Inside Le Mans
As Ebimotors enters the toughest endurance race in the world, Total 911 is given behind-the-scenes access to the team and drivers
See how the 86th French enduro unfolded from the perspective of GTE-AM'S Ebimotors
For the first time, the 2018/2019 WEC Super Season will feature two Le Mans 24 Hour races. Comprising eight meetings in total, the Super Season started in May with the Spa 6 Hours, followed by the 86th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours on 16/17 June, concluding in June 2019 with a second Le Mans.
Porsche re-entered the WEC series in 2013 with the 911 RSR in the GTE Pro class, followed a year later by the introduction of the 919 Hybrid LMP1 prototype race car. In the four years that the 919 raced at Le Mans, it won the LMP1 class no less than three times. However, the company has now thrown its full weight behind an increased 911 GT effort in 2018 following the withdrawal of the prototype team in 2017. This means for the 2018 rendition of Le Mans, no less than ten 911s will take to the track in GTE Pro and Am classes, a tally not seen since 2004.
One of the squads in the GTE Am class is the Italian outfit Ebimotors, a highly experienced team in Porsche motorsport circles. Owner Enrico Borghi is no stranger to competition, having served as a Formula 1 mechanic and establishing an off-shore power boating team before turning to racing Porsche GT cars in 1994. Four years later Ebimotors was established, making this their 20th year of racing Porsche GT cars.
The team’s drivers include the vastly experienced Fabio Babini, this being his eighth Le Mans race, and the talented Christina Nielsen, who is Porsche’s first female ‘Selected Driver’. The third driver, Erik Maris, is a well-known LMP2 driver in the ELMS championship, and this race marks his fifth outing in the Le Mans event. For one weekend only, Ebimotors has kindly granted our cameras exclusive access to the team set-up as it seeks victory in the toughest and most famous endurance race on the planet…
Race week: scrutineering, practice and qualifying
Scrutineering at Le Mans is a spectacle that takes place over two days in the Place de la République in the city centre. This process is quite demanding for the teams and drivers as the car needs to look good not only for publicity reasons, but must also be correct technically. Alice Menin is the team manager overseeing the process: “We’ve had to put some new body parts on for the photos and for scrutineering, but then we’ll put the old ones back on later,” she tells us. The drivers too must go through their administrative checks, and this presents the wider media with interview and photo opportunities.
“Between practice and qualifying, no changes are made to the car, but we need to check the brakes and basically everything else on the car before the race,” Menin says as Babini, Neilsen and Maris get stuck in to interviews. However, as a result of the improved performance of all ten 911s, the ACO adds an extra 10kg of weight ballast to every Porsche.
Race day: pre-race
Menin called a meeting with the drivers and
engineers the day before to discuss the strategy for race day. In an upbeat mood, Menin announces, “I am pretty confident. The drivers said yesterday the car is good and Fabio was able to improve his lap time during qualifying. Erik got stuck behind some traffic in the last sector and we finished seventh, but that doesn’t really matter. In the third qualifying session we had our fastest lap after we changed some settings like the wing and the height of the car, but really very small adjustments, nothing major.”
Asked about the mood in the camp, Menin admits, “The mood is good, but we are also just a little stressed because we are tired; we finished late yesterday and the day before. Now we will just clean the car, prepare all the radios and have lunch. Then we are going to get everything ready for the grid. We will check the starting procedure because we have a minute-by-minute schedule, then we need to go to the grid and by then everything must be perfect for the race.”
Between 13:00 and 13:15, all the cars are wheeled out on to the track by their crews along with the nitrogen bottle and tyres, and the pre-race razzmatazz begins.
The race
At around 14:50, a squadron of seven French Airforce jets performs a fly past, leaving a tricoloured trail of smoke in the national colours in its wake. The cars begin to peel away one-by-one from their positions against the pit wall. When they come around to the start/finish straight, it will be to start the race, and then there is no stopping the clock for 24 hours.
Saturday: 15:00 (race Start)
Starting from seventh in class, the #80 Ebimotors Porsche RSR is driven into the history books by the Danish driver, Christina Nielsen. This is a deliberate move, as most of the GTE Am class starts with their Gold drivers, but Ebimotors decides to put Nielsen, a Silver class driver, behind the wheel and to deploy their Gold driver, Fabio Babini, when the rest of the field has their Silver drivers. Nielsen felt honoured at being given the opportunity to start the race, but by the time she climbs into the 991, discipline is etched on her face. The aim is to keep the car in the hunt and to stay clean from contact with other cars.
