The World Endurance Championship (WEC) may already be two races old, but the real show only starts on Saturday afternoon for it is then that the flag falls at the start of the 24 Heures du Mans. This year no fewer than four works LM P1 teams will contest the 83rd running of this world famous race, which takes place at the Circuit la Sarthe in the French countryside.
Oil-burning domination
Audi has ruled the roost at Le Mans for the better part of a decade, taking 12 wins from the last 15 events. The diesel-powered cars from Ingolstadt may not always be the quickest but an experienced driving strength and team’s ability to respond to adversity during the race is unmatched.
During the 2014 event Audi technicians replaced the turbocharger unit on its lead cars in a shade under twenty minutes each, which allowed the silver cars to claim a 1-2. With a proven record in France and a new 2015 challenger this is still the favoured team for this weekend’s overall race win.
Returning foes
The Four Rings have been kept honest during the last decade or so with threats from Peugeot and more recently Toyota. While the Japanese manufacturer holds the current WEC manufacturer’s title victory in France still eludes it.
2014 saw the return of Porsche to the fray. The all-time winning team at Le Mans (16 overall victories) lead the 2015 race towards the very end but was robbed of a historic victory with a mechanical failure. The German outfit was not deterred and have returned to fight for honours, even claiming one of the opening rounds of the WEC this year.
A leftfield entry
The protagonists from last year have been joined by another manufacturer effort, that of Nissan. Thanks to the open rulebook employed by Le Mans organisers the ACO and WEC Nissan has developed a unique take on an LM P1 design.
The Nissan GTR-LM Nismo, to give it its full title, is a front-engined predominantly front-wheel drive machine. The same team responsible for the unique DeltaWing racer have conceived this car that has been designed purely to race at La Sarthe. Bucking the trend of mid-engined/rear-wheel drive Nissan’s team believe that at a circuit such La Sarthe, with its long straights aero efficiency is key. You can view the team’s explanation of the aero intricacies in this video
Nissan skipped the opening two rounds of the WEC and didn’t seem to fair too well in testing, though the cars did post a decent top speed. While the project seems ambitious the sheer volume of media coverage generated during the last few months almost makes it worth the effort (and isn’t that really what motorsport is all about, creating awareness for your brand? – Ed).
Considering the short development time and relative inexperience of the drivers in this long format of racing, if any of the GTR-LM Nismos make the full distance it will be impressive enough.
Other front-runners
Works outfits may make up the bulk of the LM P1 field with 11 cars from Audi (3), Nissan (3), Porsche (3) and Toyota (2) but there are also a few private entries vying for top honours as well.
Other front-running cars are fielded by Rebellion racing and ByKolles though neither of those teams features hybrid power for their cars. They may be lesser known quantities by each team has some big name drivers. In the unlikely event that all the works team cars fail these guys will be happy to pick up the spoils.
Battles aplenty
While fans will be transfixed to their screens over the weekend trying to work out which of the LM P1 designs will triumph there is plenty of racing down the field. LM P2 is a hotly contested category with rivals racing wheel-to-wheel for several hours.
For fans of tin-tops there are the two GT categories. In these classes we get to see the more familiar shapes of Porsches, Ferraris, Corvettes and Aston Martins fighting for class honours. In fact, as we have seen in past years with some rather crashes, the GT cars tend to play a rather large part in the outcome of the race.
Tune into http://www.radiolemans.com for up to the minute info.
For a first-hand account of watching the race live click here: http://www.carmag.co.za/motorsport-news/breathtaking/