2019 24 Hours of LeMans

The happiest guys on the podium were the Russians that finished 3rd.

Unexpected but welcome class win by AF Corse.

 

Congrats to all the winners!!

Fred's total "fredness" has been restored.

 

Forza Ferrari...bout time.

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The 24 hours of LeMans: EVENT MAXIMUM SPEED.

- Van Doorne 350.1km/h - #11 SMP Racing
- Stéphane Sarrazin 347.8km/h - #17 SMP Racing
- André Lotterer 343.4km/h
- #1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R13 - Gibson LMP1



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The LeMans24 Distance and Speed Average covered by competitors.

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Victory is sweet! Forza Ferrari!

I wouldn't have mind a C7.R victory (with K-mag's dad driving), but this is much needed tonic in Maranello and for all Tifosi.

Thanks for your many updates Joe, I was on a plane much of the evening, but was able to read your posts and knew where things stood when I turned in.

 

First in Pro and third in Am, not a bad day for Ferrari. Congrats to Fernando Alonso for winning his first world championship in 13 years and to Kazuki Nakajima for winning Japan's first world driver's title ever!

 

Stoffel really exploring the extremes eh? Between Formula E and this.

 

Interesting that the #7 Toyota was the quicker of the two Toyotas in pace by having a significantly lower tops peed i.e. greater downforce, mind you traditionally decades ago long tail cars did not win usually, the short tail ones got most wins when there were different tails such as on 512's in 1970 and on 917's in 70 and 71.

 

Awesome for AF Corse after so many let downs at Le Mans.

Their official press release and a few pics.

BHW


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What a bummer for the #7 Toyota. I really feel for them.

Alonso won Daytona, Sebring, Spa, and LeMans in the same year. Crazy!

 

Not so crazy when you have 50/50 chances every race. Still, happy for him

 

Wait...I just heard Mercedes is protesting AF Corse's victory.

 

Question for race fans ....

Do you think major events like Le Mans should do away with prototypes?

IMO, Le Mans and many other events with prototypes mixed in with GT cars is non-eventful. I watched this year’s Le Mans for a couple of hours yesterday and this morning and besides being impressed with the performance of LMP1/LMP2 over the GT cars, I really have little interest in those two categories. Back in the day when all the cars were “GT”, Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, Brands Hatch racing was very competitive and much more interesting. Today’s LMP1 and LMP2 cars look so similar and have such comparable performance that watching them race is like watching NASCAR’s taxi cab racing.

I dare say that if Le Mans eliminated prototypes and only homologated vehicles competed, the event might garner more fans and the results could be parlayed into better bragging rights for the manufacturers.

But, this is just my opinion.

 

I agree with that. The WEC is far too liberal with the rules in the prototype categories and have let the aero take over.
LMP cars have gone too far away from the road going GT cars now, they are F1 Under the skin.
LMP2 is just a specs series now.
One of the ex-Le Mans drivers lamented that, apart from Toyota, there are no constructors in LMP, because the category is not attractive to them.
Look at the result sheet, you only see names like Oreca, Dallara, Ligier that mean nothing to the man in the street.

The public wants to see makes racing each other, and only the GTE category provides that, with Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette and BMW and hopefully more to come like McLaren, Lamborghini and else.

 

I fast forward through the LMP1/LMP2 coverage, I'm just not interested.

The biggest problem with racing is the TV coverage and their stupid policy of announcing the name of the drivers instead of the cars.

You will never get a good audience with the networks refusing to say Ferrari is in first, Porsches is in second and third. I get so frustrated with smug announcers saying "Samezyoski is leading Paroomunger, and Landy is closing the gap on Tadalony!". WTF?

Except for maybe 300 people in the world that follow the driver line ups, no one knows the names of all the drivers in each team. Please make racing watchable and stop with driver names. I only want to hear (Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Ford, Aston Martin, McLaren, Lamborghini ) is in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th place.

 

I watched the race on French TV for many hours (they covered almost the whole race LIVE !), I had the entrants list with me, but still it took me some time to identify some cars from the commentary.

A former Le Mans driver who was interviewed during the race , Frank Lagorce, almost said word for word what you posted about wanting the names of the cars, not the drivers.
I had the entrants list with me, but still it took me some time to identify some cars from the commentary.

 

I watched live in US as well. It was picked up by Motor Trend TV. but I thought it was just me ... I had no idea who these drivers were, nor did I care. I had my iPad at my side with a web site that continually updated standings with drivers, their cars, and time behind car in front for their respective class. The commentators on TV were pretty useless providing any meaningful standings.

At the end of day, I was definitely pleased to see Ferrari taking first.

Steve

 

Parc Ferme just after trophy presentation. Unfortunate turn of events for the #7 car but.....Forza Fernando!
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Which team was the Brumos liveried Porsche?

 

factory team, running retro liveries for Le Mans.

 

Technically the CORE Autosport run IMSA factory team.

cool to see Brumos livery at LeMans again. sadly only as a tribute to the past...

 

The online Autoweek report is all about how Corvette lost its class, not how Ferrari won it. Unbelievable.

 

Autoweek is based in Detroit and has always been a local newspaper

 

they were a bit punchy the last hour (when I retuned-in at 500am local)....sounded like a lot of caffeine-treatment for sleep-deprivation might be taking place.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the GTE-Pro racing.