Saturday: 16:00
At the first driver change, Nielsen, having completed a single stint, hands over to Babini at 16:10, having dropped from P7 to P10 in class.
Saturday: 17:00
After two hours the team is lying in P5. The positions in class vary quite notably at this stage as cars come in for their first pit stop, so the positions can swing by one or two places either way in just minutes. Menin and her team have to stay alert to keep track.
Saturday: 18:00
With three hours on the clock, all teams across the whole field are beginning to establish their pit stop and driver change routine. The three-hour mark also sees the second driver change for Ebimotors, as Babini, having completed a double stint, makes way for the Frenchman Erik Maris. On the stroke of 18:00, the team is in P4, a minute-and-a-half behind the class leader. The team’s routine, the car’s performance and tyre management is all going to plan according to Menin. The aim is to do two stints on a set of tyres, and tyres are changed when the drivers change too.
Saturday: 19:00
The #80 Porsche is running in P10, and lap times are where the team manager had planned them at this stage of the race. On the 65th lap Erik Maris
negotiates the Porsche Curves, and while exiting the second curve the #80 Porsche is overtaken by an LMP1 car, before the #4 Bykolles LMP1 car draws alongside in an attempt to overtake as well. There is contact. “He [Maris] was keeping his racing line and he let the first one overtake him, and the second one was quickly alongside him. Instead of dropping back or giving Maris more room, he closed in on Maris and there was contact between the two cars,” Menin yells. She’s not happy.
It seems that the #4 car cut in too early and the back end of the LMP1 car struck the front left of Maris’ Porsche, causing the Bykolles car to become unbalanced. It spun off into the gravel where it struck the tyre barrier and retired. The two cars are placed under investigation, but no fault is levelled at the Ebimotors team and the action is dropped.
Saturday: 20:00
At the third driver change, Maris hands the wheel to Nielsen, her second time in the car, and the Ebimotors Porsche is up to P7 in class.
Saturday: 21:00 (quarter distance)
With six hours already run, the field is beginning to stabilise. The weather has remained warm and dry, with little prospect of rain. With a temperature of 19°C, this is good for both the drivers and crew. It is during the night that unexpected events can happen, as visibility is reduced. During Nielsen’s second stint (this time a double stint), she picks up a puncture from some debris on the track and the car is brought into the pits for a tyre change. At this stage the team decide to change strategy, and so Nielsen is left in the car for an additional half stint. As a result of this unscheduled pit stop the car has dropped off the same lap as the class leader, but is still lying in seventh place.
Saturday: 22:00
The fourth driver change sees Nielsen handing over to Babini at 22:30, at which stage the car is refuelled and given a new set of tyres. With 102 laps on the board, the #80 Porsche is still lying in P7.
Saturday: 23:00
Fabio Babini is behind the wheel and has managed to pick up one place during his stint, now lying in P6.
Sunday: 00:00
At the stroke of midnight, the #80 Porsche has slipped to seventh place. This is partly due to pit stops taking slightly longer because the tyres are picking up greater than expected amounts of rubber from the track. These pieces of hot rubber are thrown up against the inside of the wheel arch, and this must be cleaned off at each pit stop. Menin reports that both Babini and Nielsen are posting times that are consistently on target for each driver.
Sunday: 01:00
The #80 Ebimotors Porsche has dropped to P9, but with the car running reliably this is down to the pit stop strategies of different teams. The weather has remained dry, and in the cool of the night the temperature has dropped to 15°C. At 01:30, the sixth driver change sees Maris take over from Babini.
Sunday: 02:00
At 02:30, the team carries out the seventh driver change, where Maris hands the car over to Nielsen in P8. The car is refuelled and new tyres fitted.
Sunday: 03:00 (half distance)
By all accounts, the #80 Ebimotors Porsche RSR is running hour-after-hour without any issues. “Christina did two-and-a-half stints and so we reduced Erik’s stint because he only has to drive six hours. So we want him to drive the least [because he is not as fast as the other two]. We are still two laps
down,” Menin reveals. At 03:30, the #80 Porsche is running in P8.
Sunday: 04:00
Nielsen is running clean and consistent laps as she pits to hand the car to Babini at 04:30. This is the eighth driver change, and the car is maintaining eighth place in class.
Sunday: 05:00
Fabio Babini hands the wheel to Erik Maris at 05:30 with the car still in P8. As the clock ticks towards 06:00 the team notches up 197 laps, still without any major incidents.
Sunday: 06:00
As the sun begins to re-emerge the Ebimotors RSR continues to reel off the laps. At 06:30 Maris hands the car to Nielsen in the tenth driver change of the race with the car sitting in P6. “We had a little issue with the fuel sensor inside the fuel hose that comes out from the fuel rig. It was just dirty, so we fixed that,” Menin reports.
