F1 wages coordinated attack on LeMans

UPDATE A reader writes, Dear AutoRacing1.com, I agree 100 percent with the title of this article. The hype and buzz in advance of Le Mans this year was at the highest level I can remember and the race certainly lived up to expectations. Ask anyone at Audi, Peugeot, Corvette or Aston Martin if they were not pushing the entire distance. We are in a new era of endurance racing where races are a series of one-hour sprints. Those who saw what we saw over the weekend will undoubtedly agree, even if they pay the slightest bit of attention.

For the first time in several years, Le Mans is relevant again. The number and name of the manufacturers involved speaks volumes about where the sport is heading. I can't help but feel that Bernie and the FIA feel threatened; after all they appear to be trying to damage Le Mans just as they did at the end of the Group C and CART in the '90s eras. Once again Le Mans is a viable and more practical alternative for constructors wishing to expand and display their technological advances in a series that operates far from the spec platform that F1 is becoming. Audi and Peugeot are locked in with Porsche and Acura being rumored to join P1 in the next couple of years. How long until Mercedes or Ferrari decide to rejoin the fray? Robert Smithson, back from LeMans

06/15/08 On the weekend of its biggest race, all of a sudden key figures are coming out and making disparaging remarks about the 24 Hours of LeMans and its endurance racing. The attacks remind me of the ones Bernie Ecclestone coordinated against CART in the '90s.

On the weekend of the race widely referred to as being ‘the toughest in the world', leading Formula 1 figures have belittled both the challenge and the appeal of the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours, describing it variously as ‘no race' and ‘a kind of different sport'.

The 2008 edition of the legendary French round-the-clock endurance classic may be a fraught Audi vs. Peugeot affair, but despite no fewer than 30 former F1 aces amongst the 165 drivers entered, current members of the uppermost echelon seem to have little affection for La Sarthe.

“No comparison," bluntly stated McLaren team principal Ron Dennis – whose Woking-based concern developed the car that went on to win the 1995 race – in an interview with the International Herald Tribune. “You have to have phenomenal reliability, but also the drivers play such a key role, primarily in not falling off.

“It's rarely a race that's raced from beginning to end. You don't race for 24 hours; you compete for 24 hours, and it requires a different strategy.

“There's no race. They all suddenly realize that survival is the important thing. It is counter to the spirit of Formula 1; you very rarely slow down in Formula 1."

The 61-year-old's sentiments were echoed elsewhere in the grand prix paddock, with both Honda counterpart Ross Brawn and BMW-Sauber star – and new world championship leader – Robert Kubica backing up Dennis' views.

Brawn was heavily involved in the Le Mans success of Jaguar back in 1990, but he admitted it had not been an experience he entirely relished.

“It was not the sort of challenge that I like," the former Ferrari tactical genius reflected. “It's a very structured race over 24 hours; you're pacing yourself. It's quite a different event."

“Speed is secondary," agreed Kubica, a self-proclaimed rallying fan but a man who revealed he had never even watched the Le Mans 24 Hours on TV. “I'm the kind of person who likes to push. At Le Mans, you have to push less. It's a kind of different sport."