MOTORSPORT: Le Mans revolution – enter the DeltaWing

Not this weekend, but next year – and Australia's David Brabham could be one of the drivers.

Much more of that in a moment, but lots more is happening immediately at the famous French circuit.

Audi's all-new 3.7-litre, V6 R18 TDI coupes will occupy the front row of the grid for this weekend's race, with two of the new 3.7-litre V8 Peugeot 908s on the second row.

While Audis have dominated the event over the past decade, Frenchman Benoit Treluyer gave the German manufacturer its first pole position since 2006, clocking lap in 3 minutes 25.738 seconds for the 13km circuit in the R18 he is sharing with Switzerland's Marcel Faessler and German Andre Lotterer, a teammate of James Courtney in British Formula Three a decade ago.

It promises to be another day-long arm wrestle between the Audis and Peugeots, while Aston Martin is at the start of a three-year development program.

The American Acuras from Honda Performance Development were scratched weeks ago, costing Brabham a Le Mans drive this year, but the ranks of the petrol cars in the LMP1 category still contain Toyota-powered Rebellion Lolas and Judd-powered Pescarolos as well as a Zytek.

Lots of other marques are represented in other classes as always, many of them factory efforts or factory supported.

Among the most interesting are Ferrari's 458, one of which is being co-driven by Australian-based Dane Allan Simonsen, and BMW's M3, having what is expected to be its swansong before the German manufacturer concentrates on the German touring car championship (DTM).

A couple of pertinent points have been made by Auto Action magazine's Andrew Cotton in his race preview.

"The LMP1 cars have smaller engines, less torque and less power (this year), but they have less downforce, so the use of the tyres is completely different," Cotton wrote.

"The LMP1 drivers say they don't have the torque to pass the GTE or LMP2 cars. This is a problem, not only for the LMP1 drivers but also for the drivers of the slower cars."

The race is scheduled to start at midnight, Saturday, eastern Australian time.

British legend Sir Stirling Moss announced his retirement from any form of racing at Le Mans overnight after competing in qualifying for a historic support race.

Moss, 81, admitted he had been frightened to drive the Porsche RS61 in the legends race.

"I was frightened before I even got in the car," Moss said.

"This afternoon I scared myself and I have always said that if I felt I was not up to it or that I was getting in the way of fellow competitors then I would retire."

Co-driver Ian Nuthall will now drive both stints of the race in the Porsche, which is starting 33rd.

The chances of ultimate glory are slimmer, much slimmer, and it may come to little in the end, but it is compellingly innovative.

It involves Dan Gurney, who among many illustrious moments in a great career won Le Mans; Don Panoz, the American Le Mans Series founder and the man who brought the sports car race to Adelaide at the turn of the century; and Duncan Dayton of Highcroft Racing for which David Brabham raced until its Acura program folded.

Dayton's involvement points to Brabham returning next year to Le Mans, where he won outright with Peugeot in 2009 – something his eldest brother Geoff had done 16 years earlier.

The Delta Wing designer is the daring Ben Bowlby.

The Americans have been invited by the Le Mans organizers to contest next year's race as the 56th entry – a place reserved for a technologically innovative car to participate "outside the classifications", a vehicle showcasing new applications and unique technologies.

The consortium, called Project 56, will campaign "a unique concept demonstrating extreme performance with half the weight and horsepower of a traditional racing car".

Its announcement said: "The Project 56 group brings together the design talents of DeltaWing Racing Cars LLC; the manufacturing capabilities of All American Racers, the company owned by 1967 Le Mans winner and American racing legend Dan Gurney; and back-to-back American Le Mans Series championship-winning racing team Highcroft Racing.  American Le Mans Series founder Dr Don Panoz has also joined the project as a key advisor.

"The new and experimental car is targeting competitive performance with only half the horsepower of the leading contenders. It does this through halving the amount of aerodynamic drag of traditional racing cars as well as a similar reduction in weight.

"The Project 56 Group is in discussion with engine partners to provide a 1.6-litre turbocharged power plant producing approximately 300 horsepower.

"Eliminating the use of traditional wings, downforce for the DeltaWing is generated solely beneath the car by the contoured underbody."

Designer Bowlby said: "The secret to the DeltaWing car is simplicity and efficiency. We really have to applaud the (Le Mans organiser) ACO for having the foresight to create this opportunity for an entry like ours.

"We believe this is a true automotive innovation which could be the catalyst for changing the way people look at not only racing car design, but automotive design as a whole."

Highcroft's Dayton said: "The DeltaWing project really represents a unique opportunity for all automotive industry sectors. It is so new and exciting, and such an interesting departure from the traditional race car development path – it is highly relevant to the future.

"Given that the world is concentrating on efficiency and green technologies in an attempt to achieve sustainability, this project in my opinion will help promote the direction that is being adopted throughout the entire automotive industry."

