely reliable. No one has had a significant technical issue save for the opening hour of the motor race. Have Toyota and Alpine had trouble? The #8 was hit and had a Control, Alt, Delete, and the Alpine went off the road. The Glickenhaus cars have had damage. Hopefully this is not the commentator's curse. No worries about the Hypercars. Insert falling whistling sound, and explosion. Oh no!
Wait 'til morning. Nicky Catsburg wants to make the move on Sam Bird into Indianapolis and then into Arnage. No gap at all. They are right together.
24 Hours of Le Mans: Hour 11
Before we get to this next hour
of racing, it is interesting to note that Frits van Eerd, who is the CEO of
Jumbo Supermarkets in Holland and one of the people involved with the Racing
Team Nederland LMP2 team, he owns three Spitfire airplanes. So, he is a
man who has done very well for himself, and he has put his money towards the
things he enjoys. If you are rich and yet you use your money to invest in
classic cars or classic vehicles of any sort, more power to you. Everyone
wonders why we don't have enough coverage here at Le Mans at night. Well,
it is plainly too dark, mate. You see the headlights and that's about
it. It is harder to see the Mulsanne straight than it is the corners.
Another interesting factoid for
you all as we continue here at Le Mans. On clockwise circuits, which many
of the classic tracks like Le Mans and others, are, in Europe, the prototype
cars used to all be right hand drive. This dates back to the fabulous
roadsters that raced at Le Mans for the better part of three or four decades,
into the classic beginnings of GT and prototype racing, all the way up to the
1980s and '90s, the Group C era and into the GT era in the mid-1990s. But
now, these cars are predominantly left-hand drive, including the Hypercars and
the GTE cars as well as the LMP2's. That is so the fuelers and the
drivers (when they are swapping over between stints), don't fall over each
other and get in each other’s way.
Another reason is, if the
driver is on the righthand side, it is what you want for the corners.
Grab a coffee or food or whatever you'd like and settle in because we have a
whole half of this great motor race to go yet. We have a Slow Zone on the
circuit right now, but it is hard to tell as to what the reason could be.
Currently in GTE Am, the class leader is the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488
GTE. Dane Nicklas Nielsen is at the controls, sharing the car of course
with Francois Perrodo of France and Alessio Rovera of Italy. We ride
aboard, through the darkness, with Ben Barnicoat aboard the #71 Inception
Racing GTE Am Ferrari 488 GTE, as he is chasing an identical car, the #60 Iron
Lynx Ferrari, Paolo Ruberti, the Italian, at the wheel of it.
Some mechanics are tired, others are wide awake. They ought to be getting a little shuteye between pit stops while the cars are out there racing. It is hard to do though because of the adrenaline factor. Indeed, from the fixed cameras, we can see how these mega bright headlights do pierce the gloom. Through Mulsanne corner as we follow Ben Barnicoat on his lap. The #708 Glickenhaus is in the pit lane and it looks like a scheduled service, here at 2:00 A.M. in France. Olivier Pla is currently driving Glickenhaus #708. The Glickenhaaus is a magnificent race car.
The design of it is so amazingly retro compared to the competitors from Toyota and Alpine which have a more modern aura to them. Now, as lovely a shape and design as this car has, we know it has been fragile for the whole race. It is now stopped at the end of the pit lane past the board for the RFID sign that reads the tires on the cars as they go through back onto the track. It seems that Olivier Pla may have been clear to go and there was not stoplight on with a red or green light at the end of pit lane. There used to be a purple light down there to signal nighttime during the 1980s when the awesome Group C cars raced at Le Mans, from Porsche, Lancia, Mercedes, and others. The #71 Ferrari is run by Inception Motorsports. Sean Goff, Ian Smith, and former driver turned team manager Bas Leinders, from Belgium, run that team.
We have four teams this year at Le Mans with all rookie drivers. They are all doing a great job despite not being to the track before and Inception have had a very busy time this year in 2021. They've been doing a lot of different championships like GT Open, Asian Le Mans, and SRO Europe. Our leader in GTE Pro is in the lane now, look. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari, Alessandro Pier Guidi currently driving. Kevin Estre is bringing the #92 Porsche to the lane as well. This is the eleventh pit stop for that car if any Porsche fans are keeping score at home. For some reason we still have the slow zone, and the brakes are not working on that car when it stopped.
