[LM24 Race] 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans Race Thread

[Articus]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The fin didn't work while the car was going side ways. When the car lost it's left rear wheel, the right front end of the car lifted up enough for the air to get underneath it and flip it. This series of stills is pretty good at showing what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=...ture=endscreen

The car would have flipped regardless of whether the left rear wheel was missing or not. The speed was to high and the fin is ineffective at those speeds coming into the corner.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Articus

The car would have flipped regardless of whether the left rear wheel was missing or not. The speed was to high and the fin is ineffective at those speeds coming into the corner.

Maybe but with all four wheels on the ground I doubt the right front end would have lifted up as much as it did or at all and the fin would have been more effective, as the car traveled side ways.

[Articus]

Worth mentioning. Where does the #2 Audi go from here? I think the #1 car is now the strongest lineup...Well maybe I could beg that they swap Fassler for Duval in the #1 car...

[arakis]

If they plan to keep the AM drivers, which I think they should, the ACO really needs to get a rule out stating that the faster cars can't under any circumstances pass a slower car while cutting the racing line...( with heavy penalties in case they do)..

Yeah it was AF corsa drivers fault, but in his defense, he is an amateur, he probably didn't except him to be there

It's seems like he just turned into the coner not knowing that davidson was there..

I'mean miscalculations happen all the time to professionals, just look at Romas Dumas, and McNish, you can't really expect Amatours to not make mistakes...

IMO It's always the experienced professionals drivers fault... I mean seriously, when you drive your car on roads, you never expect everyone will drive by the rules, you always watch out that some idiot will make a mistake and cost you your life...same thing here, you know they can't drive, or judge closing speeds as racing drivers should, so you look at them as hazards, you respect them, you don't go diving into corrners fealing assured he is gonna do everything right

[supermario21]

Originally Posted by Articus

Worth mentioning. Where does the #2 Audi go from here? I think the #1 car is now the strongest lineup...Well maybe I could beg that they swap Fassler for Duval in the #1 car...

Well, I think the Audi Le Mans challenge is going to look different in 2013. Hypothetically, 2 of the 3 or 4 Audi cars may have significant changes. Let's look at #3. That is essentially the Porsche car. If Hindy is right, guys like Dumas and Bernhard will be gone to Porsche due to their factory driver obligations. Gene and Duval will likely be retained, and may be paired with 1 of the 2 non-retiring vets (McNish or Kristensen). The #4 car is the future of Audi at Le Mans, and I suspect this trio will remain the same (Jarvis, Bonanomi, Rockenfeller). They also did very well in the race in terms of being relatively trouble-free (driver wise).

To me, those 2 cars are certainties. Now let's look at a few scenarios. First, 3 or 4 cars. If 3 cars, do you keep Fassler? If yes, then McNish and TK are both gone to Audi Ambassadorship (or Toyota). If no, then I say Duval gets drafted in and McNish leaves due to his numerous errors of late. Kristensen would move to the 3 car. However, there is no real way I think this happens, so I will just predict a new man is hired to run in the old guy's car (maybe another young gun from DTM like Ekstrom-he never got the R8 drive that many said he was promised) and another young gun fills the void in #3.

[gregtummer]

Most cars to still ever finish on the lead lap at Le Mans: 2

[Creep89]

Originally Posted by Articus

Worth mentioning. Where does the #2 Audi go from here? I think the #1 car is now the strongest lineup...Well maybe I could beg that they swap Fassler for Duval in the #1 car...

So.. It was the last Le Mans for Dindo?

This would be my lineup:
#1 Lotterer, Treluyer, Duval
#2 Kristensen, McNish, Gene
#3 Rockenfeller, Fässler, Mr. X

[Audi R10]

Originally Posted by Creep89

So.. It was the last Le Mans for Dindo?

This would be my lineup:
#1 Lotterer, Treluyer, Duval
#2 Kristensen, McNish, Gene
#3 Rockenfeller, Fässler, Mr. X

I think:

#1 Lotterer, Treluyer, Duval
#2 Kristensen, McNish, Bonanomi
#3 Rocky, Fassler, Jarvis

and Mortara 10th driver/reserve.

[Acid09]

I'm pretty sure Gene has reserved himself a seat on the team with his late race performance.

That is if Toyota isn't going to pick him up for a third car next year.

[rich07]

Im really happy for all the class winners.

#1 Audi-great to see the young guns defend their title. Fassler aint the star of the trio but Ive been a fan of his since DTM so its great to see him grab another Le Mans win.

Rebellion-awesome to see them being the fastest of the privateers although I have to say I'd be surprised if they hadnt been. They looked the fastest and most prepared of the privateer LMP1s so it was their title to lose IMHO.

Starworks-What a dream debut year in ACO LMP racing for this team. Very happy for the guys.

AF Corse-The car gets binned in practice and then they come back to win. Wow. The 458 did really well last year and failed but this year makes up for it. Fairytale. Such a great win that even Badger wasnt unhappy to see it happen.

Larbre-Great to see them win again especially with Pedro Lamy in the car, its nice to see a good race for him with his recent ups and downs. Although I must ask-why'd they stop at the end to swap drivers?

[alexkiller8]

i think that duval, who has been the best driver in the #3 (at least the one that didn't crash during the race and scored 3.24.0 in qualifying) will join other gt500 drivers in the #1. While if capello really will leave his prototype driver role, surely in the #2 will be addede gené as third driver because of his coupè/diesel experience. In next year surely the third car will be used only at spa and le mans, and i think that there will be three drivers between fassler/rockenfeller/bonamoni/jarvis/some other dtm driver.

[ArnageWRC]

Why hasn't Ekstrom ever been used in the Sportscar programme? I've always thought he'd be an excellent Endurance driver.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by ArnageWRC

Why hasn't Ekstrom ever been used in the Sportscar programme? I've always thought he'd be an excellent Endurance driver.

He doesn't like Le Mans. He was at the test day once and later he talked about how the traffic and compromising in terms of set up annoyed him.

[tux]

Originally Posted by ArnageWRC

Why hasn't Ekstrom ever been used in the Sportscar programme? I've always thought he'd be an excellent Endurance driver.

After racing for so many years in DTM hes forgotten how to overtake.

[ArnageWRC]

Originally Posted by tux

After racing for so many years in DTM he's forgotten how to overtake.

While I’m not surprised, I was disappointed again at the pretty poor coverage of the race by the mainstream press. With no clash with F1, I thought there was a possibility that some of the F1 writers would be sent over to cover the race. The coverage it did get was down to the Davidson crash, like McNish’s last year.....
As has been said before, but it seems truer than ever F1=Motorsport!!