Issue 15

THE PIT STOP issue 15

q u a r t e r l y

m o t o r s p o r t

m a g a z i n e

IMAGE BY DANNY SLEEUWENHOEK

CONTENTS

8 20 34 54 66 IN SHORT

THE SHARKNOSE We take a look back at Ferrari's 1961 Formula 1 season

BEAUTY AND THE SPEED A deep dive into the Mercedes CLK GTR that took the sportscar world by storm

CROSSROADS We take a look into Audi's first foray into the world of Le Mans, and how it was left with a decision it ultimately couldn't make

PROGRESSION Jota's step forward from privateer to work's outfit

THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND A look at the 2004 F1 season, and how it cemented legend status for not only one driver, but his car as well.

RED BULL NEEDS TO LEARN FROM MERCEDES

FROM SANDY TO LE MANS Ash Miller sits down with Ben Tuck, who got his first taste of Le Mans this year

BREAKTHROUGH VICTORY Looking at Benoit Treluyer's breakthrough win at the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours

MOVING ON Examining Adrian Newey's move to the Aston Martin Formula 1 team

BUILDING FOUNDATIONS A look at how McLaren's return to the Le Mans 24 Hours worked out in 2024.

HOW HYUNDAI'S WEC PROGRAMME COULD DAMAGE WRC

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NEW ARTURA TROPHY EVO UNVEILED THE PIT STOP 5

MAGIC MOMENTS

I

t’s been a busy summer in the world of motorsport both on and off the track. So much has happened that at times, it’s been hard to seep up with everything going on.

But one of the personal highlights was being able to get up close and personal with the Le Mans 24 Hourswinning Audi R18.

It’s a car that will go down in the Le Mans hall of fame as one of the greatest racing cars of its time, and once you spend a bit of time around it, it’s easy to see why.

The car is a thing of beauty, it’s perfect in every single way, and it was a privilege to spend time with it and one of its drivers, Benoit Treluyer earlier this year.

A huge thanks has to go to Moto Historics for the opportunity, particularly team owner Nigel Medical as well as Rob Overy. Without their assistance, the story we’ve written in this issue of The Pit Stop would not have come to fruition. They have many great cars that go through their workshop, some of which we’ve written about in the past. But few are as beautiful as the R18.

Even now, it is still in immaculate condition, but one of the greatest things about it is the fact that’s it not perfect.

It’s still race worn, laden with battle scars from that fantastic race way back in 2011. You’re still able to get a true sense of what that car endured throughout that 24-hour period, and the sessions before it. It just gets the nostalgia running in full flow.

It doesn’t just look great though, it’s engine tone also matches its looks perfectly.

One of the major hurdles the team had to get over though was to get the car running. With a complicated electrical system installed on the car, they had to whisk in some wizards to do their magic and help get the car up and running in perfect harmony. It worked too without a hitch.

It wasn’t just seeing the car that was so special though. As mentioned earlier, Treluyer also managed to get reunited with the car that he won his first Le Mans 24 Hours with, and seeing him partnered back up with his racewinning chassis again was a joy to behold. You could see just how happy he was to be present with the car again, rather than rolling back the memories in his mind.

But more than that, it was also the fact that for the first time, he was able to show his son around the car.

Those are experiences you don’t come across all too often, mainly because it’s not that often that a driver has the opportunity to get reacquainted with one of the machines that transformed their racing career so long after the initial success. But when they do happen, it’s magic.

There can’t be many better things than winning such an iconic race, but showing your child around it 13 years on, letting them get a taste of what the experience was like behind the wheel, inside the cockpit must be right up there.

EDITORIAL Editor Rob Hansford Contributors Ash Miller Photography Contributors PHD Photo, Ed Waplington, Grand Prix Photo, Daniel Clarke, Laurie Southern, Danny Sleeuwenhoek THANKS TO Peter Nygaard, Roger Ormisher, Rob Overy, Kevin Ritson, Goodwood Estate, Danny Sleeuwenhoek, Luke Hinsull, Tom Baker, Nigel Medcalf, Edd Straw COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES Enquiries commercialenquiries@thepitstopmagazine.com 6 | THE PIT STOP

IMAGE BY ROB OVERY

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THE SHARKNOSE WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / GRAND PRIX PHOTO

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F

errari has created many beautiful racing cars throughout its history, far too many to count on one hand. But few are as beautiful as the 156, the “Sharknose”.

During the late 1950s Ferrari had been competing in Formula 1 with the 246. It was a naturally aspirated, front mounted V6 monster that won five grands prix, but failed to win the championship. It was fast, but it wasn’t quick enough.

However, when the regulations changed ahead of the 1961 season, it gave Ferrari an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start again. Even if it wanted to, Ferrari couldn’t make slight adaptations to the 246. A complete overhaul was required, and so that’s what Ferrari did.

Up until 1961, F1 cars featured 2.5-litre engines, but in an attempt to curb speeds, the regulations were changed, enforcing competitors to race with cars that had a maximum displacement of 1.5-litres. It was a considerable change and meant that engine sizes were similar to the Formula 2 cars that had been racing since the late 1950s.

It was a move that didn’t go down well with the British teams, with several outfits threatening to boycott the championship if it followed through with the change due to the fact it had been given little notice about the regulation change. The series organisers were unperturbed however, and stuck to their guns, knowing that there was unlikely to be any major action taken by the teams.

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They were right too. In the end, not a single team went through with their threat to protest, instead complying and making the changes required. Ferrari meanwhile had kept quiet and got its head down and went about creating an all-new car.

Up until 1961, Ferrari’s cars had been front-engined, but that wasn’t going to be the ideal solution to make the new cars reach their full potential. Instead, Ferrari designer Carlo Chiti decided that the 1.5-litre V6 should be mid-mounted longitudinally, following the path that several other teams - including Lotus - had already taken the year before.

The 156’s V6 started out at a 65-degree angle, but Chiti quickly amended that, opening the angle up to 120-degrees. This allowed for smoother power delivery and it increased the overall power by around 10 horsepower.

The new 156 was as sleek as it was elegant. Airflow and cooling had been a real consideration from the outset, and in order to aid cooling, Chiti had designed the front end of the car so that it had a “nostril” air intakes. And it was this very element of the car’s design that led to it being dubbed the “Sharknose”.

Ferrari’s preceding 246 had never been a bad car as the results had shown, but in comparison to the 156 it now looked sluggish, heavy and slow. And when the 156 rolled out for the very first race of the season at Monaco, its initial performance suggested that its pace could well match expectations.

When qualifying at Monaco got underway, it was

Stirling Moss who set the pace in the Lotus Climax. His best effort of 1m39.1 seconds was enough to secure pole position, but the Ferrari’s weren’t far behind, with Richie Ginther taking second on the grid for the Scuderia with a time that was just two tenths shy of Moss’s effort. In fact, a Ferrari occupied three of the top six positions for the opening race of the season, such was the competitiveness of the 156.

Unfortunately for Ferrari, on race day it had no answer to Moss’s pace. He proved once again why he was the master of Monaco, going on to win the Monaco Grand Prix for a third time. There was consolation though, as after nearly three hours of racing, Ginther finished just 3.6s behind Moss.

It might not have been the perfect start Ferrari would have hoped for, but there was plenty of promise in its brand new sharknose, and at the following grand prix, it proved just how much potential there really was in the car.

The second round of the season was held at Zandvoort. It was a fast flowing circuit, and it suited the 156 perfectly, so much so that Moss was unable to get inside the top three, with all of the positions ahead of him occupied by Ferraris.

This time, it was Phil Hill who was the fastest of the

Ferrari drivers. He took pole position, but only just since team-mate Wolfgang von Trips also set an identical laptime. But since he set that time after Hill, he ended up second. Ginther was the third Ferrari, just two tenths behind the leading pair, and two tenths ahead of Moss.

When the race got underway the following day, it was von Trips that got the better start, and he headed off Hill going into the first corner. From there, von Trips controlled the race perfectly to stay in front, but Hill was never far behind, finishing just nine tenths of a second behind his team-mate.

Ginther however was unable to maintain the pace that von Trips and Hill had, and he ended up dropping down the order, finishing fifth behind Jim Clark in third and Moss in fourth. Ferrari didn’t really care though.

It had claimed a first 1-2 of the season, and with the leading duo finishing the race over 13 seconds clear of Clark, they knew the 156 had championship-winning potential.

And if Ferrari wasn’t 100% sure that a title was on the cards after Zandvoort it certainly was at the next race at Spa. Once again, the flowing roads of Spa suited the 156 and Ferrari’s drivers exploited the 156’s advantage to the maximum.

Ferrari occupied the front three positions on the grid

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GINTHER LEADING MOSS AT ZANDVOORT

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again, with the first two grid slots lining up in the same fashion as it had at Zandvoort. But rather than Ginther lining up third, it was Belgian driver Olivier Gendebein who took that position, having excelled around his home circuit.

That was a great result for Ferrari, proving that its pace at Zandvoort clearly wasn’t a one-off. But things were to get even better on race day.

Not a single other competitor could challenge the Ferraris during the Belgian Grand Prix. The top three whistled off into the distance, while Ginther recovered from fifth on the grid to get himself up into the top three.

After two hours of racing it was Hill that came home with the victory, edging von Trips by a mere seven tenths of a second. And with Ginther rounding out the podium positions, it was Gendebein who claimed fourth, ending up 45.6 seconds behind Hill.

But what was more worrying for Ferrari’s rivals was that the nearest non-Ferrari to finish was John Surtees in his Cooper Climax, and he ended up crossing the line 1m26.8s behind the winner.

It was absolute domination from Ferrari, and a result that would go down in the history books forever since it was the last time a constructor occupied the top four positions at the end of a F1 grand prix.

Unlike several seasons more recently in Formula 1, Ferrari didn’t dominate the entire season though.

At the fourth round of the season in France, none of the factory Ferraris finished the race in the top eight, despite having been at the top of the order in qualifying once again. A Ferrari did win the race, but this time it was privateer driver Giancarlo Baghetti who

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took the spoils.

Championship contenders Hill and von Trips meanwhile were unable to score points, with Hill finishing ninth and von Trips retiring on lap 19 with an engine failure.

Normal service was resumed at the British Grand Prix however, with von Trips beating Hill to the race win, helping him move up into the championship lead for the first time. Leaving that round von Trips had 27 points to HIll’s 25, while in the constructors’ championship Ferrari was continuing to dominate with 38 points to Lotus Climax’s 16.

The British Grand Prix was the last time that Ferrari completely occupied the podium that season though.

The next grand prix was held in Germany, and this time it was Moss who took a commanding victory - his last in F1 - beating von Trips by 21.4s. As ever, Hill was never far behind his team-mate and he crossed the line in third nine tenths further back.

It meant that with two rounds of the championship remaining, four drivers were in with a shout for the driver’s championship and two were still battling it out in the constructors’ standings.

In the driver’s championship, von Trips, Hill, Moss and Ginther all had a mathematical possibility of winning the title while the constructors’ championship was becoming an all-out battle between the Scuderia and Lotus.

The pressure was now mounting on Ferrari heavily.

Everything was within its grasp and titles could be won at the penultimate round if everything went its way. But the stakes were high, since the penultimate race of the season would be held in front of the Tifosi on home soil

VON TRIPS IN THE PITS AT THE 1961 GERMAN GRAND PRIX

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at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.

Ferrari stepped up to the plate in qualifying though.

Once again, Ferrari’s drivers dominated. This time von Trips was fastest, claiming his very first pole position in F1 and the first pole position for a German driver. His time of 2m46.3s was enough to see off the challenge from Mexican driver Ricardo Rrodriguez, who was a tenth behind in the second Ferrari.

Ginther lined up third, while HIll was fourth, nine tenths down on his closest rival’s benchmark time.

The other title challenger, Moss had struggled for pace in his Lotus Climax, setting a time that was over five seconds slower than von Trips’ effort, and he was forced to start the race from 11th on the grid, immediately putting him at a huge disadvantage compared to his championship rivals.

The race was all set for Ferrari to take a fantastic and gloriously dominating victory and with it both championship titles. However, that was not to be the case.

When the lights went out, it was Clark who got the best start of all. The Ferraris had been geared longer which hampered their acceleration off the line, and as they completed the first lap, the order had changed significantly.

Hill was now leading the race, with team-mate Ginther just behind in second. Rodriguez was third, while Clark had got himself up to fourth from seventh on the grid. The Cooper of Jack Brabham was fifth, while von Trips had fallen all the way back to sixth, having not had his greatest start to a grand prix.

It looked set to be a fascinating grand prix, but on the following lap, disaster struck.

As the cars headed down to the opening corner, Parabolica the top six closed right up and von Trips and Clark made contact with each other. The Ferrari was sent flying off the track, and it flew up the embankment crashing into the safety fence.

Devastatingly, the vast crowd at Monza had lined the track right up to the safety fence and when von Trips’ car made contact with the fence, the impact caused 14 spectators to tragically lose their lives. Von Trips was also sent flying from his car when it crashed into the fence, and although he survived the initial impact, he sadly passed away while being taken to hospital.

The competing drivers however knew nothing about the tragedy that had occurred and continued racing.

Hill went on to win the race, and was crowned world champion in the process. But any happiness or joy quickly faded after he discovered that his team-mate and friend had passed away.

It was a devastating end to what had been a fascinating and brilliant season up until that point. In the end, Hill became champion after beating von Trips by a single point (only the top five results of a season were counted in the championship standings), while Ferrari was also crowned constructors’ champion after scoring 40 points to Lotus’ 24.

Going into Monza, Enzo Ferrari had hoped that his team would secure both championships at its home race, but he never wanted it to be won in the circumstances it was. Understandably, von Trips’ death tainted the glory. Nobody wanted to celebrate victory after losing the life of a colleague, team-mate and good friend, as well as the 14 fans that also lost their lives.

