“Relative pace” means how quick a car is compared to the other cars around it. It’s less about one fast lap and more about whether they’re consistently quicker than the competition.
A “three-pronged attack” means using three different angles of effort at the same time. In racing, it usually means coordinating multiple cars so the team has more than one way to be successful during the race.
IMSA is the big racing organization that runs sports-car races in North America. The “IMSA season” is the whole year-long set of races that teams compete in for a championship.
Term
practicing qualifying
“Qualifying” is the session that sets the starting order, and “practicing qualifying” here implies they were using practice/pace runs to be ready for the qualifying performance. In endurance events, teams often fine-tune setup and tire/strategy choices to be competitive when it counts.
A tire strategy is how the team plans which tires to use and when to change them during the race. Because tires wear out, the timing of those changes can make the car faster and help the team stay in the right position.
“Traffic” here means slower cars getting in the way. That can make it harder to drive your planned lines and can also mess with tire and pit timing.
Person
Alexander Pierre Greedy
The host is talking about a driver named Alexander Pierre Greedy. He was involved in a racing incident, and the conversation shows how stressful that kind of moment can be for a team.
A development year is when a team focuses on improving the car and learning, not necessarily winning right away. They’re building toward a stronger season later.
Re-homologate means you update the race car and then get it officially approved again for racing. It’s like getting the car “re-checked” so it still follows the rules after changes.
A “soft tyre” is a tire compound that grips the road better. It usually wears out faster, so teams use it strategically—often when conditions make the extra grip most useful.
Term
terminal power steaming problems
This sounds like a serious engine/power problem that was bad enough to end the car’s race. “Terminal” here means it wasn’t something they could fix quickly or limp through.
Dirty air is when the air around your car gets messed up by another car ahead. That can make your car feel slower and harder to keep fast, especially when you’re stuck in traffic.
An aero package is the car’s aerodynamic parts—things like wings and front/rear body pieces. Changing it can help the car stick better to the road and go faster, especially through corners.
A braking package is how the car’s brakes are set up for racing. Updates can change how hard the car can slow down and how well the brakes work over many laps.
A “T-bar” is a metal support piece used to hold parts of the car’s body or rear assembly in place. If it gets bent or broken in a crash, the team may have to replace or re-mount parts before the car can run again.
A “rear clip” is basically the car’s rear body panel section. If it’s damaged, the team may swap it for a new one, but if the parts it bolts to are also broken, the repair takes much longer.
Mounting points are the bolt-on or attach locations where parts of the car are fixed in place. If those points are damaged, the team can’t just slap on new panels—they have to fix the attachment structure too.
Brake discs are the spinning metal parts of the brakes. If they’re damaged or not working right, teams may have to replace parts during the race, which can cost valuable time.
A “safety car” is deployed when there’s danger on track (like an accident or debris), and it controls the pace of the field. In endurance racing, safety-car timing can drastically change pit-stop windows and the order of cars.
The Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck. The podcast is talking about it in a racing context, where it’s been winning for a long time. That’s the reason it comes up—its racing record is unusually strong for a truck.
“Hypercar era” means the current generation of the top class of race cars in endurance racing. The host is talking about how teams have behaved and performed during this modern period.
“World Championship” here means the season-long points competition that determines the overall champion in the top endurance racing category. The host is saying there are strong contenders for that title at this point in the hypercar season.
Topic
Gibson era
“Gibson era” refers to a period associated with a team’s or driver’s dominance under the Gibson leadership or program. In sports car racing coverage, “era” is often used to summarize a stretch of results as a recognizable chapter.
Le Mans is the famous French endurance race (the 24 Hours of Le Mans) where cars run continuously for a full day, emphasizing reliability, pit strategy, and driver consistency. It’s one of the most prestigious events in sports car racing.
An “art car” is a race car whose bodywork is designed as an art project, typically in collaboration with artists or art institutions. At events like Le Mans, it’s a notable cultural twist because the car is both a racing machine and a moving art display.
“Grand Slam” here means winning several of the biggest races in sports-car racing, not just one. The host is pointing out the driver won Daytona and Le Mans in the same year, which is a big deal.
APR is a performance brand that makes upgrades for certain German cars. Here, the host is talking about an APR-backed racing effort that got a strong reaction from the crowd.
“Daytona win” means winning at the Daytona endurance race. The point of mentioning it alongside Le Mans is that it shows the team/driver can win at two of the biggest events in the same year.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made for fast driving and track use. It’s also famous for being used in racing, including long-distance events. The podcast mentions it because it can perform at a very high level in those kinds of races.
Johnny Hedger is a driver in the race being discussed. The hosts are saying he did an amazing job late in the race—staying quick and not making mistakes.
A stint is how long a driver drives before the car comes in for a stop (like a driver change or tires). Teams plan stints carefully because tires and fuel don’t last forever.
