It was a busy couple of days at Le Mans for the Test Day, with a relatively quiet press room, many media outlets opting to miss the opportunity to hear the stories from the horses mouth.
That all means that there is more news still to come and plenty of material for our previews of the classes.
Before then though there’s plenty to roll into what feels like a long overdue Editorial, some observations, and some hopefully constructive criticisms, of current matters in the FIA WEC/ Le Mans 24 Hours paddock.
Electronics
I have seldom, if ever, been at a high profile motorsport event where so many top team’s cars were called for failed transponders of one form or another.
In particular it seems that timing transponders were having difficulties yesterday with both LMP1 Porsches and at least two of the Ford GTs instructed to pit for attention to non-functioning items.
That indicates either a faulty batch, an installation issue, or (as is proving to be the case) fodder for the conspiracy theorists!
It certainly seemed to prevent the Fords at least from tripping the speed trap in the first session, no data for any of the four shown on the official timing, and incomplete data too reported to be available from the second!
Blocking Tactics
During the Radio Le Mans Test Day coverage ace pit reporter Joe Bradley had his view of an ongoing damper change for the #7 Audi rather rudely blocked by an effective ‘human shield’ provided by Audi Sport technical staff.
It’s just the latest in a series of spoiler tactics, in particular from the factory LMP1 teams, to prevent their technical secrets from being displayed to the media, the public, and most particularly, their competitors.
From the fitted blankets of Peugeot days to more elaborate engineered covers for the exposed front ends of the cars in the garage, and more recently still, full sight screens for the front of the garage and now, what amounts to a rent a mob.
One move, reported today by our French colleagues from Endurance Info, seems to be a sanction taken against both the Porsche and Toyota teams, both of whom, allegedly, blocked officials views of their cars during the Test. In the circumstances it seems surprising that Audi too are not up before the ‘headmaster’.
It’s a good move from the powers that be, but I’d like to see this taken a step further, screens and human shields are simply unacceptable, the major teams already make it all but impossible for working media to access the rear of their working areas, and now they seem to feel it is acceptable to block the view for the media and public at the front, not just at Le Mans but at 6 hour FIA WEC race meetings too.
Frankly it’s all pretty ridiculous, it’s certainly not in keeping with the much promoted ‘Spirit of Endurance’ and it’s about time the Sporting Regulations stamped on it.
Ford Focus
Until the closing stages of the Test Day the timing screens showed a remarkable performance from the quartet of Ford GTs, together in public for the first time.
Not because they were nailed to the top of the timing screens, of course they weren’t, this is year one of a complex programme in a hugely competitive environment, or something similar! But because they were separated, all four of them, by just 0.079 of a second!
Late session runs from a couple of the cars stretched out the margin but still not troubling the top of the class timing despite their substantial pre Le Mans weight break.
Cynicism still reigns over the apparent performance shortcomings of the radical new Fords.
If the data acquisition systems fitted to the cars are operating properly then any attempt by Ford, or anyone else for that matter, to hide latent performance, should be transparently obvious, and certainly should have been picked up in any debate over Balance of Performance.
If we do see a leap forward in performance levels in race week then not only the teams concerned, but also those responsible for the monitoring systems and BoP, will have some serious questions to answer!
Rebellion Running Hard
After the woes at Silverstone and Spa for several of the factory LMP1 Hybrids, Rebellion Racing has seemingly become a Leicester City-like hot tip for success in a couple of week’s time.
The step back to an earlier spec AER has helped with the late season reliability woes suffered by the fan favourite R-Ones and time with the cars since last year has helped too. The slippery Oreca-styled R-One is a rocket ship in a straight line, by far the fastest thing through the speed traps, and there was a big year on year improvement in lap times too, Imperatori’s 3:27.062 a three second improvement on last yer’s best Rebellion time and a mighty six seconds clear of the ByKolles CLM, which itself managed a five second improvement on its 2015 Test Day best.
Orecas Bossing LMP2
Throughout the two sessions there were remarkably few interruptions in an Oreca 05/ Alpine A460 train at the top of the timing screens.
There are seven such chassis in the 23 car LMP2 class and for considerable periods of the test those seven filled all seven top slots.
It was only an excellent effort by G-Drive’s Jake Dennis in the ‘Mighty #38’ Gibson (4th fastest) and Laurens Vanthoor in the sole Honda engined car, the #49 MSR Ligier, (8th fastest) that prevented an ‘Oreca-wash!’
The 05 is clearly a car that works very well indeed around the Circuit de La Sarthe. If that performance is matched in race week then the sales pitch for the new for 2017 07 LMP2 coupe will have another highly convincing chapter.