Maybe the electronics are doing smething odd. Michael Christensen has joined the Porsche GT factory team to share at Le Mans with Neel Jani and Kevin Estre. So, the Dane will be back on his way for his stint momentarily. New tires, you can hear the rattle guns. The race seems to be coming back to Porsche as they are biding their time and doing what they can. They had some iffy times during the rain at the beginning of the race but they are coming back to the fore now, slowly gaining on Corvette and Ferrari. Now, speaking of Corvette, we go on board with the brand new C8.R and this is the #63 car, the predominantly yellow car with Jordan Taylor at the controls. Taylor has covered 135 laps so far. Well over 900 some odd miles. Now, this is funny. Are the ARC Bratislava boys practicing pit stops or practicing boxing? Don't get to rambunctious down there, boys. Hardy har har. As we know, many of the mechanics signal their drivers to pit by saying "box, box, box". But, that's the box that they service the car in, not boxing, much less putting items into a box. Oh boy. I can see where this is going. Better quit while I'm ahead, mate. Strangely, we still have a slow zone on the road. If the Ferrari is in the way, the marshals are taking their time about moving it. This could impede traffic, but it also has a benefit where they are trying to not to do more damage to the car.
Double Yellow removed at
marshal post six. We still have the slow zone two posts back, at marshal
post four. Jordan Taylor takes the Corvette C8.R down to Arnage, the
slowest turn on this legendary track. Watch out for the wall. It is
so close down there, and we have seen many drivers crunch the barriers down
there inadvertently over the years. It juts out right at you. The
entry of that corner also sees a change of pavement and that's why the cars
skate off the road. Be cautious down there. Corvette Racing have
new management and Doug Fehan, former team boss, he is still an
ambassador. Risi Competizione are using their team from Europe to
help. The expense of bringing full teams to Europe to race has been
prohibitive because of the cursed virus pandemic that still is a part of our
daily lives in this world. Lots of paperwork and red tape to deal
with.
Now, we might see where the slow zone is, but the camera crews show us something more humorous. What is this? A Ferrari dummy? Nope. That's one of the AF Corse team members posing, probably their fueler kitted up in his helmet, and the boys at Corvette Racing are laughing their heads off. What is this shenanigans at 3AM? Right now, the category leaders see Toyota #7 leading Hypercar and the overall, the #31 WRT car leading LMP2, Corvette Racing leading GTE Pro amid their giggle fest with the mechanics, and in GTE Am, maybe that dummy was sent to see that the #83 AF Corse Ferrari was still ahead in GTE Am, which it is.
We're still in a slow zone but no one has told us what the deal is. Now, the yellow remains out. One of the factory Ferrari's is crawling. Everyone should be back to green and Ben Barnicoat zooms past GTE Am cars. We look at the GTE Pro standings now, and Corvette #63 leads covering the rest of the field in the dvision by a single lap. That is how it ought to be. That shows how remarkably competitive GTE Pro is. Factory Corvette ahead of two factory Ferrari's, ahead of two factory Porsche's, ahead of the American WeatherTech Porsche, ahead of the HubAuto Porsche which is a lap down, and the bottom of the deck, currently, sees the sister factory Corvette.
Alpine in the pit lane for scheduled
service. Andre Negrao, the Brazilian, behind the wheel. No
tires. Fuel only, and he is down and away. That car fourth overall
a minute down on Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT LMP2 car. Team WRT are right
in the hunt here. The Alpine had that wild spin earlier on and they are
still in recovery mode. All the LMP2's are close to the Hypercar
machines. Yifei Ye, the 21 year old Chinese driver, is managed by Neel
Jani's dad. Ye raced in Formula 3 in France and he won 16 races and won
11 races last year in Euro Formula Open in 2020 and he is of course now in the
European Le Mans Series as well.
The battle for second in GTE
Pro is heating up, simmering along well, thank you, between the two AF Corse
Ferrari's. The slow zone continues, and we are still glued to this
fascinating scuffle in GTE Pro for the time being and yes indeed the Corvette
boys are very interested. Now then, we have a Slow Zone once again
through the Dunlop curve and the esses on the way to Tetre Rouge. Other
pit crew members for other teams are quite tired and why shouldn't they
be? They have been preparing for this race all week and just now are
getting ever closer to the halfway mark. There's still a long, long way
to go yet.
As we get closer to halfway,
once again (and we shall speak of this a little later as the sun comes up), we
are getting to the point that my friends at the IMSA team at Action Express in
the United States, would call "zombie land" in a 24 hour race, where
the cars and drivers are just putting in the laps while the mechanics are doing
their darnedest to get some shuteye between pit stops. That is the point
of the race we might just be at right now. Jordan Taylor blasts his way
down the incredible Mulsanne straight once again. That is the signature
of this track just like the high banks, the banking is the signature at Daytona
International Speedway. Now we ride aboard the overall leading #7 Toyota
Hypercar which is running ahead of the sister car for Toyota Gazoo Racing, car
#8.