Tire strategy is when the team decides to change tires during the race. Tires wear out, so the team has to time tire changes so the car stays fast without wasting too many stops.
The B-pillar is the metal post between the front and rear doors. In this conversation it’s being used like a quick reference point, but it’s also a real part of the car’s structure.
Average stint performance is a metric that summarizes how quickly a driver (or car) was over an entire stint, not just a single best lap. In endurance racing, it helps compare consistency across different tire ages and traffic conditions, which is why it’s paired here with fastest laps.
Fastest laps are the quickest single laps recorded during a race. Endurance broadcasts often track them alongside stint averages because a driver can be “fast” on one lap but still lose time overall if tires degrade or traffic affects pace.
Term
silver
“Silver” is a driver skill/experience category used in endurance racing. The point here is that the driver was ranked near the top compared to other drivers with the same category.
LMGT3 is the specific GT3 racing category used at Le Mans. The host is pointing out that Lexus’s Le Mans results (including this podium) happened only during that particular era of rules.
In endurance racing, a “replacement car” is an alternate entry used when the original car can’t continue or when teams swap to a backup. The host signals they’ll explain later how Lexus’s “replacement car” fits into the Le Mans story.
Aston Martin is a well-known British car brand. In this segment, they’re being discussed because their race team is competing and the host is asking about how they’ll do.
WEC is short for the World Endurance Championship, a racing series for long-distance events. It’s the kind of racing where teams run for hours and compete across different car classes.
A “24 hours” race is a long endurance event where cars run for an entire day. It’s less about one fast lap and more about staying reliable and managing strategy.
In racing, “works” usually means the car is backed by the manufacturer itself, not just a private team. “Livery” is the car’s paint scheme, and factory-backed cars often have special, recognizable designs.
Term
defending winners two times in a row
This phrase means the same team won the race the year before and is trying to win again. Winning back-to-back is hard because endurance races involve a lot of time, traffic, and mechanical risk.
McLaren is a well-known racing car maker. Here they’re talking about how McLaren’s cars did at Le Mans—whether they were fast enough and whether their plan worked.
Mercedes-AMG is Mercedes’ performance racing brand. They’re talking about how Mercedes-AMG usually wins a lot, but this Le Mans situation didn’t look like the usual top performance.
Term
iron links
This sounds like a technical setup detail on the race car, but the exact term is unclear in the transcript. Without the correct wording, it’s hard to say what specific part or adjustment they mean.
The Ford Mustang is a sports car designed to be quick and fun to drive. In racing, it has a track record of performing well when people set it up for competition. The podcast brings it up because it’s shown it can be competitive on a track.
Term
WC
“WC” here means a world championship level of racing. It’s the bigger, higher-profile series compared to a single race or smaller program.
OEMs are the actual car makers—the companies that build the vehicles. In racing, it usually means the big factory-backed teams with more money and support.
The WeatherTech Sportscar Championship is a major endurance racing series. It’s where different types of race cars compete over long races, and teams sometimes use it as a stepping stone to other events.
In motorsport, the “grid” is the set of starting positions for the race, determined by qualifying results or series rules. When the speaker talks about what the grid “is going to look like,” they mean which cars/teams will be included and how many entries there will be.
LMP2 is one of the main categories of race cars used in endurance racing. It’s a step below the very top factory prototypes, and teams often build cars to a common rule set.
These are the rules that will control what the fastest “hypercar” race cars are allowed to be in the year 2030. The teams and organizers are meeting now to decide the big technical requirements so manufacturers can plan their cars.
LMDH is another ruleset for the top endurance race cars, focused on hybrid prototypes. The key point here is that the future 2030 rules are expected to follow LMDH’s general technical philosophy more closely.
LMH is a set of rules for the top endurance race cars. It helps define what kind of cars manufacturers can build for the highest-level prototype racing.
This means the cars can currently be built so that power reaches all four wheels. The host is saying the new 2030 rules are moving away from that approach.
An off-the-shelf hybrid system is a hybrid technology kit that a supplier already makes. Instead of inventing everything from scratch, teams can buy a proven system as long as it meets the rules.
Bosch is a well-known automotive technology company. Here, it’s mentioned as an example of a supplier that can provide a hybrid system teams can use under the rules.
A splitter and diffuser are aerodynamic parts on a race car that help push the car down onto the road. The splitter helps guide air, and the diffuser helps that air create more downforce. Racing rules can limit how big or shaped they can be.
The underfloor is the part of the race car underneath the chassis. Designers shape it to help the car stick to the track using aerodynamics. Racing rules can limit how teams do it, and the discussion is about where those limits may be.
A transition period is the time when racing rules are changing and teams have to adjust gradually. During that time, it can be unclear exactly what’s allowed, so teams may need to interpret the rules carefully. Here, they’re discussing how that uncertainty could impact adapting cars for future regulations.
