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LeMans Promo video on Tampa Racing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY2Y7e3c2xs

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On the way to Lemans by Porsche:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nne8dlxb-w

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Streamed live on Jun 11, 2017
De tradition, la grande semaine des 24 Heures du Mans débute en centre-ville du Mans avec les vérifications techniques et administratives des voitures et des pilotes. Cet événement prend familièrement le nom de Pesage pour les passionnés et permet d’approcher de près les voitures. A défaut d’y être, vivez cette journée avec nous, en live !

The big 24 Hours of Le Mans week traditionnally begins with Administrative checkings and scrutineering downtown Le Mans. Fans can approach cars and drivers for the first time during the week. Do not miss anything of these 2 days thanks to the live stream !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCPNFVT9eNY

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[h=2]Will Le Mans be Toyota's race to lose?[/h] Monday, 12 June 2017


Laurence Foster / Images by LAT

In theory, the only question regarding Toyota in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans is which of its three TS050 HYBRID LMP1 prototypes will take the overall win? Yet in reality, the prospect of a first victory for the Japanese giant after 18 attempts and five excruciating runner-up finishes is far from clear cut.
Sure, LMP1 rival Porsche finished the June 4 test day some 3.38sec down on the fastest Toyota and freely conceded its pair of 919 Hybrids are also-rans on single-lap pace, but Le Mans isn't won or lost over one lap of the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe. Instead, it's determined by flawless execution of the long game: optimizing pace over each multi-lap stint, minimizing time spent in the pits, and ensuring that strategy is both flexible and smart enough to respond to whatever the race might bring, be it weather, safety cars or a rival's unfolding gameplan. In other words, everything 18-time overall winner Porsche has proved a master of over the decades.
Of course, having the fastest car is hardly a hindrance, but in the era of bewilderingly-complex, 1,000hp, hybrid LMP1 prototypes, stored-energy harvest/release profiles, multi-stint tire strategies and, yes, even the human factor – a driver's ability to metronomically hit marks, punch in the right settings at the right moment, and react to P2 and GT traffic at closing speeds often touching 50mph-plus – are all major factors in the performance matrix, too.
When it comes to outright speed, Toyota looks a shoo-in for the pole, and perhaps even the first three starting positions. Kamui Kobayashi (RIGHT) was the only Toyota driver to simulate a qualifying run, but his 3m18.132s lap in the No. 7 TS050 was 1.5sec quicker than last year's pole time, set by Porsche's Neel Jani – this despite aero rule changes designed to keep LMP1 lap times in check. And as Kobayashi noted, his fast time was set despite being hindered by traffic on both of his flying lap attempts. If the weather plays ball, expect at least one Toyota to dip into the 3m16s range and outright pole record territory during the trio of two-hour qualifying sessions scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday evening.
Perhaps more ominously for Porsche, Sebastien Buemi's quick time in the No. 8 Toyota of 3m19.290s was set with a full fuel load, yet still good enough for the second-fastest overall lap. The Swiss driver, with teammates Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, has been the FIA World Endurance Championship's benchmark so far in 2017, winning the season-opening six-hour races at Silverstone and Spa in the high-downforce-spec TS050. The Le Mans test day was Buemi's first head to head with Porsche at the wheel of a low-drag version, and he was impressed by what it delivered.
"It's good to be back at Le Mans and great to see a Toyota lapping in under 3m20s for the first time," he noted. "I'm happy because it was a smooth day and we did more than 100 laps; over a quarter of the race distance. Now I'm looking forward to race week."
For Buemi and Co., the return to Le Mans is a chance of redemption after coming within a lap of victory last year. In a shocking denouement, with Nakajima at the wheel, a broken connector on an airhose between the turbo and the intercooler – we'd call it a trivial part, but nothing's trivial when it comes to racing twice around the clock – saw the car grinding to a halt when victory for Toyota seemed assured. Still, they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and the response so far from Toyota Gazoo Racing and the No. 8 crew speaks to that.
The No. 7 (with Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin alongside Kobayashi) and 8 are the two main weapons in Toyota's three-car arsenal, but a third, Le Mans-and-done entry – the No. 9, driven by Nicolas Lapierre and Le Mans rookies Yuji Kunimoto and Jose Maria Lopez – adds an intriguing dimension. It's the first time Toyota has fielded a third LMP1 entry at La Sarthe, and it would be a stretch to predict it emulating Porsche's 2015 win with its "guest" lineup of Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy, but what chance a podium? The extra TS050 is identical in spec to the regular entries, while the pressure's off and expectations aren't sky high for its driver lineup, so watch this space.