This is the overall leader as
mentioned. Mike Conway is currently driving. He has completed 147
laps. Some people wonder about the future of LMP2 in the World Endurance
Championship? Will LMP3 be considered for the championship? We will
see, what Eurosport commentators Mark Cole and Chris Parsons have to say about
that. It is always interesting to hear what these two have to say, as
they have been around sports car racing for a long time. This is a major
subject, to be honest. This LMP2 class was going to run out at the end of
next year in 2022. But it is now being back up another year for certain
reasons, so we will see the current cars until the end of 2023.
2024 will see a new LMP2
format. LMP3 can't be used because the new LMP2 cars will be the basis of
the LMDh class that we've all been so excited about if you have followed sports
car racing. Now, we have another Toyota pit stop. Let's see which
one has been instructed to box here. This is the #8 car. Now, back
to the LMP2 story. The ACO announced yesterday that they are working
through new regulations as we hear over the Toyota radio to Sebastien Buemi,
that the team is working through a refueling problem on the car.
Now what on earth could this
be? How did this refueling kerfuffle crop up? Toyota does have a
refueling issue but only on this latest stop for the #8 machine. That's
strange. C'est etrange. Pourquoi la Toyota a-t-elle un probleme de
revitaillment? Maybe they didn't fill up enough at the most recent
stop. At Monza last time out they could not pick up enough petrol.
With LMP2, the ACO say they need to get the new regulations published by the
end of this year in 2021 because of the manufacturers for LMDh needing to know
the chassis to base their cars off of. The same four companies that have
the current franchise tender for building the cars will be included.
Oreca, Dallara, Multimatic, and Ligier are those four companies. All of
them are lining up manufacturers.
It seems Audi, Porsche, and
Lamborghini (all part of the Volkswagen group, Volkswagen AG), are going to
Multimatic. Cadillac are expected to stay with Dallara. Not sure if
other announcements have been made. We wonder who will use Ligier and
Oreca, the two French constructors. Multimatic are from Canada.
Dallara are from Italy. Those chassis are going to be the basis for not
only LMDh but LMP2 next gen cars as well. With GTE being dropped and GT3
coming, there will be a bigger gap, so the LMP2 cars can be slowed down.
Right now, in terms of speed and performance the LMP2 cars are in fact too
close to the Hypercars.
The Gibson V8 has been a really
successful motor, Gibson Technologies' 4.2 liter V8. However, there will
be a tender put forth for other companies to come in and build LMP2 spec
motors. The idea is that the new LMP2 engines will be less powerful in
order to compensate for the Hypercars and we wonder about LMDh because those
are said to have capacity for a petrol engine depending on the manufacturer and
a hybrid system that is connected only to the rear wheels. Both Dempsey
Proton Porsche's are running well. Both are racing in LM GTE Am.
Currently, Jaxon Evans, from New Zealand, is fifth in class in GTE Am. He
is sharing the #77 car with Christian Ried from Germany and Matt Campbell from
Australia of course.
#88 is running 11th.
Lance Arnold, the German, is driving, alongside French born American Dominique
Bastien and French Porsche contracted driver, Julien Andlauer. Porsche
and Team Penske will be ready to compete in LMDh. They will be running
for Porsche in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship, and presumably
the IMSA cars will be at Le Mans. Porsche and Audi both want to run
customer LMDh cars. BMW and Lamborghini are anticipating coming in.
BMW could have a factory program and Lamborghini Squadra Corse, they want an all-customer
program. Robin Frijns brings the #31 Team WRT car into the pit lane, the
current LMP2 leader.
The prototype field here at Le
Mans in the next couple of years is going to be massive and there will be
little room for GT's. It seems like we are going back to what the height
of the Group C era was in the early to mid 1980s here at Le Mans. The
only way the number of starters can be expanded is by adding three or four cars
to the entry and that's it. There's no more room. We now see the
#20 High Class Racing LMP2 car in the pit lane. It is also likely that if
GT3 rules are adopted, there will be one single GT class instead of splitting
them up on driver ratings like the FIA World Endurance Championship does
currently. Mike Conway is told he will have a full-service pit stop
coming.