And it was a stark reminder about just how dangerous racing F1 cars was.

The final race of the season was to be held in the United States, but with the championship having already been won, and still digesting the death of von Trips, Ferrari decided it would not enter any of its cars in the grand prix.

Despite the tragic way in which the 1961 season ended, the Ferrari 156 had proven what a great car it was, and so it continued to spearhead Ferrari’s F1 campaigns for three more seasons. However, the 156 was never dominant again.

In 1962, Ferrari’s rivals introduced updated cars, and it was BRM who took the spoils with Graham Hill. Phil Hill remained Ferrari’s lead driver, but he was only able to finish sixth in the driver’s championship, while Ferrari ended the year in the same position in the constructors’ championship.

1963 fared slightly better, with Surtees winning Ferrari’s sole race of the season in Germany, helping the team end the year fourth in the constructors’ championship, but it was 1964 where it got back to winning ways properly.

Surtees remained with Ferrari for the 1964 F1 season, and although he retired from four of the 10 grands prix that year, when he did finish, he always ended up on the podium. Over the course of the season he took two victories, one at Germany and the other on home soil in Italy, helping him beat Graham Hill to the title by a single point. Ferrari also managed to execute the double, beating BRM by three points at the end of the year.

And this time, there was every reason to celebrate.

The 156 might not have been quite as dominant as it was in 1961, but there was nothing to taint the championship victories on this occasion. It could be enjoyed, and in many ways it was a romantic way for the 156 to end its F1 career.

An all-new 156 was introduced for 1965, and so 1964 was the last time that it competed in F1. And it could not have ended time in F1 in a better manner, achieving the same result in its final year as it did in its first.

Sometimes the 156 era can be looked back on with tainted vision given what happened at Monza in 1961, and understandably so. But nothing could take away from the fact that this car was an absolute masterpiece of engineering and design from Ferrari and Carlo Chiti.

It’s often a much-admired F1 car, but sometimes underestimated, and that does the 156 a real misjustice.

The sharknose was as fierce as its nickname suggests. It was a monster that could obliterate its rivals on its day, and really was one of the greatest F1 cars of its time.

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IMAGE BY LAURIE SOUTHERN

SPINNING OUT THERE WAS NO SHORTAGE OF ACTION AT THIS YEAR'S SPA 24 HOURS, AND THIS WASN'T THE ONLY CAR TO GO FOR A SPIN.

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BEAUTY AND THE SPEED

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO 20 | THE PIT STOP

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T

here are certain cars in this world that just look fast. You don’t even need to see them run to know how fast they’re going to be. And that’s very much the case with the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR. There’s a reason why it became the poster car of sportscar racing in the late 1990s. It’s beautiful and it’s elegant. But what it’s not is beauty without substance. All too often in motorsport there have been cars that looked the part, but failed to deliver in terms of performance. The Mercedes CLK GTR definitely did not fall into that category. It was fast,

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insanely so.

In fact, it was so quick, and so dominant that it essentially single-handedly killed off sportscar racing’s GT1 class.

For the 1997 season, the top level of sportscar racing was competing under an all-new guise. With the World Sportscar Championship ending in 1992, the BPR Global GT Series was formed to house the top level GT1 cars. During that period, manufacturer interest had increased dramatically, and so for 1997 the FIA decided they should take over the management of sportscar’s top level of racing and formed the FIA GT

Championship.

Through the BPR years, McLaren had dominated the championship with its F1 GTR. It had successfully held off challenges from Porsche with its 911 GT1, and the likes of Lotus and Lister. But in 1997 that was all about to change.

With the demise of DTM and the International Touring Car Championship, Mercedes decided to look at where it could next go racing with its sportscars.

And with the lure of competing against McLaren and Porsche too attractive to avoid, it decided to enter the FIA GT Championship with an all-new car - the CLK

GTR. Having taken note of Porsche’s approach to the championship, in which it used small aesthetic elements of one of its road-going cars and then installed them into a bespoke, purpose-built race car in order to take on McLaren, Mercedes decided to adopt a similar approach.

Mercedes commissioned its high performance subsidiary, AMG to produce an entirely new racing car that had a slight resemblance to one of its road-going vehicles. AMG assessed Mercedes’ current line-up of road cars at the time, and decided to produce a car

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THE MERCEDES CLK GTR WITH ITS PROMINENT WING MIRRORS

that looked similar to the CLK. In reality though, it was nothing like the CLK, nothing at all.

The only elements of the CLK brought over to the CLK GTR were the headlights, rear taillights and the radiator grille. They didn’t share a single mechanical element, the CLK GTR was built for one thing only - to win on the track.

Mercedes didn’t have a lot of time to be ready for

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the start of the 1997 FIA GT Championship, and the CLK GTR was developed in an astonishing 128 days. As such, Mercedes entered the start of the season with a high level of trepidation, unsure of how competitive its GT1 machine would really be out of the box with such little development time.

As soon as Mercedes rocked up for the first round of the season, the lack of development time showed.

McLaren won the opening race of the season at Hockenheim in Germany, while the first CLK GTR came home in a distant 27th overall out of 28 cars, while the second car retired after just five laps with a brake failure.

It was not a great way to start the year, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were positives to take, especially since it did qualify on pole position with the

#11 car and in fourth with the sister #10 car.

Things did get better at the following race at Silverstone however, with Mercedes getting its first podium of the year. It was a McLaren F1 GTR on the top step of the rostrum again, but this time Bernd Schneider and Alexander Wurz brought the #11 CLK GTR home in second place.

As the season went on, Mercedes began to

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KLAUS LUDWIG WAITING TO BE REUNITED WITH HIS CHAMPIONSHIPWINNING CAR

understand more about the CLK GTR and progressively unlocked more and more potential. And just two races later the first signs of dominance began to shine through as it secured its first 1-2 of the season at the Nurburgring.

After four hours of racing, Schneider and Klaus Ludwig emerged victorious with team-mates Nannini and Marcel Tiemann the only ones able to finish on the same lap in the sister car. This time the McLaren F1 GTR of BMW Motorsport finished a lap down in a very distant third place.

That performance at the Nurburgring set the tone for the majority of the remaining races. A second followed at the next outing at Spa, but after that, the CLK GTR won five of the final six races.

Its dominance in the second half of the season meant that Mercedes won the championship at the first

time of asking, having amassed 126 points to BMW’s 85.

It was a great achievement, especially given the fact that Mercedes had such little time to get the car developed before the season began. But its more impressive feat was still ahead of it.

Having now fully understood the CLK GTR, Mercedes was able to extract its full potential for the 1998 season, and whenever it took to the track over a full race distance, it obliterated the entire field.

The CLK GTR missed out on pole position for the season-opener at Oschersleben but when it came to the race, there was no stopping it or its drivers.

The entire podium was locked out with CLK GTRs at the end of the race, with the #2 car of Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta winning, while the privateer run CLK GTR of Tiemann and Jean-Marc Gounon was second. Reigning champion Schneider

HAVING NOW FULLY UNDERSTOOD THE CLK GTR, MERCEDES WAS ABLE TO EXTRACT ITS FULL POTENTIAL FOR THE 1998 SEASON

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was third in a car he was sharing with Mark Webber, but they ended up two laps down on the two cars ahead.

That didn’t matter though, it was the fact that Mercedes had dominated the race entirely that caught everyone’s attention.

It wasn’t a one-off either, and Mercedes were not done with developing the car. At the third round of the season, Mercedes introduced an updated car, the CLK LM, and it proved to be just as dominant as the GTR. In the end, Mercedes won every single race of the 1998 season, completely obliterating the rest of the field.

The championship essentially became a battle between the #1 and #2 cars and although both cars won five races each, it was the #2 car of Ludwig and Zonta that emerged victorious, having only failed to make the podium on one occasion, when they finished fourth at Silverstone.

Meanwhile, Schneider and Webber failed to make the podium on two occasions, the first at Dijon when they finished ninth and the second at Homestead when they crossed the line in fourth.

Those two missed opportunities meant that Ludwig and Zonta secured the driver’s championship by eight points, while Mercedes’ 100% win record over the course of the season meant that it won the championship by a massive 97 points, having scored

146 points to Porsche’s 49.

Based on the way it performed over the course of those two seasons, there can be no arguing about the outright performance of the CLK LM, but Ludwig believes that there was one aspect that enabled the car to really hold its dominance over the competition.

“The car had a lot of power. It was an incredible car, very stable, a lot of ground effect,” Ludwig explained to The Pit Stop.

“The Porsches were good. There were some good cars competing, but we had really good tyres at that time. We had Bridgestone tyres and the package was super and it worked.”

Even though it was clear that Mercedes was going to win the championship, internally, there was still a driver’s championship to be won. And Ludwig believes his car emerged victorious at the end because of one person.

“For me it was my co-driver. It was Ricardo Zonta,” Ludwig explained when talking about the reason behind him winning the championship in 1998.

“He was the quickest on the block. He was quicker than Webber and he was quicker than me, and quicker than Schneider. He was quicker than everybody else.

“So this young guy at that time, before he went into Formula 1, he was really, really flying. And that was the secret behind the world championship.”

1998 proved what a car the CLK was. It wasn’t just

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good, it was too good. The only blot on the CLK’s CV was that the CLK LM failed to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1998, with both its cars retiring early on in the race with engine failures.

That didn’t affect Mercedes’ 100% win record in the GT championship though, as Le Mans was a nonchampionship race, and its poor result there had no impact on the fear Mercedes had already injected into its GT championship rivals.

The fear was at such a level that nobody wanted to

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race against it in 1999. The likes of Porsche admitted defeat, believing that there was no realistic way that they were going to be able to compete with Mercedes the following season.

As such, barely anyone submitted a GT1 entry for the 1999 championship, and the FIA was therefore left with no choice but to remove the class from the series going forward.

The removal of the GT1 class from sportscar racing immediately left the CLK redundant. There was

nowhere for it to go racing and although Mercedes continued its participation at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 199 with its CLR, the CLK’s time was brought to an abrupt end.

In many ways, it’s somewhat ironic that its success ended up being its downfall. Had it not been as dominant as it was, it’s likely the GT1 class would have continued for a few more years to come.

But while it may have killed its chance at having a long and successful sportscar career, the way events

unfolded meant that the CLK has been confined to the history books as one of the all-time greats.

There’s not many cars in the world of motorsport that have been so good that other teams simply haven’t wanted to race against it, and essentially boycotted a championship as a result. That just defines how great a car the CLK is. It was the best, the very best.

And sometimes the one with the looks really does have it all.

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IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

THE SUPERVAN THE FORD TRANSIT SUPERVAN WAS A PARTICULAR HIGHLIGHT AT THIS YEAR'S GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED. AND IT WAS SO FAST THAT IT WON THE SHOOTOUT IN 2024 WITH A TIME OF 43.987 SECONDS.

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CROSS

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ROADS

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / AUDI THE PIT STOP | 35

D

uring the 1990s, the regulations for the Le Mans 24 Hours evolved significantly. For the 1996 edition of the race, the all-conquering GT1 class was renamed to LMGT1, and a new class called LMP1 was introduced, enabling teams to create prototype machines specifically for the race. Just three years later, the classes were amended again, this time with the LMGT1 class being renamed to LMGTP due to

THE R8R RUNNING AT THE GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED

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the demise of the GT1 class in sportscar racing.

Manufacturer involvement was still high in the mid to late 1990s and having seen what its rivals were achieving on track, Audi decided it wanted to go sportscar racing and claim a piece of the pie.

The issue was, it was stuck on whether it should debut in the LMGTP class that was being introduced for 1999 or the LMP1 class. Both classes were fiercely competitive and it was entirely possible for either one to win the race outright. So which one would give you

the better chance of winning the race?

That was the head scratcher that Audi couldn’t solve. It had no real answer as to which class would give it the best chance of winning, and so rather than rolling the dice and taking a gamble on one of the classes, it decided to enter the 1999 race with two chassis.

It was a bold move, one that no other manufacturer had made, and its decision to contest both classes came fairly late.

Audi had already decided two years prior that it was going to produce a car capable of competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours. In 1997 development work began on the Audi R8R, and the first prototype was unveiled to the world just a year later.

The open cockpit car was built by Dallara and featured a 3.6-litre twin-turbo V8, but it soon became clear that the car needed further development if it was going to be competitive on its racing debut. And to make matters worse, the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours

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caused Audi some real concern that going down the LMP route wasn’t the right path to take.

There had been an assumption that the LMP class would become the dominant one at Le Mans, after all, that’s why Audi began creating the R8R, but in the 1998 edition of the legendary endurance race, they just weren’t competitive at all.

Mercedes took pole position overall in its LMGT1 CLK, with the fastest LMP1 car qualifying sixth overall, some 3.295 seconds off the pace. And in the race, the LMP cars didn’t fare much better either.

Porsche ended up victorious with its 911 GT1, in what ended up as a 1-2 for the German manufacturer, and Nissan rounded out the top 10 with its R390 GT1.

The LMP cars meanwhile were unable to get anywhere near the rostrum. Instead, the first LMP1 car home was

the Doyle-Risi Racing Ferrari 333P. It finished the race eighth overall, a staggering 19 laps down on the winner.

That was a monumental gap, and one that got Audi wondering whether it had made a huge mistake by developing an LMP car for its first Le Mans 24 Hours outing.

It couldn’t afford its Le Mans 24 Hours debut to end in complete disaster, and so in order to hedge its bets it decided to create a second car capable of competing in the LMGT1 class.

It was a huge risk, but one Audi thought was worth taking to ensure its debut wasn’t a total flop.

Time was tight though, and it gave Audi less than a year to get an all-new car designed, built and developed in time for the following race.

