72nd Le Mans 24 Hours - Monday Afternoon - Scrutineering
Tyres And Things

Amidst mutterings that at least one team has yet to contribute the funds necessary to confirm attendance this week (just rumours, no more than that), ten teams rolled up to the town center this afternoon, for the procedure that should be a formality.

There was not even a suspicion that there were any ‘issues’ with the process this afternoon, so conversations were centred around the contest ahead, speeds at the Test day, developments, testing, characters etc.

WR was the first team through – and the weather was perfect: a very hot sun, and shade and liquids were both necessary. Yojiro Terada looked sun-tanned and content as he watched his WR being examined.

“Yes, we have tested twice since the Test Day. We had the differential break in April, but the team has fitted stronger parts, and I think we will have a reliable car: I hope so.

“The car feels strong and reliable and it is easy to drive at high speeds. We have a set up that is very good, with no porpoising.”

Terada is about to start his 25th Le Mans, and he was appreciative of the fact that someone noticed that he has now passed the ‘24’ milestone.

Passing by the del Bello Reynard – which now has Bruno Besson listed to drive, with Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiere and Sylvain Boulay – we come to the interesting Choroq Porsche, a star of (most of the) the Monza 1000 Kms.

“Yes, we had a very good race, until it started to rain,” explained Haruki Kurosawa. “I started the race, then changed to Nishizawa, and Orido finished the race.

“But we had two problems: we stayed out on rain tyres too long, and we had a brake problem towards the end. Orido therefore went off a few times. But until then we were there to race for the win, and the team did a very good job with the car, and our crew’s pit stops were so good, we were gaining ten seconds on the other teams.”

Did you enjoy driving on the Le Mans circuit for the first time, at the Test Day, Haruki?

“Fantastic circuit. I like road courses like this one, and I love road courses like Macau! Monza was the first race for our new team: we are based at Ingolstadt in Germany, with the Goh Audi.”

Kurosawa raced in the British F3 Championship in 1997, so he has experienced Spa already – and is looking forward to racing there, as you would expect. Choroq is competing in all the LMS events.

Jon and Clint Field were as entertaining as ever. Jon was surprised that we were expecting at least one of the Intersport cars to appear at the Snetterton test on June 1. “We’ve made a bunch of changes to the B160, but we haven’t tried the car since: it’s first run will be on Wednesday.”

Are you concerned about that?

“No, because the main change is the increased caster that we’ve built into the front end. We had half of the increase at Sebring, so we know which way we’re going. We had power steering at the Test Day – the system Lola recommends – but we don’t have to use all the caster increase this week.

“It will give the car a whole lot more bite at the front end.”

What other changes have been built into the car since April 25?

“We’ve got a reserve fuel tank now, and a whole lot of small changes.”

Would we be right in thinking that we have yet top see Jon Field on a quick lap around Le Mans – a very quick lap, that is?

“Yes, that’s true, so I want to really get it wound up in qualifying. I think we can do a 3:36, taking ten seconds off our best time so far here, and if we can do that, we should be in the top six. But if I can get it into the 30s I’ll be happy.”

So look out for Field burning up the circuit on Wednesday or Thursday.

Clint was interested in the potential of his rivals in the rest of the LMP2 class. “Maybe the low 3:50s in qualifying, but we’ll stick to a careful race plan, although I’d like to chase the quick ones for the first hour. We want to see what the car will do in qualifying, then settle back to a steady run. Until then, I just want to take it all in – before my first Le Mans as a driver.”

How bad was the car after Monza?

“There was a hole in the gearbox casing, it did the tail, a header, the diffuser, the rear floor – but it didn’t damage the suspension at all. I think we could have driven it back and repaired it and maybe won the class, but at the time it looked worse than it was.”

Thanks Clint – in particular for the double dailysportscar stickers across the nose of the B2K / 40.

And on to the biggest fish, as the first two Audis passed through this afternoon – the Goh and Champion cars.

So, Dindo Capello, what went wrong - at Monza?

“We were running with the wrong set-up, but what we didn’t know at the time was that we had a problem with the instrument that measures the ride height.”

It appears that this instrument wasn’t calibrated correctly, and was giving false readings.

“Yes, confirmed Kazumichi Goh, we’ve had this problem since February. We were getting a wrong reading on the instrument.”

“That gave us the wrong ride height at Monza,” confirmed Dindo.

Capello is in an interesting position – as are Guy Smith, Johnny Herbert and Tom Kristensen. That is, all four drove the Bentleys last year, all four are in Audis this year. So, Dindo, why do you think the Audis are so much faster this year than last year?

“The track is quicker than last year, because the short circuit has been resurfaced. This means it is quicker at the last chicane (Ford) and the first chicane (Dunlop). We can use one gear higher now at the Dunlop Chicane, because it is so grippy there. We have gained at least half a second at that corner alone.”

