- 590
- Australia
- StigsTC
This is amazing lol.
As much as I love Le Mans, the white lines around the track just don't make sense when you see where kerbs are located. The lines are supposed to denote track boundaries, but they stop short of the kerbs by a good metre in places and in no way really denote the racing surface, and in places just aren't sensible or enforceable.
I was confused how I had so many instances of corner cutting and looks like, aside from the high speed sucking on my part, it is just 'to the letter of the law' interpretation of track limits in areas where they don't really make sense.
Take the first Mulsanne chicane.
I've focussed on the exit here and left orientation north because I'm using MS paint to explain my point and I have 0 ability in any photo editor.
Now track limits are defined by white lines unless bounded by kerbs, then kerbs are defined as legal. Now normally the lines back onto the kerbs and you end up with a relatively smooth and logical transition between kerb and no kerb for what is legal and illegal. However here at Le Mans, you get something like this.
Now this is as close as I can zoom in on maps but what you can see is not a nice transition between white line and kerb, but a solid 1 metre (40 inches for those so inclined) gap between white line and kerb. As a result, it generates a whole heap of dead space, of legal track that can't be accessed as there is no way to just translate your car half its width to the inside.
In the next photo, I have attempted (poorly) to highlight the racing line that is blackened on the road.
As you can see, the racing line, takes racers right out into the edge of legal track, and more often than not beyond it as the tarmac is all the same type well beyond the white line. FIA track limits dictate that kerbs are NOT racing surface and pounding over them for 24 hours with the OUTSIDE (loaded) wheels is not a good idea so you see cars make it back to the outside of the kerb on the exit. The way the ACO chooses to run its races is to only focus on what you are doing at the kerbs, and what you do in between isn't really important so long as you do not hop the kerbs on either inside or outside of the road. This is not a to the letter interpretation, but it is far more logical here at Le Mans.
Now pre-race you floated the idea of enforcing in game penalties and were met with pretty widespread disdain for the idea, and it is because of what I have outlined here. The track limits that are applied are overly zealous, you can be well within the kerbs but still activate the penalty zones trying to access what is legal racing surface. Having decided to not apply PD track limits because of their inability to define racing surface, it seemed that you had decided to apply the common sense approach to track limits. Interestingly, the dirty tyres mechanic does not activate on the racing surface beyond the white line in the chicanes, but only once you have passed the kerbs. Run the tiniest bit wide over the kerbs out of the Dunlop chicane and you'll not make the Forest Esses with dirty tyres, however if you run 4 tyres over the white lines in the Mulsanne chicanes but make the kerb, you'll be fine.
How you wish to run your race is up to you, and the result clearly doesn't effect me due to the disconnection, but for my mind, anyone who believes the second photo is in the spirit of racing, is actually enforceable in a meaningful way is just not a racer. They may be a competitor looking to try find an exploitable advantage, but that kind of hard line letter of the law thinking isn't what racing is about.
Analysis aside, shoutout to @TNR_KING_FILO for absolutely taking the piss with track limits, did you even try to make Tetre Rouge cleanly? Fantastic scenes lol.
As much as I love Le Mans, the white lines around the track just don't make sense when you see where kerbs are located. The lines are supposed to denote track boundaries, but they stop short of the kerbs by a good metre in places and in no way really denote the racing surface, and in places just aren't sensible or enforceable.
I was confused how I had so many instances of corner cutting and looks like, aside from the high speed sucking on my part, it is just 'to the letter of the law' interpretation of track limits in areas where they don't really make sense.
Take the first Mulsanne chicane.
I've focussed on the exit here and left orientation north because I'm using MS paint to explain my point and I have 0 ability in any photo editor.
Now track limits are defined by white lines unless bounded by kerbs, then kerbs are defined as legal. Now normally the lines back onto the kerbs and you end up with a relatively smooth and logical transition between kerb and no kerb for what is legal and illegal. However here at Le Mans, you get something like this.
Now this is as close as I can zoom in on maps but what you can see is not a nice transition between white line and kerb, but a solid 1 metre (40 inches for those so inclined) gap between white line and kerb. As a result, it generates a whole heap of dead space, of legal track that can't be accessed as there is no way to just translate your car half its width to the inside.
In the next photo, I have attempted (poorly) to highlight the racing line that is blackened on the road.
As you can see, the racing line, takes racers right out into the edge of legal track, and more often than not beyond it as the tarmac is all the same type well beyond the white line. FIA track limits dictate that kerbs are NOT racing surface and pounding over them for 24 hours with the OUTSIDE (loaded) wheels is not a good idea so you see cars make it back to the outside of the kerb on the exit. The way the ACO chooses to run its races is to only focus on what you are doing at the kerbs, and what you do in between isn't really important so long as you do not hop the kerbs on either inside or outside of the road. This is not a to the letter interpretation, but it is far more logical here at Le Mans.
Now pre-race you floated the idea of enforcing in game penalties and were met with pretty widespread disdain for the idea, and it is because of what I have outlined here. The track limits that are applied are overly zealous, you can be well within the kerbs but still activate the penalty zones trying to access what is legal racing surface. Having decided to not apply PD track limits because of their inability to define racing surface, it seemed that you had decided to apply the common sense approach to track limits. Interestingly, the dirty tyres mechanic does not activate on the racing surface beyond the white line in the chicanes, but only once you have passed the kerbs. Run the tiniest bit wide over the kerbs out of the Dunlop chicane and you'll not make the Forest Esses with dirty tyres, however if you run 4 tyres over the white lines in the Mulsanne chicanes but make the kerb, you'll be fine.
How you wish to run your race is up to you, and the result clearly doesn't effect me due to the disconnection, but for my mind, anyone who believes the second photo is in the spirit of racing, is actually enforceable in a meaningful way is just not a racer. They may be a competitor looking to try find an exploitable advantage, but that kind of hard line letter of the law thinking isn't what racing is about.
Analysis aside, shoutout to @TNR_KING_FILO for absolutely taking the piss with track limits, did you even try to make Tetre Rouge cleanly? Fantastic scenes lol.
This bowl's for you!!!