Rulebook Moves Efficiency Goalposts, Manufacturers Match 2015 Performance
A pair of significant changes to the regulations for the LMP1 class were designed to restrict ultimate lap times and further improve efficiency.
The much reported reduction in the hybrid boost that the LMP1 H’s can deploy at one time and a further reduction (7%) in fuel allowance do not though seem to have cramped the style of the leading runners with the fastest lap time of the Test Day within four tenths of a second of last year’s best.
Once again the near vertical development curve of the factory teams seems to be keeping pace (at the very least) with attempts to stem the flow.
Reliability Schmeliability
There has been a huge amount of paddock and fan gossip over the potential impact on the overall finishing order of the combination of the restriction by all three factory LMP1 teams to a pair of cars apiece, and the apparent lack of reliability of the cars in the opening races of the season.
Porsche have made the most public pronouncement in revealing that they have reverted to their 2015 battery pack in search of better reliability, a major step back from a significant component that was developed to help access more hybrid power for longer, though that benefit was likely to be less of a true performance benefit at Le Mans with the power delivery restriction in place.
Toyota meanwhile appear to be on top of the Spa reliability issues that looked to have cost them a likely race win. Team sources revealed that the two seemingly unlinked issues that saw the effective retirement of both cars (though one went on to complete a last gasp, and historic, lap on hybrid boost only to take valuable Championship points) were actually based on the same core factor, the cars were bottoming out badly, and the subsequent shocks through the structure caused damage to different components in the engine and drivetrain.
As for Audi, That’s a tale for another day!
Reserve Drivers Galore
Whilst we have often seen additional drivers added to a Test Day roster the proliferation of nominated Reserve Drivers was something of a surprise,
More names were added during the Test Day itself with Alex Brundle (G-Drive) and Klaus Bachler (Dempsey-Proton/ KCMG (GTE Am) amongst the names added ‘on the day’.
There were two drivers slated for the race proper that did not appear, over and above the trio of Platinum ranked names already missing from the Test Day entry. Both were occupied at the Detroit race meeting for IMSA and Indycar, Ryan Dalziel and Mikhail Aleshin.
Larbre Latecomers
The potential replacement for the injured Paolo Ruberti was a significant storyline in the Le mans paddock over Test Day weekend – It was clear that Jack Leconte favoured the re-introduction of Larbre old boy Jean Philippe Belloc to the fold whilst sources suggested that elements within Corvette Racing were keen to see Nick Catsburg get his chance.
Both drove at the Test and, to the surprise of literally nobody that know of his racing heritage, Catsburg turned in some impressive laps, topping the GTE AM times with the only lap in the class to dip under 1:58.
Leconte though is famously uninterested in single lap pace, and famously very interested in a fiscally sustainable programme, one of the most experienced team owners in the paddock he’s looking for a combination that will give him the best possible chance to bring the #50 Corvette to a double points scoring finish.
For him that means that the known quantity of Belloc plays a better poker hand that the undoubtedly faster Catsburg. The race is now on to see whether the Dutchman can up the ante with some serious sponsorship revenue to trump the Frenchman!
Troubled Runs
There were few major problems during the eight hours of running:
The #97 Aston Martin required an engine change that cost it most of the morning session.
The #34 Race Performance Oreca 03-R Judd had a pair of incidents in the hands of fourth driver Dean Koutsoumidis, one of which saw front end damage sufficient to cost a significant chunk of time.
The #99 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin stopped at the start of the first chicane in the second session and was not returned to the track thereafter, reason as yet undiscovered by DSC, Liam Griffin was at the wheel of the car.
The #84 SRT41 Garage 56 Morgan Nissan had a couple of on track issues, and later suffered an engine issue which ended running for the day early.
The most significant pair of issues befell LMP cars.
Audi’s #7 R18 lost over two hours of running to what was reported to be a front damper change, that’s an extraordinarily long time off track for an Audi, famously almost ultimately serviceable, Racecar Engineering’s Sam Collins, running pitlane reporting duties for Radio Le Mans though spotted evidence that the issue may well have been a problem for the LSS ‘Linked Suspension System’.
Moving into the final half hour of planned running there was a red flag that ultimately ended track action for the day.
That was because the #49 Michael Shank Racing Ligier Honda, with Ozz Negri Jr at the wheel and on an out lap, had hit the barrier hard on drivers’ left in the braking zone for the second Mulsanne Chicane.
Mercifully news came rapidly that the driver was OK, later reporting that the car had snapped left under braking. The team report that the tub was undamaged, the car is currently being rebuilt and will shake down midweek before scrutineering this weekend.
The 60 cars at the Test Day all look good to go for Race Week
That will be a nice round 60 for this writer’s 60th 24 hour race!