Yes but hang on Dindo, the Audis are four or five seconds quicker this year. Oh, there’s a man who can help. JJ, why are the Audis so much quicker this year than last – or rather why were the Bentleys so quick last year, compared to your Audi?

“Tyres, Bentley tyres.”

And the penny drops at last. It seems that this year the Audis have similar rubber to that used on the Bentleys in 2003 – which was different from that on the Audis in 2003.

Dindo Capello fills in some more of the puzzle. “The Bentley surprised us at Le Mans last year, because we could run four stints on the tyres, whereas at Sebring, we couldn’t go more than one stint on the tyres before they started to go off.”

So there we have it: Michelin development between Sebring and Le Mans made that stunning 1-2 possible in 2003 – and this year the R8s have this top spec. rubber, with a very clever construction.

Allegedly, the tyres are so ‘clever’ that the contact patch becomes smaller at high speeds, which reduces the drag of the tyres (and increases the diameter) so that R8 speeds this year on the five fastest parts of the track are apparently 10 kph faster than a year ago, with no engine development.

There’s more to it than that though, as Marco Werner explains.

“We have the smaller wing this year, so we have less drag, and the bodywork is changed a little on the sides, which also reduces drag – so we have better top speed, and it is so important to have a fast car on the straights this year.”

Jan Magnussen added that he found he was really struggling (in the Goh R8) on the straights last year, but that the Audis don’t seem to have any difficulty passing the GTS cars this year.

Incidentally, the story about Mags and F1 was “bullshit”. He made a remark to a Danish newspaper, and suddenly someone issued a press release almost suggesting that he expected to be back in F1. “I don’t expect to get a call from Frank Williams.”

Oliver Gavin sang the Dane’s praises though, as you’ll read shortly.

Maybe the Audis could have had the changes to the body sides last year...? So body changes, a smaller wing, grippier tamac and above all the very clever Michelins, and there we have a five second improvement over last year.

Peter Baron, have you got the two fastest Porsche drivers in your BAM! car?

Long pause………

“Yes, but let me give you a better answer than that. Marc (Lieb) did some sensational things with us last year, and was out-pacing the Job cars. Rocky’s pole at Sebring was superhuman. All the Porsche drivers are great, but if you had to pick two…..

“With the possibility of having Marc and Mike in the car, that was me out of it. If we had had only had one of them available, I would have raced.”

Leo Hindery was on fine form, chuckling at the suggestion that his two quick Germans are like his sons. “Yes, and Mike even has the same birthday as me – but I’m just a couple of years older than him.” Oh, not his sons then….

Good vibes are coming out of this Orbit / BAM! team, and we’ll follow this week with the YES men with interest.

So finally for today, what about Corvette prospects, through the eyes of Oliver Gavin? Initially though, what about those laps at the Test Day from the two C5-Rs?

“The strangest thing was getting used to the qualifying tyres. We’ve never had them at Le Mans before, and the main instruction on your out lap is to go slowly. But how slowly is slowly? Maybe I was going too hard, but I wanted to get heat into the tyres, and wanted to get the brakes warm.

“So I passed the pits, and locked up into the Dunlop Chicane, and almost stopped! I was having to understand the grip of the tyres as I explored them on that lap. The grip was just amazing, and that affected how hard you braked, and the lateral grip was just fantastic.

“So I was feeling my way into it, and not making the most of them on the first half of the lap. Then I had a bit of traffic in the Porsche Curves, and the tyres were going away a little at the end of the lap. But it was a huge amount of fun; at this track you’re usually sliding around because you’re running with such low downforce, but here we were with low downforce and loads of grip. We also had a slight problem with the throttle on our car, and weren’t seeing it open fully, so we were 3 or 4 mph down on the other car on each straight.”

So how fast can you go on Wednesday / Thursday?

“I think a high 3:48 is possible, if the conditions are favourable.”

Look out for some GTS high jinks at around 22.00 on Wednesday and / or Thursday.

Sum up the progress the Corvettes have made then Ollie.

“It’s all looking as though it is going in the right direction, and I have to admit I was surprised how much quicker we went in April. Some of that is in the tyres, but it’s in the car too, the engine, the chassis, the aero, everything.”

Gavin was full of praise for Jan Magnussen’s input on the C5-Rs, such that some of his suggestions are being incorporated into the cockpit design of the C6s. When development occurs like this, we all get involved as the battle heats up, don’t we, following the progression from each side? It’s expensive, but a head to head against the Ferraris such as we have now is so much more interesting that a static, development-less situation.

The Ferraris pushed harder last year and left the Corvettes behind. At the Test Day, it looked as though the Ferraris had been left behind, but don’t count them out. They didn’t use qualifiers, and George Howard-Chappell admitted to dsc last week that until now they have never had to go for an all-out Le Mans set-up for speed. They will this week.

Perhaps the Corvettes are gentler on their tyres though? We believe that both camps are offered the same tyres by Michelin, but they don’t necessarily choose the same compounds.

What an interesting afternoon of non-racing this has been.
MC