Next stop - Le Mans Test

Saturday, June 03, 2017


The Le Mans 24Hour is of course not just the best endurance race in the world, but it also forms itself as critical part of the World Endurance Championship for those entered into it with double points being on offer for those who will ultimately succeed in two weeks time.

As with the rest of the 60 strong entry for this years 24, the three WEC entered cars from Aston Martin Racing will have been subject to the same discerning eye from the series officials as the cars passed through the pre test scrutineering on Thursday evening.


As ever really, the 24H will be a critical race for the GTE Pro cars of Darren Turner/Jonny Adam/Daniel Serra and Marco Sorensen/Nicki Thiim/Richie Stanaway as they strive to recover the early ground already lost to the superior turbo charged cars from Ford and Ferrari in the previous two round of the 2017 WEC.

Last month it was confirmed that AMR have been given a positive Balance of Performance adjustment relative to that of last year when the Ferrari's and Fords simply disappeared into the sunset. Ford on the other hand have been reigned back in but (critically) the Ferrari has been left relatively unchanged - thats not to mention the new Porsche either. Further adjustments have been made to the GTE Am entry although the Paul Dalla Lana/Pedro Lamy/Mathias Lauda car have enjoyed a bit more success on track than their Pro counterparts.


Dalla Lana added "We are going to do some long runs, get a sense of the car's average pace over a stint. We have a new BoP with some of the aerodynamics of the car, getting comfortable with that. All drivers will go so we all have maybe two stints each and just getting back into the rhythm of Le Mans. That's the plan, to just get some good running time".

"I don't really think we'll be chasing the set-up too much. That's the difference to a normal circuit from Le Mans, the track will change so much between now and the race. Plus we know over the years we have a similar car so we know roughly what we will run here."

 

Tomorrows two part test day will NOT show us any true reflection of outright pace of any of the GTE platforms  as each of the teams cycle through their own pre determined test agenda. AMR will already have some idea of what their new BoP means having had Turner and Adam test at Snetterton last month before Thiim then took the "TF Sport" car to Spa for a further two day test.

Tomorrows weather looks to remain favourable for both the teams on track and the many spectators around it who now make use of their LM24H General Admission ticket that also gives them access to test and pre test pit walks and autograph session.


The first of the two sessions tomorrow is between 09.00 and 13.00hrs before the second and final session after lunch between 14.00 and 18.00Hrs.

SportscarGlobal.com have a live timing App available to all via this link timing.71wytham.org.uk/timing

Photo credits - ACO
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