[LM24 Race] 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by hallenstein

anybody find out what really happened there
been searching on the net but no statements/explanations ...

Is this in reference to the Dalla Lana accident? It was right in front of us. Looked like he just dropped it? It was trying to rain at that point I think but not sure that would have made any difference.

Roald Goethe went off in the exact same place at the start of the race.

[TzeiTzei]

Some thoughts about the race. What a great event this is. A 24h race is just something so special. And the fact that the safety cars don't bunch up the whole field, there are no lap down wave bys etc. means that it really is a race from start to finish. Not some parade for the first 20 hours or so. The slow zones worked quite well, with the exception of that one incident. Still, I think it is a good system. And practice makes perfect.

LMP1 was action packed for the first few hours. Audi seemed to have the pace to challenge and beat Porsche, but during the night all that changed. #19 had a pretty much flawless race and deserved the victory. The Audis had some trouble and the Toyotas were simply never in the competition.

Nissan... well it's a learning year and it was quite entertaining to watch their racing early on. The Rebellion are still unfortunately in the no man's land. A valiant effort from Bykolles and especially their fuel pump changer .

LMP2 offered good racing, although maybe not as tight as I would have expected. KCMG sort of had it under control all the time. G-Drive and Jota hit trouble very early and after Greaves and Thiriet retired it was kind of over. Still disappointed by the performance of Strakka Dome. The SMP prototype didn't impress either, but that car is still very new.

GTE Pro was once again quite entertaining. The Aston dropped out one by one. Too bad for the #51, but I'm happy that Corvette won. Porsche just didn't seem to have the pace. In Am the Aston seemed to have it in the bag, and then threw it away. I have to say I'm quite happy for Dempsey, it was clearly a quite emotional moment for him and the team.

[Mike E]

All 8 leading LMP1 cars filling the top 8 places, and all covered by only 9 laps, was an amazing performance, especially considering the pace of the race. Toyota must have looked at the pace of Audi and Porsche and thought they could maybe salvage a top 4 or 5 finish if they kept out of trouble, but it was not to be.

The Nissans were interesting to see but they looked painful to drive. Corner speed was visibly down on the LMP2s, and their front brakes took a beating. They were glowing on lap one of qualifying at Arnage and required multiple disc and pad changes. Presumably they were getting little or no retardation from the hybrid system.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Here's a video I found of a slow zone removal in what is probably zone 35: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjk-B17g9-I

Notice at the end where the Rebellion and Murphy cars come through at full speed compared to the Audi and Ferrari, who entered the slow zone just before it was removed. They really need to continue waving a yellow flag at the zone 34 marshals post, to warn cars coming through that the slow zone has been lifted and cars are still going slow. Would've helped give a bit of warning to the #8 Audi.

[Jaguar4]

I wasn't able to watch the race this weekend. Has anyone uploaded the race on Youtube yet?

[pauln]

Originally Posted by Mike E

The Nissans were interesting to see but they looked painful to drive. Corner speed was visibly down on the LMP2s, and their front brakes took a beating. They were glowing on lap one of qualifying at Arnage and required multiple disc and pad changes. Presumably they were getting little or no retardation from the hybrid system.

Autosport's analysis contains confirmation that the hybrid system was not engaged at all. This had severe knock-ons not just to braking (including needing to fit larger pads than intended) but to several other systems. Taking those together with staying off the kerbs and a couple of other bits, the article reckons they could retrieve most of the 18 seconds they were down - if they get backing to continue the project and sort out the issues.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Ginaro Zukovsky

Here's a video I found of a slow zone removal in what is probably zone 35: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjk-B17g9-I

Notice at the end where the Rebellion and Murphy cars come through at full speed compared to the Audi and Ferrari, who entered the slow zone just before it was removed. They really need to continue waving a yellow flag at the zone 34 marshals post, to warn cars coming through that the slow zone has been lifted and cars are still going slow. Would've helped give a bit of warning to the #8 Audi.

The transition into the newly removed slow zone can be difficult to mange, and i'm not sure what to do about it, other than as you say maybe wave the yellow for a few more seconds.

[hallenstein]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Is this in reference to the Dalla Lana accident? It was right in front of us. Looked like he just dropped it? It was trying to rain at that point I think but not sure that would have made any difference.

Roald Goethe went off in the exact same place at the start of the race.

yes, I refer to that
it was really weird how he just went straight into the wall
have not found any info on a reason for it and was wondering
somebody suggested a steering failure??? ...

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Mike E

The Nissans were interesting to see but they looked painful to drive. Corner speed was visibly down on the LMP2s, and their front brakes took a beating. They were glowing on lap one of qualifying at Arnage and required multiple disc and pad changes. Presumably they were getting little or no retardation from the hybrid system.

There is a report on Racer.com Here that Nissan ran the LM24 without Hybrid enabled

Would certainly explain the braking challenge

[Deleted]

The effort by KCMG was almost as good as Strakka's in 2010. Yeah alright they did have some issues and gremlins during the event, and were "only" 9th overall, but still the class of the field by far. And in 2010 most of the LMP1 field exploded out of Strakka's way for that 5th place finish, and P2s were faster and more sparsely contested. So it was excellent job. I suspect next year few teams will be throwing their ancient open tops, or even newer coupes out of the way for Oreca 05 switch. Not only because of the seemingly light mods required for 2017 spec nonsense, but since the chassis seems to have the means to do it. Oak must be a bit worried since their nearest French rival did in the first go and they are still collecting leftover places!

