Cometh the 24th Hour..

Nothing about motorsport is easy. Sprint racing, endurance racing, Formula, Touring or GT cars, at International level the human challenge is relentless. The risk to yourself, yeah it's very real but you deal with that when it happens, there's not much you can do about it. The risk of failure, that's constant. Every race weekend, every lap, every corner. But if it was easy we wouldn't do it. Challenge is what we in motorsport live for, when we're not doing it all we think about is the next time we will. Whether that makes us 'different' I have no idea, I don't know anything else! The 24 Hours of Le Mans is to motorsport what Mount Everst is to climbing. Hiking up even the smallest of mountains is an immese achievement. But to really test yourself, cement something in your memory and leave something marked in history, you climb Everest. Not many people can or will ever. Winning in Le Mans, LMP1, LMP2 or GTE, against a group of equally obsessed and well-prepared professionals therefore is the ultimate Everest. That's what's in it for us. We prepare physically and mentally months in advance. I'm writing this a week before the race and I'm already feeling it. Something massive is about to happen.


So what's so damn special about the Le Mans 24 Hours? It's attended by up to 250,000 spectators on race day alone, a motorpsort pilgrimage for petrolheads from every corner of the globe making it officially one of the biggest standalone sporting events in the world ever. Fun fairs, rock concerts, clubbing, it's part festival part motor race. But what to us drivers? Four times longer than a normal race for the team, car and drivers this is extreme. Drivers rest inbetween 2-4 hour stints, the team try, the car never stops (well apart for fuel every 45 mins or so). We race through dusk, the pitch black of night and into dawn before a new day. But it's not just the distance, there are other 24 hour races. Le Mans is an 8.4 mile lap, you can be over 3 miles away from the pits and this means multiple weather systems in a single tour. And it does have a habit of raining around this part of France in June! Much of the circuit is on public road, pretty unique in modern racing and it's all very, very fast. Much of the lap is spent full throttle at around 200mph. When it goes wrong it goes wrong very fast. LMP1, LMP2 and GTE all trip over each other from time to time, and managing traffic, especially in the dark and wet with zero visibility, is a large part of winning or losing. We drivers can make mistakes at any given time, and Le Mans gives us so much more opportunity. If it's 4am, dark and you're on slick tyres and a dry line, having to move onto the wet to overtake a GT's, well you have to do it losing as little time as possible. Did I say we enjoy challenge?


So high speed survival it is, if you make it to 20 hours then the race can start. You can't rush and risk crashing, but if you cruise and drop a lap to the leader you may not get it back. That's why as much as any race we work hard to make the car and team operation as fast and slick as possible. Testing begins two weeks before the race, being public roads on the outskirts of a town it's not open very often! In 2015 we arrived at the test with our Oreca 05 ready to make her Le Mans debut. Most of our competitors have raced their cars here, to us it was a complete unknown. This is KCMG's and my third Le Mans, Richard Bradley's second and Nico Lapierre's 8th. So we know what to expect, mostly, and with a LM-spec aero kit to test the first laps of Le Mans this year were all about getting the basics right, handling balance, ride height and how this season's tyre compounds are working on a very different surface to usual. We had terrible weather for most of the day, a brief dry run in the morning and afternoon, the rest mixed conditions, the worst as it's not wet but it's not dry either. Very risky, but what we may have in the race so we did as many laps as we felt necessary.


The car was immediately feeling very good, an improvement on the Oreca 03R we succesfully led the LMP2 class in during the early stages of the 2014 race. P3 in the dry and blistering pace in the damp/wet means KCMG already have an excellent package to fight for LMP2 victory. Not everybody will have shown their hand but neither have we. The car and team ran smoothly so the boys could focus on rebuilding the car before race week. There's two days of qualifying the Wed-Thurs before race weekend and the car has a complete new engine and rear end for the race, which we shookdown days after the official Le Mans test. This makes sure the car is fresh as possible for 24 hours of abuse. Scurutineering takes place in the town centre of Le Mans, where the fans can see us and the cars close up. Monday pit-stop practice (well almost every day is pit-stop practice), Tuesday autograph session, two days of qualifying and then the driver's parade again in Le Mans town on Friday makes for a totally unique build-up to a totally unique race. So we head into the race confident but not underestimating the challenge ahead. We will give it everything. EVERYTHING.


Many thanks to all of you from the FIA WEC fans forum for your questions, they were interesting and occasionally hilarious! Find the answers below, looking forward to meeting some of you there!