Knowing that it couldn’t solely take on the project

IT COULDN'T AFFORD ITS LE MANS 24 HOURS DEBUT TO END IN COMPLETE DISASTER THE PORSCHE 911 GT1 AT LE MANS

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THE AUDI R8R IN TESTING

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THE R8C AT THE LE MANS 24 HOURS

of creating an LMGT1 car itself while also trying to develop the R8R, Audi enlisted the help of designer Peter Elleray who worked for a company called Racing Technologies Norfolk. Elleray and his team built a brand new car adhering to the LMGTP regulations, and Audi proceeded to build the machine.

The LMGTP regulations stipulated that the cars racing in that class had to be closed-cockpit, but now being free from typical GT rules which forced teams to build their cars based around road-going equivalents, teams were now able to come up with new concepts that had better aerodynamics than the GT1s of the past.

And when the drivers saw the new R8C, many simply assumed it was pretty much just a closed-cockpit

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version of the R8R. “I never drove the [R8C] because we were driving at the same time the R8R,” said Rinaldo Capello, one of Audi’s factory drivers at the time. “I have to say the R8C is completely different from the R8R. We always thought that there was just one with a roof and one was a roadster. But [having since driven it,] actually the driveability is completely different and was a good surprise.

“To be honest, I never paid so much attention to that car, but if I look at the car now I think it was a really beautiful car. I think only the Bentley 2003 car was more beautiful than that one.”

In just a matter of months Audi had produced its LMGTP challenger - the Audi R8C. It had pulled off

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AUDI'S TEAMS POSING FOR A PHOTO AHEAD OF LE MANS

what seemed like an impossible feat, and it was now ready to take on Le Mans and fight at the front. Or so it thought.

Despite having high hopes, both cars struggled for overall pace. Earlier in the year, the R8R had made its debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Having undergone a lot of development work, the amended R8R featured a longer tail, and its wheel arches flowed much more easily into the sidepods. In addition, the front end of the car was visibly lower, the sidepods themselves were also made wider and rounder, and the NACA ducts above the turbochargers were replaced with vertical air inlets to improve the cooling levels under the bodywork.

Two cars were built for Sebring, and when the cars got going on the track, Audi had a rude awakening. It was immediately clear that the R8R was nowhere near as fast as its main rivals over a single lap. In the end, its cars could only qualify 11th and 12th for the race.

However, there were glimmers of hope. While it might not have had outright pace, the R8R did at least prove to be reliable, and it was that aspect that enabled its cars to finish third and fifth overall.

That was the benefit the R8R had. It was able to complete a full testing programme, while the R8C was only completed just in time for the Le Mans 24 Hours group test. And when the test did get underway, it was

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another eye-opening experience for Audi.

The R8C proved to be fast down the Mulsanne Straight, having reached speeds of up to 217 mph, but the car was not stable enough through the corners. It meant the drivers could not take the R8C to its limit and through the second half of the lap it was unable to be anywhere near as competitive as the majority of its rivals.

When the test came to an end, the R8Cs were 22nd and 28th on the timesheet, while the R8R was a more competitive eighth and 11th.

It simply wasn’t good enough, but there was no time to make any fundamental changes to the cars. One of the major things they had to try and get on top of though was the engine covers. The air didn’t flow overly well across the top of the R8C, and some of that air was able to gather and build up underneath the engine cover. Subsequently, that would often cause the engine cover to be pulled off the car when travelling at high speed, making it a danger to others as well as hampering the pace of the car.

However, when the race did come around, Audi did manage to fasten the engine covers well enough that they did not vacate the R8Cs over the 24-hour period.

There was very little improvement in pace though, and the R8Cs ended up qualifying 20th and 23rd with the

R8Rs in ninth and 11th.

When the race got underway, it wasn’t long before the R8Cs began to run into issues either. The team knew any hopes of a victory were out of the question, but Audi had hoped the R8Cs could manage what the R8R achieved in Sebring and make its way up the order by enduring the test with good reliability. However, that was not to be the case.

On just lap 55, the #9 R8C retired from the race due to gearbox issues. It meant that just one car remained, but 143 laps later the second car appeared in the pits with a similar issue. The #10 car also had a gearbox failure, and with Audi not able to make the repairs required in the pits, it meant both R8Cs were out on

their racing debuts.

It was a disappointing end to the R8Cs Le Mans 24 Hours outing, but in many ways it was hardly surprising given how little time Audi had spent producing and developing the car. But there were more positive signs in the R8R. It still might not have possessed the outright pace to win, but its reliability once again helped the R8Rs to achieve a strong result. The first car home was the #8 R8R of Frank Biela, Didier Theys and Emanuelle Pirro in third place, while the #7 car of Michele Alboreto, Capello and Laurent Aiello was fourth.

Given where Audi had started with both cars, it was a monumental achievement that it was able to get both

IT MEANT BOTH R8CS WERE OUT ON THEIR RACING DEBUTS

cars within the top four on its Le Mans debut, and it sparked an era of dominance for Audi in the event.

The Audi R8C however was never to be seen again.

With the results it achieved with the R8R, Audi decided to use that car to aid its pursuit for victory in the

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following year’s race, and the R8C was deemed surplus to requirements.

But although the R8C never raced again, it wasn’t completely the end of its legacy. It may not have proved to be the fastest car, but it did still possess some

2023'S CENTRAL FEATURE FOR THE FESTIVAL OF SPEED

exciting ideas, and provided some valuable lessons, some of which Elleray used when he later set about designing the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans challenger.

And where the R8C failed, the Speed 8 succeeded.

It went on to win its class three times at the Le Mans

24 Hours between 2001 and 2003, proving that while the R8C might not have been ready for action in 1999, there really was race-winning potential hidden within it.

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

THE TYRRELL SHED THE TYRRELL SHED NOW LIVES IN THE GROUNDS OF GOODWOOD, AND IT REALLY DOES FEEL LIKE YOU'RE TAKING A STEP BACK IN TIME.

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PROGRESSION WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES COURTESY OF PHD PHOTO / FIA WEC / DPPI

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T

hroughout the 2024 World Endurance Championship season, Jota has been one of the standout teams. Despite being a privateer, it's not been afraid to mix things up with the manufacturers on the grid, and it has often punched well above its weight. This year’s race at the 6 Hours of Spa was the biggest evidence of that, with Jota becoming the first privateer of the Hypercar era to win a WEC race outright.

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But in 2025, Jota is about to take things another step further, one that - if things work out perfectly - could propel it onto a more even keel.

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Jota has been running a pair of Porsche 963s, and it proved to be entirely the correct decision for the team. The Porsches are incredibly competitive - as evidenced by the fact that the factory Porsche Penske team is on course to win the championship outright - but more than that, Jota has worked brilliantly to make sure it's capable of getting

the maximum out of its cars.

The comparison to look at here is Proton. Proton too is a privateer running a Porsche 963, but it has not been able to achieve anywhere near the same kind of results as Jota. In fact, its best result so far was a sixth place at the 2024 Lone Star Le Mans. It’s all well and good having the car, but unless the team functions at the very highest of levels, you can never really hope to regularly fight against the likes of Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari.

And that’s what Jota has been able to master.

Its team has come together and worked in perfect harmony to push itself into the upper echelons of the championship, putting Jota on the motorsport map in the process.

There is however an issue. Being a privateer means there’s always going to be limitations that prevent you from taking the team to the next level. It has to take what it gets given by Porsche, and its input into making changes is always going to be limited. The Porsche might be a great car, but Porsche is never going to be overly happy if one of its customers is regularly beating

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JOTA WILL TAKE OVER AS THE CADILLAC'S WORKS TEAM IN 2025

it.

Jota is all too aware of this and recognises that it isn’t too far off reaching the limit of what it will be able to regularly achieve with the 963. And that’s why it has taken a different approach to its 2025 WEC season.

Instead of running as a privateer, it will essentially become a works outfit when it takes on the works Cadillac Racing cars, replacing Chip Ganassi’s outfit

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who has been running them up until now.

Since 2023 Chip Ganassi Racing has been running the works operation for Cadillac, but it’s never really had the success either it or Cadillac would have hoped for. When it started out with the Hypercar programme, it had hoped it would be in a position to have two cars on the grid, but limited finances has meant that dream has never been able to become a reality.

In many ways, the full potential of the Cadillac V-Series R has never been realised. It’s a quick car, and it has consistently shown in 2024 that over a single lap it has front-running pace. But the team has never been able to get the car in a window where it can maintain that pace for a full race distance. Cadillac’s best result to date was third place at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2023, but since then it’s never been able to return to the

podium. It’s been stuck on the fringes, and there always seems to be one issue or another from enabling the drivers to get the result that is clearly possible.

And that’s something that Jota clearly took note of.

With works manufacturer status, it will now be able to have real input into the development of the V-Series R, and if everything goes to plan, it should be able to make the car a race-winning machine once and for all.

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There’s no reason to believe Jota won’t be able to achieve it either. It has already proven what it’s capable of and it is easy to see why Cadillac chose it to run its V-Series R on its behalf. At the time of writing this article, there’s only one round remaining of the 2024 WEC season and Jota’s lead drivers are currently sixth overall in the championship, sandwiched between the #5 Penske Porsche drivers and the #8 Toyota drivers who are fifth and seventh respectively.

Some may question why Jota is deciding to walk away from what is becoming a successful partnership with Porsche, but in all honesty, there should be any questions at all. This isn’t really a gamble, since it’s moving itself up the ladder.

If it was remaining a privateer team, taking on customer Cadillac’s then you’d be wise to question Jota’s thinking, but that’s not what’s at play on this occasion. Instead, it has the chance to race as Cadillac, one of the most well known automotive manufacturers in the world, especially North America.

And you can see why Cadillac wanted to work with Jota too. Jota has been punching well above its weight

for the last few years, so imagine what it will truly be capable of achieving when the reins are loosened off just that bit more.

One of the things that will have inevitably held Cadillac back over the last few years is the fact that it's been competing in WEC with a single car. It means that it was always going to be at a disadvantage, because all of the other manufacturers are running at least two factory cars.

The regulations for next season require every factory team to have two cars competing at every round, so if Cadillac wanted to have its cars continue in the championship it was always going to need to find a partner willing to take a programme of that size on. And Jota was always going to be prepared to do that since it has been racing with two Porsches since last year.

But it means that unlike Ganassi, Jota won’t be racing with one hand tied behind its back. It will have the opportunity to try out new things and have a second car to compare those changes to, and that will only help speed up the process in getting Cadillac closer to the championship front-running Porsches and

BUT IT MEANS UNLIKE GANASSI, JOTA WON'T BE RACING WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND ITS BACK

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Ferraris.

Jota’s time working with Porsche will also help.

They know some of the ways in which Porsche will be tackling its campaigns, and they will be able to take the good things they’ve learnt and adapt them where possible with the Cadillacs.

It therefore makes complete sense as to why Cadillac wanted Jota in its corner, running its cars. In many ways, Cadillac needed Jota more than Jota needed Cadillac.

One of the other changes that both sides will need to consider though is drivers. Cadillac will no doubt want some of its factory drivers in its cars, racing in the championship, so it’s conceivable that there will be a lineup change ahead of next year’s season opener.

Who stays and who goes still remains a mystery though.

Of course, it’s not guaranteed that the Jota and Cadillac partnership will be a total success, and any success it might have is unlikely to materialise overnight. It’s going to take time for the partnership to bed in, and for Jota to get used to working with a completely new car.

But there’s a healthy dose of optimism that Jota indeed will be able to achieve what Ganassi hasn’t, and

win a WEC event in the right circumstances. It’s already done it once as a customer, so why can’t it win as a privateer?

That has to be the ultimate goal in the first few years. Winning the championship is realistically going to remain out of grasp for the foreseeable. That battle will likely continue for some time between Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota.

But with some tweaks and progression, finishing just behind these three overall in the championship and picking up a win or two when circumstances allow should be a real possibility.

Where the project ends up remains to be seen, but from what we know right now, you have to believe that this partnership for 2025 is the best either could have hoped for. On paper, they look like the ideal partners who will be able to get the most out of each other.

We just have to remain patient for a few more months before we can see the reality. But one thing is for sure, Jota moving up to factory status is generating real excitement, one that has real merit and substance.

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IMAGE BY DANIEL CLARKE

NEWEY'S FIRST DESIGN MOST PEOPLE ARE AWARE THAT NEWEY'S BIG F1 BREAK CAME AT MARCH AND LEYTON HOUSE. BUT IT'S OFTEN FORGOTTEN THAT HE ALSO HAD A HAND IN INFLUENCING THE SKOL FITTIPALDI F8, HAVING WORKED AT THE TEAM AS AN AERODYNAMICIST.

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THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND

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T

he 2004 Formula 1 season was the beginning of the end of an era, it’s just that nobody would know it until the following year. And when the 2004 season did begin, nobody could have really envisaged that Ferrari and Michael Schumacher were on the verge of having their dominance swept away from underneath them.

Since 2000, Schumacher and Ferrari had dominated F1, to the point that people were getting bored with the championship. In 2000 Schumacher won nine grands prix to take the title from McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen, and he repeated his win tally in 2001, again beating a McLaren, this time David Coulthard to the top spot.

2002 was where Schumacher really hit his stride though, winning 11 races and never failing to finish a single race on the podium. It was a masterclass season that put him head and shoulders above the rest of the grid, including his own team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

As ever though, you can’t always stay miles out ahead of the competition. Eventually those competitors do catch up and close the gaps. And that’s exactly

THE FERRARI'S DOMINATED AT THE START OF THE 2004 F1 SEASON.

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what happened the following season in 2003. McLaren proved to be a stronger challenger that season, with Kimi Raikkonen emerging as a title contender, and Williams weren’t too far behind, with Juan Pablo Montoya enjoying his best ever grand prix season.

