Race Preview – Overview

A few postings covering the race overview and the individual categories.  Thanks go to Radio Le Mans and Ten-Tenths.com for some of the detail and content.

And so to the 79th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours – 56 cars in four classes, all of which have seen changes for this season.

LMP1 sees cuts in power and fuel capacity, and the introduction of smaller engines; but, it seems, for the diesels at least, not significantly slower top end speed.

There are new cars from the factory Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin teams; Toyota makes a return for the first time since 1999 with a customer engine programme; and Pescarolo returns a single car entry for Henri and co after missing his first race as an entrant in four decades last year.  We should also see the first ever hybrid entry starting the race.

The background chatter, though, is still all about the relative performance of diesel vs petrol – big bucks factory efforts look set to hold sway with another considerable advantage, despite all the changes.  Unless we see both diesel factory squads melt down in the manner of Peugeot last year, there will be a diesel-fuelled winner again for the sixth consecutive year.

LMP2 sees similarly sweeping changes and, if anything, these have been even more controversial – three engine suppliers and six chassis makers will arrive here in various combinations and with a bewildering variety of sub-sets of the rulebook applying.

Cost-capping is a fine ideal, but there seem enough holes in the current regulations to give them the appearance of a paper doily.

That said, we have good teams listed here, too, albeit in a formula that looks set to be a little stop-start over the 24 hour distance.

Before we leave the LMPs, it’s also worth briefly mentioning the new ‘mandatory’ dorsal fin that has had such widespread publicity since last year.

In reality, of the 28 LMP cars on the grid, just ten will sport the controversial fin.  The Audis, new 908s, AMR Ones and both LMP2 Lolas are the only ones looking remotely ‘Sharky’.

GT1 has been put to the ACO sword and instead we have GT2, now redubbed as GTE, and split into a ‘Pro’ class - with no restrictions on drivers and with new cars allowed - and ‘Am’, which can only have a single professional aboard and which must use cars at least a year old.  Some of the best wheel to wheel racing is set to be on show here, with the new Ferrari 458 making its Le Mans debut and going head to head with the auld enemy, Porsche; but also Corvette, Aston Martin, BMW, Ford and, for the first time in GT2/GTE, Lotus, with their new Evora.

The Le Mans 24 Hours trophy is the prize that everyone wants of course, but let’s remember for just a moment that the French classic is a double points-scoring round of the 2011 ILMC too; Sunday afternoon will effectively mark the halfway point for the Championship and, for some, the season (in competitive terms) might finish there too.