Toyota introduced its TS050 HYBRID last year, but 2017 seems the year when its potential could be fully realized. The switch from the TS040's 3.7-liter, normally-aspirated V8 and super-capacitor energy-storage system to a 2.4-liter, twin-turbo V6 and lithium-ion storage battery was a major change in philosophy for Toyota's Cologne, Germany-based motorsports group, so 2016 was always going to be a learning curve. This year, it's all about exploiting the package to its fullest – and in that respect, Toyota has a lot more scope for progress relative to the more mature and fully-realized tech in Porsche's 919, which made its competition debut in 2014.
Also on Toyota's side are those aero rules tweaks. With a smaller overall budget than Porsche (or the recently-exited Audi), Toyota's R&D dollars were weighted toward low-downforce, low-drag development for the high-speed Le Mans circuit. In past seasons, that proved something of a hindrance in the bread-and-butter, six-hour races that make up the bulk of the WEC, but with the ACO and FIA reducing overall downforce levels for 2017, it plays well for Toyota's ongoing philosophy.
In contrast to Toyota's "all guns blazing" start to the 2017 WEC season, Porsche pretty much admitted it was writing off the opening two races. Instead of running in high-downforce, "sprint" configuration at the six-hour events (each manufacturer is allowed to homologate two aero kits – basically, low- and high-downforce), its 919 Hybrids appeared with Le Mans-spec bodywork. The official line is that it's giving its designers more time to hone a high-downforce kit for the post-Le Mans six-hour races that make up the bulk of the WEC season, but it has also allowed the team and its drivers to gain familiarity with the 2017-spec Le Mans package. Question is, did they expect that package to be so far off the pace at the test relative to the TS050s?
"Could we match the pace of the Toyota?" mused team principal Andreas Seidl, post-test. "Impossible. That was something we couldn't do."
But what about in race configuration? Porsche didn't run in qualifying spec at the test day, so perhaps the fairest comparison of performance between the 919 and the TS050 is using Buemi's fast lap for reference. In which case, Earl Bamber's 3m21.512s effort in the No. 2 Porsche (ABOVE) was only 2.222sec off Toyota's possible race pace. It's still far from inconsequential, but it's better than 3.38...
Bamber (LEFT) joins Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley in the No. 2 Porsche, with Neel Jani, Nick Tandy and three-time Le Mans winner and former Audi driver Andre Lotterer in the No. 1 machine. That's a fearsome driver roster, and Porsche remains bullish that race week will be a closer-fought affair, citing track conditions (the same track conditions encountered by Toyota, of course...), as well as an engine problem in the No. 2 car, as minor irritations in its race-centric test day program.
"We were focusing on race setup and refrained from simulating qualifying," said Seidl. "Although we didn't achieve the mileage we wanted, we still learned important lessons for the race regarding tire choice and tire wear. Toyota's speed was impressive, and we could not match it, but in the coming days we will analyze the data and draw our conclusions to improve our cars' performance."

But with the 919 Hybrid already into its fourth season of competition – albeit significantly updated and refined each season – the question is, how much performance improvement is there to be found, or has the two-time Le Mans-winning design reached a performance plateau? If it's the latter, then Porsche's unrivaled experience and usually impeccable strategy and preparation might be it's get-out-of-jail card. Fact is, Porsche knows how to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans; Toyota, frustratingly, only knows how to lose it...
That being said, let's stick our neck out and predict a result.
With it's test day speed, a full season of development for its TS050, and the insurance policy of three cars to Porsche's pair, we're saying Toyota. Specifically, a redemption tale and a victory for the No. 8 of Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima.
And chasing it home? The No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Jani, Lotterer and Tandy, running like a train, executing to perfection, but just missing out on the last one percent of performance that would transform a dogged pursuit into a genuine head to head.