That additional competition meant that Schumacher failed to win a single race in the first three events of the season, the first time that had happened since 1997. He did eventually get to winning ways though, and went on to win six times that year. That meant he held on to his championship mantle for a fourth straight season, but with Raikkonen missing out on the title by just three points, many wondered if Ferrari’s dominance was about to end then.

As such, there was a lot of anticipation going into the 2004 season. All eyes were on McLaren and Williams to see if they could build on the foundations they’d set the previous season. Ferrari was worried about the opposition too in the winter break, but that worry quickly dissipated when testing commenced before the start of the season. “[At the] beginning of the season there was a lot

SCHUMACHER DRIVING AT MAGNY-COURS IN FRANCE

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SCHUMACHER ENTERING THE PITLANE

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of fear because we thought it was going to be a very tough season,” Schumacher explained to ITV Sport at the time when asked about what he felt about the 2004 season before it got underway. “But the last test before we went to Australia, suddenly we felt very confident and competitive.”

Schumacher had every right to feel confident too.

Going into pre-season testing Ferrari expected the F2004 to be around half a second faster than its 2003 challenger, but when Schumacher got the car on track, he ended up lapping two seconds faster than the preceding F2003-GA.

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The pace difference against Ferrari’s expectations was so great that even Ferrari themselves thought something was wrong. They couldn’t believe what they were witnessing. Initially, the engineers assumed the car had to be underweight, and once that was ruled out, the team conducted a 12 hour investigation to establish what had gone awry with its car.

The reality was, there was no issue with its car. The F2004 was just a huge step forward in performance.

The weakness of the F2003-GA was that it was hard on tyre wear. Fundamentally it was a fast car, it was after all based on the ever-dominant F2002. But

SCHUMACHER LEADING AWAY AT THE START OF THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

it chewed through the rubber on its wheels too fast, meaning its drivers had to manage their pace more conservatively than their rivals.

Ferrari spent a lot of time working on this ahead of the 2004 season, and in a bid to reduce the speed at which it wore through its rubber, Ferrari amended the design of its exhausts, which in turn allowed it to introduce a wider rear wing and a redesigned suspension.

But it didn’t end there. The team focused on lowering the centre of gravity of the car and improving the weight distribution, while it also overhauled the design

of the radiators, bodywork and exhaust to aid airflow at the rear of the car.

Ferrari also worked extremely closely with its tyre supplier Bridgestone. Ferrari was essentially the sole focus for Bridgestone, with the majority of the other teams on the grid running Michelins, and with Ferrari knowing that its 2003 car had an issue with high tyre wear, it pushed Bridgestone to continually develop and improve its rubber to ensure it was no longer a problem.

That renewed philosophy paid off in spades. That appeared to be the golden key holding the team back, and once that door was unlocked, Schumacher was well and truly unleashed, so much so that he won the first five consecutive races of the season.

When qualifying got underway for the opening race of the season in Australia, Schumacher and Barrichello were over half a second clear of the entire grid, locking out the front row in the process. And when the lights went out for the start of the race, the two Ferraris disappeared off into the distance.

Schumacher won the opening race, beating Barrichello by 13 seconds, but what was more impressive was the fact he beat Renault’s Fernando Alonso by over half a minute.

Monaco was the first time that Schumacher failed to finish on the top step that season, and it also happened in a rather bizarre manner. Running behind the safety car after Alonso had crashed out of the race, Schumacher was leading the pack with Montoya behind. But as the cars went through the tunnel, Montoya caught the left-rear of Schumacher, sending Schumacher into the wall and out of the race.

That incident proved to be merely a blip for Schumacher though, and he instantly returned to winning ways at the following event at the Nurburgring for the European Grand Prix. Once again, Schumacher dominated qualifying to take pole position and then went on to win the race by 17.989s, with Barrichello making it a Ferrari 1-2. That Ferrari dominance in the race was repeated at the following two races before Alonso and Raikkonen upset the party by finishing behind Schumacher at the French and British grands prix respectively.

By the time the season reached Belgium for the 14th race of the season, Schumacher had won the last seven races, and had already won 12 in total.

Ferrari’s dominance was such that it had already secured the constructors’ championship at Hungary with five races remaining and Schumacher looked well on course to win his seventh world championship title.

However, from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards, the tide began to turn. Renault suddenly emerged as a contender for race wins, and at Spa it was Jarno Trulli who set the pace in qualifying to beat Schumacher to pole position, with Alonso close behind in third.

It’s all well and good having one lap pace, but you also need to have the pace over a full race distance, and at Spa, Renault didn’t have what it needed at its disposal. Although Trulli had a good start to the race,

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SCHUMACHER CELEBRATING AFTER WINNING HIS SEVENTH WORLD TITLE

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he later collided with Montoya, sending him down the order, while Alonso had an oil leak which caused him to spin out of the race.

For the neutral though, the race was saved by Schumacher having a poor start, and Raikkonen rising to the occasion. Having started the race from 10th on the grid, Raikkonen managed to expertly make his way up the order and went on to beat Schumacher by just over three seconds.

The result meant that Schumacher was crowned world champion for a record seventh time, but it wasn’t in the fairytale manner he’d hoped for. Spa had always been a favourite of Schumacher’s. It was where he made his F1 debut, it was where he had won his first grand prix a year later, and it was a race he’d won a record six times.

Winning his seventh world title by winning a race at the location where he’s been most successful would have been the icing on the cake, but Raikkonen denied him of that moment. The saving grace was that he did at least make the podium, but there’s no doubt Schumacher would have been dreaming about the events unfolding in a very different manner.

In all reality, it didn’t really matter though. The job

was done, and Schumacher had won yet another world championship title, unequivocally marking himself out as one of - if not the greatest F1 driver of all-time.

Racing at that level, dominating for that long takes a huge amount of strength and effort though, and that in some way explains why Schumacher only won one more grand prix in 2004 after winning the world championship.

It was Barrichello that took the spoils in the following two races. And although Schumacher was runner-up in Italy, he could only manage 12th in the Chinese Grand Prix, in what was the most disappointing performance of his season.

Schumacher had a disastrous qualifying, spinning at the opening corner of the Shanghai International Circuit, and could only do enough to start the race from 19th on the grid. Knowing that was going to severely hamper his chances of finishing anywhere near the top half of the grid in the race, Ferrari decided to change Schumacher’s engine overnight, meaning he started the race from the pitlane.

That wasn’t a huge loss to bear given his qualifying position, and it also came with the advantage that he could start the race on a full tank of fuel. But when the

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lights went out, Schumacher failed to make the most of the advantage he should have had, spending the opening stages of the race stuck down in 17th.

Schumacher did eventually start to make progress up the field, but all of his hard work was quickly undone when, before his first pitstop he skidded losing vital time. Then to compound matters further, on lap 35 Schumacher picked up a left rear puncture that sent him into a high speed spin.

Schumacher swiftly returned to the pitlane for new tyres and managed to get back onto the pace once he was released, but a points finish was well and truly off the cards.

There was one more race victory in Schumacher for the 2004 season though, and he immediately bounced back after a difficult Chinese Grand Prix to win next time out in Japan.

Qualifying on Saturday was abandoned due to a typhoon, so all of the competitive action took place on the Sunday, and Schumacher wasted no time in getting down to business, taking pole position, nearly half a

second ahead of his brother, Ralf, who lined up second on the grid for Williams.

In the end, the grand prix ended up with an easy victory for Schumacher. He led away from the start, and perfectly managed the race, crossing the line 14 seconds ahead of Ralf at the end of the race.

It was a masterclass, once again proving just how high a level Schumacher was racing on compared to the rest of the grid.

For the entire season he set the clear benchmark, and even his team-mate Barrichello struggled to match him for pace consistently all year round. Barrichello ended up being Schumacher’s closest title rival in 2004, but he still ended the season some 38 points behind, while the closest non-Ferrari driver, Jenson Button ended the season third and 63 points adrift of Schumacher.

In the end, 2004 ended up being the most dominant F1 season for any driver, with Schumacher having amassed 13 race victories, a record that stood until it was equalled by Schumacher’s protégé Sebastian Vettel

SCHUMACHER ON THE PODIUM IN JAPAN WITH HIS BROTHER, RALF, BUTTON AND FERRARI TECHNICAL DIRECTOR ROSS BRAWN THE PIT STOP | 81

in 2013, and then beaten by Max Verstappen in 2022.

But what makes Schumacher’s 77.2% win record ever more impressive in 2004 was the fact that it was during an era where reliability issues were frequent.

Retirements were frequent, and it was not often a driver would go the entire year without completing a race or two.

Yet the Ferraris were different. They were not only sublimely fast, but they were rock solid too when it

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came to reliability. It was a team that was operating on an entirely different level to everyone else, and as Barrichello explained at the end of that season, total accountability and responsibility meant that Ferrari was able to fully reach its potential.

“There’s so much harmony inside [the team], that’s what is good,” Barrichello explained to ITV Sport at the end of the 2004 F1 season. “I think if there is a problem it is a problem with everyone. It’s not that we have to

SENNA AT THE 1994 SAN MARINO GRAND PRIX

blame each other. That’s what is good.”

But as the saying goes “all good things must come to an end”, and that’s exactly what happened in 2005.

Ahead of the 2005 F1 season, regulation changes were made which included the prohibition of changing tyres once the grand prix had started. That regulation caught Ferrari out and left it at a disadvantage to some of its rivals, notably Renault, who went on to win the championship with Fernando Alonso. And it would be

three more years until a Ferrari driver would win another driver’s world championship title.

Over the years of F1, there’s many drivers and cars that stand out head and shoulders above the rest.

When considering drivers, people will be quick to recall Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, and Jim Clark to name a few, and when remembering cars, the Williams FW14B is usually a highly popular choice, along with the McLaren MP4/4 and Lotus 49.

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But the F2004 is an often forgotten car. It seemingly is overlooked, and yet it was in many ways a far more dominant machine than people might remember it to be.

Part of that is likely down to the fact that Schumacher and Ferrari were so dominant during that period that sometimes it can be hard to decide which of Ferrari’s cars of that era were better than others. But when you look at the cold hard facts, the F2004 was the real dominant force, and as the 2003 season shows, it is likely that Schumacher would have had a much

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tougher time clinging on to his championship mantle without the F2004 at his disposal.

Yes, it still took great things from Schumacher himself for him to be as dominant as he ended up being that year, but he still needed the tools to enable him to take himself to that higher level.

2004 really did showcase what is possible when the team and drivers work in perfect harmony together.

Magic really can happen, and that year was the best we’d ever seen of Schumacher. Sometimes he could be ruthless in his pursuit of victory, so much so that when

everything was on the line it could trip into desperation, with Schumacher ending up making a questionable decision to try and win.

But 2004 showcased the other ruthless side to him. When he gelled with a car, nobody could touch him, and he was seemingly able to not just beat his rivals, but completely destroy them. All too often that season Schumacher was almost in a different race to others around him, including his team-mate. That’s what marked him out as one of the greatest drivers of all-time.

Yes he had his weaknesses, and they did appear throughout 2004 on occasion, but what driver doesn’t have a weak spot somewhere? In Schumacher’s case, even when his weaknesses did appear, he still managed to finish the race, he never retired.

Schumacher and Ferrari can often split opinion, but like them or loathe them, you can’t deny that 2004 was the greatest season they ever had while working together, and even separately, 20 years on, it’s still the best season either one has ever had in the championship.

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IMAGE BY DANNY SLEEUWENHOEK

NOTHING DAMPENS THE REVIVAL RAIN MIGHT HAVE HIT THE 2024 GOODWOOD REVIVAL, BUT THAT DID NOTHING TO DAMPEN THE SPIRITS OF SPECTATORS AND COMPETITORS ALIKE.

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FROM SANDY TO LE MANS WORDS BY ASH MILLER IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / BEN TUCK

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T

he late afternoon light beats down on the dashboard of the MX5 as I pull in satisfyingly close to the door of The Kings Reach, a tasteful modern pub in the tiny town of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. It’s a well known spot; even in the throes of a weekday, a modest clan of clientele grace the outdoor furniture to tuck into a hearty stomach-filler in the finally-present summer sunshine.

As the eyes familiarise with the scene outside the windscreen, a silver BMW pulls up alongside. Lightly hidden behind tinted glass, the beaming face of Ben Tuck appears, coupled with a hand gesture best saved for good friends. It’s been a while between catching up, and there’s always a story or two to swap among the easy-flowing pints. This time, however, the latest notch in an increasingly-decorated motorsport belt is on the agenda - and the smile is, I fathom, equally emerging from the excitement of a landmark weekend as it is from the cheekiness of a memorable arrival.

A hearty greeting and swapped salutations swiftly following, Ben strides forward like a man renewed.

This catch up comes just days after his first time on the

TUCK DRIVING THE YELLOW FORD MUSTANG AT LE MANS IN 2024

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much-lauded Le Mans circuit; the contrast of feverpitch, dewy-eyed excitement laced with weary postweekend come-down is palpable from a driver eager to get to work among the cream of global endurance racing talent.

For many a driver - professional or otherwise - Le Mans is a dream born of childhood whimsy and mystique - tackling the famous 8.46 mile length of French asphalt for a duration of an entire rotation of the earth is a beautiful goal many would chew off parts of themselves to be able to accomplish.

Many of the greats of motorsport, from Graham Hill to Fernando Alonso, Henri Pescarolo to Michael Schumacher, and countless in between, have written triumphs and tragedies along the ribbon of La Sarthe that have long-surpassed their own existences to become legends of their profession. And for Ben Tuck, he’s about to add his own name to the honour-roll of elite drivers to make the grade, and battle head to head at Le Mans.

“When I rolled out of the pits for the first time, and headed out for my outlap, I don’t think I really appreciated the full gravity of the occasion,” Tuck beams. “I was just thinking about not doing anything

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stupid, and just make it around to make the first lap, as silly as that sounds because you know you can drive, it’s just the pressure of it. As I started the first lap, I thought ‘the first sector has a great flow to it’, and then as soon as I headed onto the Mulsanne after Tertre Rouge, I was just grinning ear-to-ear. It hit me that I was here, actually doing this.”

