Boguslavskiy arrives late
One of the missing drivers during the weekend’s scrutineering in town was Timur Boguslavskiy, driver of the #78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus. While special dispensation had been given to drivers competing in other series such as IndyCar or DTM, Timur didn’t fit those prerequisites, and the team was summonsed to the stewards.
As it happens, Timur had missed a connecting flight on his journey to Le Mans, and as such, was unable to take part in the Pesage.
The stewards determined this to be a case of force majeure, and did not impose any penalty on Timur or the team. Timur completed his scrutineering checks this morning at the track and was able to take part in today’s test sessions.
Cairoli’s red flag whoopsie
It was noted that during the red flag to recover the #10 Vector Sport ORECA at Indianapolis during today’s afternoon test session, the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 was seen on the timing tracker stopped just beyond the incident.
A stewards bulletin posted this evening shed some more light on the situation.
Stewards Decision #13 states that the offence was to article 9.1.1 of the regulations, for driving the track in the opposite direction.
According to the decision, Cairoli had spun at Arnage while under red flags. The Lamborghini was then driven almost 100m against the direction of traffic before stopping on the right side of the road at the entrance to Arnage Corner. He then received help from the marshals to push the car as the gearbox would not engage reverse gear.
Cairoli has been given a suspended 30-second stop/go penalty until the end of the event, as well as 1 penalty point on his license.
Track limits
During the two test sessions today, race control was hot on track limit violations, showing numerous warnings and handing out a number of penalties for repeated abuse of track limits.
In total, nine different drivers were pinged with five-minute stop-and-go penalties during the test. David Heinemeier Hanson, at the wheel of the #24 Neilsen Racing Oreca 07 got pinged twice, and was given an additional 10-minute stop-and-go penalty during session 1 this morning.
Unfortunately for Cool Racing and Frederic Vesti, the #47 was penalised for track limits violations late in session 2, and with the red flag, was unable to serve its stop-and-go during the test session. As a result, the #47 will have to serve the penalty during Free Practice 1 on Wednesday.
Rao handed warning
Another investigation determined that there was contact between the #88 Proton Ford Mustang and the #47 Cool Racing ORECA through the Ford Chicane coming onto the main straight.
Naveen Rao at the seat of the Cool Racing Oreca was adjudged to be at fault for the contact, but escaped any serious sanction, with the decision by the stewards to only hand out a warning to Rao, but to put Rao ‘under observation as far as overtaking is concerned.’
Cadillac engineer Taylor aiming for second Le Mans win in a row
Justin Taylor, the race engineer for Cadillac Racing’s #3 V-Series.R returns to Le Mans this year in new surroundings.
In 2023, he was part of the Ferrari race-winning effort, before switching teams for 2024 after being recruited by Mike O’Gara.
“I tried to hire him before he got the opportunity to go to Ferrari and we stayed in touch,” O’Gara said. “I think him getting that experience has been huge. It is nice to have a fresh perspective. As far as race engineering, he’s a natural. He’s a roll-your-sleeves-up kind of guy, crawling around underneath the car, and that’s the kind of engineer I like to work with.”
He took on his new role at Sebring, replacing the departing Danielle Shepherd, who moved back to IndyCar and now serves as the race engineer for Ganassi rookie Kyffin Simpson.
Prior to that, Taylor was at Rolex 24 At Daytona and provided input and led the two-day test program at Sebring in February. He also provided input on team radio during the WEC opener in Qatar.
Taylor, who prior to his stint at Ferrari worked with Audi during its LMP1 programme, is eager to see what he can achieve with Cadillac as it looks to build on its podium at Le Mans last year.
“I’m excited to see what it will be like being there with a couple of different teams,” he said. “I’ve had the weird occurrence of being in the same pit position, same garage 17 different times with three different teams, so this year will be different and that’s already one thing that will be different for me.
