[LM24 Race] 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans - Race week thread

[eps]

Originally Posted by bella

i think a lot of you are missing the human element to 24 hour races. the car bit is nothing without the human stories behind them, and if you know some of them you'll understand that you'll never know all of them. that some people focus solely on the cars and performance just seems to miss out a huge, vast, enormous part of the event.

obviously lots of people will never be able to get to the race and that's cool but honestly... look further.

i can tell you about my le mans. i'm knackered. 100% purely existing on momentum and inertia at this point. got scratches and bruises i don't entirely understand and have somehow picked up a cold. the start was this huge burst of life from the other side - you live a week inside the garages and the pit box, you've built this tight knit little le mans experience and then boom, all of a sudden you realise that there's more to build it out of.

the wee small hours feel like you're just surviving, all you're doing is keeping the car going because that's all you can do yourself. you spend this entire week flogging yourself to give the boys and the car the best opportunity to get the circuit figured out and the right bits of the car glued together so nothing falls off, and then on race day someone's like, "sure, it's just like testing except you're all going to get at least one randomly selected drama". it's not about who recovers the best from that drama, it's like musical chairs when you all know when the music will stop but if you linger round a chair you'll fall over your shoelaces.

sometimes it just isn't your race, i'm still not completely sure where our car finished, but she finished. the entire paddock will be kicking pigeons for weeks over That One Thing that changed the course of their race, where it started to wobble. the first thing that comes to mind if you try and start a sentence with "if... hadn't happened, we'd have...". and there's usually one person in the team turning over and examining that thing, and rationalising that whilst it happened in their hands, it was le mans that caused it. you can't start picking apart every little thing that goes wrong and apportioning blame because it doesn't work like that.

Excellent post, thanks for sharing. Having been involved in a 25hrs race - I can only concur. Halfway through the week you start to think you've already done half the things you need to in the race as you've practiced and practiced already during the practice sessions. For the team a 24 race is probably closer to a 32 or 36 hour stretch, with all the build up and prep that happens beforehand and getting everything ready and then tidying up and packing away (if they reach the end of the race that is!). If not more. Lack of sleep is a problem as you're on a high whilst engaged in the race and not really wanting to take a rest mid-race, even if you've got 2 'teams' of mechanics.

I think Audi 'sort of' ruined Endurance racing with a lot of clever thinking and making their cars durable and easy to mend or even making tactical component changes mid-race in the matter of minutes, when previously it would have taken hours. The expectation is that all top-flight teams can achieve this, but it's just not the case and the spending caps and new regulations mean that the cars are a little more fragile.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Truckosaurus

Excellent post. It's no mean feat to even finish, let alone win, so we should definitely not be suggesting Toyota had it easy.

the brand perhaps had it easy because there was no credible opposition but you bet your arse every single person gave absolutely everything they had to make it happen. it only takes one person to cock up for it to all go wrong. assembling a team capable of winning is no mean feat, and it sounds odd to say it but the only real opposition is yourselves. your yardstick is your driver feedback, your data and your own pitstops.

[greenmachinets040]

Could anyone help me please?

I was just wondering when was the last time that the pole-sitting car won the race? It did not happen many times, that is for sure!

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by greenmachinets040

Could anyone help me please?

I was just wondering when was the last time that the pole-sitting car won the race? It did not happen many times, that is for sure!

2018, the #8 TS050 qualified and finished first.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by greenmachinets040

Could anyone help me please?

I was just wondering when was the last time that the pole-sitting car won the race? It did not happen many times, that is for sure!

2013, 2016, 2018 the most recent ones.

[greenmachinets040]

Originally Posted by Simmi

2013, 2016, 2018 the most recent ones.

Thank you. I thought it happened more rarely.

[seanyb505]

Can't remember if I've mentioned it elsewhere, but yeah finishing the race let alone winning is an achievement. Us nerds will look at who won what year and what competition they had or didn't have, but even the media doesn't treat it like that. HOWEVA..

Toyota's moaning all season long until Le Mans gets under my skin personally. I don't really have specific team/manufacturer favorites, I just want to see a close race. Toyota all year long will talk about how gaps to competitors and this year gaps to a lower class are just too small and just something must be done! Then they show up to the green flag of the important one and those gaps are now large enough for the Evergiven to sail through completely sideways. It's happened the last few years. Some call it sandbagging, others say well of course they're going to find time as they learn. It's the hope I have for a close race that fails me. And it's because Toyota couldn't find those gaps at any of the other tracks throughout the year until Le Mans. Same thing roughly happens in F1 with Mercedes and Hamilton. This year is closer, but previously it's like, no. Red Bull isn't actually faster than you and Hamilton's tires aren't actually dead prior to the fast lap. Close race hopes dashed again.