In a moment of tangible clarity, the arrival of Tuck at Le Mans is just one significant milestone along the road of a true ‘came-from-nothing’ story.

Raised in Sandy, Bedfordshire from an early age not too far down the road from where this catch-up nestles - Ben came from a modest family home in a modest estate. Introduced to karting as a child, with his father’s insistence at going rental karting, Ben’s own passion was ignited just like many other kids; around the local kart circuit.

“If someone had told me, when I started car racing as a 17-year-old kid in an MX5, that I’d be racing at Le Mans as part of the Ford Mustang’s return, I would have said ‘just shut up’, never in a million years would I have believed that. I’m just a club racer.

“I didn’t have a lot as a kid; when we decided to go racing, it was family that helped out. My parents separated when I was younger and I lived with my mum in council houses, and the divorce took a toll on them.

I don’t like playing this card, but I genuinely don’t come from money.

“I started in MX5s with Ali Bray, who himself was a young team owner just getting started. We would spend weekends sleeping in the back of the van, rain and cold at places like Spa, driving through the night to get there on a shoestring. It wasn’t just my Dad though the whole family helped. They would all put money in, and they all helped. It was everyone that got involved.”

While Bray has himself gone on to create a powerhouse of a team in UK club racing, Ben’s own journey through the competitive realm has been nothing short of meteoric. Cutting his teeth in Caterhams alongside his Mazda MX5 racing, Tuck would finish up his debut year in cars third overall, and won the MSA Young Driver of the Year award.

From there, a leap into British GT and the 24-hour Prototype Endurance Series for Ginetta would net several wins, and over the next five years would climb through the ranks of ADAC, VLN, NLS and DTM Trophy in Germany, securing a plethora of wins and podiums adjacent to becoming a BRDC Rising Star.

In 2023, Ben entered the European Le Mans Series in a TF Sport run Aston Martin GTE where the podiums continued, and a short cross into a Ferrari for a JMW Motorsport/Kessel Racing double-deal assault in both the 2024 ELMS and GT World Challenge championships primed the still-developing Tuck for the present day’s monolithically important notch in his career belt.

“The last couple of years have really been pivotal - and a lot of that has come from my Bronze [driver], John [Hartshorne, Ben’s experienced team mate and benefactor]. He’s really helped me a lot, and put a lot

of his own money into having me along to have these opportunities. What it comes down to, though, is that to have these opportunities, I think it’s a reflection on being able to do a good enough job that someone believed enough to back me and have faith in my ability to provide these good results.

“And at somewhere like Le Mans, it was a chance to get a really good result. It’s a huge opportunity, especially alongside Chris [Mies, seasoned professional driver], to put myself into the frame as a serious worldclass driver.”

Before joining the cavalcade of the world’s best drivers, however, the on-track accolades come secondary to the pomp and ceremony leading up to the occasion. Adorning the little French town for the 92nd time, the week preceding the on-circuit action is bursting with parades, public appearances, and driver engagements, before the cars even so much as turn a wheel in anger.

Unique among the European motorsport fraternity, the pre-race parade through the heart of Le Mans has been a part of proceedings for generations; a chance for the public to get up close to the machinery (that also undergo scrutineering within the town, a unique Le Mans addition), as well as their favourite drivers. As a fan, being able to witness the cars up close, feel the atmosphere viscous in the air, and get in contact with the heroes about to do battle is an occasion not soon forgotten.

However, as a driver; what’s it like, for the first time?

“That was probably one of the coolest parts of the entire weekend”, Ben muses excitedly.

“The rest of the early week is so drawn out, with scrutineering and interviews and the pace is generally a little slow to get going. But the driver parade was the first time it really hit me that this was happening.

“What made it what it was though, was being alongside Chris; because Ford are just awesome and American, and they wanted to get involved as well, instead of being sat in the back of a classic car and wave at the crowd, they had us in the back of Ford Ranger Raptors. The drivers were giving it full revs to get the crowd going - Chris even got in the driver's seat and did a burnout! The crowd were going nuts! We also had a t-shirt cannon, and we were hyping up the crowd on either side to be able to give the loudest groups t-shirts. That was Chris that had those ideas and it really got me in the mood for the weekend as well.

“To have people in the crowd though, calling out your name, asking for your autograph was surreal. It was something I never thought about, or think would happen, and it was hitting home that this was all real.

Insane.”

But back at the circuit, it was down to business. As Ben details the entire occasion in painstaking detail, he sips his beer periodically, pausing only to take a sip, or a breath.

“Compared to the Nurburgring, the night time stuff on circuit is actually not too bad. It’s fairly well lit the

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whole way around, and the circuit is fast but ultimately less of a daunting experience. That was the first thing I noticed when we headed out for the first night stint.

Maybe because over the night there was horrific rain, it made a difference, but I really enjoyed racing at Le Mans at night.

“At the ‘Ring’, it’s DARK - you have campfires and barbecues throwing smoke over the track, flares in the crowd, and with little runoff and traffic to contend with almost everywhere it’s probably the most challenging night running you could ever do. So compared to that, it was just about getting on with the programme and getting into the groove.”

Just this sentence alone paints just how quick Ben’s rise to his current stature has been, with appearances in most of the major GT races in the last 12 months, having this comparison to draw upon was a pipe dream to a younger Ben Tuck. He continues.

“Once we were out on track, it was really business as usual. There was no real time to think about the

sense of occasion because we were there to do a job.

We qualified 14th, with a little issue in qualifying, and Chris was first in the car for the race. Our sister car had a great session and ended up in Hyperpole, and the other ended up 17th so it was a mixed one for our team.

But once the race was underway, I had a few hours before I was into my first stint - Chris did a quadruple (four 40 minute stints) to get us rolling, and then John was in for a couple of stints.”

The team were running well and on the lead lap initially. However, with some teams electing not to run their Bronze drivers until later in the race, the #44 Mustang fell off the lead lap.

When to run the Bronze driver was essentially one of the pivotal areas of strategy for this year’s gruelling 2024 edition of the great French race, alongside a plethora of other technical changes that many outside in the packed grandstands may have been unaware of.

“The rules were that the AM (Bronze rated driver) has to do a minimum of six hours, so every team’s

"ONCE WE WERE OUT ON TRACK, IT WAS REALLY BUSINESS AS USUAL"

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Bronze driver has to do the same. Added to that, there’s these new torque sensors on GT cars; they measure the amount of torque that’s applied to the car’s drivetrain, and effectively works like they’re pretending to be a hybrid. This means that they can control the BOP [Balance Of Performance] by the torque sensor, and they give everyone a torque limit, you’re allowed to run to ‘x’ amount of torque before the sensors will trigger. Also, it means that they can give you an energy consumption limit that runs out for everyone roughly every 40-45 minutes. With the stints officially being 40 minutes in length, it meant that every GT car was essentially on the same strategy for the entire race, if the race was green the entire distance. This takes away a little bit of the strategy that used to be up to the teams in the past.”

With the race powering on into sunset, finally, it was Tuck’s turn to take the reins, and etch his name into the history books to aid Mustang’s fabled return to the fray.

“I did a triple stint for my first run. As the race started to fade into the night we went from slicks on a bit of damp to wets, the circuit had a bit of rain come across

but as it got darker, it started to dry out a little bit.

“This is where it got tricky, because in the dark, you can’t see a dry line apart from what’s directly underneath you in the headlights. That’s the hardest bit. So you’re going into the braking zone not sure if it’s wet. Being on wets it’s fairly safe but the team were asking if we could go to slicks at that point - on one part of the circuit the wets were burning up but in the chicanes and around the back of the circuit, it was still a bit wet.”

Whether it was the heat of the sun, or the mention of moisture urging a further developing thirst, we take a small break to grab another pint - the early summer sun’s effect on the two chatting chums is whetting our palette for another wheat-based beverage. Fresh pints and some salt and vinegar chips in hand, we carry on.

“A couple of years ago at the Nurburgring, I had a shunt on slicks on a wet track - I came up to a section that was fully wet and we went off. It could have happened to anyone. But being on slicks in the wet from then on was in the back of my mind a little, and knocked the confidence a bit. So the team radio came

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across that they had decided to put me on slicks and I just thought; ‘Shit! It’s happening again’, while we’re in a good position to play the cards right and get back on the lead lap and go to slicks before anyone else.

“So on the in-lap, I had a little conversation with myself. I said, ‘this is what you have to do if you want to be a professional. You’re going to be in this scenario again, and you’re going to just have to pound around and keep it on the track with good pace until it dries up a bit, and then you’re good to go’.

“So when the slicks went on, I’d already given myself a pep talk, and with the first sector being dry we got good heat into the tyres, managed the twitches in the slippery back section, and just had to keep reminding myself to calm down; this is what I have to do if I want to compete as a professional at the highest level and face these situations. We made up great time in that stint, it was the right call as we were much faster than the other cars on wets, and it was a good bit of confidence boost to exorcise that little demon and prove to people, myself included, that I could do it.”

As is the nature of Le Mans, however, one man’s

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good luck can turn in the opposing direction in a heartbeat. The rain came back with a vengeance as Ben made his next stop, and the team deliberated about pulling off another tactical masterstroke.

“It started raining lightly and we were talking about whether to switch again - the last call we made was absolutely right so we were confident of doing it again.

I’d done a good job in the mixed conditions with the slicks so, at the last minute, we went with slicks. Just as we left the pits, though, it bucketed down on all sectors. We did one lap and came straight back in, and lost a lot of time; all the time we’d just made up we lost, and much more, so we went a lap down again.

Then the safety car came out not long afterwards, at about 4am, so we put John in the car.

“Most - if not all - the other teams did the same but it feels like a moral decision; do we really want to put the AM driver in, who’s paid for a lot of this, in the car under safety car to burn up some of his six hours? It’s a tough one to fathom but for a result, it’s unfortunately reality. John had spoken to the teams and his priority was to get the best result for the team.”

The conditions into the early hours of Sunday morning resembled a scene closer to Noah’s experience of captaining a vessel than many of the drivers would be used to replicating. The torrential rain saw a halt to green flag proceedings for four hours, the cars circulating under safety car in a parade of patient, largely Bronze, drivers. Many of the fans retired to rest a rare reprieve from the 24 hours assault on the senses that frequently defines the famous French race.

For the proudly-coloured Proton Mustang trio, the time spent under safety car played out to their advantage. Their trusty Bronze driver now sufficientlystinted, the remainder of the race was down to Tuck and Mies to rein in the remainder of the field.

“We had a big safety car as I was just about to swap back into the car; Chris and I were quadruple stinting to get stuck in and claw some time back. That played into our hands perfectly; firstly, as much as it sucks for the Aston on its roof that brought the safety car out, they were ahead of us at the time so that worked well to grab another position. But also, we were due to box

just as the safety car was about to come out, which meant that we didn’t have to come in when most others under safety car, and we ended up back on the lead lap as I swapped in when it went green again. This meant we were just half a lap behind, instead of one, so that worked really nicely.”

In Ben’s own words, the imminent stint after the safety car would be the ‘stint of his life’ - clawing back the time to bring him into contention for the podium, the pitstop cycles played out to yo-yo the Mustang between third and sixth.

“I drove my socks off. On old tyres we were doing the best times for the car for the entire race, and I just got on with it. I felt in my element, and I was really enjoying it.”

As we delve further into a quickly diminishing packet of crisps, one particular story jumps into being as Ben leans forward with gusto.

“They gave me a set of new tyres for one of my stints near the end, so on pace we were on par with the leaders, and sitting in P3 at that time among

THE MUSTANG CROSSING THE LINE AT LE MANS

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the staggered pitstops. I was on hot tyres with good momentum, when suddenly a gaggle of cars exited the pit lane in front of me on cold tyres. One of them was Augusto Farfus, who was in second at the time and who was still getting up to speed.”

His conversation quickens.

“As we came out of Tertre Rouge, he had a moment and lost momentum, and I thought ‘okay - I have him here’. I got up alongside down the right, but he squeezed me right alongside the barriers and I had to back out of it. I still had the run, so I swapped across to the left hand side; and he did it again, this time we touched, and I really had to lift out of it or we

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both would have been in the barrier. In that moment I thought, ‘do I want to risk it and get two wheels on the grass, or do I want to sacrifice a position?’ I managed to get alongside him anyway and out-broke him into the chicane, but I was really seeing red at that point.

“The whole time I was alongside him, as we were heading into the chicane, I had my arm pressed against the window, showing him the bird! So I was sending it up the inside of Farfus one-handed, getting into the chicane, then downshifting a bunch of times and hauling it to the apex. I think he then got involved with a Lexus behind me that gave me a gap, but it makes me laugh thinking about it now. I’ve messaged him about

it, but I don’t know if he’ll want to reply!”

The excitement is palpable; the exchange may have left a slightly tarry taste in the mouth of Tuck, but behind the frustration glimmers a tinge of excitement at sharing one of the world’s most fancied pieces of asphalt with names synonymous with a globallyrecognised racing pedigree.

As the rest of the race panned out, Ben would hand the car over to Mies for the final stint. Carrying on the gritty, determined drive exhibited by the trio, the #44 crossed the line to a jubilant reception; despite the unfathomable catalogue of challenges thrown at the participating field, the yellow Proton machine finished on the lead lap and in fourth place, just a handful of seconds behind team-mates Giorgio Roda, Mikel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen in the sister Mustang.

Entering the world’s most famous endurance race is an esteemed feather in any race driver’s sponsoradorned cap. Finish, though, and the feather is tipped in gold leaf.