Term
go-day
“Go-day” means the point when the rules are officially confirmed and teams can start planning for real. Race teams need to know the timeline early because building and developing cars takes a long time. The segment suggests that confirmation is getting closer.
LMP3 is a type of race car category used in endurance racing. It’s meant to be a stepping-stone class—cheaper and more standardized than the top prototype classes—so teams can learn and race competitively.
Term
Mon Cup
“Mon Cup” is the name of a racing series being discussed. The host is saying it’s designed to keep certain types of cars (like GT3) racing there rather than moving them away.
Car
Lexus RCF GT3
The Lexus RCF GT3 is a race version of a Lexus model built to compete in the GT3 class. When people talk about a “replacement,” they mean a newer GT3 race car version is coming to keep up with the class rules and competition.
GR GT3 is Toyota’s racing version of a GT3 car. The hosts are saying it should arrive as a replacement in 2027, with testing starting later this summer.
Homologation is the paperwork-and-rules approval that lets a race car be allowed to compete. It’s basically the official way to confirm the car meets the category’s technical requirements.
GT World Challenge is a GT racing competition organized under the SRO Motorsports umbrella, featuring multiple classes and sprint/endurance formats. The host says the new car is “bound for programs” in GT World Challenge, indicating where the manufacturer intends to compete.
Term
GT Open
GT Open is another GT racing series. The hosts are saying the new race car concept could end up competing there too.
GT3 technical regulations are the official rules that define what a GT3 race car is allowed to be. If a new car is built around those rules, it can compete in GT3 racing events.
SRO is an organization that runs and organizes a lot of GT racing. Mentioning SRO suggests the car is being aimed at GT3-style events that SRO oversees.
“Goodyear Eagle” refers to Goodyear’s Eagle-branded racing tire line used in motorsport. In endurance racing, tire choice affects grip, wear rate, and how often teams can pit.
Term
WC program
“WC program” means a world championship racing plan. It affects when and where a team can commit to entering specific races or classes.
The “2030 rule set” is the next big set of racing rules coming later in the decade. Freezing cars and limiting development means teams can’t keep making big performance upgrades as quickly.
It means the racing series is trying to keep spending under control. The goal is to make it cheaper for teams and manufacturers to compete, so more of them can afford to stay involved.
IMSA GTP is the top prototype racing class in IMSA. It’s where the biggest factory-style race cars compete, and it’s a big deal for what manufacturers decide to join next.
In endurance racing, “getting a lap back” means you manage to reduce the gap to the leaders by one lap. It can happen because of how the race unfolds, and it can completely change who’s in contention.
Zach Brown is a high-level leader in racing, connected with McLaren. The host mentions him making a choice about which big racing weekend to focus on—Le Mans instead of a Grand Prix. It’s basically motorsport leadership showing up in the story.
A Grand Prix is a major race event—most people associate the term with Formula 1. In this segment, the host is contrasting it with Le Mans, meaning one person chose the endurance race weekend instead of the open-wheel Grand Prix weekend. It’s about which racing world they prioritized.
Lewis Hamilton is a famous Formula 1 race driver. The host is congratulating him as part of the week’s racing news. In this moment, it’s more about the headline than car tech.
Person
Mohamed Bin Slime
The host mentions someone named “Mohamed Bin Slime” as being there at the race, but it’s unclear who that actually refers to. It doesn’t come with enough detail to confidently identify the real person. The main point is that VIPs were present.
Matt Campbell is a well-known race driver, especially in endurance and sports car racing. The host says he’s switching from Porsche to Ford, which matters because factory teams rely on specific driver talent to win. This part of the show is about who will drive for the full season.
Porsche is a well-known car brand, and it also competes seriously in endurance racing. The host is saying Matt Campbell had a long connection with Porsche before switching teams. It’s included because it highlights how big the driver change is.
Here, “hydrogen” means a fuel/energy approach that could power a race car. The key point is that it has to work well enough to compete in a long endurance race without making the cars slower or less capable.
“2030 regs” means the new set of racing rules that will start controlling what cars can be and how they’re built. The host is saying those rules will begin right away under MSGTP, so teams have to prepare their cars around them.
Term
MSGTP
MSGTP is the organization that sets or adopts the racing rules for this class/series. When they adopt new rules, teams have to adjust their cars to match them.
“Garage 56” is a Le Mans tradition where an unusual, experimental race car gets a chance to compete. The host is saying hydrogen could be the theme for one of those experimental entries.
LIVE
Welcome to the week in sports cars part of the Marshall Pro-It podcast collection.
I've brought you, as always, with the help of the Justice Brothers and Toronto, MadisonSports.com.
And this week, as always, a special edition, they're all special.
This week with my friend and colleague, Stephen Kilby, the editor of Jenny Sportscar.
This, of course, is Graham Goodwin.
