It’s early June in the French countryside, and that can only mean one thing! The French endurance classic, the 24 Heures du Mans (24 Hours of Le Mans), part of the fabled triple crown of motorsport alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500, is on again.
As has been tradition for decades now, thousands of drivers and crewmen have descended upon the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, an exhilaratingly fast combination of permanent circuit and local streets that measures 13.629 kilometres in left, featuring 38 turns, amongst them some of the most recognised in all of racing: Tertre Rouge, Arnage and the incredible Porsche Curves, where innovation and cutting-edge technology is own show for a global viewing audience, not to mention a giant number of fans watching trackside.
2015’s instalment of the greatest race in the world is shaping as one of the all-time great ones, particularly at the pointy end of the field, the LMP1 class, where defending champions/Le Mans specialists Audi have their hands extra-full this year, and to win again in 2015, they must stave off factory challenges from Porsche, Toyota and newcomers, Nissan, who debut their revolutionary prototype this weekend.
Le Mans is the centrepiece of the FIA World Endurance Championship, and the only race that pays double points. As much as teams want to win the overall season championship, I’m betting that if you asked them to choose between a WEC crown and a Rolex watch, which overall and class winners receive on the podium at Circuit de la Sarthe, they’d take a victory at Le Mans every day of the week.
If the first two events of the 2015 World Endurance Championship season are anything to go by, we can expect multiple battles throughout the mammoth field. Over fifty cars are scheduled to take the green flag at 11:00pm Australian eastern standard time on Saturday night, in four separate classes on the one track:
LMP1: the fastest cars on the track, mostly factory-supported prototypes driven by fully-professional pilots. This is the glamour category, especially with the arrival of Nissan in 2015.
LMP2: privateer-based prototype racing, with both professional and amateur drivers in each car.
GTE-Pro: Grand Touring cars driven by professional drivers, and factory-supported. Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Chevrolet are all major players.
GTE-AM: Slightly slower Grand Touring models that feature both pro and amateur drivers.
Australian hopes rest with two men in the two major categories: Mark Webber and his Porsche 919 hybrid prototype in LMP1 and Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe, who will be wheeling one of the Chevrolet Corvettes fielded by the American factory squad in the GTE-Pro category.
The Porsche that Webber will share with New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard was the fastest in pre-race testing last weekend, but there’s a major difference between being fast and being reliable. Remember, Porsche showed speed last year, with Webber leading into the last quarter of the race, but the promising run was cruelled by mechanical demons.
Porsche, Toyota and Nissan all face an uphill challenge to beat the Audi fleet, whose cars are generally considered to be bulletproof as far as reliability goes. It’s fair to say that in their recent run of victories at Le Mans, Audi hasn’t always had the fastest car at Le Mans, they have had a car that’s suffered no major mechanical mishaps whilst their competition falls by the wayside.
Dr Wolfgang Ulrich’s Audi squad are unquestionably the pros when it comes to winning Le Mans in the modern era. Toyota, world champions in 2014, won’t feel like they’ve had any real success in their WEC foray without a win at Le Mans. And the Nissan squad will be out to prove to the doubters that their revolutionary front-wheel drive GT-R prototype is up to snuff, as well.
Webber’s chances of winning outright are fair, but Briscoe’s are pretty good. He knows what he’s doing at Le Mans, making a second start there, and is paired with two drivers, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, who’re also no strangers to going fast. The trio have tasted considerable success in 2015, winning their class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in North America. Not a bad way to lead into Le Mans, is it?
The Corvette squad are no strangers to winning at Le Mans, but the GTE-Pro battle promises to be hard-fought right to the end. In fact, I have a feeling it’s going to be as cutthroat as the LMP1 fight. The Team Manthey Porsche squad are shaping as Chevrolet’s biggest competition for class victory. Then you’ve got the AF Corse Ferraris and the three-pronged Aston Martin attack. On their day, any one of the cars entered in GTE-Pro can win. That’s how close it’s going to be.
Twenty-four hours is a long time around the Circuit de la Sarthe, and the night will be treacherous, with four classes of cars at differing speeds all fighting for their own piece of an unlit racetrack. It’ll be a flat-out sprint at the front in LMP1 – no conserving your car for the last few hours, as used to be the norm at Le Mans – and we’ll see tight battles right through the fifty-six car field. 2015 will likely be the most frenetic race we’ve witnessed at Le Mans.
Porsche were lightning fast in first qualifying, with the #18 Porsche of Neel Jani setting a 3m 16.887 lap, which may well stand up through tomorrow’s second session. The Bernhard/Webber/Hartley Porsche was second, and the team’s third entry made it a handy early trifecta. The fastest Audi, it must be said was fourth – but three seconds back of Jani’s time. That’s undoubtedly a big game to make up, but there’s plenty of time.
Picking winners at the front of the field is tough, given how much can – and often does – happen over the course of a day at Le Mans, but it’s very hard to go past Audi. Their reliability is probably what’s going to get them across the line.
Join The Roar for live updates and commentary from 10:30pm Saturday night.
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