What to ask ACO principal Jean-Claude Plassart?

[Wouter Melissen]

I am sure many of you have thought about this; if I were to talk to ACO principal Jean-Claude Plassart, I would ask him .... Well this is your opportunity. Tell us what you would like to ask about the ACO, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Le Mans Series or the ALMS. The best question will be picked and asked to Plassart later this week by our Speedtv.com friend Marshall Pruett.

So shoot away and maybe you'll get an answer in a week's time!

[Matra et Alpine]

With the Tesla having lapped at this years 24h, how does he see the future electric propulsion in motor racing and in Le Mans series ? Is it possile to allow electric and petrol/diesel to compete together

[LeonOfTheDead]

with Peugeot entering the competition a couple of years ago, now there are some possibilities that Audi won't win the 24H of Le Mans or other events, while the nimble Porsche RS Spyder can achieve some exceptional performance on the right track.
but these three teams, with Audi, are quite different from the others and are in a way too far from the Le Mans spirit, spending millions over the development of the car and the whole season. I remember that when the R8 was first introduced (not the R8C or R8R) it was possible to change the whole rear part of the car in a few minutes. now, that's a great engineering achievement, but only available to a huge car manufacturer with an almost unlimited budget. even if those cars cost so much because they are way safer than some years ago, are there some plans or ideas to make the peace, the win, or even just some minutes of glory, available at also independent teams, like the very reduced Pescarolo?

I know it's kinda messed up...If you choose this, feel free to make some adjustments.

[kingofthering]

What changes can we expect to see in the course layout in the future? Anything major like the kinks on Mulsanne?

Rule changes? What other alternative fuels besides diesel should we be on the lookout for at LeMans 2009+? Will the ALMS teams be able to run alternative fuels (ethanol) at LeMans or do they just run "regular" petrol?

[Rockefella]

Simple but.. 'Any thoughts of adding or removing race classes to the current format of LMP1/2 and GT1/2 for sake of increasing competition or variety?'

[The_Canuck]

With the Tesla having lapped at this years 24h, how does he see the future electric propulsion in motor racing and in Le Mans series ? Is it possile to allow electric and petrol/diesel to compete together

Seconded, also what regulations will there to be equal out Diesel and Petrol cars.

[RacingManiac]

@ Leon:

Privateers did win Le Mans, both Champion and Audi Team Goh were customer team, with severely restricted performance in their R8 compare to the Pescarolo in 2004 and 2005. And still the French team couldn't pull it off. Stuff like replacable rear end and such, that is not a development cost thing, its more of a if you have thought through your design throughly enough. Nothing on that gearbox was "tricked out", bleeding-free disconnect exists as off the shelf items. And most LMP cars gearbox and engine and bellhousing are stressed. Making it modular was a nobrainer. And the rest was practice, practice, and practice. All teams have spare suspension, gearbox, brake...etc, instead of having sitting around, put them together and set it the same as your race car. Nothing is hard in that.

Although I don't think Le Mans was ever meant to be a privateer's race. Manufacturers have always dominated the race, be it as Porsche, Ferrari, Matra, Jaguar, Peugeot, or Audi. In some cases their winning car trickled down to the private teams and they had success with it, but rarely ever do someone with their own car on a small operation wins the big one...

That's off topic, my question is as followed:

With laptime at this year's 24h race dip down to sub-3:20s, and at most ALMS event the time have been drastically lowered this season, the cars are still flying off the track at speed and terrifying accidents seems like common occurance. Where was the sense in changing form the old LMP675/900 rules to the current LMP1/2 rules, for which the changes were supposed to slow the cars down, as well as making them less dangerous. It is cleared that something was overlooked, as often seem to be the case with ACO's rules. Case in point, the supposed performance deficit of the LMP 675 car vs LMP 900, or the current LMP2 vs LMP1. In both cases the actual performance seems to indicate a fair even formula. Has there been any decision made to further look into the performance prediction/simulation that's been done to arrive at these rule packages? How closely were the rules being written with a manufacturer inmind, and how accurate are the data obtained from the manufacturer/chassis builder compare to what they are actually capable of?