FOOTNOTE: There is a sixth LMP1 car on the entry list, and that's the ByKolles Racing Team ENSO CLM-NISMO P1/01 driven by Marco Bonanomi, Dominik Kraihamer and secret weapon Oliver Webb (BELOW). No hybrid bells and whistles for this plucky privateer, but it has found four seconds over its 2016 performance and it does look capable of going the distance and – crucially – outpacing the fastest of the packed field of P2 cars. It's a long-shot scenario, but should we lose three of the five factory LMP1s for whatever reasons, look out for some ecstatic ByKolles faces on the overall podium. Hey, it's Le Mans, so anything can happen...


RACER.com coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is presented by Lone Star Le Mans, a six-hour sprint deep in the heart of Texas: September 15-16 at COTA.

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[h=2]Corvette's quest for Le Mans redemption[/h] Monday, 12 June 2017


Marshall Pruett / Images by Corvette Racing, JEP/LAT

Corvette Racing spent the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans fighting over consolation prizes. The brand-new Ford GT, riding a wave of history on the 50th anniversary of the Blue Oval's first win at La Sarthe, came, saw and conquered. The yellow 'Vettes, crowd favorites for almost two decades, could barely get out of their own way due to harsh Balance of Performance restrictions, qualified at the bottom of the GTE-Pro field, and never factored in the race.
A few BoP tweaks by the Le Mans organizers brought the thundering C7.Rs into the competitive frame at the June 4 official test around the 8.5-mile circuit, and with the tables turned on Corvette's in-state rival, the Fords dwelled at the bottom of the GTE-Pro speed charts. Ferrari, the second-fastest manufacturer in 2016, was also hit with BoP sanctions, and ended the test as the second-slowest brand.
Will the reversal of fortune remain in the race? Corvette ace Tommy Milner isn't sure that Test Day can be used as a guideline to predict the 24 Hour's outcome.
"If you just go off of last year, Ford and Ferrari went significantly faster from Test Day to the race week, so I would be surprised if the same thing didn't happen again this time," he told RACER. "It's a little frustrating. Especially last year, for how things went.
"We were quick at the [2016] test, and then were penalized a little bit for that. Time will tell if we have the same scenario again this year, but it's not up to us. We always obviously have an eye towards our competitors, but we rely on ourselves and try and figure out how to make our cars go quick."
The eight-time Le Mans class winners are focused on rebounding after a fruitless visit to France last year. As Milner has seen first-hand, Corvette's European fan base is a key part of event, and will shower its cars and drivers with support throughout the trip.
"There's no question when we come to Le Mans every year that the fans are a big part of the spirit behind our team, they love the Corvette, they love the sound it makes, certainly the history that the team has at Le Mans," he said.
"Last year we had a big banner that said something to the effect of, 'We are Le Mans.' What we do each year with Corvette Racing and Chevrolet just shows what kind of race Le Mans is, and how much it means to this program. It's just a mutual respect between all the parties. It's an honor for us to be a part of the event, and we certainly get that love back."
Winners of three straight at Sebring, Long Beach and Circuit of The Americas in IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Corvette Racing fans will have plenty of reasons to keep track of how the quest for four consecutive victories and nine total at Le Mans plays out over the weekend.

RACER.com coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is presented by Lone Star Le Mans, a six-hour sprint deep in the heart of Texas: September 15-16 at COTA.

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[h=2]Derani hoping for fitting Ford finale at Le Mans[/h] Monday, 12 June 2017



By Stephen Kilbey / Image by JEP/LAT

Above: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani at Silverstone.

Ford driver Pipo Derani is hoping that his final race in 2017 with Ford Chip Ganassi UK will be a memorable one.

Derani, who is driving the No.67 with Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx, got his GTE career off to a flying start at Silverstone, winning his debut in the car. But as the car's third driver, he's not slated to race after Le Mans, when the FIA WEC travels to Germany and further afield.









