62 year old Philippe Cimadomo will not take part in the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans after Race Stewards decided to prohibit him from competing – an effective exclusion from the remainder of the race meeting.
The removal of the Bronze-ranked driver from the #13 TDS x Vaillante Racing ORECA LMP2 Pro-Am entry has placed the whole entry in doubt, a continued Pro-Am entry would require a replacement Bronze-ranked driver whilst any shift to LMP2 would require approval of race organisers, with the remaining pair of Mathias Beche and Tijmen van der Helm a Gold and silver-rated pairing.
There is no night-time running now available pre-race and only the race morning warm-up for day-time running. Teams have previously been given dispensation to race with only two drivers but this would again require approval of race organisers.
The decision to prohibit Cimadomo came after a significant accident at the exit of the Porsche Curves in FP3, contact with the #31 WRT ORECA in traffic seeing the TDS driver lose control and make very heavy contact with the barriers, bringing out a red flag and leaving the team to rebuild a replacement car around a spare chassis.
The Frenchman was deemed at fault for the incident and, coupled with other incidents earlier in the meeting, the triggered the decision to remove him from the race entry.
The decision came after a recommendation to the Race Stewards from Race Director Eduardo Freitas and with supporting evidence and opinion from driver advisor Yannick Dalmas whose opinion is summarised in the Stewards Decision that ” the Driver is not driving to the standard required to safely participate in the remainder of the Event, especially in consideration of the specificity of the Le Mans circuit and competition, and the specifics of an LMP2 car in this specific situation.”
The decision makes it clear that their decision is “based on this specific situation and is only valid at this time. No inference should be drawn as to the driver’s capacity to compete in competitions in the future.” Cimadomo is a full-season entrant with the TDS x Vaillante team in the 2022 European Le Mans Series.
Cimadomo has a right to appeal the decision.
UPDATE – Nick de Vries has joined TDS Racing x Vaillante with the team requesting a switch to LMP2 from LMP2 Pro-Am. Subject to de Vries completing three laps in the race morning warm-up he will be permitted to compete.
TDS Racing has now issued the following statement: “After the strong accident yesterday, Philippe Cimadomo will not take part of the coming race, nevetheless all the parties agreed to maintain their participation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans
“For that purpose, Nyck de Vries will complete the driver lineup alongside to Tijmen Van der Helm and Mathias Beche.”
Dutchman De Vries drive with TDS as part of the Racing Team Nederland effort and was already on-site at Le Mans with Toyota as their nominated reserve driver.
The damaged #13 car has been rebuilt around TDS Racing’s spare tub.
