Le Mans is fascinating in its own right and as a 'must see' event is definitely at the top of my motorsport bucket list list, along with the Indy 500 and Bristol Motor Speedway. But it is an annual event, so not comparable in any way, shape or form to F1. Could you watch a 24 hour race every other weekend? The actual racing isn't that great, but it holds intrigue in a different way, unless you consider 'racing' to be cars lapping others with millimetres to spare and travelling at massive speed differences. The whole sports car racing series has been reinvented more times than F1, just like F1, is heavily dependent on multiple manufacturers coming in to give it the kudos it needs. It wasn't that long ago that Le Mans was dominated each year by a single manufacturer making an LM special in order to get publicity. Now there is a genuine 3 way battle between manufacturers, but when they have had enough and leave, if no one replaces them then it's back to one-team domination.
Technically 2, because Audi and Porsche belong to the same group. This is one if the reasons why Audi should/could move to F1.
Amazing that they throw so much money at it then. Don't think there is any sharing at all of technology. Aren't Porsche's petrol powered and the Audi's are diesel?
Wait a second.... Wasn't the Porsche that won the one Alonso had a potential to drive? A lot of kicks in the nuts for Fernando this season!
Anyone know if Porsche are planning to run the #19 for the rest of the season? I'd love to see Hulkenberg see out the season.
Please, please, please, Mr. Arrivabene, will you put that nice Nicolas Hülkenberg in your team for next year? He's wasted at Force India and your current driver, Raikkonen, has melted from a Magnum to a Mini Milk. You know it makes sense.
Didn't Hulk only agree to race for FI this year if they allowed him to do Le Mans? Was an excellent performance, but whilst we all salivate over his drive, lets not forget Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber who also performed brilliantly to get the win. Without them being at the top of their game as well, we would not be talking about a win for Nico.
He's really missed his chance I feel. If it wasn't for the ridiculous weight restrictions in the last few years he'd be in a top team already. I can't see Ferrari wanting to compromise Vettel's chassis by having to design it to accommodate such a big driver either. He'll be way better off in WEC, I hope he leaves F1 at the end of the season. Need Hulkenberg and Kubica in sports cars, the only thing WEC doesn't have right now is the best drivers in the world.
Congratulations to the whole Porsche team; especially car 19, of course. It's inevitable that Hulk's F1 connection grabs the headlines, and he and Bamber both did a great job, but Tandy was outstanding every time he got behind the wheel - and for virtually every lap he did - making him arguably the top driver from the number 19 garage. I hope his achievement will not be overshadowed.
Radio Le Mans mentioned something similar towards the end. Hulk being part of the winning team was almost morebad than good for Le Mans. All the popular press coverage has been about an F1 driver winning it, undermining all the other driving talent on show.
I think it's what WEC doesn't need. If you start putting in highly paid drivers, it drives out the enthusiasts who make up the majority of the teams and drivers on the WEC grid. Costs escalate, the series goes bankrupt (like it has in guises beforehand) and you lose another competitive series. What they need to do is consolidate what they have got at the moment. Close racing, hi-tech cars, run by professional organisations with budgets that are realistic. What they have to keep in check is that costs don't escalate as the 'losing' teams strive to regain their edge and pump silly amounts of money into developing their cars to such an extent that only Porsche/Audi/Toyota have any chance of winning. WEC is in rude health at the moment, they need to keep a lid on where they want the series to go to avoid it imploding too soon, then they'll be back to predominantly GT cars only again. The heyday of the 1980's Sports Prototypes are almost back, it took a long time to recover after that all fell apart.
I have no idea what the LMP1 budgets are at the moment, I've seen some numbers at around $50m a year and then this at $242m a year! Either way it's a fairly experience series at the front end.
lets bring this back on topic... A Lotus engineer thinks an F1 car could be reliable enough to win Le Mans. Nick Chester: "The current engine regulations mean we have an engine and gearbox which could cover the race distance and that certainly wasn't the case in the past,". "The current F1 car could go in an endurance race such is the performance life of so many of the parts these days. In the past with the V8s and older gearboxes, you wouldn't have the durability. Maybe it's something we should talk to the ACO about, "It would be a lot of fun, and I'd love the challenge of engineering an F1 car for a 24 hour race." Sounds a cool Idea....... Just dont enter a Red Bull Renault
That is a pretty cool idea, not as a race, just to see how far an F1 car can go without a failure. The odd thing is, from a reliability point of view, Manor are probably best placed to do it!