Anyway. Good race, not quite lived up to the expectations and I would argue last year was quite bit more entertaining (most definitely in P1 with the three manufacturers and more trouble for all), but still good. And in any case, Le Mans is always the best racing weekend of the year whether or not it's exciting on track.

Congrats to Porsche

My fav events this decade in order
1) 2010
2) 2011
3) 2014
4) 2012
5) 2015
6) 2013

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by hallenstein

yes, I refer to that
it was really weird how he just went straight into the wall
have not found any info on a reason for it and was wondering
somebody suggested a steering failure??? ...

Aston saying it was driver error on the #98 which is what I thought.

http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/da...746_21176.html

You could see his reaction when he got out of the car. He couldn't believe what he'd just done.

[Akrapovic]

From the TV Cameras it looked like a car failure tbh, but if Aston say driver it must be driver. It was a very odd accident.

In the No. 97 fighting for the lead in GT Pro, unfortunately Rob Bell hit a curb which caused engine failure.

Maybe the reason Aston can't seem to turn the over-BOPing into results is that the car can't be thrown around like the others can.

[nobster]

driver error or not, both Lauda and Dalla lana had done their minimum times behind the wheel according radio Le Mans, personally I would have put the best driver of that car behind the wheel for the last part : Pedro Lamy.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by nobster

driver error or not, both Lauda and Dalla lana had done their minimum times behind the wheel according radio Le Mans, personally I would have put the best driver of that car behind the wheel for the last part : Pedro Lamy.

I agree, except that the guy paying the cheques obviously wanted to cross the finish line himself.
Hard to argue with him to be honest.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by nobster

driver error or not, both Lauda and Dalla lana had done their minimum times behind the wheel according radio Le Mans, personally I would have put the best driver of that car behind the wheel for the last part : Pedro Lamy.

True, but Lamy may have been on the edge in terms of driving time over the last 6 hours. Plus he was unwell with chickenpox.

[Hawkwood]

Does anyone have the link to that German site that compares the lap times of the cars/drivers in each class etc?

I haven't seen it posted in the thread yet, maybe they haven't compiled the info yet?

Not sure where else that kind of info would be so easy to view?

[Artur]

are you talking about gt-eins?

[Hawkwood]

That's the one!
Thank you!

Doesn't look like they've got that info up for the 24 Hours yet, if they will.
It is a massive amount of info.

[Victor_RO]

Roald Goethe out of hospital after his Sunday morning crash, and sounds like he had similar surgery to Nakajima to repair a broken vertebra. And the article carries a fan photo from next to the big wheel which seems to indicate that the #19 Porsche pushed the Aston off in a rather low-percentage move in traffic: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119643

[Simmi]

Honestly I'd forgotten about the fact the #19 was involved. Funny how some things get glossed over.

Admittedly I was pretty tired but my first reaction upon seeing it was that there was contact. And the subsequent pitstop repair basically confirmed that.

Glad Roald is out of hospital anyway. And he's completely right to call for a safer barrier in that section. Someone goes off there every year.

[tux]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Roald Goethe out of hospital after his Sunday morning crash, and sounds like he had similar surgery to Nakajima to repair a broken vertebra. And the article carries a fan photo from next to the big wheel which seems to indicate that the #19 Porsche pushed the Aston off in a rather low-percentage move in traffic: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119643

I didnt realise the #19 had actually made contact with the Aston, TV pictures were misleading.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Roald Goethe out of hospital after his Sunday morning crash, and sounds like he had similar surgery to Nakajima to repair a broken vertebra. And the article carries a fan photo from next to the big wheel which seems to indicate that the #19 Porsche pushed the Aston off in a rather low-percentage move in traffic: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119643

Glad to hear Goethe is out of hospital, especially after a crash like that but if it is the case #19 Porsche pushed the Aston off, it's very hard to tell from the footage.

https://youtu.be/7Vro0W-frs4

[joeb]

For an outsider's look at the race this Cnet report is pretty bad. I stopped counting the errors halfway through.

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/inside-...race-pictures/

[GT6]

i know know that the chap who wrote that had probably no idea of where he was but some one should have checked it for glaring errors, like the comment that most cars have hybrid and that the drivers can only do a maximum total driving time of 4 hours 30 minutes in the car, which means that his maths could not work out that would require 6 drivers per car to do 24 hours. Plenty of other glaring errors so perhaps this chap should seek a career where writing or facts or numbers are not required

[isynge]

Originally Posted by joeb

For an outsider's look at the race this Cnet report is pretty bad. I stopped counting the errors halfway through.

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/inside-...race-pictures/

I try to make a lot of allowances for mainstream media / non specialist reporting of racing, but this is really markedly poor - as much for the mangled English that almost feels auto translated.

Ho hum.