RACE ESSENTIALS
James new bold describe show the french firm has big plans
With 18 races in the books since the advent of the control LMP2 formula in the World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series in 2017, the tally reads 15 wins for the ORECA 07, two for the Ligier JSP217 and just one for the Dallara P217.
Even if that figure is swayed by ORECA’S monopolisation of the WEC grid last year, that doesn’t make happy reading for Ligier constructor Onroak Automotive.
Le Mans 2017 was an apt summary of the story so far. On the biggest stage of them all, Ligier was not in the picture as the DC Racing ORECA threatened to steal outright victory from the unreliable LMP1S. For Onroak’s Philippe Dumas, it was a living nightmare; ORECA locked out the top nine in qualifying, while the quickest Ligier from United Autosports was regularly three seconds off the pace in race trim. A clean run from Filipe Albuquerque, Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen gave United fifth overall, but there could be no disguising that the result owed much to others’ misfortune.
“I’ve done many 24-hour races and I never had such a clean race, even the ones I won,” says Daytona 24 Hours victor Albuquerque. “It’s going to be difficult to top what we did last year.”
But concern that LMP2 will be another foregone conclusion might be misplaced. Dumas contends that the opening rounds of the ELMS at Paul Ricard and Monza – in which Ligier’s best result thus far is seventh – will not be representative of Le Mans, as the FIA and ACO have given Ligier (and Dallara) dispensation to improve their Sprint and Le Mans kits.
Albuquerque drove a Rebellion ORECA at the Nurburgring WEC round last year and quickly saw why it was the benchmark. “it felt like more of an agile car,” he says. “I think they have a lighter car, but as well I think a lot of their strength is with the aero package. They were spot on at making the car at the first attempt. How easy the car was to get to those lap times was also pretty nice, but at the same time I could see it was more demanding on the tyres.”
Ligier’s kindness on its tyres was key in United’s ELMS victories at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring last year, and Albuquerque has been working closely with Dunlop to finetunetune the compounds to best suit the car.
But greater durability over a quadruple stint will mean nothing if it is no closer on pace. With this in mind, Ligier has focused its work on improving the aerodynamic efficiency of the nose section to reduce drag on the Mulsanne Straight and, while Dumas brands the result a “compromise” between what it wanted to change and what was allowed, he is confident of being more competitive this term.
“Last year was a disaster because we did Le Mans with the Sprint package,” he says. “It’s a difficult question because we can take the dispensation as a present from the FIA, but it’s not the complete package. We have to find a compromise with the room we were allowed to modify. We did a test after Paul Ricard ELMS with the Le Mans package for the first time and the numbers look promising. We are reasonably confident to be a lot closer to the ORECA.”
United boss Richard Dean, also the UK agent for Ligier, has expanded to two cars, with Juan Pablo Montoya making his Le Mans debut alongside Owen and de Sadeleer, while Albuquerque partners Paul di Resta – who impressed Dean at Sebring – and Phil Hanson. Although he’s not getting carried away by the “significant step up” from the Sprint and Le Mans kits in testing, the 2006 GT2 winner is quietly optimistic of turning the tables on ORECA after a “98 per cent perfect operational Le Mans” on the team’s debut last year.
“You don’t need many detail differences at 150mph-plus or 200mph to effect a big change,” Dean says. “We’re not looking at it, if it happens, that it will be so much of a surprise. I can understand why people would think that, based on what we’ve seen from the first two ELMS races, but you don’t put a driver line-up together like we’ve done and have a debut like we did last year and not go into it thinking anything other than ‘we’ve got a good chance.”
Albuquerque adds: “I can guarantee that we will not be as far off as we were last year. I don’t know how much closer we will be, but if we are within half a second to one second, we are still fine.”
Aside from the United cars, Ligier has a couple more bullets in the gun to pose a challenge. There is the PanisBarthez Competition car run by Tech 1 Racing, which features ex-manor F1 driver Will Stevens, while DC Racing also has two examples fielded by OAK Racing, in addition to its Jota-run ORECAS. The #33 car entered for team patron David Cheng isn’t expected to challenge, but the #34 of reigning IMSA champion Ricky Taylor, Come Ledogar and David Heinemeier Hansson is an outside bet for a podium, bolstered by engineers from crack GT team WRT and the Us-based ESM outfit.
“Le Mans this year is an obligation for us to get a good result,” says Dumas. “It’s extremely important because LMP2 is a top category and it’s a showcase – we have to show the highest level of the company. We have a better car, so considering the line-up between United, DC Racing and Panis-barthez, we have a chance to do well and to change the way of thinking about Ligier.” ■