LE MANS 2013: The most important race on earth

Manufacturers, motorists big winners from technology torture test
Most motor racing has little, if any, relevance to everyday motoring. Then there’s Le Mans.

The 24-hour French sports car event is celebrating its 90th anniversary this weekend, but the race – starting late Saturday night, eastern Australian time, and ending, obviously, late Sunday night our time – will be the 81st.

Australia is well represented there with drivers – John Martin for a second time, Jason Bright and Ryan Briscoe on debut, Dane but Aussie-of-sorts, Allan Simonsen. But this time no David Brabham – outright winner with Peugeot four years ago, as his brother Geoff was in 1993.

We’ll come back to the drivers later because this race, more than any, is about machinery. It’s about technology rather than marketing, although plenty of that comes on the back of success at Le Mans.

Apart from proving absolute reliability, Le Mans has been at the heart of the development of disc brakes, dual-clutch transmissions and LED headlights so common on road cars now. In recent years at Le Mans, exceptional performance has been added to the economy of turbo-diesels, powering the past six outright winners.

As fuel economy becomes increasingly important and emission laws tighter, next year’s rules will put even greater emphasis on relevance to road car technology.

Porsche, the most successful manufacturer in the history of Le Mans with 16 victories, has already revealed its car for its return next year.

Nissan will unveil its 2014 Le Mans entry early this evening, eastern Australian time. It is vowing to “electrify” the event. Its entry next year will be housed in Garage 56, reserved for the especially innovative. Last year it was home to the DeltaWing.

Le Mans means so much to the continental European and Japanese manufacturers because, more than any form of racing, they know it ultimately helps them build better road cars.

Audi is the favourite this weekend, chasing its fourth straight victory and its 12th in 14 years. After qualifying, its squad of three V6 diesel-electric R18 e-tron quattros occupy three of the top four places on the grid. The R18’s diesel power is to the rear wheels, the flywheel-generated electric power to the front wheels.

Toyota is Audi’s main challenger, running two V8 petrol-electric TS030s – the fastest of which qualified third behind two of the Audis. The Toyotas feature super-capacitors to store electric energy which is sent (like the petrol power) to the rear wheels.

The Americans had a big turn at Le Mans too, especially in the 1960s when Ford was intent on toppling Italy’s Ferrari – and did. The Brits have a proud history too, especially Jaguar and Bentley in two eras. Aston-Martin also has made its mark there.

What this event is about was encapsulated beautifully in a recent article by Brian Laban in London’s Telegraph newspaper.

“Le Mans remains special because it remains unique. It isn't a couple of hours of follow-my-leader on Sunday afternoon, it's two full laps of the clock with overtaking everywhere. It's for sports cars, open and closed, and visibly varied.”

Laban pointed out that National Geographic had declared Le Mans “the greatest must-see sporting event in the world – Olympics, World Cups, World Series et al. Full stop.”

“And they're right,” he declared.

An excellent, more technical feature in last week’s Auto Action magazine (edition 1545) highlighted that Formula One has been dominated for three years by a drinks company, Red Bull, while at Le Mans it has been “major car manufacturers competing with ground-breaking technology that has already started to filter down to the cars we drive on the road today”.

“Le Mans is the real test bed. Its relatively open rule book has allowed manufacturers to experiment with, and promote, new technologies,” it said.

And more so in future. From next year factory teams must run hybrid systems – and the bigger those systems, the less fuel they will be allowed.

Toyota participated in F1 for seven years, spent billions, and came away with little. Its motorsport technical director Pascal Vasselon, has said that (even though F1 will move to 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines and bigger kinetic energy recovery systems [KERS] next year), the Le Mans regulations are “one step ahead in terms of road relevance”.

“Even the concept of Le Mans is more road-relevant – it’s all about consistency and performing well, but over the distance and not just the sprint. So, globally, Le Mans is more road-relevant,” Vasselon said.

The grueling enduro has shown that hybrids can be sexy.

Toyota race driver Kazuki Nakajima said “that’s the image we want to have with young people – that hybrid is not just a Prius”.

“Mainly it [hybrid] is for fuel consumption, but we can use it in other ways.”

Wolfgang Hatz, head of research and development for Porsche, which Australian F1 driver Mark Webber is tipped to join for its comeback, has said F1 was “an alternative, but the road relevance is not there”.

“There is a lot of publicity around politics and tyres [in F1], but not so much about the engines and chassis,” Hatz said.

“The aero, too, is incredible [in F1], but so extreme that it cannot result in any development in our road car understanding.”

Toyota’s Vasselon said the Japanese company’s road car business was much more involved with the Le Mans project than it was during its F1 campaign, which was halted without a grand prix victory.

“They have more connection just because of the hybrid system ... there are many, many bridges,” he said.

“What we [Toyota’s motorsport division] are developing and are especially good at doing is reducing the weight, so for sure the road car system will benefit from that.”

Hugues de Chaunac, head of Oreca which runs Toyota’s sports cars in the World Endurance Championship (of which Le Mans is the centerpiece) said the coming changes in the Le Mans rules were “not an evolution but a real revolution”.

“Endurance racing is going to completely differentiate itself from other motor racing,” he said.

“The allocation of energy is something new and that will allow endurance races to separate themselves clearly from F1... That will also allow new technologies to distinguish themselves from the old. It is an enormous step forward...

“We won’t be doing laps just to use fuel – we will be contributing to the way forward in terms of energy economy... There will be a great diversity of technologies represented because the engineers aren’t all in agreement with each other on this area.”

Now back to the Aussie drivers in the field this weekend.

John Martin, a 28-year-old Queenslander who has turned to sports cars after racing open-wheelers in Europe for several years, is one of three drivers in a Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan that will start tenth on the grid.

Martin had been a second clear in the second prototype category in early qualifying and felt he could have gone even faster but that entry lost out to a Morgan-Nissan in the decisive final session overnight.

Sydneysider Ryan Briscoe, out of a full-time IndyCar drive this year and driving sports cars regularly again, is one of a trio in a Honda Performance Development machine in the second prototype category too that will start his first Le Mans 26th.

Allan Simonsen improved his lap time more than a second in final qualifying to put the Aston Martin Vantage he is sharing at the head of the GTE Am field and 38th overall.

The Ferrari 458 Italia in which V8 Supercar veteran Jason Bright is making his Le Mans debut is 49th on the grid, with its best time around the 13.629km circuit almost 40 seconds slower than the fastest Audi – but still with seven cars behind it.

It has been a challenging experience for Bright, especially trying to learn the circuit during night laps that were compulsory for him as a rookie, but he is thrilled to be fulfilling his ambition to take part in The Greatest Race in the World.

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