Corvette Racing want to have a full-on
professional team and say GT3 is just not the place they want to invest in if
they can't do it that way. The ACO wants to have GT3 be an amateur class.
Jota are pitting in LMP2 from 16th place in the category, so they are a way
down the overall running order right now. Anthony Davidson is in the car,
the Englishman, sharing with Roberto Gonzalez from Mexico and Antonio Felix Da
Costa from Portugal. IMSA will do with GT3 what WEC is doing with their
GT classes currently, meaning that their GT3 cars (known as GT Daytona) will
have a Pro and an Am class, or it will work out to GT Daytona Pro and GT
Daytona. This is a very complex jigsaw puzzle. That's how sports
car racing is, and well, yours truly is as on top of all of it as he possibly
can be.
What do drivers eat during
endurance events? We have had this discussion before. Slow-release
food like carbohydrates can help. Hydrating with liquids is the best way
to stay in the zone. Plan your diet around when you are in the car and
get some sleep. Let's take a lap at Le Mans. From Mulsanne to
Indianapolis is the fastest part of the circuit. It is pitch black out
there, but we can't continue the lap because there's problems for a GTE Pro car
and it is a Porsche! It is the #79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19, Cooper
MacNeil at the controls, sharing with Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor.
Cooper MacNeil has gone off in
the same place we saw Oliver Milroy back into the fence earlier and we can see
too, that even though he has recovered, the impact was hard enough that the
blue medical light on the right side of the dashboard is flashing.
Fortunately, MacNeil can make his way back to the pits going right across to
the lane from the Ford Chicane. Thankfully he did not have too far to
drive. In replay, this could be a big one. Let's see what
happened. The car swaps ends coming into the corner, whipping around,
and... wallop! He slams the wall on the rear left- hand corner and the
impact were obviously big enough to trigger the medical light in the
cockpit. The car is OK and can be fixed. That damage does not look
too severe, but Coop will have to go to the medical center and get examined by
the doctors to see he is OK and not hurt.
Earl Bamber or Laurens Vanthoor
will be in the car. Oh dear. That corner is a mess on the right
rear. What a darn shame. They were running top five in
GTE-Pro. Proton Competition run the car under team boss Giacomo Mattioli.
David and Cooper MacNeil bring the sponsorship as David MacNeil is the owner
and operator of WeatherTech which makes automotive accessories and sponsors the
IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship of course. David, being Cooper's
dad. So, Christian Ried owns the team and used to drive with his dad
Gerold. Cooper MacNeil, again, sharing with Earl Bamber and Laurens
Vanthoor. So, now we see the leader is in and the #7 Toyota will have a
driver change. Mike Conway will hand the car over to Kamui Kobayashi for
the next stint.
Cooper MacNeil is a very good
driver and so are Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber. Presumably, Cooper
will be OK but may be told by the driver, "sorry, you cannot drive in the
race anymore", "pardon. Vous ne pouvez plus conduire dans la
course." Big damage for the Porsche and they will have to work for a
while to get that car back on the track. Kevin Estre had a similar wreck
on Thursday night with the factory car. We saw the impact and if the
suspension and the chassis pickup points are damaged, that will mean the
chassis needs to be binned and cannot be rebuilt.
Ferrari and Corvette continue
their monumental scrap for the lead in GTE Pro. It is between Alessandro
Pier Guidi and Jordan Taylor. The sister AF Corse Ferrari holds down
third in class with Brazilian Daniel Serra at the wheel. Daniel Serra's
father Chico Serra raced Formula 2 and Formula 1 in the 1970s and '80s.
Pier Guidi has moved past Jordan Taylor. We have forgotten Nick Mason and
Holly Mason, father and daughter. Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd,
the great rock and roll band, he has driven sports cars both at a Pro Am and
amateur level. We have had a lot of father/son or dad and lad driver
duos. Kevin and Jan Magnussen in this race is an example.
It looks like the Corvette
mechanics are running on fumes and getting a little zany. Now, speaking
of fumes, in England, all petrol should be containing biomass elements in the
next month. It goes from 5-10% in a little over a week. Higher
octane gas is at five percent but the price will increase. The ACO also
announced, from 2022 onward, Total, is set to have 100% renewable fuel for next
year for the WEC and the European Le Mans Series, based on bioethanol made from
of all things, are you ready for this? Wine residue. So, would you
rather drink a cab sav or a chardonnay or a merlot, or put it in your car's
petrol tank?