Stephen also, of course, looking after the WC beat, and therefore the Le Mans beat for
racing.com.
I brought to you in the salubrious surroundings of a cabin aboard the MV Monse Michel en route.
See, keeping up the French theme.
Back to Portsmouth from what's been an interesting.
Tom was absolutely thrilling.
Excellent.
Almost two weeks at the 24 hours of Le Mans for 2026.
The 94th running of the Great Race.
So what I want to do this week is principally to just wrap that up.
There's some bits and pieces of news we can wrap up as well, Stephen.
But when are we going to go first?
You want to do a little bit of a news round up or?
I think we should talk about the race first.
Give that the prominence it deserves.
And just dive in.
Should we have overall impressions of the race?
I think we can start with a wrap up of the things we got right, the things we got wrong.
Principally, the things we got wrong in those preview shows we put out last week.
I love it.
What we got wrong was the relative pace to the other Cadillacs of the Wayne Tanner racing team.
They put on a great show.
They were just a little bit off the ultimate pace, but all week looked so, so much better
than when WTR Cadillac showed up at Le Mans the first time.
Yeah, massive surprise.
And a delight to see that they made the most of their second opportunity I thought.
And clearly, there was so much more synergy between them and Jota this time around.
I think they worked better as a unit by everything I've heard from conversations of people who
were inside that camp.
It just felt like a proper three-pronged attack, didn't it?
Whereas before, it felt like Jota were on a bit of an island with a bit of Action Express
and with Wayne Taylor guys a bit further back.
But my hope is that this allows them to turn around the IMSA program and this serves as
a good kind of momentum boost as we go into the business end of the IMSA season.
So yeah, no, majorly impressed with Wayne Taylor.
Aiming to that.
The other one that we said would be, we'll out of it.
And sort of feel as if we need to say that they weren't.
Genesis Bank of Racing, what a week they had.
Yeah.
It was such a good week that they're leaving disappointed that they only got one car home.
Yeah.
Like that is remarkable, really.
I mean, to be as far into the race with two cars running flawlessly as they were and in
practicing qualifying showing a bit of speed here and there and doing particularly well
in high.
Fans and rightly so.
And it was a car that delivered a really strong start to this program and its biggest test
yet.
And it's a car that can go the distance.
We know that now.
It wasn't a flawless race.
By any means, five a car, but an achievement nonetheless from the team that started from
scratch not that long ago to get a car home.
Brilliant.
I mean, overachieved possibly, as you say, problems at various times for both cars, but
did what you would expect a first time a team from any manufacturer, let alone from a nation
that's never entered before would want to do is to bring a car home.
And it could have been to and one of them running at various times as high as fourth.
Okay.
On pit stop rotation, but even on pit stop rotation going the other way, we're grazing
into the top 10 more often than not.
And I'm very impressed with that.
In the opposite direction, a team that we sort of said we thought might be in it and
were nowhere all week.
And I'm almost at a loss to explain it.
Not because they're off the pace because they were so far off the pace.
Pole position centers last time out Persia.
Yeah.
Don't know what to say really.
It was just it was a week that never started for them.
They knew it was very clear from the test.
They almost they knew they were in trouble.
They were giving off all the signs.
And with the BOP kept private, what we don't know is whether that was a major fact or whether
it was just the car and everyone else taking a step going into this year's race.
It was, yeah, just a thoroughly miserable outing for the team, both cars finishing
outside the top 10.
And you look back at the record for the line next eight now.
And that opening run it had in the first year in 2023 and leading the race briefly in that
mixed condition race flatters it really.
Because now you're looking back at the record and thinking for cars come designed to go
really well around here.
And even with all the updates, you can go right a spot like as we saw a month ago.
And then it comes up, it turns up at Le Mans circuit that you'd expect it to be better.
It's seconds off.
And if nowhere, it's like down four and five laps down those two cars.
A pole position man from Spar, Milti Ackabson, two and a half seconds off, two and a half
seconds.
It's a major embarrassment, I think, for that squad.
The form across the week was so poor.
They were left in no other option than to drive as conservative races they could, as
steady and consistent pace as they could, and get the cars to the end.
Which by the way they did.
Congratulations to them for that.
That's not fundamentally not what they were looking for.
We're deep into this program.
And just every time they take us up for the take two back and talking to senior management
before the race, talking to some of the drivers before the race, and the drivers for very
much of our only real hope is that this is going to be a chaotic race.
Like that's all they're hoping for is that it's absolute chaos.
And you know, one thing we've got to say about this race was it fundamentally was not chaos.
No, it was not.
It was not similar to last year.
You know, bar one additional safety car.
We had two safety cars in the race, a smattering of FCYs.
But other than that, it was a pretty much a fully green sprint race with so little or
so few accidents, so few silly driving moments.
It wasn't like penalties have been handed out here, there and everywhere all day.
