24 Hours of Le Mans: In the toughest car race: Ferrari seeks 10th Le Mans victory

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Actually, Ferrari was never here. Still, the Italian sports car manufacturer is celebrating 100 years of the 24-hour race at Le Mans (F) as if it hadn’t raced here in over 50 years. Ferraris were always at the start at Le Mans, whether for business cars or private teams. Not in the upper class, which normally determines the overall victory among themselves.

The world’s toughest and unfortunately also the most accident-prone car race was once seen as the domain of Ferraris; 13.6km race track as the living room of founder Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988). There’s only one weekend each year – on the Monday after the race, commuters from the 150,000-population city of Le Mans will back up on streets that were previously used as inclines. Today’s race cars can accelerate to more than 340 km/h on long straights, even if they slow down repeatedly due to high speeds. Le Mans is cruel to humans and machines, and it’s not a celebrity party. VIPs line up for beers and burgers as usual.

Nine wins, one bitter defeat

Ferrari dominated the 1950s and 1960s with a total of nine wins from 1949. In fact, the last victories came back-to-back between 1960 and 1965. And then? He finished Ferrari. First, US brand Ford humiliated the Enzo team in 1966 because the boss refused to sell to Ford and it took second place. Three GT40s crossed the finish line in nearly equal standing, and in the next two years the US cars were also cleared. A later change in the rules banned large displacements from 1968 for safety reasons – Ferrari withdrew from the top class at Le Mans.

But now the brand is back with two hybrid Ferrari 499Ps. Its V6 offers 680 hp (500 kW) as well as a 272 hp (200 kW) electric motor. Due to regulations, the total remains at 680 hp.

Enough for a blast in qualifying: they both start from pole position in the front row this Saturday. Car number 50 needed a crazy three minutes and 22.9 seconds for the fastest lap; The second Ferrari number 51 was only eight-tenths behind. “We knew we were fast. But that surprised us,” he says.

Fast laps are not enough

No wonder Ferrari is celebrating. But victory is not certain: in qualifying you don’t fill up, there are two extra sets of tires and no air pressure limit – any brand can go full throttle. It looks different in racing. You can also win with slower laps if you reach the finish line without any problems. Reliability was once Ferrari’s biggest trump card – they have yet to prove it this year. Will he panic if there is a suspicious creak in the car? “Something always cracks,” says Nielsen. It treats the 499P as carefully as possible.

There are more contenders for the 100th anniversary than in a long time: series winner Toyota (2018-2022), series winner Porsche (most recently 2015-2017), Cadillac and the US pro team Glickenhaus are racing in the first class, as well as Thuner Nico Müller (31) behind the wheel. ), Peugeot might have had a chance, but they were eight seconds behind Ferrari in qualifying. After all, Ferrari got rid of one competitor: Ford left Le Mans in 2019.

Source: Blick