2018 24 Hours of Le Mans

[JasonM]

For the racing boffins that are going to be following it in part, or in total. I'll personally be hoping to make it 24h this year after just barely failing to last year.

It's the second round of the World Endurance Championship 'Super Season', a season that started last May at Spa Francorchamps with an LMP1 from the venerable two time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso (and team). A season that will run two whole calendar years as opposed to one (due to ongoing changes with WEC and the future of endurance racing)

Now the race touches down at the legendary Le Mans racing circuit for the 86th time, and whilst the LMP1 race is Toyota's to win, the other classes are as competitive as they've always been with a plethora of manufacturers and private teams competing for class wins, and at least 1 position on the general podium!

A full grid of 60 cars will be starting the race, 10 LMP1's, 20 LMP2's, 17 GTEPro, and 13 GTEAm. And with how fickle a 24h race is, anything can and will happen during the race. Nobody is guaranteed a victory, not even the dominant Toyota team that is the only factory team in LMP1 this year.

Qualifying Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans#Qualifying

Notable Drivers:
LMP1: Fernando Alonso (2x F1 WDC), André Lotterer (3x Le Mans Winner), Bruno Senna (Nephew of Ayrton, former F1 racer), Alex Brundle (Son of Martin), Kamui Kobayashi (Former F1 Racer, Le Mans podium), José Maria Lopez (3x WTCC Champ), Seb Buemi (Former F1, Le Mans Podium), Kazuki Nakajima (2x Super Formula, Le Mans podium), Jenson Button (1x F1 WDC), Vitali Petrov (Form. F1 driver)

LMP2: Paul di Resta, Will Stevens, Jean Eric-Vergne, Giedo van der Garde, Jan Lammers (62 years old, former F1 driver FROM THE 70s!), Pastor Maldonado (Legend), Juan Pablo Montoya, Ho-Pin Tung (2017 LMP2 Le Mans winner), Felipe Nasr

GTEPro: Toni Vilander (2x GTPro Le mans Winner), Antonio Giovinazzi, Jan Magnussen (4x Le Mans class winner, father of Kevin), Tony Kanaan, Sebastian Bourdais, Scott Dixon, Earl Bamber (2x LMP1 winner), Nick Tandy (1x LMP1 winner), Nicki Thiim (GTEPro WEC champ, Twitch streamer)

GTEAm: Giancarlo Fischella, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda (son of Niki)

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Broadcasting:

For people interested in following Le Mans. There is always Radio Le Mans which is a free radio feed with commentary about the race. Eurosport also fully airs the 24 hours of le Mans. In the USA 'Velocity' will air the uninterrupted race with the Eurosport commentary feed.

Le Mans itself also offers a premium app with the Le Mans apps, which offers the main feed but also on-board footage. Additionally live timing is offered on the Lemans.org site for free(?)

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Race start: June 16th @ 15:00 GMT+1

Edited June 15, 2018 by Jasonmufc

[Chris2K]

From what the media has suggested Toyota, and specifically Alonso, have pretty much won this before it starts. How true is that?

[JasonM]

28 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

From what the media has suggested Toyota, and specifically Alonso, have pretty much won this before it starts. How true is that?

On the LMP1 side of things, this year's edition is truly Toyota's to lose. There are 8 other cars running, yes. But Toyota is the only factory team, and the only team still running Hybrid technology whilst the four privateer teams have opted to go with the much cheaper and less intricate engines.

After the past two years Audi and Porsche both respectively left the LMP1 class citing ever increasing costs of running an LMP1 outfit, with reports of the Hybrid teams running close to F1 levels of budgets (Close to €100M a season). Also dieselgate made VWAG (the owners of both the Audi and Porsche brands) reconsider their presence in motorsports in general, with Audi buying into electrical racing in Formula E, and Porsche focusing on running GT4/GT3/GTE class cars instead, which are cheaper and part-focused on private teams.

Looking at the quali results, you can see the difference it has made. With Alonso's car being 4 seconds quicker than the 3rd placed Rebellion car. And the other Toyota is 2 seconds up respectively. The slowest LMP1 was nearly 10 seconds slower than the LMP1.

So the Toyota will get a quick start, and drive off into the night. And if everything goes well for them, they will win LMP1. Their pace difference to the other LMP1's is simply too great. But Toyota has had two Le Mans showings in a row where they all but won, and still lost in the end. Two years ago their first placed car broke down on the penultimate lap, and last year their cars were leading after midnight but within 30 minutes they both broke down spectacularly.

It's not a won race due to the fickle nature of Endurance racing, but it's theirs to lose.

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Additionally, this super season (that also includes next year's Le Mans 24h) will be the final season that will include the LMP1's in their current incarnation. The rising costs are too great and there's just not enough interest anymore, with the private LMP1's basically being better LMP2's.