It was, yeah, it was another crazy 24 hour race when you think about it.
I just can't believe that we're routine.
And so the one that feels like and watching so many drivers and so many cars on a circuit
like that.
And there was no, there were no major shunts or week.
No.
Well, oddly, the next one we're going to have to deal with it was sort of dealing with this
in vaguely reverse order is Ferrari.
And what what a week they had.
I mean, it was they certainly did not run flawlessly with any of the three cars, the
two factory cars and the 83, of course, the private enter car.
And let's not forget, these are the three cars and the three squads that are the last
three winners of the three hours of them on.
And whilst they were just flashing that they might have got somewhere towards that leading
group, it never looked likely that they were going to defend this this win in 2026.
No, no.
And I think deep down they knew that it was probably off the table coming into it.
That was certainly the impression I was getting from quiet conversations over a
call to send off.
And that's not to be to go down the cynical line of although we're not going to be
allowed to win it.
I don't think I'd go that far.
What I would say is it's very clear that all the teams that came with a step in terms
of an Evo Joker have taken a step.
Yes.
You know, we're looking at the likes of Toyota with their new era package BMW with
the new era package Cadillac of a new era package Alpine for new era package.
And I don't think it's coincidence that all of them were stronger this year than
last year and the 499 P bar some very, very minor tweaks due to the
the litigation process comes back as an identical car.
And it wasn't like they were miles off either.
It was just that they were a couple of minutes off and they had one car finishing
fifth. That was the 51 and 83 finishing seventh, both on the lead lap by the end.
So it wasn't like they were massively punished and they were nowhere, but they
didn't have the tools to fight, especially as this race evolved.
And one of the, you know, when you've got a race that's that clean.
And so if you restart the fascination becomes what's the strategy looked like
because the teams are having to go for it because they knew there was an
opportunity to build a lead because the way the race was playing out.
So as we, as the race all dragged on and we had different tire strategies
coming into play and people switching from the medium to the softs back to the
medium again, some of the teams experiment with hard time for one of those.
It was that was the kind of fascinating part about it.
And throughout the race, the 499 P never looked like it was going
to climb the standings and challenge for a top three finish to it.
There were times when it was quite unlike what we're seeing from Ferrari
the last three years at Le Mans.
And for the most part, through the WC seasons, it was scrappy.
There were a couple of moments where you sort of got a peek behind the curtain
that that they were just not operating that well.
And in particular, some repeated traffic picked up on the WC TV broadcast
between Alexander Pierre Greedy and his engineer after a clash with a LB2
car that was actually called against Pierre Greedy.
And it took him quite some time to calm Ali down.
And that, I think, indicated possibly a bit less about the incident itself,
but possibly a bit more about the frustrated state of mind across the whole team.
Yeah, no, it is frustrating.
You come you win it three times in a row, then you come back and you're struggling
to fight for top five finish.
And I think the most damaging part of the race for them is the fact that the 50
consistently through the week, I felt looked like the strongest, most well rounded package.
That was the car looked like if they were going to mount any challenge at all,
it was going to be that car and that was the car that retired.
So when that car was pushed into the back of the garage
and that was a fire extinguisher failure.
Yeah, I think the car had been off the road.
Yeah, Nielsen had gone off in trying to in traffic, hadn't he?
And that wasn't fully explained as to why, but they spent a lot of time
in the bottom part of that car.
And we were told they needed to replace the fire extinguisher,
but it was clearly a very involved job indeed.
And that that felt like the moment that it was over really for me.
But I felt like you can kind of rule them out then.
And you're right, it wasn't like they didn't fall off the lead lap, as we say,
but they were never there.
Even after the second restart, they were never able to spring a surprise.
Let's talk about the next one, Alpine.
At the moment, as we understand it, this will be the final
Le Mans for the Alpine A4, A2, A4, all sorts of rumors and some speculation
about the future of that car, that program, that facility, those people.
Pretty clear that there are interested parties.
And I think it's parties plural in the
what is currently branded as the Alpine program.
But it's not before we come into talking about the race,
it's not as simple as what people are talking about or writing about.
No, I spoke to Philippe Senior again
during race week, just to kind of get a
a reality check as to where we are, because I know his his general
aim was to have something that he could say about the direction
of the program for Signatec next year by the time we got to Le Mans.
And that didn't happen.
He was he told me that he was talking to multiple parties.
He told me that, you know, that he confirmed that the Chinese OEMs are part of that.
The key thing here is OEMs plural.
Yeah, OEMs plural.
So.
The other thing he said was it was quite it's very challenging to have these discussions
because everyone's from their side is so new to this.
And it's hard to know who you're talking to and how much they're understanding
how everything would work and what the options are.
So there's lots still to come on that.
And he's got a real fight on his hands to get everything over the line
in time to be able to get a program underway for 20 27.
But he maintains that is the aim he wants to keep the spot
bound to staff and drivers you've got together.
