Le Mans Series, 6 Hours Of Le Castellet - Preview

Pt 1 - LMP1

This coming weekend sees the opening salvoes in the 2011 Le Mans Series and the LMS returns to Le Castellet after a successful first race there last year – Successful that was aside from what proved to be a dreadful faux pas in the rules that left all the winning cars in every class scoring double points, the rules specified that if the winning car exceeded 1500 km double points would be awarded and the combination of an 8 hour race, furious pace from the factory Audi and Oreca Peugeot and a clean race left the winners delighted and those who’d suffered from problems despondent!

It won’t happen again this year with a 6 hour race distance the new norm for the LMS, TV coverage needs certainty over start and finish times, and Patrick Peter and Co have done a good job of ensuring that their TV package humbles that of the ‘big brother’ ILMC – Motors TV will cover the LMS rounds live and in full (with the exception of the races at Spa, Imola and Silverstone shared with the ILMC which currently won’t be!)

We’re hoping for better weather in the South of France just a few short weeks on from the pre season tests which saw bitter cold and torrential rain for the final day.  Le Castellet works best with sunshine (and so do we!).

LMP1

#008 ASTON MARTIN RACING M Aston Martin AMR-One Stefan Mücke Darren Turner Harold Primat
#12 REBELLION RACING M Lola B10/60 Coupé-Toyota Nicolas Prost Neel Jani
#13 REBELLION RACING M Lola B10/60 Coupé-Toyota Andrea Belicchi Jean Christophe Boullion
#16 PESCAROLO TEAM M Pescarolo-Judd Emmanuel Collard Christophe Tinseau Julien Jousse
#18 GUESS RACING EUROP C Lola B09/80 Coupé-Judd Philippe Hazebrouck Wolfgang Kaufmann TBA
#20 QUIFEL - ASM TEAM D Zytek 09SC Miguel Amaral Olivier Pla  

There might be rumours afoot that 2011 could be the last year for LMP1 in the LMS but for now we have plenty of variety to discuss for the coming year.

There should be one LMP1 car present that won’t run but will be the subject of much interest.  Hope Racing plan to present their delayed Oreca 01 Lehmann Flybrid Hybrid, set to make its race debut at Spa in May.  With the driver quad looking set to include Steve Zacchia, Oliver Lombard and possibly Chinese racer Shan Qi Zhang  and cutting edge technology the Hope Racing squad have dealt themselves a very tough hand.

Onto the grid for the race proper though and whilst the numbers might not be fantastic there is much to savour.

First up we’ll have the second of the three 2011 LMP1 factory teams debuting their new car, after Peugeot’s 908 in Sebring Aston Martin are set to race the new AMR One in France.

The car has divided opinions sharply on both looks and potential but AMR has a record of winning Championships wherever it chooses to race – Reports of engine issues from the turbocharged in line 6 and even potential problems of some heavily blackened bodywork can be dispensed (for now) under the heading ‘development’.  We’ll be looking to see some pace though from AMR’s new car at the track which most observers agree duplicates the Le Mans challenge most closely - A finish though will be as good as a victory in many ways for a team that is very short of mileage thus far.  Stefan Mucke, Darren Turner and Harold Primat are currently listed in the #008 car so no early drive for Christian Klien it seems.

Ranged against the AMR One though will be a quintet keen to bring a factory team to heel.

Probably least likely of the lot to do so is the other real newcomer – Guess Racing Europ have been something of a mystery with a ‘sort of’ announcement of their programme made some weeks ago and precious little detail since.

One thing that DSC can now confirm is that the team are now in possession of one of the ex Racing Box, ex MIK Corse Lola Judd Coupes (believed to have supplanted the planned ex BK Motorsports Lola Mazda) and that this will be their weapon of choice should the team appear at Le Castellet.

Experienced wheelman Wolfgang Kaufmann leads the driver line up with Philippe Hazebrouck also listed together with the always enigmatic TBA.  The team are set to debut Cooper Tyres in LMP1, that adds interest but also uncertainty of performance – Traditionally a new tyre supplier has taken time to get up to anything like competitive speed and endurance – Anything else would be a major surprise here.

Rebellion Racing have already got up and running with one of their trio of Lola Toyotas and came home with a relatively reliable run at Sebring.  Post race there were signs of disappointment from the team after a conservative run left them off the ultimate pace, not helped at all by very bad luck with Safety Cars that cost them lap after lap.  Perhaps we might see signs of a real attack from at least one of the pair ranged against the rest at Ricard?

If that’s to be the case we’d guess that it will come from the #13 car of Andrea “The Don” Belicchi and Jean Christophe “Jules” Bouillon.  Both capable of blinding speed and good feedback, Rebellion will need plenty of both this season.  In the sister #12 car Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani are gelling nicely.  Jani’s pace is clearly apparent and the highly approachable Prost is getting there too.  This is a team that almost everyone wants to see succeed – there are some very encouraging signs indeed that the investment made in personnel and systems is paying off in terms of reliability.  What we’d love to see now, either through improved on track performance or via the rulebook, is the sonorous Toyota engine competing more closely with the factory heavyweights.

If many would like to see Rebellion succeed then many more would love to see the #16 Pescarolo back at the top of the tree. 

Henri is back after an enforced sabbatical and the ‘old’ Pescarolo Judd with a heavily restricted 5 litre V10 is back too. 

The driver squad of Manu Collard, Christophe Tinseau and Julien Jousse are all well capable of squeezing the best out of the Pesca package and the technical genius of Claude Galopin will surely be keeping the old warhorse (that’s the car not Henri!) out of the garage more than most.

The car was right on the pace at the pre season test and in its ‘new’ colour scheme for Le Castellet might just have a little more in reserve for the racing proper.    

Eager though to show that their winning ways can easily translate to the ‘new’ LMP1 formula will be the Quifel ASM team.

This team brings both Zytek and Dunlop’s 2011 products to the Le Mans Series with the very considerable talents of Olivier Pla being applied to the task. Pla is one of a handful of drivers in sportscar racing for whom a factory LMP place seems like a birthright – His continued absence from a call list at Peugeot is an absolute mystery to us.

His 2011 task will be to take the #20 car to the front and keep it there, a more steady pace from Miguel Amaral will be tasked with keeping the car in touch and on a lead lap.  Here is the best example we have in the 2011 LMS of what the class intended to do for the classic Pro-Am LMP2 squads, to allow them to graduate.

If there are no mistakes and if the 2011 Zytek proves reliable we should see this car challenging – It was the class of the field at the pre season tests but its also the one car amongst the expected challengers that doesn’t have an all-pro line-up!

How will the LMP1 mix turn out in reality – We’d expect flashes of brilliance interspersed with moments of disappointment.  We’ll be looking for reliability as much as pace in these early races, and for any signs from the ACO that the petrol wick might be turned up a little (Or the dampeners put on the diesels).

Either way there are still more questions than answers – Our guess is that will remain the case until June!

GG