"It's never easy to get up to speed in a new car with teammates who are already there and know it well," Derani told RACER, when asked about getting used to racing in GTE after seasons in prototype racing with ESM and G-Drive Racing. "So far it's been great, I won my first race which was incredible, it was a great way to start the season.
"I would like to win my third one, my last one with Ford; it would be very special to win with Ford. Such a great manufacturer and team.
"You need to be extremely precise, every mistake you make in a GT loses you so much time, because you don't have the same performance. Silverstone wasn't easy, being the third driver. I didn't even get to run with new tires during practice.
"It's never easy to step in a new discipline, but I had great teammates to help me and make my life easier. I think, as I always said, being with a factory is my goal, and being with Ford has been great.
"My deal is up to Le Mans, so I'm focusing on this, then I'll see what happens."

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[h=2]Barrichello improvises Le Mans travel after security delay[/h] Stephen Kilbey / Image by Ehrhardt/LAT

Rubens Barrichello's preparations for his Le Mans debut his a brief speed bump when the F1 and IndyCar veteran was delayed at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport by a security alert.
The Brazilian, who forms one-third of the line-up in the Racing Team Nederland LMP2 entry, eventually made the 140 mile connection to Scrutineering at the Place de la Republique via helicopter and a ride on a police motorcycle
Also running late was Proton Competition's Khaled Al Qubaisi, who had to attend business meetings yesterday, wile DragonSpeed's Felix Rosenqvist and Jackie Chan DC Racing's Ho-Pin Tung were both delayed by their Formula E commitments in Berlin over the weekend.
Meanwhile Tony Kanaan, who received a late call-up to join Ford's line-up as a replacement for the injured Sebastien Bourdais, will not arrive until Tuesday. Kanaan spent Monday undergoing his Le Mans rookie orientation course in Paris, including the required simulator session, and is scheduled to go through admin and equipment checks tomorrow.

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[h=2]Davidson not surprised by Le Mans test day pace[/h] By Stephen Kilbey / Image by JEP/LAT

Toyota Gazoo Racing's Anthony Davidson says he's not surprised by the pace shown by Toyota at the Le Mans Test Day. The team's advantage, he says, is down to the amount of testing with the low-downforce Le Mans aero kit prior to hitting the track at La Sarthe.
"The thing that's often missed in the hype for this race, is that we've done endless amounts of endurance tests with the Le Mans aero, at Aragon, Paul Ricard and circuits like that," he said when asked about the amount of running he'd had with the new aero package for the 2017 TS050. "When we went to Monza for the Prologue it was also confirmed that the car performed well on a high-speed track.
"When you come here it feels like you run more downforce than at Monza, the car always feels under-winged, and at Le Mans it feels like you've stepped up the downforce. The circuit is also kinder on the tires too.
"The wind tunnel results have had a good correlation on the circuit. The only surprise is the gap between ourselves and Porsche, at the moment I can't believe it at this stage, and I won't be disappointed if it gets eroded, because I'm expecting it to."

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[h=2]Mok hoping to build on GTE Am success at LM24[/h] Monday, 12 June 2017


Stephen Kilbey / Image by Ehrhardt/LAT

Clearwater Racing owner and driver Mok Weng Sun says that it was imperative for him to return to Le Mans this year after his 2016 debut yielded the GTE Am pole and fourth in class.
Mok's Singaporean-flagged but Malaysian-based team is racing with two Ferrari 488 GTEs with help from AF Corse.
"Since Le Mans last year I have been trying to make sure I could return," he told RACER.
"So after Christmas I decided to do the WEC – that also secured Clearwater an entry into the race. Then we decided to file for two cars, and I convinced Richard Wee, who hadn't considered coming to make the trip, because he was never going to regret it.
"It's an incredible event. I decided to do this and the WEC before I stopped racing, because I didn't want to always wonder if I could, and I knew that if I stopped racing, I'd get out of shape and wouldn't be able to come back."
Outside of Le Mans, Mok is also looking forward to the WEC flyaway rounds later in the year, where he'll get to race in the USA for the first time, and against the other Am runners in Japan and China.
"Later in the season I'm looking forward to going to COTA, having never raced in the USA before, and that's where I studied and spent a lot of my younger years," he said.
"It's going to be good to finally go to Austin and that circuit. Then there are the Asian rounds, which are in our backyard. The other Am teams know they need to watch out there, because Silverstone and Spa I didn't know, whereas Fuji and Shanghai are places we've been racing for years."

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[h=2]At lemans Priaulx pours doubt on Ford-focused BoP chatter[/h]