And in order to do that, he needs it to be 20 27.
But he, you know, what he was trying to stress was
the stop in those talks during the one week, they need to focus on Le Mans
and a good result of Le Mans is incredibly important to their future prospects.
They needed to prove themselves and they needed to prove that the car
was a package worth investing in.
And I think they did that.
I think they did exactly that.
It was quick.
It was reasonably consistent.
It didn't really have the final punch that's a couple of the better
of the LMBH cars we go on to those at the moment that had.
But it was in the mix for periods of that race.
There was enough there that you would have thought that anybody
interested in investing in a program, not with the European Bajon front.
So I think that's done.
I don't think we're going to see that at all in 20 27.
But investing in the underpinnings of that program.
And for that matter, potentially the facilities of that problem program
and the personnel of that program, I think we saw enough.
Yeah, definitely.
And they ended up with a sixth place finish for the 35 crew.
Again, on the lead lap, crucially, never fell off the lead lap,
never looked totally out of it.
Felt like they needed a little bit of attrition to kick in in front to truly be
more of a factor, but to get a car that close.
You know, only two years on from that horrible race they had
when they took the car to the month of the first time.
I think I've got you.
But they clearly knew that engine was not going to make them.
Yeah. And how far they've come in two years.
So emotional for everyone.
Certainly anyone who's involved, principally, with the Alpine concern,
overseeing the set, because this is the biggest moment of the season
and it's now passed and now all they've got to focus on is the remaining WC races.
And that will just fly by, won't it?
And then we'll be talking about Alpine and their program being a thing of a past.
But as a whole, I thought I'd encourage and wreak and I feel like
Philip Sr. in particular can kind of keep his chin up
going into these crucial discussions that he's going to be having pretty much for
him now, you know, straight after the month's finished,
those talks are going to resume wherever he has enough,
you know, enough, he can have enough conversations
and things can get detailed enough that he can announce something before
the end of the summer. That's the aim.
But we've got to go to wait and see.
I think the other thing on that front is being realistic about it.
The 2027 program, if it comes about and if it's even if it's involving
the base of that car, that program is more likely to be a 2028
competitive program 2027 could well be a development year for another emerging
pre-2030 will come to that later in the show. Manufacturer.
Yeah, it's there are a range of options and that's things you can't talk it,
you know, with any, you know, confirmations because there are none.
I think you'd like to be able to just tweak the current car,
restyle it a little bit and re-homologate it as a new brand and carry on
immediately as it is. But it's clear there's going to be an option.
And if a big 20zo em rolls in, has loads of money to spend and just wants to go for it,
he can worry a little bit less about how do I pay my staff next month for not racing
if they're going to spend next year doing a significant overhaul to the package
they've got in time for 2028.
So looking forward to seeing what happens.
I'm relatively confident they'll find something.
I don't want to go too far because it's not easy to get money out of a market
place that's that.
I think the key is this.
We are being actively discouraged from making conclusions about rumour.
Let's put it that way.
OK, so the rumour that deal was done with BYD.
That's been scotched.
There's not been a deal done with BYD.
That's that's certainly the point of which that was written and spoken about.
That's not the case.
BYD is certainly on a list of potential partners.
I think that list may be longer than two, but we believe do we not?
That there's another Chinese manufacturer that is Geely that might will be involved
in the discourse around the future of the program.
Definitely.
And I mean, there is there is.
Yeah, like you say, the list is even longer than that.
And you look at the likes of Sherry, what they've said about what they want to do.
Great wall looking into sports, racing some form.
I know who knows who else.
No, who knows who else, but it be also interesting.
He said OEMs and investors.
So he didn't didn't just say we're just talking to OEMs.
He did name check the fact that they did specifically say that they've been talking
to investors as well as OEMs.
It could be that this becomes something entirely different.
I don't know what it looks like.
Don't know who it's with.
He wouldn't tell me even if he felt he could.
So we'll see.
So that's that's how Pete let's move on to Aston Martin.
Before we get into realistically, the three that were in contention into Sunday
for the overall win, the Valkyrie massive, massive crowd favourite again.
This time, completely different story.
This was not ever going to be about whether or not they can bring you come to the finish.
They wanted to be in the mix.
The sadness was they weren't.
Didn't look like it other than a little bit of one lap pace here and there
for most of the racing week.
And in particular, didn't look like it because it's very clear.
And we can point the finger at POP for this one, I think,
is that the straight line speed that we saw with the Valkyrie in Spa
that served it pretty well did not appear to be there for the 20
different ones in the mall. No, no, it was a different story.
Wasn't it to two months ago?
A little bit similar to Peugeot, not just not quite as bad in terms of the way
that the performance differed and the general outlook on the race differed
from one race to the next.
And we're very quick on the test day top of the test day of the 007.
And, you know, you don't read too much in tests and times.