Then Monday morning a Toyota Camry decided they needed to not get caught for another red light and parked their car in the middle of an intersection blocking the next few light cycles for the less heavy traffic directions. Screw you buddy.

I don't have favorites, but it's definitely not Toyota. But that group of people worked hard at Le Mans either way.

[Toyotats03OUS]

Just read news that Cadillac is coming into the hyper class in 2023!!! Man!! Exciting years ahead for the sport guys!! Toyota is going to have heavy competitions ! Can’t wait

[Toyotats03OUS]

Toyota, audi, Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot and Cadillac + glickenhaus, alpine and hopefully bykolles.. this might get better then the lmp1 era..

Hopefully more Japanese manufacture will jump in too

[Toyotats03OUS]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

Can't remember if I've mentioned it elsewhere, but yeah finishing the race let alone winning is an achievement. Us nerds will look at who won what year and what competition they had or didn't have, but even the media doesn't treat it like that. HOWEVA..

Toyota's moaning all season long until Le Mans gets under my skin personally. I don't really have specific team/manufacturer favorites, I just want to see a close race. Toyota all year long will talk about how gaps to competitors and this year gaps to a lower class are just too small and just something must be done! Then they show up to the green flag of the important one and those gaps are now large enough for the Evergiven to sail through completely sideways. It's happened the last few years. Some call it sandbagging, others say well of course they're going to find time as they learn. It's the hope I have for a close race that fails me. And it's because Toyota couldn't find those gaps at any of the other tracks throughout the year until Le Mans. Same thing roughly happens in F1 with Mercedes and Hamilton. This year is closer, but previously it's like, no. Red Bull isn't actually faster than you and Hamilton's tires aren't actually dead prior to the fast lap. Close race hopes dashed again.

Then Monday morning a Toyota Camry decided they needed to not get caught for another red light and parked their car in the middle of an intersection blocking the next few light cycles for the less heavy traffic directions. Screw you buddy.

I don't have favorites, but it's definitely not Toyota. But that group of people worked hard at Le Mans either way.

Well it is very obvious that you have something against Toyota and that you don’t like them.. but I hate break it to you but the entire objective of any given team is to win at all cost!. And just like Toyota and Mercedes, every other team and the past has done it! ( sandbagging ), and they will try anything!, from not showing their cards earlier in the year to not get BOP, to complain about the other team being fast in hopes that they get bop and the list goes on!

Is just the nature of the beast

[Toyotats03OUS]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

Can't remember if I've mentioned it elsewhere, but yeah finishing the race let alone winning is an achievement. Us nerds will look at who won what year and what competition they had or didn't have, but even the media doesn't treat it like that. HOWEVA..

Toyota's moaning all season long until Le Mans gets under my skin personally. I don't really have specific team/manufacturer favorites, I just want to see a close race. Toyota all year long will talk about how gaps to competitors and this year gaps to a lower class are just too small and just something must be done! Then they show up to the green flag of the important one and those gaps are now large enough for the Evergiven to sail through completely sideways. It's happened the last few years. Some call it sandbagging, others say well of course they're going to find time as they learn. It's the hope I have for a close race that fails me. And it's because Toyota couldn't find those gaps at any of the other tracks throughout the year until Le Mans. Same thing roughly happens in F1 with Mercedes and Hamilton. This year is closer, but previously it's like, no. Red Bull isn't actually faster than you and Hamilton's tires aren't actually dead prior to the fast lap. Close race hopes dashed again.

Then Monday morning a Toyota Camry decided they needed to not get caught for another red light and parked their car in the middle of an intersection blocking the next few light cycles for the less heavy traffic directions. Screw you buddy.

I don't have favorites, but it's definitely not Toyota. But that group of people worked hard at Le Mans either way.

Just to shared a quick story with you. I used to dislike Audi because they used to win all the time( they were really good ) and had no competition ( very similar to Toyota now I guess ).