Although the lap charts show the #80 Porsche is holding a consistent mid-field position in class, this paints a slightly unclear picture. Menin explains, “Maris was a little bit slower than the other Bronze drivers so he lost some time, but it is all about Christina and Fabio now, as Erik just has to do a single stint, so we will try to do our best to make up as many positions as possible. At this stage all the drivers are happy with the car, but Erik was a little bit worried because he was in the car during the night. Although the Porsche has very good forward lights it does not have such good illumination to the side, and he didn’t have a clear view of all the kerbs.”
Sunday: 07:00
At around 07:30, the #88 Dempsey-proton Racing Porsche spins off the track and strikes the barrier, badly damaging the car. It is unable to continue. This incident promotes the #80 Ebimotors Porsche to seventh in class at the end of the 17th hour.
Sunday: 08:00
At 08:18, with a total of 242 laps and 17 hours completed, Christina Nielsen pits for fuel only and remains in the car. The #80 Porsche is now up to P6 in class.
Sunday: 09:00 (three-quarter distance)
At this stage of the race the rate of attrition is usually much higher, and one photographer comments that the race seems quiet, such is the lack of incidents and retirements. However, the Ebimotors squad remain focused on the job at hand. There’s no celebration of getting this far, just dedication to the final six hours of racing.
Very few of the cars calling into the pits throughout the morning session have serious ailments to attend to. The #80 Ebimotors is an example of this, holding steady in P6.
Sunday: 10:00
“The guys have done well, they haven’t made any mistakes. I can see a lot of penalties for a lot of little things that added together can make you lose minutes. Things such as speeding in the pit lane or maybe you did something wrong during the pit stop, it is very easy to make mistakes, but up until now we haven’t made any mistakes,” Menin reveals matter-offactly. The #80 Porsche is still holding station in P6.
Sunday: 11:00
All of the team have had a period of rest during the night, and with just four hours remaining everyone is once again pit-side and focused on the final push. The drivers grab a couple of hours sleep where they can and try to relax. Massages help relieve muscles from the rigours of racing and the constant G-forces which their bodies are subjected to in the cars, and diet is important, too. Plenty of carbs are consumed, their slow-releasing energy enabling the whole team to work harder for longer in this gruelling event.
Sunday: 12:00
The race reaches a sufficiently advanced stage to ask Alice Menin how her boss, Enrico Borghi, is feeling about the race so far. “The boss is happy. He is very proud of what we are doing because it is our first time. His expectations have always been high, but until you are here at Le Mans, you don’t really know what is going to happen,” she says. With 21 hours and 289 laps completed, the #80 Porsche slips back one place to P7.
Sunday: 13:00
The grandstands, having emptied during the night and early morning, are full again in anticipation of the end of the race. With just two hours left, the crew is running on autopilot as the cars come into the pits for their regular fuel, driver and tyre change. With the cars having different pit stop schedules, the #80 Porsche finds itself up in P5 with Nielsen behind the wheel and just 90 minutes left to go.
Sunday: 14:00
As the race enters its final hour there is a buzz in the grandstands around the finish line, primarily in anticipation of Toyota winning its first Le Mans title in LMP1. However, for the privateer Porsche team from northern Italy, their #80 Porsche RSR is about to write a new chapter in the company’s history. The 13th and final driver change sees Nielsen vacating the seat for Babini, and while the only female driver in the 86th Le Mans race has done more than her fair share of driving, the honour of bringing the car home falls to Babini.
Sunday: 15:00 (race end)
As the large Rolex clock marks the end of the race, there is much jubilation for all the cars that have completed the distance. Perhaps just as elated as the overall winners are the drivers and crew at Ebimotors who can celebrate their first finish at Le Mans. Babini brings the #80 Ebimotors Porsche RSR across the line in sixth place in the GTE Am class. An exhausted Menin tells us: “We woke up on Saturday morning at 06:30 and I didn’t close my eyes for one second, but this is Le Mans. It’s physically demanding and also mentally heavy. You need to anticipate what is going to happen next, before it even happens.” The last word goes to owner Borghi: “I’m very happy about the result we’ve achieved. There is always something we could do better, but it was our first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and finishing in sixth position is for sure a great result. I’m very proud of all my guys because they’ve worked really hard for this race. We did not make any mistakes during pit stops, we had a well-prepared car and a stable driver line-up. I just want to say thank you to everybody. Hopefully we will be here in 2019.”