Ferrari, 50 years later, makes history again at Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans blew out 100 candles this year.. and how. After the overwhelming dominance of Toyota in the last five years, which started with the victory of a certain Fernando Alonso in 2018, the 2023 edition of what is considered the queen of motorsports, was not decided until the last bars.. And it was Ferrari, which returned to the French event after 50 years of absence and after conquering it nine times, who won a hard-fought victory thanks to Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado..
Because after hours and hours traveling the 13.8 kilometers of the La Sarthe circuit, with average speeds of around 240 km/h per lap, Sunday morning had dawned with less than 20 seconds separating hypercar #51 from the Italian #8 Toyota Squad. Then, the difference rose to almost a minute and a half because, prey to the fatigue of its driver and that intrinsic evil that resides in the genes of Le Mans, the Japanese car suffered a run off the track, less than two hours from the end. , which almost cost him second place. In third place, the #2 Cadillac surprised by closing a podium from which they were excluded, although it was also stepped on (and led) by Peugeot and Porsche.
Although nobody wanted to sell the bear's skin before hunting it, given Toyota's dominance in the previous tests of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), Ferrari already punched the table, achieving the first two places in the classification on Thursday. It is also true that after the last application of the so-called Balance of Performance, the system that tries to make the races more balanced and that had 'punished' the Toyota cars with an overweight of 37 kilos for the French event.
Victory for Albert Costa in LMP2
The pole position had been for the Ferrari with the number 51, with the Spanish Miguel Molina among his trio of drivers and willing to write his name in golden letters along with those of Alonso and Marc Gené, the first Spaniard to succeed in the gala test in 2009. Molina maintained his hopes until mid-dawn from Saturday to Sunday, when a series of misfortunes forced his vehicle to go through the pits and ruined his options, relegating him to fifth in the final position in the premier class..
Better luck ran the Catalan Albert Costa, winner at the wheel of his Inter Europol among the LPM2, the second step in the resistance, after having dominated the competition for most of. At the other extreme, Álex Riberas (Aston Martín, in the GTE Am category) had to retire after various incidents that started almost from the beginning.
In fact, chaos was the dominant tone since, at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers star, LeBron James, gave the traditional order to start the engines and the starting signal. The first hours of the race were an accumulation of safety cars, exits from the track and crashes, with the water ending up making everything much crazier, because it fell less than predicted, but it did so only in specific parts of the circuit that remained almost drowned, while in another the sun was shining. Thus began the usual natural selection of this endurance test, which did not reach stability in leadership and strategies until well into the early hours of Sunday..
Before Elkann's gaze
The day began with a sticky heat that did not deter the hordes of thousands of fans and spectators that have filled the facilities of this car theme park for the last three days: up to 375,000 visitors are estimated to have attended, a number never seen before and that, at certain times, it was quite difficult to move, have a drink or simply go to a public bathroom.
Among those visitors, many illustrious, such as Tom Kristensen or Jacky Ickx, winners of this test nine and six times, respectively; or Charles Leclerc, the Formula 1 star who by far received the biggest ovations from the public. But the Ferrari staff were also seen, with John Elkann (president) or Benedetto Vigna (CEO) supporting their return to Le Mans; Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota; and Carlos Tavares, the boss of Stellantis. A great lover of racing and also a driver, the Portuguese manager spent most of his time inside the Peugeot box, dressed in the mandatory jumpsuit and fireproof clothing for all those (including the press) who moved through the pit lane area..
The #34 driven by Costa, during one of his stops.
The times achieved in qualifying did not give high hopes to the French squad, whose surprising 9×8 car lacks the rear wing that everyone else has. However, he came to be in first position for several hours until, when darkness reigned, misfortune put an end to his aspirations.. Only one of their cars finished and it did so in eighth position.
Seen as they were acclaimed along a circuit where there was no room for a pin, the difficult but not impossible victory of Peugeot would have been the finishing touch to the celebrations of the centenary of Le Mans: concerts of music by international stars such as Mika, shows of fireworks combined with luminous drones that drew figures of all kinds in the sky, parades of historical models that have won one of the 90 disputed editions…. And noise, a lot of noise: the classic roar of competing cars and the more modern noise produced by the swarm of helicopters and planes following the race or tirelessly bringing and taking VIPs. Although the dominance of the skies was, one more year, for the traditional (and silent) airship chartered by GoodYear.