[LM24 Race] 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans: ACO/FIA WEC '18/'19 Season Finale

[chernaudi]

Next year might be the last chance anytime very soon to break the distance record. LMP1 hypercars might get slowed to like 3:25 or 3:30 for all we know right now.

[Akrapovic]

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-sensor-issue/

Speculation at the time suggested that a sensor issue had resulted in the wrong tire being changed; this suggestion was later confirmed by Vasselon after the race.

“They picked up a puncture which the sensors in the car have already detected,” he told Sportscar365.

“They have detected the wrong tire, so it told the team that it was the front-right, but it was the rear-left.

“So we changed only the front-right, and then when they restarted, we realized immediately that the puncture tire was still on the car. This is why he did the second lap slow.”

Still finding it a bit odd. It sounds more like a software issue and the wrong sensor ID was associated with the wrong corner.

[Damian Baldi]

I lost the finish of the race because a huge energy cut.

Damn bad luck for the #7, they deserve the victory, last time I saw the chart they had an entire lap of advantage. Great to see SMP on the podium.

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by ederss7

Would there be any tyre rule restriction to justify not changing all four tyres? If not, then they screwed really bad. I remember back in 2011 when the leading Audi changed all four tyres just to be safe when they had a slow puncture with 1h remaining.

I think the same, why they didnt change all tires as Audi did?.

[ederss7]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-sensor-issue/



Still finding it a bit odd. It sounds more like a software issue and the wrong sensor ID was associated with the wrong corner.

Unbelievable. If the #8 were an opponent, we'd be seeing a dejavu of 2016.

[Adam43]

Final update of

• Hourly positions
• Hourly positions (+practice and qualifying)
• Hourly gap between the two Toyota
• Fastest lap of each car
• Race Top Speed

[Damian Baldi]

Great graphics Adam, thanks for your work.

[TF110]

Well I'll be rooting for the Conway Kobayashi Lopez trio next season, hopefully they get their due. Was an interesting race, not the best Le Mans but the finish was... interesting I guess. GTE victory for Ferrari was unexpected to me, but anyone besides Porsche is good imo.

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

At least SMP didn't cheat or screw around with stuff. They seem to have gotten third on merit and showed that though right now privateers still are no match for a factory team like Toyota, they got the best result they could with a trouble free run. Six laps down to a factory team at LM by a privateer team isn't a bad result at all in my book.

Also showed that just because you're engine has an AER badge on it, doesn't mean that it'll nuke itself when built and tuned right.

I looked at pit stop times and the #11 SMP lost around 4 lap's worth of time in the pits compared to the #8 Toyota. Take that in to account and the privateers were actually very close.

And that actually brings me to my current gripe about the EoT. Right now Toyota are quicker and have longer stint length. That pretty much guarantees their domination. Take one of those advantages away then we could have something interesting in LMP1 next season.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

I looked at pit stop times and the #11 SMP lost around 4 lap's worth of time in the pits compared to the #8 Toyota. Take that in to account and the privateers were actually very close.

And that actually brings me to my current gripe about the EoT. Right now Toyota are quicker and have longer stint length. That pretty much guarantees their domination. Take one of those advantages away then we could have something interesting in LMP1 next season.

Agree, by now there is about a second, or even less in qualifying best overall performance and an average 1.5-2s in race pace; sometimes SMP was even faster than toyota to be honest.
Anyway fuel tank bop or eot is made to let toyota win...

toyotas had 11 laps stint lenght, SMP and rebellion 10 laps.... just this difference means SMP and rebellion can't match toyotas.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by canaglia

Agree, by now there is about a second, or even less in qualifying best overall performance and an average 1.5-2s in race pace; sometimes SMP was even faster than toyota to be honest.
Anyway fuel tank bop or eot is made to let toyota win...

toyotas had 11 laps stint lenght, SMP and rebellion 10 laps.... just this difference means SMP and rebellion can't match toyotas.

Menezes and Laurent also lapped faster than Toyota at a few points. I agree with the above 2 posts.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

It cost approx 1.5 minutes per stop. It was still leading after the first stop.

Just rewatched to tidy it up in my tired mind

365 #7 pits (after 11 lap stint) with 2m11s lead
366 #8 pits (after 10 lap stint) and #7 lead extends to 2m17s
367 #7 pits with 2m17s lead. Estimated loses 30s in stop and rest driving slowly back round.
368 #8 passes #7 for lead as #7 pulls in pits. 10s lead by finish line
369 while #7 in pits #8 pulls out 50 more seconds.

The stint before the ones mentioned before #7 had done a 6 lap stint and #8 a 11 laps stint. This meant 7 stopped before 8, whereas it had been the other way round for the whole race. Can anyone remember why?

[Damian Baldi]

The sensor that got mixed with another tire sensor, it was a tire pressure sensor right? So, they have been reading the wrong pressure all race?

[ederss7]

The biggest problem privateers have always had against factory teams is reliability. In this race it wasn't different.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

The sensor that got mixed with another tire sensor, it was a tire pressure sensor right? So, they have been reading the wrong pressure all race?

My understanding is that the tyre pressure sensors are built into the wheel rim, so change when the team change the tyre, and it will wirelessly transmit it the data to an onboard computer, which transmits them all back to the pits.

