F 1 vs Le mans 24 hour

difference between middle distance runners (like 5000 meters) and Marathon runners.

 

Pretty good analogy, except that I don't think an F1 car could win at LeMans, or vice versa. However, at least one runner I can think of (Zatopek) won the 5K and the marathon ( and the 10K, to boot) at the same Olympics.

 

The most prestegious Championship in the world is doubtlessly Formula One.

The most important motor race in the world is doubtlessly Le Mans.

Therein lies the difference.

BHW

 

No doubt LeMans is an important event, but even the ACO admits that the Indianapolis 500 is the single most important auto race in the world. But the vendor food at LeMans is 100% better than anywhere else!

 

Just my 2 cents, but I think it should probably read:
" the Indianapolis 500 was the single most important auto race in the world"

 

I think both F1 and Le Mans are similar in the sense that they are the top of the pops (in a matter of speaking) in their respective areas - open wheel racing and Endurance racing.

They are also similar in that they are clinging on to their top echelon status based on past glory, past battles. Meaning the F1 and Le Mans of today is considerably blander than the racing in past.

The golden period of F1 was certainly the 30s, 60s and 80s. Today's F1 is mostly processional with a single team clinching the championship year after year.

Likewise, the golden period of Le Mans was in the 30s, 60s and 80s.

I think a key difference is that crowd at Le Mans has always been supporting car makes - Bentley, Audi, etc rather than drivers while F1 used to more about drivers than cars or teams

 

It's got to the point I've lost a lot of the interest I had in both due to the politics.

 

F1 is the highest form of sprint racing.

Le Mans is the highest form of eudurance racing.

F1 is a TV marketing battle with the engineers in the background. LM is an engineer's playground with some TV coverage.

 

F1 is a big part of my non work related life. Le Mans is a race I intend to visit once and thats it.

F1 is the pinnacle of motorsports. Endurance racing gives ex F1 drivers (Herbert) or pre F1 drivers (MS) a 2nd or first chance. In other words it is 2nd at best to F1.

Indy500 used to be a great race. Before there was IRL.

Gosh, I have to edit this as it sounds unrespectful: Just to get this straight I highly respect F1, Endurance and IRL drivers. I just think F1 is the top and it is harder than Endurance racing as the result relies on one driver solely.

 

One of the things that has fascinated me about LeMans is the multiplicity of classes of cars run there. It is interesting to see how cars from the "lower" groups fare, within themselves and also against the others. That doesn't occur in F1, or at Indy (or Nascar, for that matter).

 

Thats what happens when you are arguably the best runner in the history of the games. O/T, but my roommate in prague met his wife, who was an olympic javelin thrower, when she attended an olympic reunion that was held in the reception hall of our dormitory. He, a member of the track team, happened to be reading a book about Emil Zatopek at the time, and quickly ran upstaris at broght it down to be signed.

 

Yeah. I'm not sure it's even the most important race in the States right now.

 

Back in the day some teams went home because they weren't part of the top 33 qualifiers. Now, it would be a small miracle if they can get 33 "quality" drivers to show up and fill the field.

 

Thats a good ? I guess a rank lower F1 definetly involves the highest skill and most respect as with any open wheel racing. Open wheel is for drivers who want to surpass the limits of a normal bound car.

 

There used to be a Triple Crown in international Auto Racing. F1 at Monte Carlo, Sports Cars at Lemans, and Indy cars at the Indy 500.

That was before CART committed suicide by splitting into CART & IRL.

Today I think the Triple Crown would be Monte Carlo, LeMans, and the Daytona 500

 

I think a distinction needs to be made between the cars and the drivers. If the question is cars and technology then F1 surpasses everything by a country mile. The technology in an F1 car rivals that of a F18 Superhornet.

If we are talking drivers it's not as clear a choice because F1 drivers may drive the fastest cars (excluding anything drag related for this arguement) but in terms of having the biggest balls and the fastest reflexes the arguement can be made that WRC (World Rally Championship) surpasses F1. Remember it was Michael Schumacher who was quoted in response to Colin McRae's "fastest man alive" challenge that MS said something to the effect that WRC was much too dangerous and pushed the bounds of acceptable risk in motorsports.

If you watch some of the WRC on Speed you have to question if some of those guys aren't nuts. I remember in 03 (maybe 02) when the Skoda rally car was hanging off the side of a mountain road with a 500 ft drop (might have been Corsica or Monte Carlo). Half the car was hanging down and the co driver had to climb out before the whole car fell.

In addition to the WRC I think the Paris Dakar also ranks up there in terms of speed, risk and ability.

I think Sebastian Loeb and Colin McRae have as much natural talent as MS or Senna.

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net

 

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always did think that WRC drivers are the best all round 'real conditions'
driver.

 

In terms of aerodynamics and the use of composite materials, Formula 1 actually surpasses it.

 

Sure, but what about the F-22?

 

Le Mans = endurance
F1 = performance

www.dictionary.com

 

Yeah....and you can also equate LeMans with performance as well. An official top speed of 251 for the Peugeot P88 ain't exactly slow and it was rumored that a Porsche (can't remember if it was a 917 or a 962) did nearly 255 in a practice session.

Regards,

Jon

 

Completely different.

Le Mans used to be a big deal ... why?, because in the early days of automobiles all races were very, very long and thus winning the big races probably meant selling cars next week, or atleast very big press.

Over time top level races (Grand Prix's) have got shorter and shorter until we have the current F1 race distance of around 70 laps. Before F1, back in the 30s the races were still marathons ... more than sprints like they are now. I think the main difference is that Grand Prix's revolved around a single driver winning versus a team of drivers. Even though in those days the top driver would/could take over others cars to win the race, etc.

Wind the clock forward and we have this situation:
- Le Mans is no longer a big deal ... why?, well we can all thrash our family car for 24 hours now and it does not even need a tune up. Back in 30's and 40's it would have atleast been due for the 1000 mile service.
- F1 is seen as the pinicle (sp?) due to pushing the technology boundaries ... not speed as much. Basically we are getting off on the tech side. And this has a lot to do with the high level of technology in our modern road cars ... this again points to the danger F1 has if it mucks with the technology too much. Something has to differentiate it big time from our very, very competent road car.

Thus who really cares about the fact that Audi (including the Bentley) has recently dominated Le Mans? ... I know I don't, and part of that reason is the fact that hardly any company races in it anymore ... they are all racing in F1, or not racing at all.

To make Le Mans a big deal again they need to kill off completely the prototypes and IMO make it a road car race. I would like to see cars like road Ferraris and Porsches, etc. battling it out. In fact I would like to see 100% standard road cars racing ... if these cars came with appropriate safety gear, I'd like to see entrants specify the model of the car they want to race, supply the funds and then the race organisers randomly pick a car out of a show room somewhere and they have to race that car ... with NO preparation allowed, yep standard tyres, brakes and all. At their first pitstop they could change to racing pads but I think it would be bloody interesting to see who would win that race ... puts Porsches and Toyota (if they made a sportscar) right at the top. This would bring some relevance to a sort of pointless race IMO.

My 2 cents.
Pete