2014 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview

It’s that time of year again.

The eyes of the motorsports world turn to the ancient French city of Le Mans and the famous, epic Circuit de la Sarthe,  where the 82nd running of the 24 Heures du Mans, the third – and, by far the most important – round of the 2014 World Endurance Championship.

Like the other two races that make up the Triple Crown of motorsports, the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500, winning at Le Mans isn’t easy. In fact, it must feel nigh on impossible at times. Some of the best drivers in the world have tried and failed, have been cruelled by the lightning-fast racetrack that’s unlike any other in global motorsports.

Five classes of cars will take part in the race:

LMP1-Hybrid: The premiere class. Porsche, Toyota and Audi hybrid entries, steered the best sports car drivers in the world.

LMP1-L: A class for privateers without hybrid engines, featuring only two cars, both from Rebellion Racing.

LMP2: Open-topped prototypes, not factory backed.

GTE-PRO: Premiere Grand Touring class featuring professional drivers driving factory-backed cars.

GTE-AM: Grand Touring class featuring a mix of professional and amateur drivers, driving non-factory supported cars.

Over the 24-hour period, the winners will complete more than 5,000 km (3,110 mi). The current race record is a massive 5,410 km (3,360 mi), in a lightning fast 2010 event that featured very few cautions. That makes a modern 24 Hours of Le Mans more than six times longer than the Indianapolis 500 and eighteen times longer than a Formula One Grand Prix.

Circuit de la Sarthe, a combination of permanent racetrack and public streets surrounding it, is a tough place to drive successfully, particularly at night, and even if a team’s drivers put in a flawless, mistake-free performance, there’s no guarantee that a win, podium or even a finish is guaranteed. Not with the car under such great mechanical stress – more than half of a lap around Le Mans is spent at 100% throttle. We’ve seen it so many times over the years, a driving combination dead-on, gapping the field, only to have a mechanical gremlin end their hopes.

2014, the third year of the World Endurance Championship, effectively represents something of a new competitive dawn at the twice-around-the-clock French endurance classic.

Particularly in the premiere hybrid prototype class (LMP1-H) that represents the best of the best in sports car racing – and technological advancement on the racetrack; these cars are more advanced than even Formula One – there will be a ferocious battle for twenty-four hours around Circuit de la Sarthe. Sports car enthusiasts have been waiting for this one for many years!

At the pointy end, it’s the prototype battle we’ve all yearned for: the defending champions Audi face stiff competition from Toyota, who impressed early in last year’s race, taking the lead and running away from Audi before mechanical gremlins struck, and World Endurance Championship newcomers, Porsche (who still have the most wins of any manufacturer at Le Mans), whose two-car assault is led by Australia’s own Mark Webber and a New Zealander by the name of Brendon Hartley, who isn’t known to many yet, but his profile is on the rise, and this kid is one to watch.

Toyota, with it’s TS-040 Hybrid has been the team to beat at both the Silverstone and Spa rounds of the World Endurance Championship (and were fastest at the recent test day), but discounting Audi and calling the German squad anything but the team to beat would do a major disservice to the most accomplished sports car outfit of the last decade.

After all, Audi is the team that boasts the Great Dane, Tom Kristensen, who is this year shooting for an unprecedented tenth overall win. If there’s a guy you want in your car at Le Mans, it’s the man affectionately known as TK. He’s like a machine around Circuit de la Sarthe, and, if I were a betting man, I would be loath to put my money anywhere else. Audi have a team known as much for it’s driver line-up as it’s bulletproof reliability.

That said, the Audi squad suffered a rare setback in Thursday practice, when the #1 R18  e-tron quattro car that Kristensen will share with Lucas Di Grassi and Loic Duval went airborne at the Porsche Curves. The car will have to be completely rebuilt before qualifying, but the news is not so good for Duval, who has not been medically cleared to race. He will be replaced by Marc Gene (at Le Mans to drive in LMP2 with the Jota Zytek team), who won outright with Peugeot in 2009, alongside Australian David Brabham.

Gene is a solid replacement, and despite the necessary rebuild, I’m still tipping the #1 Audi as the team to beat. You wonder if they haven’t had their dose of bad luck for the race, out of the way nice and early. Toyota and Porsche still need to transfer their first starts to the season in the six-hour events into long-term speed. Until then, the Audi squad deserves it’s favouritism.

The GTE-PRO category looks to be another fierce battleground. There are factory entries from Porsche, Chevrolet, Ferrari and Aston Martin, and more top-flight drivers than you can poke a stick at. It’s the first visit to Le Mans for Chevrolet’s new C7 Corvette, and the American team is coming with both barrels loaded. Their driving lineup is stellar, and Corvette will be looking for it’s eighth class victory.

Standing in their way is the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella. For mine, this is the best trio in GTE-PRO, and they will be hard to beat. They won last time out at Spa, finding speed at just the right time. With the Corvette’s susceptible to gearbox and motor overheating issues, the #51 Ferrari may well be the team to beat in the premiere GT category.

At the recent test day, it was the #92 Porsche 911RSR of Frederic Makowiecki (alongside team-mates, Richard Lietz and Marco Holzer) who had the fastest time in GTE-PRO for Porsche Team Manthey, who scored a memorable 1-2 in this class one year ago. The #92 is another car to keep an eye on, with it’s own stellar line-up featuring Frenchman Patrick Pilet, British ace Nick Tandy and German Jorg Bergmeister. All three guys are at the top of their driving game. It may well be another Porsche 1-2 on Sunday afternoon.

Join The Roar for live coverage of the opening stages of the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans from 10.30pm AEST Saturday evening.