Ferrari at Le Mans?

English anybody?

 

The Ferrari begins to study the regulations of the Mans Autosprint reveals that Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari president, have given l' okay so that the unit run of the Little horse begins a study of feasibility for the plan and the realization of a Prototype for the 24 Hours of the Mans. Till now the Ferrari had been believed that " giocasse" when it spoke about an interest in the cares of historical maratona the French one. Instead, it is all true. And to this point, the presence of Montezemolo like starter of next the 24 Hours of the Mans, officially like homage for the 60 years of the first Victoria of a Ferrari on the circuit of the Sarthe, assumes all an other meaning. From some day, the Ferrari technicians are studying the regulations ACO, Automobile Club de l' Ouest, than from always does not have nothing to that to see with those FIA. L' ACO makes from oneself with enormous happening, or from the technical point of view or from that one they trades, and for this the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone have always considered the 24 Hours of the Mans an enemy race, not to take in consideration. Currently they are Audi and Peugeot the two great constructors engaged in the only French contest to the world. During the last few years, the period d' gold was that one between 1997 and 1999 when Audios, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche and Toyota were present in official form.


Babelfish translation.

 

yes, Luca is the starter, Domocili (sp) will be there with him, Alonso will be there too.

Taboada - what is the date of the article you first posted? It's interesting as the context is more in depth than any of the other press releases about Luca being the starter. Thanks for posting it.

Jim - thanks for the translation!

Carol

 

I am still hoping Ferrari will breath new life into the GT1 category with their 599XX as a starting point. Perhaps other (high profile) manufacturers will follow suit if Ferrari takes an interest. On the other hand, with their F1 budget being freed up, it would be possible to make an LMP1 challenger. Allthough I doubt Ferrari will ever race with a dieselengine.

 

thanks - very much appreciated

Carol

 

Thanks for the article!

It'd be great if Ferrari decides to participate in GT1 again, or even with a prototype. Bring the glorydays of motorracing back!

 

I don't think that a 599-based GT1 car is realistic now, as the new GT1 regulations are moving towards the current GT2 cars and moving away from 12-cylinder engines.

But it'd be great to see a Ferrari LMP1..........

 

My best guess is that the F430 replacement car (F450) which comes out this October, will be the new Le Mans racer.

 

The only way a full factory Ferrari entry at Le Mans works is to go for
overall wins. That means beating Audi and Peugeot with diesel powered
LMP-1 cars.

Where could Ferrari ever find turbo diesel technology?

RM
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I still doubt Ferrari would ever race with a diesel.

This is wat Luca said on the subject about two years ago:

But I agree that if Ferrari wants to have a works-entry at Le Mans, it must be LMP1

 

they have turbo diesel technology right in their own backyard ! ! ! ! !

great post!
Carol

 

Not necessarily.

The regulations are moving away from large cylinder numbers for all classes, and towards road-engined based racecars.

So, from 2011, the Audi and Peugeot diesels will be obsolete.

This would then allow a new generation of LMP cars, most likely running V8 petrol supercar engines, and possibly with KERS for the best cars.

It is important to note that neither the Audis or Peugeots run on "normal" from-the-pump diesel fuel - sorry to disappoint anyone!!

 

I would love to see Ferrari racing something other than F1 for a change. I say good bye F1 and don't look back. This is a blessing in disguise. Imagine the awesome cars that would be designed for a LeMans iteration of an LMP1/P2 Ferrari, with closed cabin. We would probably see some of the design cues from those carry over to road cars and a new era of design may be ushered in. Would be very cool.

 

I would love to see Ferrari back in Le Mans and would really love to see them in ALMS. Once Ferrari finishes it's contractual agreement with F1 they may be finished and then move on. One can only dream.

 

I'd like to see Ferrari racing prototype sports cars, but the LeMans "enduro" format puts some odd requirements on the venue.
Compare F1's two hour time limit.

Pity there isn't a "sprint" version of prototype racing.

 

ALMS has two worthless races - St. Pete - 1h55m and worst is Long Beach - 1h40m = "sprint" version of prototype racing - thankgoodness for Sebring (12h), Petit (10h) - just look at Road Atlanta last year. . . Allan hit the tire wall on the out lap, car becomes several laps, Allan WINS THE RACE (not possible in a "sprint" version), Road America and Laguna Seca are 4h races.