Thus FIA and WEC have decided to stop with LMP1 starting in 2020, debuting a new GTP (GT Prototype) class that will be cheaper and more interesting for manufacturers to jump into.

Basically what this new class will be built more closer to GT in terms of aesthetics. Hypercars with road-car looks, of course still technically designed to be ultra fast. Still with some hybrid systems, but less expensive. They're aiming for 25% of LMP1 budgets. Toyota, Ford, McLaren, Aston Martin, and Ferrari have been part of these new formations and have shown an immediate interest in jumping into GTP, so hopefully that will mean a cheaper but more competitive premier endurance class.

Edited June 15, 2018 by Jasonmufc

[GA!]

Can't wait. This and four World Cup games tomorrow? JUST HOOK IT TO MY VEINS.

[Katsuya]

I think my forever issue with Le Mans is that I know I'm never gonna be able to watch all 24 hours (especially tomorrow as I'm out in the evening), and I hate the idea of missing out on anything in the bits I'm not watching, so I just lose all interest in it.

There's part of me that doesn't want Alonso to win, because that will almost 100% guarantee he leaves F1 next year and goes to Indy to finish off the Triple Crown.

[MDK]

24 Hours of Le Mans isn't what you think it means, Kats.

[JasonM]

Race hadn't even started and the ByKolles already had issues, not getting started and thus having to start at the back, then also spinning in the first corner on the formation lap.

First lap wasn't even over and there was drama. One of the Rebellion's going too aggressive into turn 1 causing them to lose their front wing. And one of the Jackie Chan DC cars going into the pits with what seems a liquid problem.

So yeah, drama!

[Lineker]

So far so good...

[JasonM]

First safety car period after an LMP2 had a massive blowout at the first chicane, and now the car's limping back to the pits and littering the shit out of the track.

[GA!]

Really enjoyed the first hour. I've had to pop over to Sheffield for a surprise birthday but I can't wait to take in the night shift later.

[JasonM]

And the ByKolles bins it at the Porsche Curves by trying to overtake a gaggle of GT cars, Death, Taxes, and ByKolles binning it.

[Lineker]

26 minutes ago, UruGA!y said:

Really enjoyed the first hour. I've had to pop over to Sheffield for a surprise birthday but I can't wait to take in the night shift later.

Hoping to convince the control room at work to switch Eurosport out to me so I can watch it while Takeover is on!

[JasonM]

The #8 (Nando's car) lost over 60s because Buemi sped in a slow zone and had to do a sixty seconds stop and go.

If they lose out on victory by a minute, Nando's gonna be SOOOOOOOO happy.

[Lineker]

14 hours to make it back up!

[JasonM]

Currently there are three retirements after just over 10 hours of driving, which is a pretty small tally all things considered. It's been really clean, although there's been plenty of close calls.

4:17 - #4 ByKolles - Spun off at Porsche Curves
6:40 - #94 Porsche - Suspension failure, couldn't be fixed
7:57 - #17 SMP Racing - Flew off at Porsche Curves and went up in flames trying to limp home after 40 minutes of trying to rip the back bumper off.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Jasonmufc

[Lineker]

#8 is finally in the league, after hours of chasing down #7!

 

[GA!]

18 hours ago, UruGA!y said:

Really enjoyed the first hour. I've had to pop over to Sheffield for a surprise birthday but I can't wait to take in the night shift later.

Got in at 12, TV on, laid out... fell asleep within 5 minutes. 😢

So sadly I've not seen much of the race this year. Roll on 2019! 

[JasonM]

3 minutes ago, UruGA!y said:

Got in at 12, TV on, laid out... fell asleep within 5 minutes. 😢

So sadly I've not seen much of the race this year. Roll on 2019! 

Ah well, it's been an interesting but uneventful race. I've had like four hours of sleep from 6-10 in the morning. Not as many fireworks as last year, but with an hour to go crazy shit can still happen as cars start to battle for those final positions.

Biggest thing is to keep yourself distracted, you can't just sit there and watch it because from a lap by lap basis it's pretty grueling to watch. Best thing is to just read something, play a game, watch a tv series (or NXT Takeover), or anything else that can keep you busy whilst tracking it on the long term.

[Lineker]

They did it! Just the Indy 500 to go now for Alonso.

[JasonM]

It was a foregone conclusion, but still an absolutely cracking drive from the #8 team to put in amazing lap times during the night to nab the lead from the sister car. Also Porsche had a brilliant race winning both GTEPro and GTEAm respectively with a #1-2 and #1 finish!

All in all a pretty damn good race, albeit not as crazy and dramatic as last year or 2016.

_{(I also feel Nico Hülkenberg winning Le Mans was more of an achievement in 2015 than Nando winning it this year, but you know, they both deserve it)}