Todt: Le Mans/f1 clashes inevitable
FIA president Jean Todt has not ruled out further clashes between Formula 1 and Le Mans, saying scheduling the two away from each other is like “mission impossible”.
Le Mans organisers were angered by the FIA’S decision to run the European Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan on the same weekend as the 24 hours, with the GP starting as soon as the flag fell in La Sarthe.
FIA World Endurance Championship head Gerard Neveu called it “a clear attack” on the WEC when the clash was first announced. Traditionally the FIA and Le Mans organiser the ACO has a gentleman’s agreement to not stage events on clashing dates.
Todt said during last week’s FIA Sport Conference: “[Scheduling GPS and Le Mans apart] is kind of mission impossible. There are so many healthy series in motor racing and we only have 52 weekends.
“I love watching Motogp races, so very often those are combined with another race and I miss it. I watch touring cars, Motogp and then an F1 race – it’s great, you can go from one to the other.
“I was in Le Mans [earlier in the week] and never saw so many people, so I don’t think it was penalised by having Baku the same weekend. I was also in Baku [for the GP day] and incidentally I was watching Le Mans and could follow it because [F1] started at 1500hrs and Le Mans finished then too, so you could easily follow both if you really wanted.”