Depending on how they allocate sensors to wheels, it could be they have had the wrong pressure all race (but they would have noticed - fronts and rears generally aren't the same pressure), or it occurred because someone mistakenly allocated the sensors wrongly. So Sensor A was put in Sensor Bs position when preparing the tyres.

When you think about the logistics of what happened it gets confusing. They pitted the second time after they discovered the puncture was still on the car. But how did they know it was right rear at that point? All they knew was the sensor wasn't where it was meant to be? So couldn't it have been left front? They (appear) to have had 2 sensors swapped around, but it could've been that whole set that was wrong.

In a way they were unlucky to have this problem, but were lucky the second stop fixed it. Or they could've changed the full set - they had time.

[ederss7]

After the first stop to change the tyre, Lopez immediately slowed down just past Tetre Rouge, then crawled back to the pit. That means they took approximately 35s to realise they still had a puncture.
I just wonder if he needed to go that slow around the whole track with that puncture. It's unbelievable that the #7 lost its race this way.

[Jam3s]

I know bf1 (the TPMS provider to most teams) was at least developing a srnsor package that auto detected the position on the car to avoid this kind of error but perhaps it had yet to be integrated. These silly mistakes really can cost a team big.

[S griffin]

An interesting rather than exciting Le Mans, at least up fromt. The GTs once again provided the main action

Bad luck for the No 7 crew, they had done so well, then had it snatched for the. But the No 8 deserved to win and it’s nice to see them win the title

Kolles, seems they need to rethink over the winter

So the Super Season comes to an end, with worthy champs in each class. Have to say though I’m still not convinced of this super season idea

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by S griffin

An interesting rather than exciting Le Mans, at least up fromt. The GTs once again provided the main action

Bad luck for the No 7 crew, they had done so well, then had it snatched for the. But the No 8 deserved to win and it’s nice to see them win the title

Kolles, seems they need to rethink over the winter

So the Super Season comes to an end, with worthy champs in each class. Have to say though I’m still not convinced of this super season idea

Super Season for GTE was great. I think though its the high water mark of the era. I am bummed about AF Corse winning they are my least favorite team. Perhaps that is because they don't get involved in IMSA races enough other than supplying the drivers for Risi at Daytona. Especially bummed for Corvette for their off track issues. Wondering if it is time to make some driver changes. Especially for the #4 car. Ford seemed to realized they did not have the outright pace to win so they went for reliability. They did get that for sure. Their efforts went to the #85 car and it was interesting to see them help out with the garage fix.

[Anyopenroad]

Frankly I think Toyota should have instructed the #8 to let the #7 back past.

[OmerRS]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Super Season for GTE was great. I think though its the high water mark of the era. I am bummed about AF Corse winning they are my least favorite team. Perhaps that is because they don't get involved in IMSA races enough other than supplying the drivers for Risi at Daytona. Especially bummed for Corvette for their off track issues. Wondering if it is time to make some driver changes. Especially for the #4 car. Ford seemed to realized they did not have the outright pace to win so they went for reliability. They did get that for sure. Their efforts went to the #85 car and it was interesting to see them help out with the garage fix.

I think ACO should have let a faster GTE class(50-100 kg reduction and maybe 100 hp increase ) for super season before switching to Hypercars, because all the GTE Pro cars look way too limited at the moment they are crying for more speed. Also a "limited BOP" system can attract more manufacturers because they can show their series production cars are superior then the rest. For example a base fuel tank size can be fixed to 100 lt but BOP system allowed to adjust +/-5 lt only or base weight of 1200 kgs can only very between 1150 to 1250 kgs.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

Frankly I think Toyota should have instructed the #8 to let the #7 back past.

Why?

[nobster]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Why?

indeed why would they ruin their own staged finish....

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Why?

The #7 was the better team. They had enough of a lead to cover the initial pitstop for the puncture, which shows how well ahead they were. The #8 would still have been world champions. Toyota would still have a 1-2 and would have delivered two different Le Mans winning teams in consecutive years. The #7 team deserved the win and deserved to have something to show for the season, rather than nothing at all.

I wouldn't argue any of that if the engine had gone, if a lapped car had pitched them into a barrier, if a tire had exploded or if one of the drivers had made a mistake. But a sensor? That doesn't feel like a case of "Le Mans decides". I'm drawing an entirely arbitrary line there and coming down on one side of it because of what I think would have been the morally correct result. You could also counter that the problem wasn't the sensor, it was not changing all four tires, which is another example of why Toyota will never be to Le Mans what Audi was.

There you go. I've argued for and against myself in two paragraphs.

[Akrapovic]

Sometimes the better team doesn't win. That's endurance racing.

I'd like to hear more about this "sensor error" because a sensor in 1 corner in 1 wheel does not accidentally report the data from another wheel (because it can't sense that). If they thought the sensors were on different corners then it sounds like a human error when preparing tyres.

#7 had the speed to have a larger gap, and they chose not to extend the gap. Why did it not get itself a lap ahead? Why did they not change all 4 tyres in the pit stop? Why did the sensor report it was on a different corner? Why did they then change only 2 tyres in the next stop? The #7 lost due to a series of bad decisions. That isn't the better team IMO - it's the faster car, but they didn't do a better job.