[LeonOfTheDead]

@ Leon:

Privateers did win Le Mans, both Champion and Audi Team Goh were customer team, with severely restricted performance in their R8 compare to the Pescarolo in 2004 and 2005. And still the French team couldn't pull it off. Stuff like replacable rear end and such, that is not a development cost thing, its more of a if you have thought through your design throughly enough. Nothing on that gearbox was "tricked out", bleeding-free disconnect exists as off the shelf items. And most LMP cars gearbox and engine and bellhousing are stressed. Making it modular was a nobrainer. And the rest was practice, practice, and practice. All teams have spare suspension, gearbox, brake...etc, instead of having sitting around, put them together and set it the same as your race car. Nothing is hard in that.

Although I don't think Le Mans was ever meant to be a privateer's race. Manufacturers have always dominated the race, be it as Porsche, Ferrari, Matra, Jaguar, Peugeot, or Audi. In some cases their winning car trickled down to the private teams and they had success with it, but rarely ever do someone with their own car on a small operation wins the big one...

my point was different. I was referring to independent cars, not teams. I'm aware of Team Goh and Champion. I don't remember where I read it, but when Goh won the race, their budget was almost 100 M $, something Pescarolo can't even imagine. and preparing a lot of spare parts, even already assembled, is expensive, imo, and it's even more expensive to have plenty of them as Audi does, for example.
then, even if in the 90' manufacturers almost take the lead, in the preceding years some of the official cars, like the Porsche 962, were quite heavily modified by independent teams, and they could even win.
But even thinking that it's a race just for official teams, I can't see what could be interesting in a race with just two contenders like this or last year.
Maybe races like that of the 1999 are gone, but my idea is that the 2000-2006 races were almost a farce. Audi against...just itself. forget about Bentley, just a marketing show with even a change in the rules.
personal idea.

[RacingManiac]

I don't see how expensive, a spare gearbox spare corners can be, especially if they already have them. Its impossible for Pescarolo(or anyone to stand a serious shot of winning), to not have spare parts(gearboxes, suspension components...etc). Especially if you are already building your own car, modularize your design years after seeing how it could be done. Part of the the Audi-esque ethos, was to be prepared for everything. Thats not something you can just buy with money. You prepare your spares to be use, not just sitting in a drawer on a truck. Heck, look at Peugeot this year....

1999 had no independent contender. It was Mercedes vs BMW, vs Toyota vs Audi. ALL of them have budgets in the astronomical figures. 2000 and onward was a farce not only because Audi was too good, but because of the half-assed effort from GM, Chrysler( both of those car companies have factory teams, but none of them have a really top-notched performance). 98 was the same deal as 99, while 96 and 97 had Joest winning the race, in their factory supported WSC 95, but they beat the car that was supposed to win the race, the 911 GT1. 95 was an anomoly, horrendous weather and ill-prepared prototypes means a GT car in the McLaren F1 won the race. That was a privateer car. 94 was Factory "Dauer" Porsche, 92-93 were Peugoet 905....etc

IMO, even if Privateer has massive budget, they are still privateers, your money comes from sponsors you find, if you have smaller budget, you ought to work harder on that front. I highly doubt that Goh had budgets in the $100million, and even if they did they were still in a car thats 6 secs a lap slower than the Pescarolo. Lest not forget Pesca dominated the LMS season....

AFAIK the only Private 962 that won was the Joest car in the 80s. Le Mans was almost exclusively the playground of the factory outfit. And as the racing gets more sophisticated, the more development cost oriented the competition will get. Seeing how they are pushing for alternative energy/driveline/etc, this will not change in the foreseeable future....