"They (the Pirelli tyres) are very different (from the previous Bridgestones) and the drivers are very sensitive to that (change)," Webber told Canada's rds.ca this week.

"It's like a golfer or a tennis player changing his equipment. When you're at this level and trying to gain an edge with tiny details, the small changes can make big differences. But it's up to the drivers to adapt."

(London's Financial Times newspaper yesterday had a feature on Pirelli and its F1 involvement, in which company chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera says: "We were specifically asked by the F1 organisers and Bernie Ecclestone to develop compounds that would add more excitement to top motor racing." Pirelli's bigger rivals, Michelin and Bridgestone, had reportedly refused to develop such tyres. FT correspondent Paul Betts also writes of "the huge international public awareness Pirelli has gained by making tyre strategy a key component of F1 racing".

Webber has had only two podium finishes from six races this year and in eight starts in Montreal has never finished in the top four.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has four long straights, on which Webber's RB7 car will top 300kmh, and slow corners.

"It's high-speed, it's relatively narrow and you need your car to be good over the kerbs because there are a lot of chicanes," Webber said.

"The walls are close in places, so it feels more like a street track than a permanent circuit."

"This place hasn't been good to me or the team in the past, but the races here are always interesting – there were 60 on-track passes in 2010 – and you often get a mixed podium as a result.

"Nine of the last 13 races at this track have been interrupted by safety cars, so this is a race at which you need to think on your feet. You factor in the chance of a safety car when you're working out your strategy.

"I hope I can continue my (recent) momentum of encouraging results (including the fastest lap in four races this year) and I hope to get my first win soon, because I was winning quite often last year."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said Webber had told it he wants to stay with it next year.

"Some time a little bit later in the (northern) summer we will sit down and discuss next year," Horner said.

"Mark has made it clear that he wants to drive next year, and conversations with Mark tend to be quite straightforward.

"He has obviously struggled with the Pirellis more than Seb (world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel) and he is working hard to get to grips with that.

"But he is still a fierce competitor and he is still pushing very, very hard.

"We are very happy with him in the team."

Powerful Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has said, somewhat surprisingly, that if Webber retired at the end of the season it would turn to one of its Toro Rosso drivers, Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi or Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari for next season.

"This is by design," Marko told Italian magazine Autosprint. "We will try to do what we did three years ago with Sebastian Vettel (promoting a Toro Rosso driver to RBR), when David Coulthard retired."

However, Marko said that was "not automatic".

"If a driver does not meet all of the professional requirements, we will not offer him the opportunity to drive at Red Bull," he said.

While it is surprising that Red Bull would see this year's performances by either Buemi or more especially Alguersuari as worthy of an RBR drive, the significance for Australia is the future of 21-year-old Perth driver Daniel Ricciardo in it all.

Ricciardo has virtually been assured of a Toro Rosso race drive next season, with some speculation he may be "baptised" even sooner if Alguersuari or Buemi were deemed not to have shaped up well enough and were sacked.

Even if Ricciardo does get an early promotion from reserve driver, and outings in Friday morning practice at GPs, it is clear Red Bull would not consider a 2012 race drive at RBR for him.

Hamilton has been on pole position each of the three times he has raced there and won twice, including last year.

Red Bull's only podium at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on the Ile Notre-Dame, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River, was David Coulthard's third in 2008.

While McLaren and Hamilton will be confident against Red Bull and Vettel this time, the other McLaren driver, Jenson Button, has tipped the Mercedes factory team to be surprisingly competitive in Montreal.

Apart from any improvement in the Mercedes cars, Michael Schumacher has been on the podium 12 times from 16 starts there – and has won in the city a record seven times.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso said the track "suits cars which can jump over the kerbs without losing too much balance and cars that have good traction on the exits of the slow corners".

Second in Monaco a fortnight ago, and a likely winner if not for the red-flag period late in the race, Alonso claimed the characteristics he mentioned were "among the strong points" of this year's Ferrari.

Unlike Webber, Fernando Alonso expected having two zones where drivers can adjust their rear wings in Montreal would give "a big advantage" to drivers trying to overtake.

In NASCAR, Larry McReynolds, the Fox TV analyst with more than 30 years of experience as a mechanic and a Daytona 500-winning crew chief, has tipped Australia's Marcos Ambrose as a potential Sprint Cup race winner in the next three months.

However, Brian Wiggins of speedwaymedia.com doubts it will be this weekend at Pocono, Pennsylvania.

Wiggins says in his Pocono preview that "while Marcos has had a great year so far, Pocono's not the place for the Aussie to get excited about".

"Ambrose, who finished sixth in his first attempt here, has never finished better than 30th since. Sunday might be a challenge (for him)."

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