2009 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 13 - 14)

[faksta]

Some funny thing was mentioned about Brabhams. In 1992 David has sent a letter to Todt to be included in 1992 LM24h Peugeot team, but Todt by a mistake invited his brother - Geoff Brabham, who won the race.

[cmcpokey]

i got up at 5 this morning to watch the last hour, and it was basically in the same order as when i went to bed. good race though, not as exciting as last year, but still nice. the camera work was very good this year though

[RacingManiac]

I went to bed about 5 am when McNish came in to switch with Dindo and went to the garage again for some more serious work...That was pretty much the last chance for Audi and the race was done then.....

I have to say as a race 2008 was more exciting....but this one was pretty eventful, though it didn't quite deliver the promise of an epic battle, mainly because Audi was much slower than expected. They got hurt a lot by the lack of testday. I think if they had that extra day testing they might have seen the overheating issue 2 weeks before and maybe administered some fix. Everything kinda compounded from there with the extra dusty track, lack of data, and lack of chance to discover trouble at the track. Things with testing by yourself is you never are going to have the kind of issue with dusty track and the tire pickup everywhere....Peugeot's old car means they got a baseline that R15 doesn't have...With rain never materialize the Audi was not going to get some sort of tide-turning condition they need to have any chance to catch Peugeot...

I am happy that the #9 car won, Brabham wins with Peugeot is like history repeating itself, and that was neat.

As a side note, lots of big crashes this year....

[RacingManiac]

Something I noticed about Aston's operation though, they look like Peugeot last year, minus the really fast car. For someone like Prodrive without those chassis dolly that you shove under the car to slide the car into the garage(especially this year when that is an essential operation with the mechanic restriction in the pit.), they wasted so much time by steering the car in slowly....and when they were fixing the car the mechanics looks like there is no urgency in anything that they are doing...

[JRodrigues]

It's always nice to see that some people are happier that Audi didn't win, than Peugeot won Great personality they have

Congratulations to Peugeot, finally they had the better car. It was too bad it wasn't the #7 car that won. I'd like to see Lamy in the top spot. He's one of the best endurance drivers out there, and the one with most titles ans wins in the LMS.
Audi paid the price of not testing in this track and their pace was quite bad, even though until their final problem they were just one lap behind the leaders since almost the beginning. McNish and Kristensen did a hell of a job to keep up with the Peugeots with their 3+ hour stints.

So, Lamy didn't win, or Audi didn't win as well, that means I didn't enjoy the final results. But it was great to see the race (it always is), and I can't wait for the 2010 edition.

[RacingManiac]

It's always nice to see that some people are happier that Audi didn't win, than Peugeot won Great personality they have

Congratulations to Peugeot, finally they had the better car. It was too bad it wasn't the #7 car that won. I'd like to see Lamy in the top spot. He's one of the best endurance drivers out there, and the one with most titles ans wins in the LMS.
Audi paid the price of not testing in this track and their pace was quite bad, even though until their final problem they were just one lap behind the leaders since almost the beginning. McNish and Kristensen did a hell of a job to keep up with the Peugeots with their 3+ hour stints.

So, Lamy didn't win, or Audi didn't win as well, that means I didn't enjoy the final results. But it was great to see the race (it always is), and I can't wait for the 2010 edition.

Technically they have had the better car in the last 3 years.....just this year they used it properly....Audi can't test at this track, no body can. but the difference is that the R15 didn't have any previous experience at the track, vs the 3rd year being at the race for the 908, and that without the Le Mans Pre-Test the race week is the only running time the car could've run here....

[JRodrigues]

Technically they have had the better car in the last 3 years.....just this year they used it properly....Audi can't test at this track, no body can. but the difference is that the R15 didn't have any previous experience at the track, vs the 3rd year being at the race for the 908, and that without the Le Mans Pre-Test the race week is the only running time the car could've run here....

They had the fastest car. This year they had the better one.

That's what I meant

[henk4]

Technically they have had the better car in the last 3 years.....just this year they used it properly....Audi can't test at this track, no body can. but the difference is that the R15 didn't have any previous experience at the track, vs the 3rd year being at the race for the 908, and that without the Le Mans Pre-Test the race week is the only running time the car could've run here....

Using Sebring as the only race to test a new car is asking for problems. I never understood why Audi decided to step out of both ALMS and LMS. LMS would have given them two races to at least test the car under real conditions, and meet up with the 908 again (Spa).
I think Audi paid the price.
As far as next year is concerned, Peugeot has already indicated that the 908 will not be further developed, and that their plans to use the hybrid have been shelved because it will not be eligible for a race result.
So next year we'll see an improved R15 against the current state of the art Pugs, and it will be a sort of transition race before the 2011 rules will enter into force. What factories (if any) will participate by then is still a mystery, but given the prominent presence of a certain Mr. de Montezemolo, we may perhaps hope for something special, possibly also with some Japanese input.

[RacingManiac]

I don't think it was planned that way for them either when they made the car....R15 as Dr. Ullrich mentioned at Sebring was design with much of ALMS demend in mind, including stuff like "ambidextrous"(for the lack of better term, lol) fuel refuler and potential for higher downforce setup. But their budget was basically slashed and that Le Mans and Sebring was the basic focus....Much emphasis in both RLM and Speed broadcast I think was made about the lack of racing mileage of the car. While McNish mentioned that the car was basically testing all the time throughout, without that heat of battle mentality its probably not 100%. I still think though that with at least the test day the racing would be a lot closer, and that R15 would at least have sometime to adapt to the demend of the track....

As an aside, with the fancy nose of the R15 though it still seems to be quite easy to change, where as the Peugeot's nose change still seems brutal, if not more so...whats with those fiddly panels....

[Dino Scuderia]

I'm happy the Pugs, Audi's and Aston's will race at Petit Le Mans this year.

Rematch!

[LeonOfTheDead]

Something I noticed about Aston's operation though, they look like Peugeot last year, minus the really fast car. For someone like Prodrive without those chassis dolly that you shove under the car to slide the car into the garage(especially this year when that is an essential operation with the mechanic restriction in the pit.), they wasted so much time by steering the car in slowly....and when they were fixing the car the mechanics looks like there is no urgency in anything that they are doing...

#009 was always out of the pace, it was so many times in the garage I would say it was racing but testing.

[RacingManiac]

It was the same for Audi #3 and Peugeot #7 though, and you never see them just kinda working but not working fast....

[RacingManiac]

I'm happy the Pugs, Audi's and Aston's will race at Petit Le Mans this year.

Rematch!

Is it confirmed that Audi is going?

[Dino Scuderia]

Is it confirmed that Audi is going?

Confirmed in March '09.

[Reason]

Added more parts to post #123