“I think the main thing for us will be trying to gel with the WEC guys who have more experience on that format and that sort of track. We’ll be leaning on those guys and try our best to equal them. I think it’s one thing people miss when they look at a 24-hour race … ‘oh, they stay up for 24 hours straight’ and that’s the first incorrect thing because you’ve been awake for 36 hours before the race is done.
“Also, the work that you’ve done over the previous week takes a lot of focus, and effort. The schedule is more compact, more exciting for the fans but certainly more load on us. Trying to charge up some sleep ahead of time doesn’t work.
“Often when you show up there you can get some surprises because the track is so fundamentally different from what we (in IMSA) run on.
“The target is to get yourself ready and reduce the areas where you can make mistakes. (experience of drivers; all have input) All the guys in the Cadillac program are open about what they need to go faster and what things are working or not.
“We already saw in Qatar where Seb (Sebastien Bourdais) was a ‘guest driver’ and he gelled right away with the #2 car team and it worked out well performance-wise.”
FIA Insights on rear-view cameras
The latest FIA Insights video is all about rear-facing cameras. In this episode, former F1 driver, 2014 FIA WEC Champion and current commentator Anthony Davidson speaks with Jenson Button about the tech behind them.
Proton 963 meets its inspiration
Posted on Proton Competition’s social media this morning was a photoshoot with Proton Competition’s Porsche 963, alongside the 1990 FAT Turbo liveried Porsche 962 that inspired the 2024 full-season livery.
Positioned at the entrance to pit lane, the shoot took place by the iconic Le Mans signage on the tarmac of the final corner.
While Proton Competition isn’t running the normal livery on the 963 this week, the white with green highlights pays homage to Joest Racing’s 962s from 1989 and 1991, both of which ran with bright green highlights.
Systemic’s 24 hour Hydrogen Tuk Tuk
French start-up company Systemics is using Le Mans as a showcase for its work in soft mobility. The start-up, initiated by Antoine Abou, will be attempting to run a Tuk-Tuk for 24 hours running on 2 kg of H2 (hydrogen), in two 12-hour stretches, the first of which starts today at 8 pm.
The tuk-tuk will run laps of the Alain Prost karting track for 12 hours overnight, before being displayed in the H2 Village for the week of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, allowing the team to share their experiences and learnings with fans in the H2 Village.
The second leg of the 24-hour challenge will start at 9pm on Friday the 14th of June, running until 9am on Saturday the 15th – the morning of the race.
DTM drivers jet off
Midway through today’s first test session today, a jet departed from the Le Mans airfield adjacent to the track.
Meanwhile we hope @KelvinvdLinde will be back in time for Race 2 following his quick trip to @24hoursoflemans.#ABTSportsline #RedBull #GivesYouWiiings #DTM24 #ranDTM pic.twitter.com/ixreDzPJnM
— ABT Motorsport (@abtmotorsport) June 9, 2024
On this jet were six drivers who had completed their Le Mans test day running, and were returning to Zandvoort to compete in the second race of this weekend’s DTM Round 3 at Zandvoort.
The drivers included DTM championship leader Kelvin van der Linde (#78 Akkodis ASP Lexus), his brother Sheldon (#20 WRT BMW), Sheldon’s BMW teammate Marco Wittmann (#15 WRT BMW), Rene Rast (#20 WRT BMW), DTM Race 1 winner from Zandvoort Jack Aitken (#311 Cadillac), and Mirko Bortolotti (#63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini).
All five drivers landed safely and in time for DTM Race 2.
Tom Ferrier – “I’ve Got The Horn!”
Excellent news from TF Sport team principal Tom Ferrier, who confirmed that the UK-based team, now flag carriers for Corvette in the FIA WEC in the new LMGT3 class will maintain a proud Corvette racing tradition.
It has taken possession of the Pratt Miller ‘train horn’, with which the US team has traditionally signalled dinner time.
“I’ve got the horn,” said Ferrier during Scrutineering, mercifully then continuing to confirm he was referring to the prized dinner time signal!
