The Le Mans General Discussion Thread

[Tired Tyres]

Yeah but the last stop they'd literally come in for a few seconds get a splash of fuel and be straight off again.

Not the only car that could have beaten the 7 car which would have been the 1 car.

1 pits on 153 = 11 laps to go. It will win unless something goes wrong.
2 pits on 158 = 6 laps to go. It will be second unless something goes wrong
3 pits on 161 = 3 laps. Not a short enough to catch 2.

They will of course pit earlier than that do to count back.

Edit. That was based on 164 laps. It looks more like 168 now.

 

[Furinkazen]

Lucky timing for Kaffer!

 

[Tired Tyres]

P2 leader loses tyre right outside pit in. Jammy git.

Edit. Aston Martin hit with penalties for Safety car pitstop issues. ouch.

They are/where 1st and 2nd in GTE!

 

[Tower Turn 13]

RLM: "Oh, the race isn't over! Two GT cars are within a second of one another!"

Video: sweaty Audi drivers basking in their gigantic margin in the pit lane. In slow motion.

RLM: "This is quite a battle going on!"

Video: Audi drivers making out with one another under a shower of champagne. In slow motion.

Me: 🤬

 

[RACECAR]

RLM: "Oh, the race isn't over! Two GT cars are within a second of one another!"

Video: sweaty Audi drivers basking in their gigantic margin in the pit lane. In slow motion.

RLM: "This is quite a battle going on!"

Video: Audi drivers making out with one another under a shower of champagne. In slow motion.

Me: 🤬

Please tell me this didn't actually happen

 

[Mac K]

Great race, coverage at the end was terrible though, as TT13 already pointed out

 

[cnd01]

Congrats to Audi and especially 8 Star on its first win as a team.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Please tell me this didn't actually happen

Yes it did. GT racing getting messed about again.

Want to know the worst of it? It was Kobayashi on the attack as well.

 

[BROHAM]

Always count on an Audi in the pits versus a GT battle.

 

[SagarisGTB]

Nope. One less stop for both Toyota's. The cycle though would put the 7 car in the lead on lap 161/2 with 164/5 total laps.

The #1 had more than enough pace to make an extra stop, perhaps even two extra stops, and still beat the Toyota. From lap 46 (just after the Toyota's second stop) to lap 90, the #1 went from 10+ seconds behind the #7 to 50+ seconds ahead of the #7. Both cars made 2 pit stops in that time span, and still the #1 made a full minute time swing in ~1.5 hours! The #2 was also on pace (during the first 3 hours) to overcome an extra pitstop as well.

Anyway, I had to leave the house just before the four hour mark, so what happened to the #71? It had a decent lead over the #51 and a huge lead over the Astons even before factoring in the Aston penalties (for stopping under safety car when the pits were closed). Did the Astons make only 4 stops?

 

[Earth]

Toyota has no chance at Le Mans. The Rebellion Toyotas will probably beat them due to reliability

GTE will be great though

 

[cnd01]

Toyota has no chance at Le Mans. The Rebellion Toyotas will probably beat them due to reliability

GTE will be great though

Audi really is much more reliable. Hopefully, Toyota can correct their problems by le mans.

 

[hawkeye122]

It's hard to correct reliability, I reckon. You have to test parts for a whole weekend's worth of running before seeing if you've fixed it. Surely someone will understand what I mean, and explain it better for anyone else.
Personally, I'd rather make my car more serviceable, fixing things more quickly, and work out making them more reliable later.

I'm glad Aston's hard work has paid off with a great car, albeit it's going to get BOP-d when they win Le Mans...

 

[Bram Turismo]

Toyota has no chance at Le Mans. The Rebellion Toyotas will probably beat them due to reliability

GTE will be great though

Everyone said Audi had no chance in 2010, look how that turned out.

 

[sumbrownkid]

Yeah, but Toyota should get a handle on it's reliability by June.

 

[Tower Turn 13]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't their reliability issues boil down to overheating brakes? I don't know enough about it to know how complicated that is to iron out, though.

 

[braunracing88]

Looks like Audi has taken a cue from the 2011 F1 season.
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/audi-using-blown-diffuser-concept-on-r18/

 

[Racingworld68]

As always, it was a blast to see these great cars battle it out on track. Fantastic weather and a huge crowd all added up to a wonderfull day at Spa again !!

 

[Azure Flare]

Looks like Audi has taken a cue from the 2011 F1 season.

I wonder how longs its going to take for this to get banned.

 

[Carlos]

I wonder how longs its going to take for this to get banned.

Banning is not the solution. It already ruined F1.

Why is this guy showering the tyres?

Had 2 great days, it's really worth it to go on qualifying day, specially if you want to do the pitwalk.

 

[hawkeye122]

Well they already banned the frankly brilliant turbo solution, it won't surprise me if this comes next.

I wish they would allow active aero or suspension, since that's becoming a road car tech no longer seen in racing

 

[jjaisli]

Nice Shots, Carlos! 👍

 

[Carlos]

Well they already banned the frankly brilliant turbo solution, it won't surprise me if this comes next.

I wish they would allow active aero or suspension, since that's becoming a road car tech no longer seen in racing

Would be a shame though, and what's the motivation to get such 'technologies' banned?

Nice Shots, Carlos! 👍

Thank you! 👍

 

[Third Reign]

Well they already banned the frankly brilliant turbo solution, it won't surprise me if this comes next.

I wish they would allow active aero or suspension, since that's becoming a road car tech no longer seen in racing

Just out of curiosity, what was this turbo solution? The "air tank"?

 

[Tired Tyres]

Would be a shame though, and what's the motivation to get such 'technologies' banned?

Buggers up the racing spectacle for the viewing public when a technology leads to a team/manufacturer running away with races?

 

[Carlos]

Buggers up the racing spectacle for the viewing public when a technology leads to a team/manufacturer running away with races?

When did that ever not happen?

 

[sumbrownkid]

Just out of curiosity, what was this turbo solution? The "air tank"?

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsmarch13.html

Scroll down to update dated 3.16.13

 

[gtone339]

Toyota Racing - 6 hrs Spa highlights

 

[hawkeye122]

Anyone going to be at Laguna this weekend? I'll Instagram/tweet pics if you guys have specific requests. I'll also have my DSLR too

 

[Wyvern_64]

I get to go see the ALMS race at Laguna Seca with my college's Formula SAE team. We're going on Wednesday to see the pits and practice sessions and then again on race day. Will be my first time at an event like this.