Reflecting on Le Mans 2018
Ben’s frustrations with the 24-hour race continue, though there are plenty of personal positives
It’s not often that you can say you qualified second, set a new race lap record and saw off a former F1 great in head-to-head combat without having some silverware to show for it but, sadly, that was the story of my Le Mans. After a frustrating time at the Circuit de la Sarthe last year, the Gulf Racing team returned with reasons to be positive. Okay, we hadn’t quite got the results we wanted from either of our first two outings in 2018, but Le Mans beckoned with a much more favourable outlook than 2017. The team had prepared as well as ever, we had the right equipment to do the job – in the shape of the latest Porsche 911 RSR – and, most important of all, the dreaded Balance of Performance actually allowed us to be competitive with the other manufacturers in the LM GT-AM class.
I proved the potential of Gulf’s #86 machine by qualifying second in class in the final session on Thursday night and, without the penalties that had taken the shine off decent qualifying performances in the year’s first two races, I was also able to take the lead of the race on lap one, albeit after a doorhandle-to-doorhandle scrap with Matteo Cairoli’s Dempsey-proton Porsche that lasted the entire length of the Mulsanne Straight! I’m sure that would have made for some great television had it not been for the obsession with Fernando Alonso’s quest for the Triple Crown…
Having put Cairoli in my rearview I was able to get my head down and set some fast laps, including one that remained at the top of the class list for some 23-and-a-bit hours. It’s always nice to prove your own personal pace in any race, but to do it with a new lap record is extra special.
Simply being fast isn’t enough at Le Mans though, and I still had to make sure that I handed the car back in one piece – even after a battle with former F1 race winner Giancarlo Fisichella’s Ferrari. He may be a little older than when he was in his Grand Prix prime, but Giancarlo remains as committed a racer as ever, and it was personally pleasing to get the better of him.
Unfortunately, after a bright start Gulf’s race unravelled, with a couple of incidents dropping the #86 down the order and out of contention for any sort of silverware. While it’s frustrating not to see the potential of both the team and car rewarded – and to see that possibility slip away so early in the race – it’s a great testament to Gulf’s preparation and the general strength of the RSR that even after one of my teammates nosed it into the wall at Indianapolis at around 120km/h it continued to run as quickly as ever.
We lost time repairing some relatively minor bodywork damage but, unable to put it on a flat patch to check the geometry, were delighted to be able to continue with only a mild tweak to the steering. It might be built like a tank, but certainly didn’t run like one, and I was able to take the #86 close to my fastest lap when I got back behind the wheel during the night. I might have been able to go even faster had it not been for a touch of carbon monoxide poisoning, suffered during a 45-minute spell pootling about behind the safety car while an errant drain cover was repaired. Trying to keep your tyres warm while making sure you don’t run into 50-odd other cars trying to do the same is akin to being trapped in a taxi with a very bad driver. Weaving about and getting on and off the gas while breathing in everyone else’s fumes isn’t an experience I’d recommend!
For all the frustration, however, there are a lot of positives to take from Le Mans, not least the performance of the entire Gulf team. The backroom boys and girls in particular did an exemplary job, with their sharp and systematic pit-stops, immaculate preparation and strategic planning all receiving some positive comments from top brass at Porsche. If nothing else that flags Gulf up as a leading team, not only in the LMGT-AM class, but in the WEC as a whole. We may not have got the podium our potential deserved, but Le Mans 2018 served as the perfect showcase for the team – and myself – and gives us something constructive to take into the rest of the season.