Why not. It is from wine
residue, not the wine itself. Hopes are to reduce CO2 emissions by
65%. The Porsche Super Cup one make championship uses a synthetic biofuel
for racing that is produced from food waste. Bentley recently took a
Continental GT3 car to Pikes Peak and ran in the famed hill climb there, in
Colorado, running the car on a synthetic fuel made from biomass. Exxon
Mobil are developing that and they also want to use algae of all things for
synthetic fuel. Volkswagen and Porsche are also looking at synthetic fuel
for petrol powered motors. This is interesting. We wonder what
hydrogen will do.
The pit crews are getting
ready. Anyhow, the ACO and the FIA said in their Friday press
conference. Hold on. Hold that thought. We have an interview
with Alex Lynn. He says that driving out there at Le Mans is very busy.
Catching a GT car is hard when you are evaluating risk, and the team had damage
to the car earlier on in the race. United Autosport were running very
well earlier but now, they just have to go for it, moving back towards the
leaders and going for maximum attack with more than half the race left to
run. Lynn says that with less power and more weight, they lost only three
seconds in qualifying trim. He has a much faster and quicker car.
He is sharing the #23 United Autosport LMP2 car with Paul di Resta and Wayne
Boyd, an all-British driver lineup. Meanwhile, during the interview with
Alex, we saw the RealTeam Racing LMP2 car pit from ninth in class, the #70
Oreca with Esteban Garcia from Switzerland, currently at the wheel.
The #79 WeatherTech Porsche is
in the garage and the pit crew is swarmed all over the car in a frantic effort
to repair it. Damage on the front and back ends of the car. Once in
the garage, everyone can work on it. It is stripped down to the bare bones,
but they'll know if it is salvageable or not. They are examining the
car. Will it return? Or is it game over? The rule at Le Mans
is that you have to complete 70% of the leader's distance, and if you don't,
you are not classified, disqualified from the official results sheet at the end
of the motor race. We watch a replay of the accident with the WeatherTech
Porsche. Ouch! That was a heavy lick even though the right rear
corner was damaged for the most part.
We are now looking at the #92
factory Porsche, third in GTE Pro behind the Ferrari and the Corvette.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, Jordan Taylor, Michael Christensen, the top three in LM
GTE Pro. Alexander Sims was out for a long while doing a triple stint on
tires. So, the Michelin tires are in their sweet spot around Le Mans this
evening. So, now that the housekeeping is out of the way, we ought to see
if there is more to speak of with Chris Parsons and company on the subject
of... hydrogen. For some years the ACO stated they'd have a class of cars
exclusively focused on being fueled on hydrogen power. Now, we see a car
going off the road in one of the chicanes on the Mulsanne straight to interrupt
this discussion on the hydrogen probability.
We'll return to that in a wee
while, (the car off the road). Back then, to hydrogen. Because of
the pandemic, we won't see a hydrogen powered car until 2025. Currently,
there is a working group of officials from the ACO in discussion with eight
automakers about hydrogen fuel for race cars. ACO hydrogen group manager
Bernard Niclot says three companies will be ready to go with hydrogen powered
prototypes to win the race overall. These cars, whatever they end up as,
will be powered by geeen hydrogen made from water as opposed to blue hydrogen
made from the gas itself. They have companies from Asia, Europe, and the
United States, who are interested.
Hyundai and Toyota have
hydrogen powered automobiles on the market in Great Britain right now.
So, we shall wait and see where the hydrogen endurance race car saga
goes. Mr. Akio Toyoda, the founder, and CEO of Toyota motorcars in Japan,
he recently competed in a 24-hour race in Japan driving a hydrogen powered
Yaris compact car. The hydrogen powered a standard petrol motor that was
converted to use hydrogen. JCB are making earth movers to run on
hydrogen, (bulldozers, backhoes, steam shovels etc.) Buses are also now
being powered by hydrogen. The British government says hydrogen will
account for 1/4 of energy production and consumption in the next 30
years. Meanwhile, the #63 Corvette C8.R has been in the pit lane for
scheduled service.
The hydrogen powered race cars
we will see will be a part of Le Mans Hypercar and will not race within their
own separate category. The hydrogen prototype sports car will use a spec
chassis that is being developed by Red Bull, yes, the same Red Bull that is not
just the energy drink but also the Formula 1 constructor. It is a
cooperative effort between Red Bull and Oreca. Each individual brand that
wants to get involved will develop their own fuel cell technology. So,
that is where the hydrogen story stands at this point in time.
