I have 40% hearing loss. Some caused by gunfire, but mostly from standing as close to racing cars as possible. So I like loud cars. The diesels are like ghosts and until you stand by the Audis or the Peugeots at 200 mph +. Going by like a wooosh. Amazing machines! And it's not a fuel economy run. If so, the gas cars would be on the pole. Carol and I stood at pit out at Petite. You are 1 foot from the cars on the gas big time. Amazing stuff.
Unquestionably, F1 remains the most important championship despite the many attempts to "kill the goose that lays golden eggs" by management. Equally unquestionably, however, Le Mans remains the most important race and yes, obviously some technical carryover from F1 to Le Mans is evident but this would be mainly in the aero and chassis construction method area but little else. The very history of sports car racing goes back to a multiple class formats which during the 60s numbered up to seven or eight categories and there wernt complaints then that the racing was too confusing. As it is today, the four categories (with the exception of GT1 which the ACO dosent seem to want to manage which is another issue entirely until the recent agreement to finally go ahead and allow FIA GT entries) are well represented by top makes with Audi and Peugeot spending budgets which rival those in F1 to win Le Mans outright with huge multiple-car efforts; this cannot be marginalized. Due to the nonsense in F1 including crazy and costly arbitrary rules changes, sacrificing sport for show a-la NASCAR and one embarrassing scandal/gaffe after another, the manufactures are leaving F1 one after another and looking at sports and touring car racing as a viable means to race and promote their products. The GT2 category is growing with manufacturer support with F1 makes Ferrari and BMW fully committed as the ACO have a viable, stable rules package and the racing is fantastic throughout highlighted by several photo finishes at 10, 12 and 24 hour races. F1 will survive and hopefully come back quickly under the direction of Todt, who likewise has history at Le Mans, but as other threads here point out, F1 has lost credibility to the point where many have quit watching or attending and sports car racing naturally provides the type if arena these manufactures need to compete in. Personally, no matter how distasteful the latest scandal is in F1, I will continue to watch but like so many I simply find sports car racing more to my personal taste. RM
I think that Ferrari should continue to campaign at LeMans with production based cars either as a factory entrant or in support of privateers. This is more in the spirit of their tradition.
.....and far less exciting. I watch racing to be entertained by the overall spectacle. Technical highlights are a major bonus, but not the reason I watch.
Correct. I have no doubt LDM will be sure that Ferrari races in F1 every year, whether it's in Bernie's 3 ring circus or not.
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Yes and one that comes around at least once a year if not twice. And every time it is the same people stating the same opinions with the same arguments (me included).
Hmm, I thought it had something to do with changing the batteries in the droids who raise the question.
Both. When we change the clocks we change the batteries in the smoke detectors and the droids as well.
The droids are those nostalgic Ferrarifans who bring up the Le Mans question every time there is trouble in F1. They are quite reliable in doing so. They seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that this is not 1960 anymore, Ferrari doesn't have any Diesel engines in their lineup, nor would it make any sense for Ferrari to promote Diesel engines nor does anybody care for or watch Le Mans racing anymore. They ignore all that because as droids they were programmed to cheer for the 250 GTOs hammering down the Mulsanne straight and that's all they care about. Maybe the Ferrari theme park in Abu Dhabi could use them to collect tickets for a historic ride into Ferrari's past.
Certainly Audi and Peugeot created the current P1 diesel cars to develop and promote their diesel road cars. But who created this box everyone got into that says you must have diesel to beat them?
The fuel efficiency rules created that box. No Diesel means more pitstops and no glory. Current Le Mans prototype class is purely an economy run. Instead of racing it is watching the Maytag repair men running their industrial washing machines around in circles. Racing is done in the GT classes and Ferrari won that.
