[LM24 Race] Le Mans 2023 Race Thread

[Steve McQ]

It seems that InterEuropol raised some eyebrows with their performance at Le Mans.

https://www.autohebdo.fr/actualites/...interroge.html


In a nutshell, Louis Delétraz (WRT) says the bright yellow/green car was a rocket exitting slow corners and was consuming less fuel than any other P2 oponent, which is difficult to understand for him because everybody had the same "spec" car.
Vincent Vosse, boss of WRT is more diplomatical but you can read between the lines that the Belgian team built a claim against the Poles. And you can bet WRT knows something about cheating

[Gerard C]

Exciting slow corners could find an explation with the gear ratio they use. As to others strange things, like being faster with much less fuel consumption its just impossible. May be they use a better polish to clean the body?

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Steve McQ

It seems that InterEuropol raised some eyebrows with their performance at Le Mans.

https://www.autohebdo.fr/actualites/...interroge.html


In a nutshell, Louis Delétraz (WRT) says the bright yellow/green car was a rocket exitting slow corners and was consuming less fuel than any other P2 oponent, which is difficult to understand for him because everybody had the same "spec" car.
Vincent Vosse, boss of WRT is more diplomatical but you can read between the lines that the Belgian team built a claim against the Poles. And you can bet WRT knows something about cheating

Yeah the win has had an asterisk against it for almost two weeks now. If there's as much smoke as the article suggests then I'm not sure why something hasn't been confirmed yet one way or another. I'm still not sure we've had the absolute final results published?

[Gerard C]

Final results are always published TBC after enquiry. But this time the enquiry takes time. I love this version:
"If cheating occurred, will the teams get a monetary fine or be disqualified? Imagine the entire Hypercar podium being disqualified!No, we can’t either"
Then:An Inter Europol Competition spokesperson, meanwhile, provided the following statement to Sportscar365.“To win Le Mans is very special,” the statement read. “The No. 34 Oreca ran like a dream throughout, and now it is undergoing post-race checks to ensure it is within the rules.“We are 100 percent sure from our side that it complies with all of the rules and regulations.” Found here: https://www.autoracing1.com/pl/402031 Go figure as they say…

[PhilipR]

Interesting that is taking so long to go through post race inspection
The fact that top 3 in hypercar are being looked at is interesting

I did notice that the 34 always seemed to have the speed over the others and better strategy - but did not think anything special about it

[Gerard C]

What seems special is that it was possible for this leading and winning car allowing one more lap during some stints and that they spared few seconds during refuelling. The competitors asking how it's possible to be quicker with a better fuel management in what is a one make category is a good thing imo. Above all, the answer given by the instances will be interesting too.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

What seems special is that it was possible for this leading and winning car allowing one more lap during some stints and that they spared few seconds during refuelling. The competitors asking how it's possible to be quicker with a better fuel management in what is a one make category is a good thing imo. Above all, the answer given by the instances will be interesting too.

Yes fuel management is still important at Le Mans. Despite it being mostly flat out, there's still room for saving the car. It helps if the car is efficient too. Although it will be interesting what the investigation says.

[Peter Mallett]

Slightly off topic but something came up on twitter this morning about the Daytona Rolex 24. Apparently a car or cars have been found to be outside the rules. I wonder if this case will go in a similar direction.

[Gerard C]

Waiting out the clock when the sponsor is Rolex seems good! What a shame.

[Gerard C]

From memory no GT was checked post race, Hypercars being declared compliant. Only one car left, having been fully stripped down, inspected and parts under seal taken to further investigation. First in rope the chassis constructor, then engine builder. Dont ask them who killed Jeanne d'Arc!

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

Slightly off topic but something came up on twitter this morning about the Daytona Rolex 24. Apparently a car or cars have been found to be outside the rules. I wonder if this case will go in a similar direction.

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthre...59#post4146359

Naughty tire low tyre pressures. It was evident in the race that they had a tire advantage too. Just a fine though!

[Peter Mallett]

Ah OK thanks.

[Gerard C]

Just a fine and the chief engineer becomes Mr Scapegoat (wont comment his real family name). If the advantage was so obvious and given that data are monitored live, why all this took one month?

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Just a fine and the chief engineer becomes Mr Scapegoat (wont comment his real family name). If the advantage was so obvious and given that data are monitored live, why all this took one month?

the 60 definitely had an advantage on restarts especially in the cold weather at Daytona this year. Further on in the stints the pace of the all the cars would stabilise. Remember long periods of racing when the 01 was leading and the 60 was around 1 minute down but could not make inroads.

However new cars, and the fact that the 10 Acura finished 2nd and the data from the 60 looking correct probably did not raise eyebrows. Most probably imagined the 60 nailed the set up and maybe more willing to risk with a new car and others just took it easier

Funny enough, I raised this in another thread, since the Dayton the 60 has been nowhere on pace, not even challenging for race wins and I heard rumours of the 60 was doing similar dodgy data reporting in 22 as well(just a rumour could just be false) - but funny enough they are back to their 21 pace where they were almost always not in the hunt for wins

[KlBD]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Just a fine and the chief engineer becomes Mr Scapegoat (wont comment his real family name). If the advantage was so obvious and given that data are monitored live, why all this took one month?

The live data was being tampered with. HPD were the ones who ultimately reported MSR's activity to IMSA, since the governing body had no idea at first the data was fraudulent. Things like appearing to have an advantage by eye may be a good reason to investigate something, but that would not be the evidence that conclusively proves it.

[Mike E]

This is worth a watch

https://youtu.be/b0wJCo07opQ

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Mike E

This is worth a watch

https://youtu.be/b0wJCo07opQ

That’s terrific, really terrific, the best piece of retrospective work I've seen post race this year.

I'm going to watch it again now...

[KlBD]

Originally Posted by Mike E

This is worth a watch

https://youtu.be/b0wJCo07opQ

Short but it captures what we love about this race, the same way Truth in 24 got me hooked on Le Mans all those years ago. The Full Access series really does a great job at giving an insight into the human emotion of this sport, in a very genuine way. And just that kicker at the end, Tom's consolation to Hirakawa, that's an amazing moment.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by KlBD

Short but it captures what we love about this race, the same way Truth in 24 got me hooked on Le Mans all those years ago.

Thanks for the links, MIKE E and KIBD! I had the opportunity to visit Oreca facilities whith JM Gounon as private guide, back in the day. The sense of detail in the design and building of those cars was really impressive. Absolutely no place for improvisation.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Mike E

This is worth a watch

https://youtu.be/b0wJCo07opQ

Really good at capturing the emotions of the race. For some reason I was worried when the Ferrari wouldn't start at the end - even though I knew what happened!

[J Jay]

It looks like they have acted on the feedback they asked for last year about Full Access/Unfiltered. The inclusion of the race debrief videos allows Full Access to be more about the stories than having to fit the race recap in as well.

Great stuff, much better at telling the story than in previous years.

[Simmi]

Has anyone watched the official 2022 race review yet? Since the ACO in their wisdom decided to take it out of the hands of Duke theirs is the only option.

I picked up the DVD during race week which appears to have dual language tracks but I've not got round to watching it yet.

[Aysedasi]

Yes, I got it as part of the big ACO members pack. It's OK, but nothing like as good as the Duke videos used to be. I only bought it as last year our group was filmed in T17 by the official video people and I hoped there might be a snippet on the DVD, but no such luck....

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I picked up the DVD during race week which appears to have dual language tracks but I've not got round to watching it yet.

Russian and Japanese? For this year there are true wonders on YT, if you can download one or two, go for it. Some features a certain Andrew may be?

[Aysedasi]

I somehow doubt it.....