[LM24] Le Mans 2020 (19/20 September) - Who Is Going?

[batmobile]

Originally Posted by rdjones

Free practice should have started 30 mins ago and Eurosport should be on this house instead daughter number 1 is watching some rubbish on CBBC.....

Yes but actually the circuit is under r........

Envoyé de mon SM-A600FN en utilisant Tapatalk

[ATLFalconsFAN]

Originally Posted by batmobile

Yes but actually the circuit is under r........

Envoyé de mon SM-A600FN en utilisant Tapatalk

I'd be willing to deal with that right about now.

[Aysedasi]

Me too.

[Greem]

This time last year I was in the middle of my first night running session. What a disappointment not being there again

[dwh43scale]

Given the news about the 24H Moto last week (runs at end August / closed doors) one suspects it won't be too long.

[pinkdigital]

I am expecting an announcement Sunday afternoon, after the virtual event.

Perhaps as an ACO members only event(?)

[Aysedasi]

I don't know, there are a lot of members....

[rdjones]

In the last 20 mins, the ACO have put out a new timetable for race week and a new entry list - https://www.lemans.org/en/news/2020-...petition/53950 - all positive signs IMO

[PascaLM]

We can also read : "More details concerning spectator access and what will be on offer for them will be provided on 30 June."

[GT6]

Yes very positive message i think, let us hope that we will all be there to watch. If i am allowed i will be there for certain

[Simmi]

June 30 is going to decide a lot then it seems. Compacted schedule makes a lot of sense this year.

Hopefully the announcement is around social measures - e.g. grandstand limits, one-way systems, masks etc. But my gut feeling is there will be some limits imposed on numbers somehow.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Simmi

June 30 is going to decide a lot then it seems. Compacted schedule makes a lot of sense this year.

Hopefully the announcement is around social measures - e.g. grandstand limits, one-way systems, masks etc. But my gut feeling is there will be some limits imposed on numbers somehow.

Agreed.
It sounds unfeasible that they will allow hundreds of thousands in there, when it as already proven that "smaller" crowds are already an issue.
The "Black lifes matter" gatherings here in Denmark have had positive COVID-19 test persons in the crowd, resulting in a potential spread to multiple people.
If the same results starts to shown in other countries, especially France, then the amount of spectators will likely be reduced.

[eps]

Although we know that this whole thing - Covid, is going to ebb and flow, it just depends on how much ebbing and flowing govts. are willing to go through.. Are the second waves coming? We just don't know. Our govt. need to be more effective at stopping people from travelling from countries where sizeable outbreaks occur.

It's not like we're going to be in a position where there are zero cases and zero deaths from it, it's just not possible. So we can't wait for that before starting to go back towards (but not getting to) 'normal'.. Advances in the drugs that can be used to treat Covid are being made, so hopefully the trend will be ever downwards.

I think we may well be lucky but that there could also be caveats or further review/checkpoint dates.

Track and Trace needs to be effective, otherwise we're just not going to get better at dealing with this.

Anyway - only 12 days to wait...

[GT6]

It will be a very tense 12 days, then a rush to book travel if we can

[Kpy]

I just don't see how, in France, we can go from not allowing any gathering of more than 5,000 people before the end of August to suddenly allowing an international gathering of up to 200,00 people in mid-September. I know the Tour de France is meant to be running for 3 weeks from 29 August, but that's meant to be subject to strict health regulations to limit crowd sizes and there are still doubts as to whether to event will be held after all.
With the Spa 6 Hours (August 15) and the Belgian Grand Prix (August 30) both expected to be held without spectators, how could the French government, with similar restrictions to Belgium in force in August, announce a free-for-all in September?
We can always be surprised I suppose. Meanwhile

[Aysedasi]

I'm with you Christopher, it is the purest optimism to assume we will be back to something approaching normal by September. (Much as it pains me to say it). I still expect the race to go ahead, but I'm expecting severe limits on attendance. That could be 'locals' only, it could be members only, it could be some kind of 'draw' of ticket holders, we just don't know. But if anyone thinks they'll be going just because they have a ticket, I think they'll be disappointed. The problem is making decisions now - or pretty soon - without knowing what the next 12-13 weeks have in store. It's not even a case of saying that France will be OK by then, how do they guarantee that they're not importing a whole heap of trouble if they say people can travel to the race from outside France....?

