82nd Running Of The Le Mans 24 Hours - 14/15 June 2014.

That helicopter ride must have been brilliant

 

Dunno who told you that the Ferraris would be my favorite cars, but sure, why not.
Thought I actually mainly watch Le Mans to see LMP cars race.

 

Man 2 hours before the end it's perfect, Webber leading, Mardenbrah leading, Brunno leading and then BAM!:|

Abandon Thread!

 

This deserves full linkage.

 

That reminds me, I was at the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima a few weeks ago. Got a few shots of the 787B too. The guide said it was the car that won Le Mans but the wheels suggest otherwise.



Anyway it was a fascinating race this year, I am disappointed that Audi won again but Porsche did well to be leading 22 hours into the race. Who knows what would've happened had Lapierre not binned the #8 Toyota.

 

Mark is regretting getting Mexican for dinner..

 

Watching highlights of the race and I must say all the lead changes was crazy. The #7 Toyota breaking down while leading was very heart breaking. Then the lead changes between the Audi #1 & #2 was also intense. Then Porsche leading the race on the 20th hour after TKs #1 Audi stopping on track. Then the #20 Porsche have problems. Mark Webber reaction is classic. And finally the #2 Audi takes the lead.

 

If that's all you could take away from that, then this is about wrapped up.

They could have changed the wheels, but I'd agree with you that this wasn't the car that won the race.

 

I was sadly sick so I didn't watch the race. Seems like it was exciting. I'm going to go find the highlights.

 

Holy crap.... IVE BEEN GONE FOR ONE WEEK and there's 132 pages since I lasted posted...


ONE WEEK... ONE

 

So am I the only one that thinks the Garage 56 program needs to be expanded/revised?

Here are my suggestions:

1. G56 is permitted entry for at least two events prior to Le Mans (if they go to a Winter Schedule this would work even better, or they could run at the tail end of the season before). This allows the team/car to work out any kinks in anticipation of the race in race conditions. It also allows more people to see the car in action.

and/or

2. If the team/manufacturer decide to only run at la Sarthe, and there is an issue during the race that would leave them stranded on the track, they are given an exemption to tow the car back to the paddock to make repairs and get it under way, on the condition that from there on out, they are no longer classified. This way you can avoid a car retiring after 5 laps after a year's worth of build up to see it in action.

 

I agree with Suggestion 1, the Nissan ZEOD didn't last long at all and if they had more time. the car would perform better.

 

I wonder how many people know that Toyota puts little to no money into their F1 and Le Mans programs. Majority of the money came from one of their sister companies, Denso. This was explained to me by the Denso Michigan branch owner when I visited their factory.

 

That doesn't change the fact that they had one of the biggest budgets in F1 during their stint (the biggest by some accounts) I'm sure a few million of their own was in there but I dont doubt their major partner Denso gave a bigger donation. I'd also laugh at any suggestion that says their budget isn't near Audi or Porsche and they're the little man trying to win on some Lotus F1 shoe string budget

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they did pull the plug, but I hope they don't. This year only poor luck (Toyota have always had rotten luck at LM) and Nico Lapierre prevented a probable win, the #8 finished 5 laps down despite losing 8 laps from a crash. They have a very good base to build on for the next two years. A bigger budget and a third car would go a long way towards winning this bogey race for them.

I can see it going both ways from here: either Nissan committing with 3 LMP1 machines (Porsche probably going 3 next year as well) will spur Toyota on to putting in the budget for a three car effort, or they'll fold completely. I can't see Toyota carrying on a low-budget two car effort when three rivals are all taking advantage of big-budget three car endeavors.

 

I'm fairly sure that Toyota is putting as much if not more budget towards their 2 car effort than Audi or Porsche. Having missed most of the race this weekend I cannot comment very much on the subject, but I feel like they had the best shot they've ever had this year, until the problems came in. I just get the feeling they'll grow tired of wasting that money towards 2nd and 3rd places every year... which would be a shame, really, because the more competition Audi has, the better it is for the sport. Not to mention, as you said, they clearly had the fastest car this year, and I do think they can build off that accomplishment and come out even stronger in 2015.

But then again, the R18 (or E-Tron Quattro, but whatever) will probably get replaced soon... and that's something else to think about.

 

All reports I've read over the last two years have had Toyota running a noticeably smaller budget than Audi. Even if the overall budget is now on par with Audi and Porsche (which I doubt), TMC is still being far more restrained than their German rivals, as a large portion of the Toyota LMP budget comes from Total, Denso and possibly even TMG's own pockets.

Actually, I think there was little to choose between the race pace of the Toyota and Audi this year. However, the #8 lost the least amount of time from reliability issues of any LMP1-H in the race (ignoring the early exiting #3). Seeing as how the car was both fast and reliable (as the #8 was), I feel this was another lost chance for Toyota. It just isn't happening for them at Le Mans. Whether the suits will be encouraged or discouraged by this half-full/half-empty display remains to be seen.

The current R18 e-tron is a brand new car for this year, even though it shares its name with its predecessor. Unless it severely under-performs, it won't be replaced until the next major rule change (which is expected for 2017).

 

They had one that was 75% done that was scrapped as it was looking like they were going to allow gt3 cars to enter LM from 2016.

Last couple of pics till I get back to London. Shows how much it meant to the guys and girls at AMR




Just to warn everyone the photo stream will be an aston fest so if you don't like them then unfollow the thread

 

Fortunately you can't mock a driver line-up like Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Villander. They can be on of the best out there in the WEC.

 

Really? Take a look at the Toyota team in its first two seasons. Does that strike you as a team with a big budget?

 

From what I've been told by a few people who knew people involved in both programs heavily.

Toyota F1:
30% Panasonic
30% Denso
15% Driver 1
15% Driver 2
5% Toyota
5% Other areas

Toyota P1:
30% Denso
20% Driver 1
20% Driver 2
20% Driver 3
10% Toyota

 

Well, at least the Audi had to work the hard way to earn their victory this time.. But I'm happy for the #95 Aston!

It was a great race after all. I caught most of them and the overall battle and the drama throughout the race was just fascinating!

 

I personally thought Toyota only ran one Toyota in their first season because the No.8 received heavy damage at le mans

 

Which points at limited budget.

With a Audi style budget they would have had enough spare cars to make up for that.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, dumb post .

 

Back from an exciting race. Lots of pics i have to sort out. Here are a few

 

But we're not tailoring it to the first season, the conversation is one of current events, if you want to take a trip down memory road we can. And I'm sure they didn't have as vast a budget considering they just left an F1 venture that yeilded much if any success (standards vary obviously) on a major budget. They weren't going to make the mistake again. However, from what I could find the number suggests that it isn't far off that of Porsche and Audi, though obviously no team gives an outright number, and you actually have to look around quite a lot. There are older number the 2012 suggest 30 million euros vs 80-90 from Audi. So during that phase I'd say it was David vs Goliath.

Ah so if you're right, then you've confirmed that I was also correct since I said "I dont doubt Denso gave a bigger donation".

 

Where are you getting the data from?

 

The numbers given are from Sportauto.de, as for the current year car-revs-daily.com claims that their budget was increased. Though obviously they don't say how much nor source where they got it from, but it's their claim so...

As for trying to piece a potential amount I just looked at the annual report for each teams sponsor and then cornered down the R&D costs that would be most likely go to the teams. However, that's not the number I gave you and I'm still trying to figure out a potential.

 

Some nice onboards for those who like the Natural Sound of the LMP1 cars onboard.







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