Never wise. And this is why, because, you know, if you had to come away from that
thinking, oh, that's the mind of the aim of a shout here,
you'd be thoroughly disappointed by the time you got the sun after noon.
You know, a week later. So yeah, I mean, they felt I kind of felt
moved in the campus that they felt they could get something out of this race.
I don't think they the likes of the drivers certainly would have with a
recorder off wherever keen to start banging the drum of them,
finishing on the podium or better.
But I think they were expected to be a bit closer and there were
two laps off by the end of it.
They were certainly more reliable than they were in their debut year.
It just wasn't enough.
The car seems like a better proposition around that track than it did a year ago.
It was always going to be because it was so new at the point when we were racing
with the balcony for the first time last year.
So encouraging signs and they've learned a lot.
And the big the big move is going to be next year because they're coming back
with jokers, expectations, something like some sort of suspension update
that's pretty significantly different car.
Yeah, they know at this point where the weaknesses lie
and some of them are very visible when you watch the car lap a circuit.
So I think everything's kind of in place.
Some some updates to the car.
And this time next year, we could be talking of a very different
or telling a very different tale about their race at Le Mans,
which just feels like it's missing a piece or two.
We're then left with the three cars that ended up really in contention.
Three makes ended up in contention for the overall win.
The first two of those that we're going to talk about
unluckily lost a significant bullet from their gun.
Before we got down to the final moves
in terms of the pace they had available, the strategy they could put in place.
So we're going to talk first about Cadillac.
38 car looked very, very good for an awfully long time.
And they did that principally with a bold choice
with the cars going on to the soft tyre at night.
They the principal competition didn't really have an answer to the pace there.
There was a mistake from Brendan Hartley in the early hours.
So we're running straight on at Mollison Corne Avenue,
do the usual circuit of the roundabout that puts the first of two Cadillacs
right on his tail and from there on in, they.
Bullied, raced, strategised their way to a one to.
Run through the early hours of the morning until the 38 car hits,
what eventually ended up to be terminal power steaming problems.
And from that point forward,
plus the fact that we're coming back into the heat of the day
where that car did not seem to work as well,
you sort of got to the stage where you thought for this car
now to win, so what else is going to hit trouble?
Yeah, yeah, kind of.
And this car, I don't mean the 38, I mean, Cadillac.
Yeah, it slowly fell away in their chances of win.
And.
It was really encouraging, I thought, though.
First of all, to see the 38 car run that well,
I think that was the best week or the best race event for the 38 car.
And they didn't get a result.
But that's the best the 38 has looked since Jota took the Cadillac program on.
Jack Akin, by the way, should say Jack Akin is amazing.
Yeah, it stood out.
I mean, you know, the we all know the story by now of what happened in.
Hyperpol.
Somewhat of an embarrassment, I think, to race organises that we had all the.
The pomp and ceremony of a.
Hyperpol celebration.
And moments later, they're forced into a back down because of a problem
with the Caddy and the medals are handed over to the BMW squad.
It's BMW going to talk about next, but the Caddy.
I'd be blunt.
I did the TV commercial schedule at Stint, through to about four a.m.
And at that point, there are two things on my mind.
One, can they maintain this momentum on the medium time
when we come into the heat of the day to, oh, my God, Cadillac and Jota
could win them on here.
Yeah, it really did feel like it.
And through the week, it did.
They did look like a team to be forced to be reckoned with for this race.
And that's the worst part about it is they didn't get a podium.
They finished fourth with the car, the Jota car that finished.
And they'll leave with no trophies in hand and knowing that
it had the race playing out differently.
And had you run that race again, they could have easily won it.
Could have been a one to could have been a one to their form was very, very good.
The one thing I'll say as a counterpoint to that is it's very clear
that the changes have been made to that car.
I've made a fundamental difference.
Definitely in the race.
Yeah.
Because last year we knew that we saw the car have pace over a lot.
And the moment we got into the race and the car was in dirty air
and fighting through traffic, it was just losing pace.
It was losing time as well on warm up with the tyres.
So the combination of this new Aero package, the braking package,
receiving an update plus the new tyres for this year from Michelin.
It just seems to be just a fundamentally better car,
like in pretty much every area.
So excited for the future you've got to be with the direction this is heading.
It's looking like it's all coming together.
This looks like a team that's so, so close all of a sudden.
And for the first time when I was watching that race,
you thought I can see this car cross underline and win in this race.
Yeah.
And previously I just never thought we'd be saying that.
I completely agree with you.
It looked like a team that not only was hungry, but had a plan.
And they executed very well.
They executed very well.
They were very unlucky with the 38s, woes.
That car looked super strong.
Do I think ultimately they would have won it in circumstances we saw?
It would have been close.
I think they would have got a car in the podium and they hadn't lost the second car.
