2018 24 Hours of Le Mans / 24 Heures du Mans (Live Stream)

[paracletus]

Meanwhile.. Maldonardo did a race good - finished 10th and didn't see him crash once.
Way to go
I hope they bring F1 to la sarthe soon during this transition period.

 

[Shad3R]

1. yes it was amazing!
2. but there is some premium ass-priced steroids and then there is steroid for normal budget people who like to be like those people who use the premiums lol (i know it's nonsense but i'm telling it for joking )
3. this why i said this lmp1 structure should have ended instead of babysitting Toyota! that part of my post was for alo haters there are two situation, you can have the facts on your side and have a sensible opinion (as i see it you are in this category) or you can have all the facts on your side and have an opinion who make you just a hater

Whats the point of ending lmp1 current structure when in the next season cars will be siluette hybrid with 1000hp again?

 

[RobertGracie]

I just feel happy that Alonso copied what Hulkenberg did 3 years ago....but now I am kinda in recovery stage at the moment, big up rapid let down need time to recover, the Le Mans after party from what I remember was wild and I enjoyed it so much thats something I am going to miss...

 

[farjam]

Whats the point of ending lmp1 current structure when in the next season cars will be siluette hybrid with 1000hp again?

Those are not in "this structure" that i said that only TOYOTA have the chance in it ! by "this structure" i mean only the shape and rules of this 2018 Le mans LMP1 race system

 

[Koen Verlinde]

The diesel equivalence rules were most prominent in 2006, as that was the sole year with Audi running diesel, with no other cars doing so. But even in 2006, the rules weren't designed to give Audi a guaranteed performance advantage with Pescarolo facing a possible penalty if finding speed pre-Le Mans.



Nope, but there is no need to give any team an actual guaranteed advantage in the rules.
I am not talking about someone choosing to run a hybrid car, and that being smarter. But...

"There will be a penalty system, of which we will release details later, in case a non-hybrid car is faster than a hybrid.
"The reason for a non-hybrid going faster can only be that we have not been given the correct data [by the relevant constructor]."
"We are saying that we have given you a certain level of performance and if you are above this level, you have misled us."
The rules lay down a minimum penalty of a five-minute stop-go and state that a one-lap penalty can be awarded at the end of the race.
This is primarily aimed at the opening two rounds of the season, May's Spa race and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The EoT cannot be modified prior to Le Mans, after which it can be changed if necessary based on the data collected during the opening races. It is then set in stone until the following season.
Beaumesnil stressed that the privateers would not be given any performance breaks after Spa should they prove substantially slower than the Toyota TS050 Hybrids.

When all privateers are not allowed to be faster than Toyota. The race was already decided.

Last year LMP2's were designed to be 10 seconds slower than the P1's. The event and track make up their own rules, so what was your point again?

 

[jpalesi]

Last year LMP2's were designed to be 10 seconds slower than the P1's. The event and track make up their own rules, so what was your point again?

It's two different categories, with two different winners. They don't care if there's 5 or 10 seconds between the two, because they aren't racing each other. How hard is it to understand ?

 

[farjam]

Nicki thiim wasn't bad at the race too, i mean after that quali....

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Last year LMP2's were designed to be 10 seconds slower than the P1's. The event and track make up their own rules, so what was your point again?

What does that have to do with Toyota having a rule-defined, guaranteed advantage over the other cars in the same class?

 

[M-Bimmer]

The ford vs porsche in the GTE (battle for 2nd) was epic...(started before or after 11 am cest if my memory serves me right )
As for LMP1, huge congrats to Alonso

 

[farjam]

Sad part of the race for me was Montoya and button's fate
" two-time Indianapolis 500 winner went off at the Indianapolis corner"

JPM words on his accident :
“I made a mistake and I ran wide at Indianapolis, just understeered off,” he admitted. “It was really close, and just got on the brakes and locked them up and ran out of talent.”

 

[kkgrandi]

In 2016 they certainly would have deserved it.

Would have been 'prettier' then but, even against a weaker field, a deserved win regardless. #8 ran an average of 7 seconds a lap faster than the Rebellions when the one-lap pace difference was 3s. While Alonso was stellar behind the wheel this needs to be about the team in Cologne & in Japan.

Last year a P2 almost took the overall and any non-hybrid P1 with a relatively trouble-free race surely would have. Don't see anyone complaining about that race though.

Having Nakajima roll it over the finish line after what happened to him in 2016 felt like one of the better sporting moments in recent memory.

 

[wombat999]

A win is a win is a win.
And as for a 'tailor made class' the ACO were always doing that sort of thing. Matra and Peugeot are a couple of beneficiaries from that sort of regulation that come to mind.
Nice to see the comedy provided by the LMP3 cars...........
The Ford vs Chevrolet dice was good, even if one is a thinly disguised prototype.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Worst Le Mans for quite some years - Audi's R8 dominance was boring as hell too, but they were at least running under the same rules as everyone else.

* Built in advantage for Toyota - something I didn't consider until RLM brought it up was the lack of Porsche and Audi is actually hurting organisers financially. The other rule issues have been brought up over and over. It does seem the WEC will bend over backwards to avoid losing Toyota to the point they don't seem to care about losing other LMP1s - they're not going to in the next few events, but why would anyone stick around in LMP1 if next season is the same way? the new cars are coming in 2020 ( and I'm sure this years LMP1 privateers who've just invested in new chassis are going to love that too ).