The #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488
GTE is in the pit lane. We are soon to be at the end of the eleventh hour
of this race. Man, oh man. Time flies when you are having
fun! This motor race has been a gas so far! We know none of you
folks are going to go to bed. So, stay with us. Michael Christensen
might be the quieter of the Porsche factory drivers, but he is astonishingly
quick, too. Speak softly and carry a big, heavy foot. Some drivers
like being told they have faster cars coming up on them and they need to yield,
while others don't appreciate it at all. Faster traffic is important
because at night you have no idea because all the headlights are the
same. The GT cars do not use yellow amber gels on the headlights anymore
like they used to.
Right now, Michael Christensen
has the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE right on his six, just 6/10ths of a second
behind, coming in a hurry. The team is telling him, "the Ferrari is
on much fresher tires and he will breeze right by, so don't fight it, and don't
slam the door on him. Stick to the plan." We saw that the #7
Toyota had a nasty brake lockup into Mulsanne corner and sometimes it can lock
the brakes up when harvesting the energy back into the batteries from the motor
and the brakes. Let us now have a Captain Cook at the 2022 FIA WEC
calendar so that we know when to follow the races next year. The season
will begin in March at Sebring with the 1,000 mile race that is a doubleheader
with the IMSA WeatherTech Championship and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The Prologue FIA WEC official test session will run at Sebring as well next year, a week or so before the race itself. Holy smokes! So the Prologue will be March 12th-13th 2022 with the 1,000 miles on March 18th and the 12 Hours of Sebring the next day on March 19th. That is the first of half a dozen races. Round two will be the traditional May date at Circuit de Spa Francorchamps in Belgium in the Ardennes pine forests, on May 7th. Round three, is the classic. We will be right back here at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, on June 12th and 13th, 2022. That is when the crown jewel race is next year, so, mark your calendars ladies and gentlemen.
July 10th at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza will be the Monza 6 Hours following Le Mans. A hopeful return to Fuji Speedway in Fuji, Japan, will be on September 11th, and then, on November 12th, the season finale in Bahrain. Hopefully this schedule I have just given to you works out with all of the ever shifting madness that is the global pandemic right now. Alpine will pit soon. Whoever their driver is now, we don't know exactly who, he is being told to box, either this lap or the next. Also at the press conference yesterday, IMSA and the ACO signed a partnership agreement extension for another decade.
So, there will be influence overlap in the two championships for the next ten years and we shall see where that leads, hopefully, in a positive direction. The Glickenhaus is in the pit lane and it looks to be the #708 car. The manufacturers can invest in sports car racing, and we hope it works out because sometimes things don't work. The trouble is that the ACO and IMSA are two different committees, so we don't know if the cars will be compatible. It's like trying to have a horse and you end up designing a camel. Sorry to be crude, but that's how it can work sometimes. Let's try and be positive about it. There will be a lot more cars, too, competing for a win.
However, we need to sort out class name confusion. Let's just zip it on that deal. Of course we have also talked about GT3 making a debut in the ACO rules racing in 2024 because these gorgeous GTE Pro cars from the factories are amazing but they are extremely expensive compared to a prototype if it is not a Hypercar. LMP2 of course is capped for cost reasons, as we see the #36 Alpine in the pit lane now. It is a fuel stop for #36. Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Lamborghini and more, already race in GT3 in the SRO GT World Challenge. Audi and Mercedes are going to pull out of the Formula Electric series.
BMW will have an LMDh car,
too. IMSA and the ACO want manufacturer involvement but don't want high
costs and boatloads of money associated with getting them into the sport and
keeping them here in the wonderful world of sports car racing. It is an
internecine battle in LMP2 at WRT as Yifei Ye is catching Charles Milesi hand
over fist at a rate of knots. There's 15 seconds or so between those two
chaps. Pit stop time for the second High Class Racing LMP2, the #49
car. This is the one being shared by Jan and Kevin Magnussen (father and
son), alongside Anders Fjordbach in that all Danish effort.
Jan Magnussen will take over
the car for this stint. Anders Fjordbach's dad, Soren, runs the
team. Also, into the pit lane, we have the #54 AF Corse Ferrari in LM GTE
Am. This is the regular season entry for Francseco Castellaci of Italy,
his countryman and former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, and
Switzerland's Thomas Flohr. Ah. Wow. We have a purple sector
from Sebastien Buemi, fastest of all in each sector of the track, in Toyota
#8. Not sure which segment of the track that is in, however. Kevin
Magnussen, Jan's son, is signed to race in the Peugeot Hypercar for next year
and is currently running a Cadillac DPi with Ganassi Racing in IMSA as
well.
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