For Tuck, achieving this feat just a shade off the podium, after a decorated debut, is an accolade very few ever get to experience. However, the mind of a professional competitive driver is an enigma. Despite crossing the line to be a part of Ford’s triumphant return to Le Mans as one of the top rookies at Le Mans, his mood was somewhat muted.

“I found myself a little disappointed that we didn’t end up on the podium. I was watching the guys up there thinking, I would do anything to be up there right now. I knew I shouldn’t be feeling like that, but I couldn’t help it - I was there for results.”

A Farfus-shaped silhouette on the second-place spot also didn’t contribute to a rosier disposition. Still upset by the tactics from Augusto, Ben reflected on his part in BMW’s Le Mans story. As is typical of the Biggleswade native, he doesn’t mince his words.

“As I was watching the podium, I was still a little angry with Augusto; a professional driver should know better than to drive with such aggression unnecessarily like he did. We were under the podium watching the celebrations, and while I was happy for my team mates, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that if we had come together, it would have been his fault. He’s used to being fierce, I’m on a separate pitstop cycle and I’m out of his way soon, just let me go. It’s an endurance race, and in my head I was seeing them on the podium thinking, I kept them in the race, in a way - if I hadn't backed out, he would have been a retired car.

“I wanted to be on the podium - as disappointed as I was, I wanted to feel that hunger, and that desire to be there. I have to be on that podium, I’m so determined to be there. Everyone who was there was so proud, they had tears in their eyes, my Dad was overjoyed but I felt guilty that I wasn’t elated at the result, or super happy to be watching the podium instead of on it. I was confronted by that a little.

“On the way back, the Eurotunnel was backed up for hours, and even then, I was feeling flat. After

a huge week full of adrenaline the come down was palpable. I felt empty…but, this morning [Tuesday following the race], it all hit me. I was thinking about the whole week and how much it meant, and even had a bit of a cry!

“My Dad sent me a message saying how proud he was, and that tipped me over the edge. I was thinking about where my Dad and I had come from, from MX5s and how we ended up in Le Mans. I am proud of myself - we finished fourth as a guest entry in a world championship event and ended up in front of 80% of a grid of established full-time drivers. That meant a lot, and I’m so glad I experienced it and this morning now reflecting on it all I feel normal again!”

As the words spill off his tongue, the rest of his face relaxes - he means every word he’s reflectively projecting, and the last sentence oozes genuine appreciation. For a young man from a small town in England, reflecting on his small part in one of the worlds’ biggest motorsport spectacles, the realisation of a dream is, in this moment, almost overwhelming.

“I sat in bed this morning just thinking about it all.

Every moment, every second in the car, every fraction of time I’ve gone over and I’m just so proud that I’ve been able to get here, with the help I’ve had and I’m so humbled by it.”

With a girlfriend to meet up with and share some time with in earnest, Ben drains the last dregs of foam, snatches one last iota of snack food and rises from the table. His gait is confident as he walks towards our cars; the carriage of a young driver every bit in his element having energetically recounted perhaps the most important racing event of his life.

As we swap words and a matey hug, he drops one more ripple of reflection.

“One moment that’ll live with me forever was, at night, as I was getting on with the job and focusing, I had a hypercar go past at full noise. The speed was phenomenal and you really take in just how fast those things are. As it pulled across my nose, it straddled the crown in the road, and let off a shower of sparks at 200 mph, lit up in front of me like fireworks in the night.

For a brief moment, the driver in me gave way to the child, and I was reminded again that this is all real, and it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. I have it playing in my head right now and I’ll never forget it…”

He interrupts himself with a well-placed ‘but, anyway’, and we climb into our vehicles, our day carrying onwards.

Seeing the friend who once kindly threw a birthday party for me post-work many years ago develop into one of the top drivers in his field is a beautiful experience. As our days continue, one of us has a new article forming in his mind as he drives away. The other, though, goes into the rest of his day, and his life, as a Le Mans finisher.

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IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

SUPER TOURING THE SUPER TOURING POWER EVENT AT BRANDS HATCH IS A REAL CROWD FAVOURITE, AND IS A GREAT REMINDER OF JUST HOW GREAT PAST TOURING CARS REALLY WERE.

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BREAKTHROUGH VICTORY WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY ROB OVERY / AUDI THE PIT STOP | 105

I

t’s a daunting feeling turning up in the middle of France early on in June to take part in the world’s longest and most celebrated endurance race in the world. The Le Mans 24 Hours is so unpredictable, that you never know how your week is going to go until you start getting to work.

It really doesn’t matter how experienced you are either. The race is such a test that you can be hugely experienced and still not make a real impact.

That had largely been the case for Benoit Treluyer during his first few attempts at tackling the race.

On his Le Mans debut he made a real statement of intent, finishing third in class and 14th overall in an Oreca Chrysler Viper GTS-R back in 2002. Two years later he was back at Le Mans, this time with Pescarolo Sport in the LMP1 class, finishing fourth overall.

Treluyer was unable to gain regular drives at Le Mans though during that period, and had to miss the next two events before getting another chance in 2007. Unfortunately, the Pescarolo-Judd just wasn’t competitive enough though, and for the next two years he failed to finish in the top five. For 2009 Pescarolo switched to a Peugeot 908, but things only got worse with Treluyer’s car retiring after 210 laps.

However, while Treluyer had failed to crack it at Le Mans, he had been impressing in other categories, notably Formula Nippon and Super GT, and in 2010 he finally got his shot at the big time - racing at Le Mans for Audi.

In 2010, Audi was determined to reclaim its mantle,

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having lost to Peugeot in the 2009 race. In qualifying for the 2010 edition, Peugeot once again looked like they might have the edge over Audi, having claimed the top three positions on the grid, but when the race got underway, that tide soon turned in Audi’s favour.

As the race went on, the Peugeot’s began to fall away, retiring one by one, mainly with engine failures, and it allowed Audi to press on and dominate the race. In the end, Audi occupied all three spots on the podium, with the #9 car of Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas winning the race.

Treluyer’s Audi R15, consisting of team-mates Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer ended up finishing second, a lap down on the leaders, giving Treluyer his first real taste of a top-flight Le Mans podium.

It was a strong result for Treluyer’s #8 car, and having beaten the sister Audi Sport Team Joest car of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, all three drivers retained their spot for another year.

There was some change ahead for the 2011 edition though. Audi had retired its R15 and for 2011 it was taking the R18 TDI to Le Mans. Treluyer, Fassler and Lotterer bared the #2 on their car for 2011, and it was expected that they would act as support to the #1 car that had won the race the year before. But when qualifying got underway, it was clear that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case.

Early on in qualifying it was clear that Audi had the edge over its rivals, but it was going to be a case of what order they qualified in. McNish set the early pace

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in the #3 car, with the #1 Audi running second, while Lotterer had put in the third fastest time.

But then with half an hour remaining of the first of three qualifying sessions, Peugeot jumped to the top of the timesheet to take provisional pole. Lotterer meanwhile managed to set a faster time to move up to second, but nobody had an answer for the Peugeot, meaning it retained provisional pole position going into the second session.

Things were reversed in the second session though, with the #2 Audi ending up fastest, ahead of the Peugeot, and in the final session, the #2 car went faster again, with Treluyer setting a time of 3m25.738 seconds to clinch pole position.

That alone was a huge achievement. It was Audi’s first pole position at Le Mans since 2006 and with the #1 Audi of Romain Dumas able to improve in the third session, it meant both cars would be starting from the front row of the grid.

And as Treluyer explains, the pole position was not expected at all.

“At the time, the tyres were very important,” Treluyer explained to The Pit Stop. “ When we made the pole position, it was with four stint tyres, at the end of our fourth stint in qualifying. We were testing the car for the race to be able to do five stints. We wanted to be sure, and then I still remember, when I was in one of my last laps of my run, I was light on fuel and I looked at my sector time at the beginning of the lap, and I said ‘wow,

this is still very good’, and I improved the laptime.

“Then I was thinking ‘OK, I just try one lap in case everybody has improved or there’s a red flag’, and then at the end I was expecting that the others were going to be quicker with new tyres. We knew that we will not try with new tyres anyway, so I wanted to be as far to the front as possible. And then we did the pole position.

It was just not expected, and that was crazy.”

In the end, the #2 car beat the #1 Audi to pole position by just 0.061s, with the third fastest car of the #9 Peugeot 908 just over two and a half tenths back in third. All of a sudden Audi had its buzz back, and everyone began to wonder if it would win the race at its first attempt with the new car.

The race got off to a good start for Audi, with Treluyer leading away from the front when the lights went out. He led for the first 10 laps, but ended up dropping down the order slightly behind the sister #1 and #3 Audis. And just under an hour into the race disaster struck for the German manufacturer.

The #3 car being driven by McNish had expertly made its way towards the front of the pack, having started the race in fifth, and as the first hour came to an end, it was the fastest of the Audis.

McNish closed in on Timo Bernhard, who was driving the #1 car, and passed him for the lead at the Dunlop Bridge. But soon after, at the high-speed Esses, McNish caught LMGTE Am driver Anthony Beltoise unaware when trying to lap him, and Beltoise caught the rear of

THE AUDIS FIGHTING AT THE FRONT MID-RACE

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TRELUYER WITH EXAUDI TEAM-MATE TOM KRISTENSEN

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McNish, sending him into a huge crash.

McNish went off the road backwards, violently hit the tyre wall and landed upside down. McNish emerged unhurt, but so much damage was caused that the #3 car retired on the spot.

That incident caused the safety car to be deployed, and it took marshals a long time to repair the wall, meaning the safety car was out for 72 minutes. And when the race did get going again under green flag conditions, it was Treluyer who resumed the lead.

From there a battle ensued between the #2 Audi and

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the #7 Peugeot driven by Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene and Anthony Davidson, but as night wore on, the #2 Audi managed to take the advantage and put a decent gap between itself and the Peugeot.

The #7 Peugeot also began to fall backwards into the lap of the #1 Audi, and eventually Mike Rockenfeller put Gene under enough pressure to force him into a mistake and moved up to second.

Once again, Audi was in the dominant position, but as the drivers headed into the eighth hour of the race, Rockenfeller was hit by the Ferrari of Rob Kauffman

who was being lapped at the second kink while they were heading down to Indianapolis. Kauffman caught the rear of Rockenfeller’s Audi, and sent him flying into the barriers at high speed.

The safety car was immediately called out, and Rockenfeller was taken to hospital for an overnight stay having picked up a flesh wound to his right arm, while Kauffman was removed from the remainder of the race.

This was a disaster for Audi. Not only were two of its cars now out of the race, but the lead car had just lost the gap it had created, and it was now under pressure

again.

“Of course to be the only one Audi gave you a little bit more pressure, but it was not that much more,” said Treluyer. “The pressure was coming most because it was our first win.”

After nearly two and a half hours, the race eventually got running under green flag conditions again, and the #2 Audi was able to retain its lead.

However, that lead was undone in the morning when another safety car was called out for the fifth time.

When the safety car was called in, the Peugeot’s

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were released from the pitlane a lap before Treluyer, who was at the back of the nearest safety car’s queue.

That enabled the Peugeot of Simon Pagenaud to take the lead, before Treluyer bravely fought back to reclaim it by going round the outside of the Peugeot entering the second Mulsanne chicane.

And once Treluyer reclaimed the lead, he was not prepared to give it up again, setting a series of fastest laps to put a gap between him and the Peugeots once

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again.

As the race came to the penultimate hour, the #2 Audi had half a hand on the trophy, but then came yet more drama.

“I still remember the last hours. We had a small puncture when Andre was driving and we were really stressed about what to do,” explained Treluyer. “I remember the moment we heard that the Peugeot was restarting from the pit and we still had no wheels on the

car. It was crazy!

“Finally, Andre restarted six seconds ahead, and we finished the race with 13 seconds.”

It took the pressure levels to a new height, but Lotterer managed to recover to hold on to the lead, beating the #9 Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais, Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy by 13.854s at the line.

Audi had done it again, this time with a brand new car, and what’s more, it was a first Le Mans 24 Hours

victory for all three of the #2 car’s drivers.

For Treluyer it was a dream come true, but midway through the race he knew that victory was becoming a real possibility, although he had to push himself right to his personal limit to help his team achieve it.

“Honestly, when I overtook Pagenaud at the second chicane that was a big moment, and I still remember thinking ‘now we are fighting for the win’.

And I remember that I wake up in the morning, I didn’t

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expect to jump in the car two minutes after I woke up and that was a big moment as well. And I was not even awake when I was in the pitlane in the car when I was waiting at the red light for the safety car coming. And when Leena [Gade, Audi engineer] explained to me the situation, I didn’t even know what time it was. I just woke up, it was just crazy. And just five minutes later I was at 3m40s on the track. It was just crazy!

“It took me a few laps to wake up, that’s why I got overtaken by the Peugeot with Sarrazin. This wake me up actually. And then after I pushed really hard and that’s how I overtook in the go-kart section and then after it was for five hours. I didn’t even have breakfast!

“And when I got out of the car I was really, really tired, but in the car I didn’t even realise. I was fighting. It was no problem. But when I got out of the car and I sat down, I was like completely destroyed.”

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But all of the pain was worth it. Treluyer, Lotterer and Fassler had secured their maiden Le Mans 24 Hours victory, and as Treluyer explained, it made up for missing out on victory in 2010.

“The previous year we were fighting for the win, and I think it was Andre in Arnage, he made a little mistake and we lost the first place from that. But we knew that we could win.

“The car was so good with this new engine. It was a V6, much lighter than the previous one on the R15.

We were really good in the car and we knew that for Le Mans we were fighting for the win. Especially after the qualifying, doing the pole position with the fourth stint tyres, I mean, you cannot do something better to prepare for the race.

“You have a race setup and you do the pole position, so that was obviously the good thing.”

