2. Will Oreca dominate in LMP2?
LMP2 has had a complete narrative change following the events at the Test Day. What was set to be an open scrap between its record 25-car field now looks like it could be a race utterly dominated by a single chassis: ORECA. The 14 ORECA 07 Gibsons in the class, which is made up entirely of new LMP2 cars, are all set to have a significant pace advantage over the Ligiers, Dallaras and sole Riley, after the Test Day ended with the top 13 positions taken up by the French constructor.
It's a worry for the race organizers, with the Le Mans aero kits for the cars set to make for a race that could have a major effect on the sales of the chassis going forward. Will the race organizers allow some form of change to the other cars, or will some form of performance balancing be introduced? If not, then it seems that any team without an ORECA is in for a very long week.
Among the contenders are the WEC front-runners from Rebellion Racing (ABOVE), G-Drive Racing and Jackie Chan DC Racing. There's also plenty of American interest in the class, with Floridian outfit DragonSpeed – which leads the European Le Mans Series – bringing two ORECAs, one under the "G-Drive Racing by DragonSpeed" banner.
Another American team – also in the ELMS – to look out for is United Autosports, which won at Silverstone, and looks to be the strongest Ligier JS P217 runner in the field thanks to the professionalism of the team, and the talents of former Audi LMP1 driver Filipe Albuquerque, combined with the youthfulness of Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer.
Keating Motorsports is also on the list, as the sole representative of Riley in the race. Texan Ben Keating has put together his team for a one-off appearance with the new Mk.30, and will be driving alongside IMSA points leader Ricky Taylor and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Regardless of whether the race is closely-fought between chassis manufacturers though, it's set to be historic.
The new breed of LMP2s are faster than they've ever been - over 340 km/h (almost 212 mph) for the fastest in the Test Day, and are destined to shatter the current LMP2 Lap Record – a 3m32.301s – which has stood since 2008. Already at the test the fastest cars were lapping over five seconds faster, and that could get prove to be even more during Qualifying.