2024 Le Mans race thread
Discussion
egomeister said:
I think the days of low and high downforce aero packages went when Hypercar regs came in. If I remember correctly its a fixed config, with a element (such as the wing) to allow you to tune balance to the circuit.
Thanks.I knew they didn't have active or real-time adjustable aero, but I'd assumed there'd be more scope than just the rear wing.
Second part of my point still stands - the engineers and aero guys design the car around a given brief...which clearly won't work for all circuits. Porsche have presumably gone for a package that works better across the rest of the WEC championship, but doesn't permit such a high peak speed which hurts them at LM.
havoc said:
Thanks.
I knew they didn't have active or real-time adjustable aero, but I'd assumed there'd be more scope than just the rear wing.
Second part of my point still stands - the engineers and aero guys design the car around a given brief...which clearly won't work for all circuits. Porsche have presumably gone for a package that works better across the rest of the WEC championship, but doesn't permit such a high peak speed which hurts them at LM.
Without getting too technical they've flipped the regulations around from the usual "your rear wheel must be x mm away from your rear wing" approach. The teams are free to design whatever they want within certain basic parameters but the end result must perform within a certain window of downforce to drag performance ratios. They should all exhibit very similar performance characteristics and then cars that are at the lower end can then be brought up to speed using BoP.I knew they didn't have active or real-time adjustable aero, but I'd assumed there'd be more scope than just the rear wing.
Second part of my point still stands - the engineers and aero guys design the car around a given brief...which clearly won't work for all circuits. Porsche have presumably gone for a package that works better across the rest of the WEC championship, but doesn't permit such a high peak speed which hurts them at LM.
Probably the biggest differentiator is the powertrains between LMD and LMDh, especially when it's wet as Le Mans was. How planted the LMH cars were compared to how many LMDhs went spearing off the circuit.
RL17 said:
BOP slows the top cars but fortunately not too much.
If Porsche aren’t going for a LM aero package and a 20th win I’d be very surprised!
They can't now. Designs are frozen for 5 years once homologated. They can apply to do a max of 5 upgrades in that time but they're kept secret and must be approved by the FIA.If Porsche aren’t going for a LM aero package and a 20th win I’d be very surprised!
t for racing in a multi circuit series. Ferrari have been fastest by a mile all season.
If they had anyone semi credible on strategy, imola was theirs. Spa was too - their technical infringement making them start last with the quickest car was another own goal.
And you know what? Fair play! You know in your heart of hearts the ACO won’t let an LMDH dominate. French rules hypercar will always be a step ahead. It was close though - I still think if a Conway was in the Yota rather than Lopez then that fuel save last stint would have been under a world of pressure - probably too much pressure!
If they had anyone semi credible on strategy, imola was theirs. Spa was too - their technical infringement making them start last with the quickest car was another own goal.
And you know what? Fair play! You know in your heart of hearts the ACO won’t let an LMDH dominate. French rules hypercar will always be a step ahead. It was close though - I still think if a Conway was in the Yota rather than Lopez then that fuel save last stint would have been under a world of pressure - probably too much pressure!
VladD said:
I share the opinion that perhaps Ferrari have designed a car to win Le Mans more than to win the WEC.
Understandable…. Maybe hardcore motor racing fans would see merit in a WEC title and any marketing as a result. But it wouldn’t mean much to most.Le Mans 24 is a freak. It dominates the WEC championship and the value of the win is way more powerful than a WEC title. X times LM24 wins is a metric casual fans would understand. The casual non-motor racing fan has usually heard of the LM24.
As a professional racing driver, it has to be so cool to get a LM24 win on the CV.
Ferrari don’t really need the sales pitch, but it is an important building of the heritage / legend.
LM240 said:
Understandable…. Maybe hardcore motor racing fans would see merit in a WEC title and any marketing as a result. But it wouldn’t mean much to most.
Le Mans 24 is a freak. It dominates the WEC championship and the value of the win is way more powerful than a WEC title. X times LM24 wins is a metric casual fans would understand. The casual non-motor racing fan has usually heard of the LM24.
As a professional racing driver, it has to be so cool to get a LM24 win on the CV.
Ferrari don’t really need the sales pitch, but it is an important building of the heritage / legend.
No doubt Ferrari will be absolutely delighted with the Hypercar program, despite not winning a single other race in the championship. It's the biggest race in the world.Le Mans 24 is a freak. It dominates the WEC championship and the value of the win is way more powerful than a WEC title. X times LM24 wins is a metric casual fans would understand. The casual non-motor racing fan has usually heard of the LM24.
As a professional racing driver, it has to be so cool to get a LM24 win on the CV.
Ferrari don’t really need the sales pitch, but it is an important building of the heritage / legend.
732NM said:
The Indy 500 disagrees.
The F1 world championship is a bigger deal than both.
Indy 500 is like the World Series, bigger in America but that's about it.The F1 world championship is a bigger deal than both.
F1 is obviously the pinnacle but it's a championship. Their closest is Monaco but that's never been about the racing as much as the glitz and glamour surrounding it.
Listening to the Vanthoor brothers podcast this morning
Entertaing as always, but a couple of things they raised
Kubicas lack of acknowledgment for the crash with Dries, made even worse as it seems he wasn’t bothered to see if he was ok after the crash
The lack of (sulitable) penalties for Ferrari. They cited the multiple times they went straight on at Dunlop, yet were never penalised. This was quite obvious as they did it almost every time they came out of the pits. Yes it was easy to do on cold tyres, but it was clearly a bit more than that
Entertaing as always, but a couple of things they raised
Kubicas lack of acknowledgment for the crash with Dries, made even worse as it seems he wasn’t bothered to see if he was ok after the crash
The lack of (sulitable) penalties for Ferrari. They cited the multiple times they went straight on at Dunlop, yet were never penalised. This was quite obvious as they did it almost every time they came out of the pits. Yes it was easy to do on cold tyres, but it was clearly a bit more than that
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