2016 Le Mans 24 Hours: Preview, Live Streams, Schedules and Discussion

Hotel rooms are booked up, restaurant reservations are all filled, and traffic jams are occurring outside of rush hour. While this would be business as usual in any city with a healthy tourism industry, in the French city of Le Mans it can only mean one thing: it is June and another 24-hour endurance event is about to kick off, bringing a massive influx of foreigners to support the most prestigious motorsport race in the world.

This year’s 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race is going to introduce several curiosities, some of which could make the race more interesting to newcomers as well. GTPlanet is here to cover all the important details and prepare you for the race. Let’s start with basics first.

As you can see from the photo above, a small roundabout has been built near the famous Arnage corner, allowing for better traffic flow during the race and new viewpoints for spectators at this challenging corner. The new roundabout won’t affect the original layout of the track.

In addition, American motorsport’s extensively-used SAFER barriers have appeared for the first time in Europe here at Le Mans event. These barriers line the Porsche Curves.

DRIVERS

Notable news for this season is the absence of GT Academy graduates from the race. This is quite a change from the 2015 Le Mans event, when Jann Mardenborough, Lucas Ordonez and Mark Shulzhitskiy were competing in the wild front-engine, front-wheel drive Nissan GT-R LM in the top LMP1 class, construction-wise a peculiar machine that demanded our attention last year.

Good news however, is that first-rate British Olympian cyclist Sir Chris Hoy is going to join the festival of Le Mans. After retiring from the world of cycling in 2013, Hoy surprisingly stepped into four-wheel competitions by taking his inaugural race in the Radical Sportscars cup. A year later Chris joined GT Academy Team RJN’s program in the British GT Championship, followed by victory in the LMP3 class of the 2015 European Le Mans Series. There he remained for another season before he would join the 2016 24H Le Mans event. Talking to Eurosport.com, Chris said:

”In motorsports terms, it’s everything. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the pinnacle for me. It’s what I’ve been working for over the past three years.”

Chris has made mention of his ambition to reach Le Mans endurance before. And now, under the guidance of Algarve Pro Racing, he’ll be racing in the LMP2 class at the famous Circuit de la Sarthe. With a lap of 3’42.088 (22 seconds behind the leading Porsche), Chris will be starting 27th. GTPlanet will follow his progress through the race carefully.

Many Formula One drivers are often seen in this gruelling endurance event, taking a slight detour from the scenario they’re used to. After being absent from 24H Le Mans events for ten years, Nelson Piquet Junior is going to join this year’s race at full blast with Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld at his side. The team will be aiming to bring the LMP1 Rebellion R-One (#12) home on the podium. Vitaly Petrov is another F1 driver breaking his long 24H Le Mans hiatus. He is going to compete in LMP2 class with the all-Russian SMP Racing team in the #37 BR01 machine.

CARS

If everything goes as planned, the 2016 24H Le Mans event will host a total of 60 cars on the grid, which is a record for most entries, last seen at the infamous 1955 race.

There is another notable achievement, this time related to a car manufacturer. No more, nor less than 50 years after their first victory at Le Mans, Ford will be returning to the circuit once again, with a total of four entries for the LM GTE Pro class. Their last appearance at the circuit in an official capacity was recorded in 1969, when they scored their fourth consecutive victory.

Paying homage to that achievement, the cars are going to be numbered from 66 to 69. All four cars proved to be among the fastest competitors in their own class, squeezing inside the top five during the qualifier. If they manage to complete the race, they could really be remembered for a loud comeback.

LMP2 class is going to host the largest number of entries per class (23). Surprisingly, 20 of these are powered by Nissan engines, even though LMP2 rules prescribe Honda and Judd as engine suppliers as well.

Needles to say, the majority of spectators’ binoculars are going to be focused on the LMP1 class, the cream of the crop. Porsche proved to be a dominating contender in qualifying, with both of their 919 Hybrids taking the top two spots. The number 2 car, driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb set an impressive time of 3’19.733, and will lead the pack at this year’s 24H Le Mans race. Lieb was proud of the thoroughness of the team:

”We tried the car in all the conditions, with dry and wet settings. That’s all we could do during these three qualifying sessions. We found a good middleground but I think the true pace will come during the race.”

On this evidence alone, we could see a repeat of last year, when the exact same team representing Porsche took pole position and eventually managed to claim victory in LMP1 class and victory overall.

The race gets underway Saturday 18 at 15:00 GMT. If you would like to get into the actual race a bit more, we recommend visiting links below:

Race Information

• Entry List
• Qualification Results

Race Coverage

• Starting Time: Saturday 18th June, 15:00 GMT (local time conversions here)
• Official Website
• Official Live Timing from FIA WEC
• Radio Le Mans
• GTPlanet General 2016 Le Mans Thread
• (Twitter) 24 Hours of Le Mans @24hoursoflemans
• (Twitter) Sir Chris Hoy @chrishoy

Le Mans on TV

• Porsche 24 hour live stream
• Audi 24 hour live stream
• Ford Performance 24 hour live stream
• Corvette Racing 24 hour live stream

Other Resources

• Andy Blackmore’s Le Mans Spotter Guide
  
• Audi & Project CARS 24 Minutes of Le Mans
• GTPlanet B-Spec 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016 – Our man AJ is getting together an event filled with Project CARS AI drivers, to run alongside the real life race. At the time of writing, there’s still a few spots open, so head on over if that sounds like your cup of tea!

GTPlanet wishes the best of luck and a safe race to all drivers participating!

See more articles on 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford, Ford GT, and Sir Chris Hoy.