BTW, I can't believe just because teams like Pescarolo or something not being able to win(or if I am allowed to be frank, deserved to win, after blowing 2005), you find races like this year's 24 hrs boring? That was the most facinating Le Mans in ages. And I watched the whole thing....

[f6fhellcat13]

Simple but.. 'Any thoughts of adding or removing race classes to the current format of LMP1/2 and GT1/2 for sake of increasing competition or variety?'

He stole my thoughts.

[Kitdy]

I think an interesting question, although probably not the best, would be asking him about when the ACO has gone against it's own rules and if he could justify it.

Someone with a better knowledge of this can probably help me - I remember reading about an accident in practice or qualy where a car was totaled but the ACO contradicted it's own rules and allowed the team to use another chassis for the race - what was the event in better detail?

I think tough questions are often good to ask of people like this.

[togos452]

I think an interesting question, although probably not the best, would be asking him about when the ACO has gone against it's own rules and if he could justify it.

Someone with a better knowledge of this can probably help me - I remember reading about an accident in practice or qualy where a car was totaled but the ACO contradicted it's own rules and allowed the team to use another chassis for the race - what was the event in better detail?

I think tough questions are often good to ask of people like this.

Kruse Schiller Motorsport had a bad crash at Le Mans with their LMP2 Lola Mazda, but they were able to rebuild their car, but it wasn't in the best of mechanical shape.

Kruse Schiller Motorsport - Home

My question is when will we see the ACO open up the rules for LMP diffuser diversity?

[LeonOfTheDead]

1999 had no independent contender. It was Mercedes vs BMW, vs Toyota vs Audi. ALL of them have budgets in the astronomical figures.

you forgot Nissan. btw, that was exactly my point, they were a lot of contender basically on the same level. now, or there will be more official teams in future years, or there should be more independent teams racing for a good performance and not just "being there".

for as regards the Pescarolo Vs Audi, I read Pescarolo thought the restrictions applied to the R8 weren't enough at Le Mans (which if IIRC has some little changes in the rules from LMS), and that the Audi in the past years achieved a reliability he simply couldn't afford even after all that years with a winning car.

and I never said this years was boring, but I followed it, not on tv unfortunately, just hoping Peugeot won, just for a change, because I'm tire of this Audi winning all the time, the race, the experience are awesome, but not the overall perfomance because you already know that Audi will win.
they shound't be there for such a long time, otherwise all the other teams that have won before could have done the same, like Porsche, winning a lot, while they usually retired after two or three years, and that what happened with all the automakers' teams in the past 20 years, a part from Audi.
I find quite obvious that Peugeot didn't win the race. Not only Audi has a huge budget, but an experience of 10 years in a row in the race now.


I guess we have two quite different visions of this event, fair enough.

[Wouter Melissen]

you forgot Nissan. btw, that was exactly my point, they were a lot of contender basically on the same level. now, or there will be more official teams in future years, or there should be more independent teams racing for a good performance and not just "being there".

In an ideal world privateers should race in P2. I challenge you to find me a non factory built and/or supported winner in the last 25 years. The last ones were in the second half of the 1970s, which is generally considered a low point in sports car racing.

for as regards the Pescarolo Vs Audi, I read Pescarolo thought the restrictions applied to the R8 weren't enough at Le Mans (which if IIRC has some little changes in the rules from LMS), and that the Audi in the past years achieved a reliability he simply couldn't afford even after all that years with a winning car.

Pescarolo should have won the race in 2005, no ifs or buts. They had the fastest car by far, quick drivers and showed in 2006 that the car could be perfectly reliable. I'm confident that Henri still has sleepless nights thinking back at 2005.

[LeonOfTheDead]

In an ideal world privateers should race in P2. I challenge you to find me a non factory built and/or supported winner in the last 25 years. The last ones were in the second half of the 1970s, which is generally considered a low point in sports car racing.

obviously, the only thing I can come up is the 1980 Rondeau

I'm confident that Henri still has sleepless nights thinking back at 2005.

that's for sure.