4 Drivers

[racer69]

I have noticed in the last few years a trend for teams to have 4 drivers per car in 24 hour races. At Bathurst last year the majority were 4 driver cars, and there were some at the Spa 24 Hours as well.

Anyone know the reason for this, there was a time when only 2 were required for Le Mans

[jase]

Believe you can still run 2 drivers, regs saying that no driver can drive more than 50% of the race distance.

Having 4 drivers reduces the individual cost per driver and keeps each driver fresher for longer, some teams seem to bring in a driver for the night or Dawn/dusk periods

[iucrmh]

I think that Le Mans became that much harder on the driver after all the chicanes were put in. They could "relax" whilst on the Mulsanne. Before the mid 50's there were a few instances of one driver going the distance alone, Pierre Levegh in fact, very nearly won in 1952 until tiredness caused him to (I think) miss a gear and over rev the engine.

[Graham Goodwin]

Another factor is money - a team can raise more cash with more drivers

[BSchneiderFan]

The four-driver lark seems to be an American thing. Daytona regularly sees four drivers in each car, Le Mans very rarely (never?).

[lemans_henrik]

My reading before bed is at the moment the Le Mans regulations for 2003. In the "Suplementary Regulations" in § 6.1.3 it says that
" 3 drivers maximum per car :
a/ A driver can be nominated on one car only ;
b/ Reserve drivers are not permitted."

So there is actually a rule saying maximum 3 drivers pr. car.

By the way, the regulations are very informative to read. They can be downloaded from the www.lemans.org site.


Henrik
www.24h-le-mans.dk

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by iucrmh
Pierre Levegh in fact, very nearly won in 1952 until tiredness caused him to (I think) miss a gear and over rev the engine.

In the 24th hour, no less.

Of course, he's more famously known for the horrific crash of '55.

I've just been reading Brian Laban's excellent book, Le Mans, and he details other races where there were iron man performances. The most driving by a winning driver (I've just got to 1960, so I don't know if there are others) was 1950 winners Louis and Jean-Louis Rosier. Louis (pere) drove about 23h40m, while J-L (fils) drove the remainder.

[Splatz the Cow]

These races often have pay drivers who have less experience and are not as fit as the full time steerers.

[Aysedasi]

There were instances of two drivers at Le Mans as late as the 80's. I recall Brundle and Nielsen running as a duo in the Jag.

[iucrmh]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
There were instances of two drivers at Le Mans as late as the 80's. I recall Brundle and Nielsen running as a duo in the Jag.

In fact there were three cars starting last year (2002) with only two drivers, due to the non-qualification of the third driver, I think one of the 360 Modenas, a Saleen and a ROC-Reynard.

Didn't Wayne Taylor start as the only driver of the BRM in the early 90's. I think he was going to drive up to his stint limit, stop, rest, start again, etc. Car didn't last long enough to try that though.

[Aysedasi]

Yes, I'd forgotten about the occasional non-qualification. Was it 92 when the BRM ran at Le Mans and only Taylor qualified it? The ACO wouldn't relax the regs to allow the other two drivers to run (I think Toivonen was one of them). Sorry, a bit vague as I'm at work () and haven't got my sources available to me!

[BSchneiderFan]

That's interesting, in a bizarre way. What was the point of Taylor running solo? The car would be stationary in the pits while he napped?? Seems a bit of a waste of time... oh, sorry, he was running a BRM. I repeated myself there, then (arf).

[Aysedasi]

The car was literally straight out of the box. 92 was a bad year for the ACO, entry-wise (28 starters, wasn't it?) and the team had problems with (IIRC) gearbox bolts in practice, severely limiting their running. They obviously thought it was useful to run the car for as long as they could in the race, as an extended test session.

Although the car was out pretty quickly, I always thought it was a nice looker. Of course, it re-appeared a few years later with the roof chopped off - and ran no better!

[BSchneiderFan]

Does anyone have a pic of the BRM?

[Aysedasi]

Yes, I've got a few, as the car came to rest initially in front of the Maison Blanche grandstand where I was sitting. I'll try and dig one out later (at work at the moment).

[pirenzo]

BRM? Not British Racing Motors? At any rate, it sounds almost as woeful as the last BRM F1 cars anyway.

Four drivers, seems a perfectly good idea. Hey, someone like Mercedes if they returned, could hire David Coulthard to Qualify and start the race, and then have three regular LM drivers for the rest of it!

[Liz]

Sascha and Lucas drove their Alex Job 23 car without a third guy at Sebring last year because they said they could not find a third driver they both liked. They won their class too but they looked as if they'd been dragged through the narrow end of a knot hole.

I daresay that Brabs and Mags would not have minded being a 4 car team the year Mario Andretti was their teammate.

[Lee Janotta]

4 drivers became common during the 1980s, when it seemed the US was producing almost a surplus of road racing talent, CART, Trans-Am and IMSA were all immensly popular, and real team sponsorship was plentiful (not these personal drivers sponsors for pay hacks, but real sponsors like motor oil companies, tobacco, beer, and other consumer goods).

It's rare today, but when it does show up it's simply because 4 pay drivers have to put in less money each than 3.

How low the mighty have fallen.

[BSchneiderFan]

Didn't Bob Wollek have to drive Sebring in 2000 (?) pretty much solo because Sascha Maassen had collapsed with heat exhaustion? That's Bob Wollek (50-something) and Sascha Maassen (about 30). How we miss Bob...

[cybersdorf]

that the P351 (with BRM V12):



and the top-chopped P301 (with Nissan turbo engine):

[egor]

Dyson have taken it the opposite way and contested Daytona twice with five drivers in one car, winning in 99.


And I thought the BRM with a roof was a nice looking car

if a little too much too late.

[Aysedasi]

I thought bopth the BRM's were good lookers.

Beat the Audi's on looks any day......

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by egor
Dyson have taken it the opposite way and contested Daytona twice with five drivers in one car...

Seven, even,
At Daytona, that's legal. At Le Mans, it isn't.

[Aysedasi]

Seven! Where's the logic in that?

[cybersdorf]

They were only four when the race started...