To some extent even the TV director agreed - nearly all the race coverage was of the GTE-Pro class.

* Ridiculous rules - maximum stint lengths? using too much fuel in a stint? in an endurance race? what the hell is this stupidity? I listened to Radio Le Mans the entire event & tried to get every interview too, and every single driver, engineer and commentator was scathing about the current ruleset.

* Alonso - now that hype just hurt everyone, prime example was when he had to point out he didn't do the pole lap. Endurance racing is about teams, and cars, and then drivers - this is the WEC trying to make it something it isn't and I worry it's going to get worse. Besides that, even if the WEC isn't about drivers he took all the attention away from the other drivers.

The last time the WEC tried to be something really different, it killed Group C and thus itself. Lessons may have been forgotten. Thankfully Le Mans is not dependent on the WEC.

* GTE BoP - all the dancing before the race just made GTE-Pro look like a stage play. Unfortunately I don't think there's a good solution there. Compared to Blancpain, GTE-Pro is a poor show of GT racing. GTE-Am is basically the same thing as BP, but thanks to grid sizes still not the same show.

Once Le Mans is over I sit & think "if I hadn't watched it and only caught up afterwards, would I have missed it?". Last year I'd definitely have missed it; this year I regret the loss of sleep.

 

[Brent Mills]

Haven't time to read this whole thread and not much Le Mans knowledge, but I have a question to the guys that do. Do you think it was staged that #8 Alonso car wins or were they genuinely racing each other? From a publicity perspective you'd expect team bosses to want Alonso's name in the headlines, so it would suspiciously make sense. Also I saw from a #7 onboard clip that it was coasting for 100 meters before braking. Was this necessary for fuel saving or something darker that they were doing it to let #8 get ahead. Or maybe they were both doing it?

 

[Dirk B RM eSports]

In my opinion it was forked from the beginning to the end FIA today is like FIFA,
but it's only my opinion. F.e. why NON-Hybrid LMP1 would have been penalised in case they would have been faster than the Toyota? So if this was a given guarantee to toyota to win, so why we have to doupt, that the victory of the No 8 car was tweaked as well

 

[LeSunTzu]

Time to use Occam's razor: on paper the #8 line-up is quicker than #7; on paper the drivers of #8 tend to make less mistakes than those of #7. At the end of the day we saw less mistakes and more speed for #8. Why the need for a plot?

Look at LMP2: there is no doubt that the faster drivers made the difference, being in the same car as competitors. Why would it be different in LMP1?

 

[Shad3R]

Time to use Occam's razor: on paper the #8 line-up is quicker than #7; on paper the drivers of #8 tend to make less mistakes than those of #7. At the end of the day we saw less mistakes and more speed for #8. Why the need for a plot?

Why the need of a plot? Because this year Alonso is here , i can asure you that if Alonso wasnt here there wouldnt be any problems

 

[2112]

A win is a win is a win.
And as for a 'tailor made class' the ACO were always doing that sort of thing. Matra and Peugeot are a couple of beneficiaries from that sort of regulation that come to mind.
Nice to see the comedy provided by the LMP3 cars...........
The Ford vs Chevrolet dice was good, even if one is a thinly disguised prototype.

We have had this conversation before...

The GT is a GT car despite protestations. If it were a prototype it would have been forced to run in the prototype class.

Just because Ford took advantage of the rules does not mean the car is a prototype, they merely made a good car and went outside the box to do so. A radical design does not make it illegal, nor does it deserve to be thought of as a "cheat".

If we keep thinking in that manner there will be no innovation:

Audi would not have developed a diesel car,
There would be no hybrid technology,
The original Ford GT would not have enjoyed the success it had at Le Mans,
There would have not been development and implementation of active suspensions, ABS, traction control, hybrid power, aerodynamic efficiency to improve fuel mileage, etc...

The car is a legal GT according to IMSA, the FIA, the ACO. If it becomes a customer GT3 car it will be considered legal in every series it races.

The issue is those who think car makers should follow a stringent, conservative approach to building a winning race car. We should be lauding those who think outside the box to build a winner.

Just my thoughts on the matter. Does not make me right, just another one with an opinion.

 

[2112]

When I saw the EoT a few days prior to the race I knew who was going to win in P1 and GT Pro. It seemed pre-ordained.

I wanted a non-hybrid to be able to challenge Toyota in P1 and as a Corvette team fan I would have liked to see the Corvette's be more competitive. But...

As much as I wanted Toyota to lose I find it hard to really find fault in their win. I may not like it but then I would have to not like a few of the Audi wins, or Porsche wins from the Gp. C days.

Not gonna do that so I decided that no matter how it was done, Toyota deserved the win just because they did what it took, withing the rules, to win.

A day watching Toyota win the 24 Hours of Le Mans is better than a day without watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

 

[ltcars]

Haven't time to read this whole thread and not much Le Mans knowledge, but I have a question to the guys that do. Do you think it was staged that #8 Alonso car wins or were they genuinely racing each other? From a publicity perspective you'd expect team bosses to want Alonso's name in the headlines, so it would suspiciously make sense. Also I saw from a #7 onboard clip that it was coasting for 100 meters before braking. Was this necessary for fuel saving or something darker that they were doing it to let #8 get ahead. Or maybe they were both doing it?

The lifting before braking is called "lift and coast" and all drivers of LMP1-H do it, to save fuel, even Alonso.