LMS is the best with the 6 hr or 1000km and LOTS of support events (SIX at the Nurburgring in August) - The BEST VALUE for your money with the BEST cars and BEST driver in the series.

Rik, THANKS for your most recent post on here - and regarding the "diesel" fuel they run, you were kind enough a while back to share that with us. Brilliant idea... take your FXX Evos and make the materialize into prototypes for 2011.

Carol

 

One of the oddities that an enduro format places on the venue is holding simultaneous races: four different classes on the track, getting in each other's way.

A two hour race between LMP1s alone would be a sprint ---- but ALS doesn't have enough cars in any class to make up a grid by themselves.

That's one reason I can't really get enthusiastic about ALS: lots of cars on track going past each other, but they're not really racing each other. They're just driving to see how far they get.

I mean, how much of a brag is it to say that porker 911s win tons of races .... against two or three other 911s?

When you focus on a single class in ALS, there just isn't much variation. You have four "spec" series races. Like holding a Ferrari Challenge and a Honda Insight Challenge on the track at the same time.

 

Tell Roger Penske he wasn't racing again "each other" with the RS Spyders! his cars were racing each other and the LMP1 classes during the three years of the RS Spyder project - incidently he took overall at Sebring in the P2 class among other overall wins. Granted the GT2's won't beat a GT1 but there were some great battles between Corvette and Aston in GT1 until Corvette complained and competition adjustments were levied against AM (Don't blame Dave Richards at all for leaving the US). The GT2 class could almost be a stand alone class as that has the most entrants. We've attended the majority of the ALMS races the past several years and have seen some REAL racing and down to the last race at Laguna Seca to determine the driver and team championships in GT2. It's racing that you don't see in F1. Besides it's FAN FRIENDLY (something lacking in F1), much CHEAPER to attend (this year Barcelona was free, the seats we were in for the start of the race for an F1 race are 500+€ for the weekend and the common person can't access the stand we were in on Sunday morning for warm-up), ACCESS you don't get with F1 (paddock/pit/driver/team), pit walks/grid walks - more value for your money and racing/overtaking within each of the four classes. Last year Le Mans 24h was basically down to the last lap with TK and the Peugeot - raining heavily on start/finish, no rain on other parts - tire gambling, pit stops made for an exciting finish - definitely NOT an F1 processional race with bunches of laps to go and the only way thing would change is if an engine blows or other mechanical issues transpire. Everyone has their own likes/dislikes - we used to go to the F1 races but after MS retired and when the GP2 races are more exciting you ask yourself why? I'll take a 50 car grid at an LMS race any day along with all their support races (6 for LMS Nurburgring).

Carol

 

Exactly my point. If you get more than one brand competitive in a class, they change the "spec".

If you have friends in the car or in the pit, you might care which 911 beats another one, or which Vette comes out ahead of the other one. But for those of us who care about the WCC, ALS is a bust.

How many people who aren't Ferrari enthusiasts would watch Ferrari Challenge races?
(Other than the people hoping to see an "expensive car" crash.)


Oh: and the last ALS event I saw had about 22 total cars in all four classes (mostly ALS-C). About 16 of them were VunderBug 911s of one type or another. Only four LM2 cars started, and one of those retired early. They'd hardly ever see another car in their own class during the whole race.

 

I would LOVE to see Ferrari get back into racing at Le Mans, especially in the prototype category. After Enzo died I though it was a very bad move on Ferrari's part to concentrate exclusively on F1. He obviously didn't think Le Mans was a waste of resources when he was alive. So how about it Ferrari, time to start developing the P 6/7? I say go for it and let Bernie and the F1 zoo stew in their own juices!

As for the ALMS, I am 100% behind this series. I believe the numbers being down this year is just a temporary economic glitch and you will probably see the numbers climb back up over the next couple of years. I certainly find their races more entertaining usually than Grand AM (and the ALMS and LMS prototypes are DEFINITELY better looking than any DP!). Now, if we can just convince them to dump the few useless sprint street races and go to a 3 hour minimum format.............

Gary