Later when Toyota came back to the WEC and I’m not sure if they ( Audi) were humble down by Toyota being faster then them that very first year that they ran at Le Mans . But my point is that Audi from that very first race at leman until they left the WEC, they showed Toyota the upmost respect, specially dr Ullrich. And from there and on I started to like audi till today . So hopefully one day you learn to like Toyota too. Lol

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by Toyotats03OUS

Just read news that Cadillac is coming into the hyper class in 2023!!! Man!! Exciting years ahead for the sport guys!! Toyota is going to have heavy competitions ! Can’t wait

I could never imagine a Cadillac Le Mans prototype, so that is a pleasant surprise

[GT6]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I could never imagine a Cadillac Le Mans prototype, so that is a pleasant surprise

I still have my scalectric cadillac prototype as raced at le mans

[joeb]

Originally Posted by GT6

I still have my scalectric cadillac prototype as raced at le mans

You raced a scaletric prototype at Le Mans?

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by joeb

You raced a scaletric prototype at Le Mans?

Maybe he made a Scalextric track of Le Mans to scale

[eps]

Originally Posted by Toyotats03OUS

Just read news that Cadillac is coming into the hyper class in 2023!!! Man!! Exciting years ahead for the sport guys!! Toyota is going to have heavy competitions ! Can’t wait

Yep and not wishing to downplay their effort but it will be an LMDh entry (Dallara chassis) as opposed to LMH. The render looks gooooood though! and 2022 and 2023 certainly feel like they are going to be exciting races with a lot of variation and opportunity. I've been trying to work out which LMP2 drivers will be vying for an 'LMP1' seat... There is some real talent around.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/0...a-and-wec.html

[bella]

Originally Posted by eps

Excellent post, thanks for sharing. Having been involved in a 25hrs race - I can only concur. Halfway through the week you start to think you've already done half the things you need to in the race as you've practiced and practiced already during the practice sessions. For the team a 24 race is probably closer to a 32 or 36 hour stretch, with all the build up and prep that happens beforehand and getting everything ready and then tidying up and packing away (if they reach the end of the race that is!). If not more. Lack of sleep is a problem as you're on a high whilst engaged in the race and not really wanting to take a rest mid-race, even if you've got 2 'teams' of mechanics.

so for me, it was at circuit from about 8am saturday till 6pm sunday. i was flat out for around 30 hours of that and probably had about an hour altogether where i wasn't doing anything. you'd think that'd be worse than having time to rest but it isn't - you don't get time to *be* tired. then it's over and you just kinda... sit there holding a beer.

i'm too scared to work out how many hours i worked from arriving pre-test day to monday lunchtime. it might make me reconsider everything

i don't think anyone at LM has two shifts - the pit team and everyone else works together better than anyone else can. if you're unlucky enough to have a retirement it means you can kinda do pack up in shifts depending what time the car stops.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

You raced a scaletric prototype at Le Mans?

What's the lap time for that? Hours or days?

[GT6]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

What's the lap time for that? Hours or days?

My set was a le mans special and had the cadillac Northstar and the Audi R something.

[Simmi]

Small random thing I noticed when looking around Alkamel. High Class Racing made a clarification request at the end of July about what the regs were if a car was slow or delayed leaving the grid for the formation lap.

And then in the race the #20 got left on the jacks on the grid and had to start from the back. What are the chances of that!?

The committee decisions page is pretty interesting btw if people haven't seen it before - http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/committe.php

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Simmi

The committee decisions page is pretty interesting btw if people haven't seen it before - http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/committe.php

As indeed are the stewards' decisions. Quite an entertaining (and occasionally enlightening) read.

http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/noticeBoard.php

[Truckosaurus]

Originally Posted by Simmi

...
And then in the race the #20 got left on the jacks on the grid and had to start from the back. What are the chances of that!?...

Are you suggesting shenanigans in order to gain additional tv coverage?

(or perhaps to avoid first lap turmoil)

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

As indeed are the stewards' decisions. Quite an entertaining (and occasionally enlightening) read.

http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/noticeBoard.php

Interesting how few infractions there were.

And how of the ones there were the same car pops up a few times, e.g. 709, 777, 74. Albeit different drivers and offenses in some cases.

[S griffin]

The LM officials know how to keep discipline

[bella]

no they don't, the team managers on the whole just know how to argue their way out of penalties (for the good of the sport in a lot of cases, lbr) and pit crews are skilled and practiced enough not to do something they're not supposed to...