It had taken Treluyer six previous attempts at Le Mans to reach the top step. It had taken several years, and lots of pain, sweat and determination. But finally the trophy was in his hands on the podium, and the emotion just completely took over. “[The emotion] was really big, because of course, first you win Le Mans, and with Audi. But on the podium I just realised all the people who’d helped me during my career. I was born 15 km away from Le Mans. I was there every weekend, it was my life. And it was the biggest and best thanks I could give back to my sponsors at the time. Even if they were not my sponsor anymore because I was a professional driver, but they were still behind me. And they were there. And I was crying.

“I couldn’t stop crying actually.”

That in itself demonstrates the level of commitment and determination it takes to win on endurance racing’s greatest stage. It’s not an achievement born

in the moment. It takes years of dedication and determination, and it’s a moment Treluyer will never forget.

And that win only fuelled Treluyer, Lotterer and Fassler even more. They were not prepared to stop there, and they made one of Audi’s most formidable partnerships, going on to win the race twice more.

They took another victory the following year, and after finishing fifth in 2013, they bounced back in 2014 to take their third Le Mans 24 Hours victory together again.

When they started racing for Audi, their car was considered in some ways as the supporting act.

But they consistently proved that was not the case at all. They were the headline and in 2011, they unquestionably stood head and shoulders above everyone else.

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IMAGE BY GRAND PRIX PHOTO

A NEW ERA IN LATE 1980, BERNIE ECCLESTONE AND MAX MOSELEY HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO ANNOUNCE THE NEW WORLD FEDERATION OF MOTORSPORT (WFMS) AND ITS WORLD PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS CHAMPIONSHIP. SEVERAL TEAM PRINCIPALS, INCLUDING TEDDY MEYER, COLIN CHAPMAN AND KEN TYRRELL WERE ALSO PRESENT.

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MOVING ON WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY RED BULL CONTENT POOL / ASTON MARTIN 124 | THE PIT STOP

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A

fter months of guessing, the Formula 1 world finally knows where legendary designer Adrian Newey will be heading after his time at Red Bull comes to an end Aston Martin.

When Newey announced that he’d be leaving Red Bull, a team he has been with for 18 years, people instantly began wondering where he’d end up. There were a few who thought he could quietly drop into retirement, but it quickly became apparent that Newey had no intention of putting down his pencil and drawing board.

NEWEY'S TIME ON THE RED BULL PITWALL IS COMING TO AN END

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Once that was established, it was a case of working out in what direction Newey would be heading with his P45.

Ferrari quickly became the obvious choice for many.

With Lewis Hamilton joining in 2025, it got a lot of people tantalising at the thought of Newey working with the world’s most successful F1 driver, a driver he’d never had the opportunity to work with before, but one that he’d always wanted to work with.

It seemed like a very logical decision too. Beyond Red Bull and McLaren, Ferrari has been one of the most competitive teams, but it has for a long time missed out on winning a championship. And with Hamilton joining

the team for next season, the fairytale dream had us all wondering whether Newey could be the man to bring everything together.

Newey took an offer from Ferrari seriously too, having had discussions with the Maranello-based team, but in the end a deal could not be worked out. Part of the issue in that negotiation was the fact that Newey was not keen to relocate from the United Kingdom.

Naturally, Ferrari would have wanted Newey working on the ground at its Maranello base, long gone are the days where designing a car remotely is a possibility for Ferrari. Ferrari has tried that approach once before, with John Barnard, and that approach failed to work out as

successfully as Ferrari had initially hoped.

Another rumoured stumbling block was the fact that Newey apparently wanted to bring across close to 20 of his most trusted engineers from Red Bull, and that Ferrari was unable to facilitate it. That was all part of the rumour mill without any major substantiation from anyone, but it all added to the fact that it was looking less and less likely that Newey would be moving to his long-time rival.

It was never officially ruled out though. Newey did very well to keep people guessing, and it was of no surprise that nearly every team in the F1 paddock held talks with him to inquire about his services. You’d be

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stupid not to really, given the amount of success Newey has achieved during his F1 career.

Williams was one of the first teams to publicly state that it had spoken with Newey to see if he’d be interested in making a return to the team where his career really skyrocketed the first time round. The prospect of Newey returning to the team where he won his first championships instantly had the F1 romantics swooning. It really did get the nostalgia flowing, and with Williams at that time in full pursuit of Carlos Sainz, it also didn’t look like it was a completely unrealistic prospect, even if Williams would be the outsider.

Noise surrounding Williams didn’t last overly long though, and as time went on the bigger noise began to hover around Aston Martin.

In many ways, Aston Martin is the perfect destination for Newey to head to when he vacates Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory.

Even before you start thinking about the F1 team, he already has a working relationship with Aston Martin’s road division having previously worked on its Valkyrie project during the period in which Aston Martin was aligned with Red Bull as a partner. Of course, it’s a different team of people that he’ll be working with at Aston Martin in 2025, but it would have done Aston no harm in having a pre-existing relationship with the legendary designer.

Another factor before getting into the F1 team itself is the fact that there is no reason for Newey to now begin thinking about relocating. Aston Martin’s base at Silverstone isn’t exactly the biggest commute from Milton Keynes. Yes, he might want to move to be closer to the factory, but the fact is, he won’t need to go about completely uprooting himself and his family to an entirely new country. That in itself would have no doubt been a great benefit to Newey in his decision-making process.

But the reality is, those things listed above aren’t really the major factors that Newey would have considered. Of course, they would have helped, but it’s unlikely his decision making would have been hinged on them.

The major pulling power that Aston Martin had was its owner, Lawrence Stroll, and the fact its team is currently undergoing a major overhaul internally.

When it was announced that Newey would be joining Aston Martin, there was one element of the press release that really stood out: "I am thrilled to be joining the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team. I have been hugely inspired and impressed by the passion and commitment that Lawrence brings to everything he is involved with.

"Lawrence is determined to create a world-beating team. He is the only majority team owner who is actively engaged in the sport.”

Those are Newey’s first few sentences in the press

release, and it’s the point that Newey makes about Stroll being the only majority team owner who is “actively engaged” in F1 that really stood out.

And if you review Newey’s career, it makes complete sense why Newey felt Aston could be the perfect home for him. He’s never been a huge fan of committees or boardrooms. He wants to deal with the person in charge, so he can have his own personal influence on the direction of the team.

At Williams, Newey consistently liaised with team owner Frank Williams. At McLaren it was Ron Dennis he reported too, and when things started to become too corporate in structure for him, he jumped to Red Bull. That might feel like it was a move to a corporate structure, but when Red Bull started out it was very much Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz calling the shots.

That could also have been a factor in Newey wanting to leave. It’s no secret that since Mateschitz passed away, the Red Bull board of directors have been more hands on with the F1 team than it ever had in the past.

But at Aston Martin, there’s only one man calling the final shots- Stroll himself, and Stroll has also proved that he’s willing to do what it takes to move Aston Martin up to the front of the grid.

The first step in that process was signing Fernando Alonso in 2023 to replace the outgoing Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso’s a heavyweight, who has a unique talent in being able to nearly always extract the maximum out of any car, no matter what its weaknesses are. That was the first step, but quickly after that Aston began making big signings in its engineering department. And while all of this was going on, Aston had begun building a brand new, state-of-the-art facility, giving its employees the best chance possible of designing and building a world championship-winning F1 car.

The new factory at Silverstone really is world class, and with a brand new windtunnel to boot, it means that Newey will have the very best technology at his disposal. That would have been too good an offer to walk away from.

That and the fact that Newey will have the chance to really feel like he’s making a tangible difference again.

If you look at almost every team Newey has worked with (apart from Williams) they were struggling at the time of his arrival. When Newey joined McLaren in 1997, McLaren had just endured a real rough patch of competitiveness, but Newey helped turn the team’s fortunes around by designing race-winning cars.

It was a similar thing with Red Bull. Red Bull was pretty much a brand new team having collected the bones of what was Jaguar Racing. It was a team rooted at the back of the grid, but within a few years, he had

THE MAJOR PULLING POWER THAT ASTON MARTIN HAD WAS ITS OWNER, LAWRENCE STROLL

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NEWEY AT THE ASTON MARTIN ANNOUNCEMENT

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NEWEY AND LAWRENCE STROLL

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helped them produce cars capable of winning races, and eventually, cars that would go on to dominate Formula 1.

And now with Aston Martin, he’s making yet another similar move. There’s no denying that Aston Martin has struggled of late, and currently it has a car that’s often fighting at the back end of the top 10. But with everything going on within the team, Newey can see the potential, and with his experience, knowledge and wizardry, he really could be an influential factor in turning Aston Martin into winners.

There is one significant difference to this move

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compared to the others though. In the past, Newey has always joined teams as a chief designer. But that will not be his role at Aston Martin. Instead he is joining them as managing technical partner.

This is a significant change. Not only because he will oversee more than the design department, but also the fact that he will become a shareholder in Aston Martin’s F1 team. All of a sudden the stakes have gotten higher, but it also means that Newey will have more freedom to influence the design team in the way that he feels is necessary to change the tide in Aston’s factory.

And it was also significant that during the press

conference in which Newey was announced in this new role, Stroll kept referring to him as a “partner”.

It was a word that Stroll kept repeating throughout the press conference, and hints at just how much of an influence Stroll believes Newey can have on his team. It really could be game-changing.

Newey won’t have much impact - if at all - on Aston Martin’s next car in 2025, but with the regulations changing for 2026, it does give Newey time to start thinking about what the new type of F1 cars could look like, and more importantly, what the 2026 Aston Martin could look like.

Whether or not Aston becomes a frontrunner straight out of the blocks in 2026 remains to be seen.

But now, with added motivation, real skin in the game and world-class facilities at his disposal, you can guarantee that Newey will not rest until his team becomes a world championship-winning outfit.

And no matter who you are, given Newey’s track record for success, you’d be a fool for not putting money on that happening at some point in Aston Martin’s future.

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IMAGE BY PHD MATTPHOTO WIDDOWSON

THE JUNIORS BUCKAROO SOMETIMES THE MOTORBIKES JUST DON'T WANT TO DO WHAT THE RIDER IS ASKING OF THEM, AND IT CAN FORCE A KICK OR A WOBBLE. AND THIS RIDER DID BRILLIANTLY TO KEEP ON THE BIKE AFTER BEING INITIALLY THROWN FROM THE SEAT.

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BUILDING FOUNDATIONS WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / DPPI IMAGES

2

024 has been a big year for McLaren.

Not just because it is fighting for both the driver’s and constructors’ titles in the Formula 1 world championship, but also because its presence on the World Endurance Championship scene is becoming even bigger.

And one of the biggest landmarks of the year was having not one, but three McLarens at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours.

Up until this year’s race, McLaren had been missing from the Le Mans grid for 26 years. The last time it was competing in the race, it was fighting for outright victory in the GT1 class with the McLaren F1 GTR. And it was hugely successful too - so much so that nobody really wanted to race against it.

But having not been present on the grid since 1997, the McLaren name returned to Le Mans this year, when United Autosports and Inception Racing ran three McLaren 720S GT3 Evos between them.

United Autosports had two entries in the race, one car being driven by Nicolas Costa, James Cottingham and Gregoire Saucy, while its second car was driven by HIroshi Hamaguchi, Nico Pino and Marino Sato.

Inception Racing meanwhile had a single car entry, with its #70 car being driven by Brendan Iribe, Ollie Millroy and Frederik Schandorff.

As soon as McLaren announced that its cars would be returning to the legendary endurance race, there

was a huge buzz and a lot of anticipation, with people excited to see the McLaren badge back in a race it has previously dominated.

Obviously, this time outright victory was never going to be a possibility since its cars were competing in the LMGT3 class, but there were still people in some quarters quietly hoping that a class victory would still be on the cards at the first time of asking.

It didn’t feel totally beyond the realms of possibility either, with United Autosports coming into Le Mans off the back of some positive momentum, having finished just outside the podium with its #59 car at the previous round in Spa, a race in which it led for quite some time.

Going into Le Mans, the Porsches were the favourites for class victory, but it didn’t take long for a Mclaren to put a spanner in the works.

In the first qualifying session, it looked like the Ford Mustang GT3 of Proton Competition and the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo of Heart of Racing Team were going to be the benchmark, but in the final qualifying session it was Inception Racing that stepped up to the plate to take a class pole position for the race.

It was a huge moment, not only because it demonstrated the rate of progress the McLaren teams have made since the start of the year, but also because it was McLaren’s first pole position at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

And Inception’s Iribe was ecstatic that he got to play a part in making McLaren history.

THE INCEPTION MECHANICS CELEBRATING POLE POSITION

“[We got] the first pole for McLaren at Le Mans, which I didn’t even know about until we got it,” he said.

“It was just incredible.

“And the support from the team, from everybody has been nothing short of amazing. So I really appreciate the team, McLaren, Shaun at Optimum, everybody at Inception, my co-drivers Ollie and Freddy. Everybody that came together really did a great job.”

The job wasn’t done though. A long 24 hours was still facing all of the drivers and competitors, and with over four hours of that race spent running under safety car conditions, it made for a very, very long race behind the wheel.

When the race got underway, the Inception Racing McLaren made good use of its pole position to retain the lead for the opening hour. But as the race went on and the conditions worsened, the Inception McLaren began to fall down the order.

The United Autosport cars meanwhile had a stronger start to their race. Having qualified 11th and 19th in class, they both shot up the order and by the ninth hour, Pino took the class lead in the #95 car.

As nightfall hit, the #95 car had lost its lead, but instead, the sister #59 McLaren had taken up the mantle to run at the front of the field, and as the early hours of Sunday beckoned, both cars had cemented their positions as potential class winners.

Unfortunately though, the fairytale ending was not to be. In the 19th hour of the race, both United Autosports cars ran into problems with a suspected

drivetrain issue. Both cars were still in podium contention but had no other option than to retire from the race, leaving the Inception Racing car to fly the McLaren flag solo.

