2009 Le Mans 24 Hours Preview – LMP1 part 2

OK down to the final section of this look ahead to next week’s race and the final 9 cars we’re taking a look at have one thing in common – Diesel power.

Diesel has taken a grip on the Le Mans 24 Hours over the past three years with the escalating Audi vs Peugeot on-track war producing what is widely regarded as the race of a generation last year.

Plenty has changed since then though so let’s take a closer look at the four teams involved.

First up is Kolles Audi, the customer R10 TDI team bring both of their cars to Le mans after a so far unconvincing start in the Le Mans Series.

There was a big improvement shown at Spa but then there had to be, Barcelona was little short of a disaster. 

Seasoned observers on track and in the pitlane and paddock have pointed the finger at the team themselves for the lack of pace – The relative performance of the driving squad seems to back that up and there is no doubt whatsoever that there are men in the garage that know how to make an R10 to go quickly – Colin Kolles’s core crew need to take heed of their guidance if this effort is to succeed on any stage, let alone at Le Mans, the most challenging of the lot.

In addition the team, already struggling to get to grips with the R10, is likely to struggle with the latest package of restrictions handed down by the ACO.

As for the driving squads there’s a curates egg here – The #14 car’s squad from Spa loses fast young Brit Andy Meyrick, that’s a shame, he was clearly the class act of the trio last time out – Narain Karthikeyan was finding his feet at Spa and should show some continued improvement but Charles Zwolsmann seems to be too far off the required pace to make any telling contribution.

This duo is joined at Le Mans by ex F1 test driver and 2006 Super GT Champion  Andre Lotterer, he’ll be quick, he has endurance racing experience but neither he nor his co-drivers has raced before at Le Mans – That could be a weak point too

In #15 Christian Bakkerud, Christijan Albers and Giorgio Mondini form up a second potentially quick but (in Le Mans terms) inexperienced bunch.  We’d expect that the R10s will not be able to keep pace with the other diesels, and indeed to be hard pushed to fend off the quicker petrol cars, despite the inherent advantages that the diesel package has at Le Mans.

Next up the other privateer team equipped with a diesel.  Pescarolo Sport are a real crowd favourite, not only with the home crowd but also with the visitors who appreciate the history and heritage of this great event.

Henri Pescarolo himself will take charge of the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP entrusted to his squad and he has enrolled one of his most trusted lieutenants to lead the effort in the driving department, Jean Christophe Bouillon is surely an unsung French hero, always in the shadow of the Audi opposition but always producing reliability and spoeed, keeping his employer closer to the outright pace than their budget has any right to be – Now, in 2009 he perhaps has the machinery to do his talent real justice.

He’ll be ably supported in that by Simon Pagenaud, already a race winner for the Peugeot factory team at Spa and of course in ALMS for Acura and yet another Super GT hand Benoit Treluyer.

That’s a handy trio indeed and on speed this group has enough in the footlocker to stick with the factory cars, something which Peugeot Sport will be counting on as they look to take the fight to the factory Audis.

It will be an interesting battle on track, and in the pitlane too, an area of the race where Peugeot have made progress, but then again they needed to, the new tyre change regulations will be a leveller of sorts (though we feel the new rules are a nonsense on every level).  The Pescarolo Sport boys will want to show their factory cousing “Who’s The Papa”!

OK – The factory Peugeots are next up and again the team bring 9 superstar drivers to the race aboard a trio of 908 HDI FAPs.  We’re promised a new nose treatment for the cars, the team looking to grab back some of the speed nibbled away by new aero, new restrictors and new weight gain under 2009 regs and adjustments.

We’ve seen a more well drilled group down the pitlane too and we also seem to have evidence, both in private conversations with the upper echelons of Peugeot management and with the 2009 hires, that the 2008 driver squad was somewhat unbalanced.

The main area of conversation around the Peugeot vs Audi theme in 2009 seems to be about the issue not of who is driving, but of who they are driving with.

The #7 car matches ‘Quick’ Nic Minassian with Christian Klien and Pedro Lamy, #8 sees Franck Montagny join Stephane Sarrazin and current F1 driver Sebastian Bourdais whilst #9 hosts Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham.

Brabham is the new boy for 2009 with Bourdais returning after a year’s absence, Zonta and Villeneuve the casualties from the 2008 squad.

Weather resilience was a weak area for Peugeot last year at Le Mans and, staggeringly the 908 has still never raced in the wet apart fro Le Mans last year – Neither though has the R15!
 
With the Peugeot’s trump (or so they thought in 2008) car of pure pace dulled by the regulations and a new and far more capable Audi to be reckoned with the match-up in practice on Wednesday will be eagerly anticipated by all concerned – If its close we could have a battle to eclipse even the 2008 dramas ahead.

Finally its Peugeot’s nemesis, 3 cars, 4 rings on the nose and a new V10 TDI in the rear of each.  The R15 TDI won first time out at Sebring with a performance that led to long faced lions and protests aplenty.

That flurry of grumbles appears to be behind us now, the ACO making it clear that the R15 is good to go.

The car features some significant changes in Le Mans trim and for the first time we are seeing a trio of Audi Sport’s new toy.

The #1 car brings the winning crew of 2008 back to the race, Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish will start as favourites once again.  We’ll have McNish’s thoughts on the race ahead later this weekend.  Last year they ran the perfect race, they needed to, and snatched the crown from under Peugeot’s nose.  The odds, with a brand new car, suggest that a repeat of that would be very unlikely but we’ve now had a decade of Audi producing unpleasant surprises for their competition.

The #2 car features Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner.  Is 2009 the year that will see the ‘youngsters’ finally overhaul the old guard?  Their 2008 performance certainly finally put the nightmares of 2008 finally to bed.

The #3 R15 is one of the most interesting prospects on the entry – An Audi crewed with two men who humbled the R10 on several occasions for Porsche in the ALMS.

Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas are certainly amongst the best of the best and together with Alexandre Premat, joint 2008 LMS Champion this could be the car that gives Peugeot a very bad couple of days next weekend!      All three are fast, all three are experienced and all three know what is required to take the fight to top quality opposition and come out on top.

The Le Mans 24 Hours is almost always eagerly anticipated, the 2009 edition though has more potential than most.  In just over a week’s time we’ll know whether it has lived up to the promise, whether the R15 will follow the R8 and R10 in the history books, whether the 908 will finally put a tricolour on the podium flagpole that counts or whether the diesels will finally show some weaknesses that might allow the petrol pack to swamp them – Intriguing prospect isn’t it?