LM24 Tuesday notebook

Wednesday, 14 June 2017


By Stephen Kilbey / Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT

News and notes ahead of this weekend's 85th 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Which Dallara aero kit?


Following the results from the Test Day, a team member of Racing Team Nederland has revealed to RACER that it will try using the high-downforce aero kit on its Dallara P217 during the week to see if quicker lap times are possible. As it stands, the Dutch team, which has Rubens Barrichello, Frits Van Eerd and Jan Lammers in its car (pictured above), has not decided which package it will use in the race.

For Le Mans, it is not mandatory for an LMP2 team to run the low-downforce aero kit which the four chassis manufacturers provide, leaving the door open for teams to try both if they so choose. At the Test Day, the Dallaras were the quickest LMP2s in a straight line, but lost so much time through corners that they were unable to come close to the ORECA 07 Gibsons over a lap.

Asian Le Mans Series on show

This year's Le Mans 24 Hours features the most amount of Asian Le Mans Series entries ever, with 11 taking part in the main race and a further two teams in the Road to Le Mans support race.
To celebrate the growth in the Asian market for the ACO, the teams headed out to the track for a photo call. It also formed part of the series' announcement that it will continue with a four-race calendar in 2017-'18, with the change being a single six-hour race this time among the three other four-hour events.
"To see a record number of Asian Le Mans Series teams here this weekend is really positive, and we expect the number to be higher next year," Cyrille Taesch-Wahlen, Asian Le Mans Series managing director, said. "The motorsport industry in Asia is booming and it is our intention to do whatever we can to help drive this growth even further.
"We are excited to be able to offer our teams the opportunity to make the step up from Asia to the world championship. As the reference endurance racing series for prototypes and GT classes in Asia, we offer the only direct pathway into a world championship and into the world's most significant endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans."
To avoid clashes in the booming Asian market going forward, Taesch-Wahlen has also called for a meeting between the major Asian series' to co-ordinate calendars.

Famous faces
Among the many names present at Le Mans this year, a space in the ACO parking lot has been reserved for F1 CEO Chase Carey, next to Don Panoz – who is set to announce his next Le Mans project this week. Whether this is part of the increasingly cordial relations between the major race organizers and F1, or whether Carey has some sort of honorary role for this year's race is not yet clear.

The current betting for who will take the position as honorary starter, sits with A.J. Foyt, as the 1967 overall Le Mans winner with Ford and IndyCar legend is known to be attending the race, although 1995 F1 world champion Damon Hill is also set to be in attendance. The announcement on who will wave the French flag is set to be made Friday.