Le Mans a peek at future
Classic 24-hour race offers preview of auto technologies to come
An epic battle between human and machine versus time and the elements at the world’s most prestigious motor race? At two o’clock in the morning, it’s hard to take a romantic approach to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Actually, this year’s classic race will prove to be more like a flat-out war of reliability, exacerbated for now by the dark as well as the difference in speed between the fiercely fast P1 and P2 prototypes and the merely fast GTE cars. It’s during the wee hours where exhaustion leads to mistakes, which leads to things that go bump in the night. At least there is no rain.
While most normal people should be snug in their beds, this is not quite the halfway point for race drivers and their high-tech race machinery. After 11 hours of following the earsplitting action trackside and on TV monitors, thoughts begin to wander. For instance, instead of paying attention to the high-speed drama on one of the Jumbotrons around the track, my mind meanders to novelist Ernest Hemingway’s famous quote: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
But 60 or so years ago, it was a more dashing era, when the lifespan for many top-flight racing drivers was tragically short. And this race took more than its share. It still does, albeit with a thankful infrequency. When there is a fatality, such as the one two years ago that claimed the life of Danish driver Allan Simonsen, who crashed his Aston Martin Vanquish into the barriers at Tertre Rouge, it is treated with appropriate shock and gravitas instead of as the ultimate consequence of a dangerous occupation. (Simonsen’s death was the first fatality during the 24 Hours since 1986.)
These days, corporate mega-dollars, computerized complexity, professional drivers — and calculated team strategy and preparation — have long displaced Hemingway’s era of romance and the exaggeration of the amateur wealthy gentleman competing for fame and glory. And luck is merely an inconsistency that is welcomed when it’s good and feared when it bites you on the butt.
But, given the safety improvements made to both the cars and the track over the decades, the fear of failure for the various automakers competing in this long-standing event has replaced their drivers’ fear of death. For defending champion Audi, it is adding to its unmatched record of 13 outright wins in 16 tries since the German automaker first competed in 1999.
Adding to the stress level, the current diesel-electric-powered Audi R18 e-tron quattro race car is unbeaten in the French classic since 2012. But this year’s battle for bragging rights is as much against the various hybrid powertrain technologies used in the 330-km/h LMP1 wheeled missiles as it is against track rivals Porsche, Toyota and Nissan. New regulations governing the toplevel LMP1 category came into force last year with an aim to make racing more “relevant.” This was achieved by allocating a given quantity of energy to the entrants instead of imposing technical limitations.
The solutions employed by the four manufacturers are varied. Audi has stuck with its successful turbodiesel V6 as well as harvesting the energy generated under braking by means of an inertia flywheel. The Toyota TS040 uses a gasoline-fuelled V8 and super-capacitors to store the energy recovered, while Porsche’s 919 opts for a turbo V4 with two energy recovery systems (brake energy and exhaust energy). Finally, Nissan’s GT-R LM Nismo counters with a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout powered by a twin-turbo V6/kinetic recovery system. Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport, says no other automobile world championship features an equally diverse range of technology.
Porsche is a particular worry for Audi. The sports car firm had something to prove when it made an almost fairy tale return to the P1 prototype class last year after a 14-year absence from Le Mans, its challenge fading only in the last few hours of the race. This year, after the qualifying sessions, the 919 dominated the first three positions of the starting grid, the pole sitter setting a new lap record in the process. Some three seconds back was the fastest R18. Audi occupied fourth through sixth on the grid, ahead of the two Toyota TS040s. The Nissan GT-LMs were farther back in 12th through 14th. Audi’s ace in the hole is fuel economy: The R18s, says Ullrich, consume less energy than the other P1 competitors.
Eleven hours ago, there was all the pomp and circumstance as only the French can muster for its most famous sporting event. At 2 a.m., however, the partying in the corporate suites finally started to subside. Oh, the Champagne, wine and beer are still flowing, and food consumed, but lethargy is settling in. Outside, the throngs are still wandering aimlessly about as if partaking in some great migration, either treating Le Mans as one huge 24-hour marathon party or too buzzed to remember where they parked their cars or pitched their tents.
And out on the track, it’s tooth and nail, with Porsche and Audi swapping the lead in the P1 category and the top six positions with Toyota unable to match the pace and Nissan marching steadily toward the back of the pack. Meanwhile, a Corvette C7R and Aston Martin are waging their own battle in GTE Pro, with a Ferrari 458 Italia lurking just behind, waiting for a chance to pounce. Both Corvette and Aston Martin are also winning in the noise department, their primeval V8s ripping the air asunder; the P1 cars less obnoxious by comparison.
These cars in both categories will change leads for the entire morning, displaying race laps not that far off their qualifying times — as long as slower traffic or safety cars don’t impede their progress. It’s an impressive display of reliability, bringing to mind something overheard in one of the pit suites. “The car that spends the least amount of time in the pits is the one that will cross the finish line first.”
Toward the last few hours, it will be weak links in Audi’s previously impenetrable armour that will hand the crown to rival Porsche for its record 17th win. The nail in the coffin is the R18 e-tron quattro of Filipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Le Mans LMP1 rookie René Rast, which had taken the lead several times. But as a result of the hybrid issues, the front left driveshaft has to be changed three hours before the end of the race, which takes 17 minutes and drops the car to seventh. The other two Audis finish third and fourth.
In the GTE Pro category, the factory Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook overcomes Ferrari’s late charge, while a 458 Italia takes the GTE Am title. LMP2, a category that has cars that look similar to the P1 prototypes but with less powerful engines, is won by a Nissan-powered Oreca.
A couple of facts about the race to contemplate: The winning 919 of Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg and Nick Tandy completes 395 laps — slightly less than 5,400 kilometres — at an average speed of 247.1 km/h. Even the car in the “slowest” category — the GTE Am Ferrari 458 — averages 207.8 km/h for 24 hours.
As it always has been and is now even more so, Le Mans is a test track for automakers’ technological innovations, which can carry through to production cars. And while that might not be romantic, it can still make for extraordinarily close racing. This year, the fans are not disappointed.