24H Le Mans: Not everything is different now đ„
CLASSIC WITHOUT PUBLIC The 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, postponed from June to this week, will certainly not go down in history primarily for sporting reasons. The favorite is Toyota. The teaser suggests that things have changed (Things have changed), but not the willingness to fight, which will continue in 2020 with much [...]
The teaser suggests that things have changed (Things have changed), but not the willingness to fight, which will also be in 2020 with a lot of action on the track.
For only the fourth time in its 97-year history, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the capital of the French department of Sarthe will not take place in June. An absolute and dreary novelty is the lack of spectators, of which usually about a quarter of a million are present over all days. The organizer and rights holder A.C.O. does not allow any audience in and around the 13.626 kilometer Circuit de la Sarthe.
Action only from Thursday
The public car inspection at the beginning of the week and the drivers' parade in the city center on the day of rest before the race will also be dispensed with in this exceptional year. Fans can and must watch everything on television (Eurosport) and via the social networks. Corona sends its regards!
Track activities begin on Thursday, September 17, with almost eleven hours of practice and qualifying - a challenge for the drivers and teams. After a one-hour practice session on Friday morning, the starting grid will be determined by the new Hyperpole session (11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.), where the top six cars in each class will battle for pole position.
Consideration for the Tour de France
The race, which counts as the seventh round of the cross-season 2019/20 World Endurance Championship (WEC), will start at 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, September 19. The background is the final stage of the Tour de France.
The Tour of France, which has also been postponed to September, ends late Sunday afternoon with the finish in Paris. To avoid a collision with this TV event, the 88th edition of the long-distance classic will be waved off at 2:30 p.m., in line with the earlier start time.
Half day and half night
Interesting: Around the summer solstice (June 20), the days are longest in our latitudes. On the originally planned date of June 13/14, the vehicles would only have driven through the night for around eight hours.
On the third weekend in September, the phase of darkness lasts almost four hours longer than just before the beginning of the calendrical summer. Because the cooler temperatures mean that there is more oxygen in the air, the engines will deliver more power in return. Therefore, unless it rains, faster lap times than ever are expected at night.
Third victory for Toyota?
Toyota Gazoo Racing will travel to the event with a hat trick in its sights. The Japanese automaker wants to win the endurance classic for the third time in a row - and give the Toyota TS050 Hybrid a fitting farewell. From 2021, a new set of regulations will apply with technically less complex racing sports cars.
After the 1000-hp all-wheel-drive sports prototype was just two laps short of victory in a direct battle against Porsche in 2016, the only remaining LMP1 factory team advanced to become the series winner from the 2018/19 season. Like Audi and Porsche before it, Toyota could now secure the coveted traveling trophy permanently.
Last appearance of Rebellion, premiere for Delétraz
This year, Toyota is competing against two private LMP1 rivals. Rebellion Racing will field two Rebellion R13-Gibson cars in its last Le Mans entry for the time being (withdrawal after the end of the season), ByKolles Racing one Enso-CLM-Gibson. Formula 2 driver Louis Delétraz is the only Swiss driver to make his Le Mans and WEC debut with Rebellion.
Thanks to the power limit for Toyota and concessions for the cars of the two private teams, they definitely have a chance of overall victory. But to do so, they have to be not only fast, but also reliable. Rebellion has already managed victories over Toyota in this way, but most recently at Spa their factory cars were out of reach over six hours.
SĂ©bastien Buemi like Marcel FĂ€ssler?
Defending champions at Le Mans are SĂ©bastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, who received a new teammate in 2020 in the form of New Zealander Brendon Hartley instead of Fernando Alonso. Buemi, like Marcel FĂ€ssler (2011, 2012 and 2014 with Audi), could now also get to three LM victories. As reported, FĂ€ssler will have to forgo Le Mans this year because Corvette Racing will not compete outside the USA and Canada in 2020.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and JosĂ© MarĂa LĂłpez had their sights set on their first triumph at Le Mans in June 2019, which was ruined at the last moment by a puncture. They lead the drivers' world championship by twelve points in the ##7 Toyota ahead of their #8 teammates.
At the penultimate round of the world championship, 51 points will be awarded next weekend. So everything is still open in the title fight.
More Swiss hopes for the podium
Despite some withdrawals, the field comprises 60 cars. In the LMP2 sports cars, five Swiss drivers - Antonin Borga, Alexandre Coigny, Nicolas Lapierre (Cool Racing), Jonathan Hirschi and Simon Trummer - spread across three cars can hope for a podium. Hirschi has already achieved this in 2018 as the runner-up.
Flight entrepreneur Thomas Flohr also achieved this in 2018 in the Cat. GTE LM-Am, where the grapes have been hanging higher ever since. Having already been on the podium in the ELMS this year, Rahel Frey and her colleagues Michelle Gatting (DK) and Manuela Gostner (I) can also dream of the same. Another Swiss, Christoph Ulrich, will be driving one of twelve Ferrari F488 GTE Evo cars. Young Frenchman Lucas Légéret makes his debut on one of the eight Porsches.
Start list 24 Hours of Le Mans 2020
Status Driver World Championship LMP
Status Driver World Championship LMP2
World Championship standings LMP1 teams