I remain wholly pessimistic. It's not my usual style, but I'll be less disappointed perhaps if it turns out the way I think it will....

[eps]

Originally Posted by GT6

It will be a very tense 12 days, then a rush to book travel if we can

I just rolled my tickets on the tunnel over to September..

[eps]

Originally Posted by Kpy

I just don't see how, in France, we can go from not allowing any gathering of more than 5,000 people before the end of August to suddenly allowing an international gathering of up to 200,00 people in mid-September. I know the Tour de France is meant to be running for 3 weeks from 29 August, but that's meant to be subject to strict health regulations to limit crowd sizes and there are still doubts as to whether to event will be held after all.
With the Spa 6 Hours (August 15) and the Belgian Grand Prix (August 30) both expected to be held without spectators, how could the French government, with similar restrictions to Belgium in force in August, announce a free-for-all in September?
We can always be surprised I suppose. Meanwhile

Yep, that is the bit that is really hard to work out.. 5k now --> 100k / 200k in September.. it does seem like a gap too wide to bridge by then.

But the organisers seem and sound so positive! oh carp, I think it's going to be TV only in that case..

[Aysedasi]

I don't actually think there would be anywhere near 200k attendance, if I'm honest. I think there will be a lot of people who

a) won't be able to go due to the dates change, or
b) decide not to go as it's too great a risk
c) are not allowed to go due to whatever restrictions are imposed by the ACO/French central or local government

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by rdjones

In the last 20 mins, the ACO have put out a new timetable for race week and a new entry list - https://www.lemans.org/en/news/2020-...petition/53950 - all positive signs IMO

I still don't understand what is the point of 15 minutes of warm-up where you could literally get no running at all if someone crashes out in the first corner, and the session gets immediately cancelled

And the pointless micro-qualifying sessions, same deal, especially now that it's conceded schedule and they can't necessarily re-arrange sessions (at least Hyperbole) elsewhere due to support races also being jammed in. Meanwhile there's still zillions of hours of free practice that does not count towards qualifying or anything else.

Except for night laps that is, but that is now only FP3 since Thursday's been left out, so if you don't do the mandatory laps in that session (between 10-12PM I assume) you're not allowed in the race is that it...??? In the past, if you wrecked your car in FP or Q1 or had other reason for not making the night laps on Wednesday, at least you had the chance to do so in Q3 on Thursday

It's like they copypasted the Daytona 24 Hours ideology

[Le Vieux]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I don't actually think there would be anywhere near 200k attendance, if I'm honest. I think there will be a lot of people who

a) won't be able to go due to the dates change, or
b) decide not to go as it's too great a risk
c) are not allowed to go due to whatever restrictions are imposed by the ACO/French central or local government

d) don't fancy possibly adverse weather in September


Regarding the crowd size restriction: why should it be so difficult to go from 5,000 to, say, 200,000 in the space of three weeks? Back in March we went from unlimited to zero overnight......

[Simmi]

I'm wondering about speculatively signing up to the ACO in case that's an entry stipulation...

Like Ayse says, it's a minefield. I've already spent money on 3x tickets for the race (GE, tribune and camping) plus travel. A more casual local fan could just tip up on the day and buy a GE ticket. Both of us are important and the ACO wont want to alienate either side. But one is cheaper to refund.

Is having things like tribune tickets and numbered camping pitches carrying over to next year quite complicated for the ACO? Not sure.

[GT6]

We can all speculate on what the ACO will do but i do think they will can something sorted even if it is restricted numbers inside certain area's

[claude2cv]

200000 is the usual attendance, but how many just turn up and pay on the day? If they stopped selling tickets now how many would that be? The ACO will have done the sums, might just be the M Macron is coming to speak to the Boris today to get him to drop quarantine so we can all go and get back easily. Less than 2 weeks until we find out something concrete, hopefully that we can still go

[GT6]

Well i hope they do not stop ticket sales, i had a camping ticket but as yet no race tickets