Speaking after the race, Cottingham, who was driving the #59 United Autosports car said: “Endurance racing is tough, and I’ve learnt that in every 10 hour plus race I have done.

“At the 18 hour mark I thought everything was looking good - the car was solid, my drive time was done, the guys [Gregoire and Nicolas] know what they’re doing, we were being sensible and we looked good.

“I could see top-four finishes on the cards for both cars. In the race, the car had run faultlessly so when it pulled over on the side of the track, I was shocked.

Now, I am devastated.

“Everyone had worked so hard and it’s been such a professional approach by everyone in the team. The way United Autosports has gone about it, including the nutritionist, physios and everyone … we put everything into it. We didn’t leave any stone unturned. But we’ve had a race-ending failure. But I’ve enjoyed every single minute of the race, every single minute of driving. It’s just so gutting to not be there at the end.”

Pino, who was driving the #95 also had an optimistic outlook despite the disappointing end to his race.

“The team did a flawless job all weekend. It has been really impressive to be a part of it. I’m extremely

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happy with how we performed, coming to a new championship with a new car and being in a position to fight for a Le Mans podium.

“It was a very difficult race with the wet and dry conditions, but everyone did a magnificent job. The engineers, mechanics, Marino and Hiroshi, they executed everything perfectly.

In the end, it didn’t play out for us – but that’s racing. We will have more shots to try.”

The race may have ended up in heartbreak for United Autosports, but the fact that both cars consistently ran at front-running pace for so long, and with the car having never tackled the race before, demonstrates just how much potential there is with the 720S GT3 Evo. And it was the fact that the two cars were able to take the fight to established LMGT3 teams that impressed McLaren Automotive’s chief executive officer, Michael Leiters so much.

“To see the United Autosports McLaren GT3 EVOs running first and second after 125 laps of everything Le Mans can throw at them, including changeable weather conditions, just reconfirms we have the performance and determination to win,” he said. “We can take many positives from our return to Le Mans and we will build on this strong performance.”

United Autosports might have lost both of its cars in the race, but Inception’s continued and did cross the line. In the end, its car finished 13th in class. It might not have been the result the team had hoped for, but it at least laid strong foundations to build on for next year.

And for driver Iribe, the fact that he was able to make it to the end of the race was almost like a victory in itself, especially since just a few years ago he’d never even raced a car before.

“A lot of ups and downs,” was his immediate

"WE CAN TAKE MANY POSITIVES FROM OUR RETURN TO LE MANS AND WE WILL BUILD ON THIS STRONG PERFORMANCE"

THE UNITED AUTOSPORTS MCLAREN DURING A WET PERIOD OF THE RACE

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THE INCEPTION MCLAREN OUT ON TRACK

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response when asked how the race was. “Le Mans is a tough race and it’s full of emotion and incredible highs.

We started off the week and we achieved something we could never have dreamed of and I never imagined [with pole position], and I think that was already a win to take home.

“And then we jumped in the race, and it was long and hard, but we crossed the line. I’m really proud of the team, and McLaren is back.

“I got started in racing in McLaren in the Pure McLaren programme, which was a tonne of fun. I didn’t know anything about racing when I got started. I just

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joined because a friend of mine said ‘hey, let’s go do this trackday with this McLaren team’.

“I jumped into a race car, the first experience blew my mind. I was like ‘oh, can I do this more?’ I found out about the Pure series, did that for a year, and then they said ‘do you want to try the GT3?’ And I didn’t even know what it was.

“I jumped in the GT3 and there was no going back. The McLaren GT3 was an incredible machine.

It was so much fun to drive. It was the visceral feel I always imagined of a race car, it was encapsulated in that vehicle. And so I’ve loved the journey, it’s been

THE ARTURA HAS BEEN HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL IN BRITISH GT

incredible. A lot of emotion around it.

“And to go from Pure McLaren to pole at Le Mans, is just a dream come true.”

Sometimes a race result like the one the McLarens had at Le Mans can be viewed as a disappointment.

But to do so would be looking at the result with a polarised view. This is Le Mans, it’s the toughest endurance race in the world.

The fact that all three cars at some stage across the event ended up at the top of the timesheets proves beyond all doubt that the 720s GT3 Evo can be a Le Mans-winning car. Very few entrants rock up at Le

Mans and win on their debut, and the fact that United Autosports was in the hunt for victory for show long shows just how well the teams and cars did.

OK, things didn’t go to plan, but it has now given everyone involved something tangible to motivate them for next year’s race, to prove that with some more hard work, grit and determination, they can be victorious.

We’ll need to wait until 2025 to see if that potential is fully realised, but while on paper 2024 might have looked like a washout, what it really provided was some strong foundations to build on going forward.

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P E R F O R M A N C E A M P L I F I E D T H E

N E X T

G E N E R A T I O N

S U P E R C A R Uncompromised power and performance. Unfiltered elemental thrills. Every sound, every sense, is amplified.

Each moment more exhilarating than the last. The ferocious racing heart of a McLaren. A breathtaking breadth of ability. And an advanced Retractable Hard Top to enhance driving spirit.

WLTP Fuel consumption combined: 4.8l/100km | WLTP CO2 emissions combined: 108g/km

IN SHORT

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Image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

RED BULL NEEDS TO LEARN FROM MERCEDES

BY ROB HANSFORD

Every competitive Formula 1 team finds it impossible to stay at the very top forever. It takes a huge amount of dedication to design and build race-winning F1 cars, let alone championshipwinning ones, and there comes a point where your rivals will eventually get the edge over you.

And that’s what appears to be happening now with Red Bull, as it begins to lose its hold on the dominance it's had for several years.

At the start of the 2024 F1 season, it appeared as though Red Bull and Max Verstappen would dominate the championship again, having got off to a blistering start, but McLaren quickly built on the momentum it began to build at the back end of last year, and has now overtaken Red Bull to become the fastest F1 team on the grid.

Given Red Bull’s start to the year, it’s likely that Verstappen will be able to do enough to hold on and win a fourth F1 driver’s title, but it’s looking increasingly likely that it is about to lose its constructors’ championship to the Woking-based outfit.

But in many ways, the fact that Red Bull is sliding back down through the pecking order should be no surprise. It happens to every successful team at one point or another, and it would have been nigh on impossible for Red Bull to avoid it at some stage.

The way Red Bull is falling down the order though is very reminiscent of Mercedes’s fall from grace a few years ago.

It was like hitting a cliff edge where one day you turn up and someone else is just plain faster. For Mercedes, Red Bull was that team that found the extra few tenths to become the dominant force, but now it is McLaren that has unlocked the performance advantage.

It remains to be seen whether Red Bull can immediately stem the flow of performance loss and swiftly rebound back to the front, avoiding what has happened to Mercedes. But it won’t have helped that several key personnel are leaving the team in the near future, and not just its design guru Adrian Newey.

Jonathan Wheatley, who has been a staple at Red Bull for many years is also heading out of the door at Milton Keynes as he links up with Sauber and Audi to become the new team

principal and as a result, the team is reorganising its employee structure to compensate for the losses.

It would be unwise to believe that this would all mean that Red Bull will instantly be uncompetitive next year though. Red Bull may be losing some key people from its ranks, but it still has an army of knowledgeable, talented and innovative employees who know how to win races, and more importantly, how to win championships. But what is completely apparent is that it’s currently missing the edge from a design perspective.

Mercedes’ biggest downfall from grace primarily occurred because it began pushing harder to get developments to the car that didn’t actually work. It took the team in the wrong direction and it’s still recovering from that today.

Even Red Bull seems to be falling foul of that approach right now. Upgrades introduced after the summer break haven’t worked, and Verstappen is finding his car a much harder machine to drive.

That’s what Red Bull needs to be wary of the most. If it wants to buck the trend of hitting a big trough while having previously been on top, it needs to take stock, not panic and only add things to the car that really will be of benefit. That might cost it first place, but it’s unlikely to cost it much more. And if it needs evidence to prove why it should take things slower in order to be faster - just look at where Mercedes has ended up.

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Image credit: Hyundai

HOW HYUNDAI'S WEC PROGRAMME COULD DAMAGE WRC

BY ROB HANSFORD

Hyundai has done it. It’s announced that it will begin a World Endurance Championship programme with its Genesis brand.

It was a move that was widely expected, but in September it made it official by announcing it would begin working on a Hypercar entry into the series.

Details are pretty vague at the moment though, with Hyundai failing to confirm what chassis it intends to use or even when it plans to enter, but the statement of intent is clear. And it makes sense too.

Hyundai has come a long way over the last few years in the way it markets itself, and in terms of the quality of its road cars. It’s no longer the very low budget car manufacturer it once was, and while its cars are still in the affordable price bracket, its quality has definitely jumped up a few notches.

It’s clear it has big aspirations for the future, and why not?

And therefore, being able to put itself head-to-head against several fellow car manufacturers, including Alpine, BMW, Toyota and Peugeot, it puts itself in a position where it can try and draw comparisons for prospective customers.

It does however lead to some questions about its current programmes, notably its entry in the World Rally Championship.

Ever since rumours started swirling that Hyundai could be considering a WEC entry, there were concerns that it could come at the cost of its WRC team. And since the announcement those concerns have only been fuelled further.

A big factor that didn’t help squash those rumours was the fact that at the start of September, Hyundai announced that it would be renewing the contract of its championship-leading driver Thierry Neuville, but only for a single season. It means that none of its drivers have a contract lasting beyond the end of 2025.

Hyundai then added further fuel to the fire when Hyundai Motorsport president Cyril Abiteboul confirmed that Hyundai is open to running its WRC programme through a private team in 2026.

A move like that makes complete sense for Hyundai. It would allow it to fully focus on its WEC entry while not completely killing 152 THE PIT STOP

off its WRC programme, but it would not be good news at all for WRC. WRC feels like it's sitting on a knife-edge right now. Hyundai’s long-term future appears to be in serious doubt, and so too is M-Sport’s who have repeatedly stated that they are unable to remain in the championship if nothing is done about the cost of running a team year in, year out.

And given the fact those teams make up two of the three teams entered in WRC’s top category, the Rally1 class, it means worrying times really are ahead for the championship.

It really would not be a great look to have those two brands disappear from the championship altogether, with Toyota remaining as the sole manufacturer. And in many ways it’s very reminiscent of WEC’s position 10 years ago.

WRC’s popularity is at an all-time low, and if Hyundai left, it would severely damage the championship’s popularity and stature even more.

That’s a sad state of affairs, especially since WRC used to be on a similar popularity level to F1 and MotoGP, but now it’s almost like the forgotten discipline that nobody really cares about.

And to twist the knife in just that bit more, if Hyundai does offload its programme to a privateer to focus on WEC, it provides real tangible evidence, at where the championships really do now lie in motorsport’s pecking order.

Image credit: McLaren

NEW ARTURA TROPHY EVO UNVEILED

BY ROB HANSFORD

McLaren has unveiled its new Artura Trophy EVO car as well as confirming a new category for its one-make series as it looks to expand the McLaren Trophy further in 2025.

Starting in 2025, the McLaren Trophy will feature an all-new Artura Trophy EVO car, which is set to take the competition to another level.

The new car looks vastly different from its predecessor, while also drawing parallels from the performance levels of the Artura Spider. However, it has also incorporated several changes that will make it a more aggressive racing car, capable of faster laptimes.

Drivers of the Artura Trophy EVO will discover that the car is equipped with a ‘push to pass’ button that increases the power of the car from 585PS to 620PS, with the deployment regulated to increase strategy options available to the competitors.

It will also house wider tyres, allowing drivers to make the most of the additional power that comes from the 3-litre V6 twin-turbo, while the power will be delivered via new uprights controlled by two-way adjustable dampers and stiffer anti-roll bars, offering teams a greater window of adjustability.

They aren’t the only changes though. The front bumper and bonnet have also been amended to aid aerodynamic efficiency, as well as helping to improve the cooling of the brakes and the engine. And new buttress scoops have been incorporated into the car to improve cooling to the rear brakes, while new billet uprights should generate better brake-feel for drivers, while also improving the durability in close racing.

The changes to the Artura Trophy EVO are so extensive that new cars will be built from production line models, making this a bespoke racing car for the McLaren Trophy one-make championships.

And to entice current drivers to take on one of its Artura Trophy EVOs, McLaren has confirmed that customers of existing Artura GT4s and Artura Trophy cars will be able to upgrade their cars into the full Artura Trophy EVO specification.

The step change in performance levels means that the power delivery of the new Artura Trophy EVOs won’t be far off that of a GT3 racing car. As a result, this car is likely to attract the attention of Pro racing drivers, and to account for that, McLaren has also announced that next year’s McLaren Trophy championships will

also include a new Pro category.

The Pro category will be open to Silver solo or Silver/Silver pairings and is aimed at nurturing professional racing drivers who have ambitions of making a career for themselves in GT racing.

To assist in their progress, all McLaren Trophy Silver class drivers aged 26 or under will also automatically enrol into McLaren’s Trophy Academy.

The Academy is a development programme that is designed to source and develop McLaren champions of the future, and throughout the season, workshops will be held for Academy members, helping them to develop their skills both on and off the track even further.

Speaking about the announcement, Mick McDonagh, director of MSO and motorsport at McLaren Automotive said: “The team at McLaren Motorsport has created a stunning car in the new Artura Trophy EVO, which was designed to build upon our existing McLaren Trophy product following feedback from teams and drivers.

“It looks spectacular and with the introduction of the new Pro category and McLaren Trophy Academy will add even more excitement to the championships. The car has also been developed to inspire confidence in drivers of all abilities, which will result in thrilling racing action.

“With the new McLaren Trophy, America championship joining its existing European counterpart next year and McLaren returning to Le Mans, this is a very exciting time for us in GT racing and the opportunities for our drivers has never been better.”

THE PIT STOP 153

IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

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