Shaun Morris - How draining is high speed night driving?
It's certainly more draining as part of the circuit is lit and part complete darkness. This means you have a little tunnel of light form your headlights and lose a lot of your usual points of reference. It also feels a lot faster, especially Porsche curves! However the brake markers are reflective so the rest is just getting used to adapting without so much forward vision. The hugeforest spotlights on the Mulsanne sometimes freak you out as you go past as they illuminate your mirrors and you think it's another LMP1 approaching your gearbox!

David Short - Pitstops, look forward to or dread?
For drivers they're just routine, although driver changes we have to make sure we careful loosen the belts and unplug everything ready to change over. Especially when you're tired through the night or in the morning you have to do a mental checklist so as not to rip your radio plug because you've forgotten to take it off. The rest is down to the pit crew, I think they probably dread them!

George Wilson - What feeling do you experience when you hit the track at Le Mans?
It's very special, particularly on Mulsanne for the first time, past houses and restaurants and high speed is not a common feeling in racing these days. That and every lap you've got the awesome Porsche curves to look forward to. The first few laps of night driving are one of the most intense feeling I've experinced, you're racing at Le Mans and know you're doing something incredible many people will never get to experience. It's like a dream!


Neil Verden - How do you feel about the Mulsanne chicanes?
I think they add variety, braking for high speed in varied conditions or on the limit in the dry is a nice challenge where sitting on the straight at 200mph is not. It offers good overtaking opportunities too.

Richard Harris - What's going through your mind when you hand over the car mid-race?
Firstly it's important you report to the engineer or mechanics anything relevant, then get the hell out of there and go rest or sleep! It's easy to hang around chatting and before you know it you're back in the car. I was warned about this in 2013 and it's very true. Keep it brief and go get some rest.

Paul Hammond - Best time to be in the seat?
Last lap of the race, in the lead at 23 hours and 59 minutes! I'm not sure really it's all pretty intense, you'd certainly maybe rather not be in the seat when a monsoon arrives at 2am and you're on slicks, but it's Le Mans, it's always an amazing time being in the seat!


John Daniels - Do you ever struggle with GT traffic?
Yes, GTE's can be pros or amateurs and you can't really tell as the closing speed is quite big anyway. Pros give you no room you know that much, amateurs can do anything and maybe haven't seen you so it's a balance of being aggressive but without hitting anything. It's probably the biggest challenge in endurance racing to get that balance right. You don't want to end your race hitting a GT, but if you're too cautious you will lose time and maybe the race.


Barry Skinner - How daunting are the speed differentials at night?
Some Gt drivers seem slower at night so we do see bigger closing speeds, the LMP1s have crazy bright headlights so we rely on them to get past us safely (nott always filled with confidence on that one) as all we can see is a bright glow. There's not much distance or speed percepiton in your mirrors so being passed is more of a worry than passing. As I said before, with GT's you just have to be fast but sensible.

John Bidwell - How do you measure your concentration during the race?
I remember in 2013 at about 7am I went off in the Dunlop Esses and through the gravel and had no idea why. I guess I was just tired! It's not possible to measure, we prepare by being as fit as we can, having a physio who helps with sleeping and eating helps here too. It's important you drive on auto-pilot as much as possible and relax into it, if you think you're tired and try to concentrate more you'll probably make more mistakes. We monitor lap times and fuel consumption so as long as you're hitting those targets you're fine. If you're not you can radio the team for sector information and make adjustments where needed.



Oliver Andersin - How does it feel to be part of the driver's parade?
Yes for usre this is one of the best feelings in motorsport, you feel like royalty parading down the streets with crazed spectators on each side crying out for free merchandise! There is nothing else like this in racing, so all drivers love it, even though it's a long, drawn out day and risk of sunburn is high! It's a cool way to get charged for the race! Plus we can jump off at anytime and go see the fans, sign autographs or chat with them. It's a brief enounter, but special.

John Boling - Do you get the ladies?
Haha well John, I do ok but whether that's the racing or my charming personality you'd have to ask them! But gone are the days of saying 'I'm a racing driver' and having knickers thrown at you. I guess the nicest girls are the ones that don't care what you do, but 'yeah so I race at Le Mans' can be a good ice-breaker..although saying I sometimes chat to Patrick Dempsey work way better.

Sarah Rigby - What are your favourite parts of the circuit to drive?
Le Mans has two different characters, the high speed Mulsanne straights aren't challenging, it's just nuts, 200mph next to trees and building feels amazing. But it's the Porsche curves which are my favourite. 5th gear, 140mph plus all the way through and no margin for error, especially tricky as we run very low downforce compared to usual. They've changed it a little since 2013 even, with more run off and it feels more open, but I hope it doesn't change much more it's great the way it is.