Yeah, it definitely reduced their not having that second bullet
towards the end of the race when it was clear that Toyota with their two cars
held an advantage by having different options on strategy for having a second car.
It was very clear that at that point that their chances of winning reduced.
And it just, like I say, it felt like if you'd run that race 10 times,
I probably would have won it three or four.
Yeah.
We move on to talk about BMW.
They haven't won this century BMW.
They only won once in 1999.
It looked very much as if they might double up.
They might break that long streak without the overall win.
But they again suffered from losing a car in competitive form, at least.
Fairly early on, that was a clash initially between
Dries Funtour and an L&P two car that's ripped away part of the rear bodywork.
And that took something of a sting out of that car's performance.
Yeah.
It was a big moment in the race, wasn't it really?
The moment that that collision happened for Dries.
And a real real shame, because you knew the moment you saw the rear bodywork on that,
you were like, the way this race is going, this is done.
They're not going to have a chance of winning this.
You're not going to come back from that.
I mean, particularly that they, when they were trying to make the changes,
usually you've seen it too hard to have a T-bar and a weight goes,
new rear clip on, a way we go, but it had broken mounting points.
And from there on in, it's taking longer that it should do.
And there's a lingering issue.
And it felt like they parked it and they were going to try and bring it out
for some sort of formation photo finish.
And when, I guess, when it became clear that the 20 wasn't going to win the race,
they decided we're just going to pack it in.
But the 20, you know, this is amazing.
Yeah, this is
the form for BMW is on the up.
A strategy led one to at Spa.
Both cars being reasonably quick, very quick.
I'm on and one of them putting in a
race long challenge for the win.
Yeah, it just it looked like it was all coming together for them.
And I was so impressed with Robin Friens.
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't the absolute perfect race.
I believe that when he was holding the lead,
went off into the gravel trying to get into the pit lane,
which I think cost him a bit of time at a time and they really couldn't afford
a mistake like that. But as a whole, I thought he was mesmeric.
And show no wonder Linda as well is just looking more and more like one of the top
guys in the class, René Rass, a solid job as well.
And it's a really great trio.
And we're seeing them with this 2026 spec of that car.
Just look at one with it.
And with a second place finish.
Yes, they'll be disappointed to finish 10 seconds off the win
and not get it over the line.
But once they get over the initial disappointment of being so close
and finishing second, they're legitimately in the championship run now.
You can argue they're perhaps even favourites.
If WRT you continue to operate the way they're doing, they've been fantastic.
Like a real, real positive surprise
in addition to this season is seeing them become a real factor as a trio.
Which brings us to the winners of the 23 hours at Le Mans Toyota.
And I mean, again, oddly, at various points of the race, it could have been the other car.
We talked for a long time.
It was absolutely.
We talked a little earlier about the car leading, leading comfortably.
A bit of a stumble from from Brendan Hartley
that's allowed the Cadillacs to get in amongst the Toyota.
They also had the problem with the brakes, didn't they?
They had to change the the casing round the brake discs.
The hub needed change in which cost them time at two stops, I think.
And that was the point where it kind of felt like a real turning point for that car's race.
Because it was just at the point where the seven had entered the fold with the safety cars.
Yeah. So that left us with the seven.
OK, history will tell us it's gone on to win the race.
It's a second win for Mike Conway.
And what might be his final year with that team?
It's a second win for Komebe Kobayashi.
I'm pretty certain it won't be his last year with that team.
But it's a first win for Nick De Vries, the first Dutchman to take the
overall win at Le Bon 23L since Jan Ram is in 1988, which is a hell of a stat.
Let's talk about the turnaround in fortunes,
but how they've done it for Toyota.
It's a new car.
It's called something different.
The team has called something different.
The underpinnings are very familiar, but the aero package, fundamentally different.
The styling has been put in place to match the current styling of the Toyota road car fleet.
They once they get in the mix.
Looked unbeatable.
Yeah, looked like they were executing the way they used to.
They were lapping the way they used to.
They seemed to have the chase from the main competitors under control.
Pretty much throughout the race.
There was the odd minus stumble, but generally speaking, they were pretty close to being the Toyota Evolved.
Yeah, the best I've looked since 2023 at this race by far.
And I maintained for a long time.
Unless I'm mistaken, predicted the eight to win this race way back on the podcast before we got there.
And maintain that I thought it was Toyota's race the whole time.
It just felt like this was going to be the time when we saw them show us what they're capable of
and remind us just how good they are.
And it was a delight to see and they'll be so thrilled to have finally beaten this massive pack of factories at this race,
having come close and having gone a few years without a win and their last win coming before everyone kind of arrived.
Yeah, I was I was mightily impressed with them.
No, whether they didn't deserve it in any way.
Absolutely.
It was a full team performance.
It was a great win.
They absolutely deserved it.
There is one lesson I feel for our friends at Toyota, which is they need to learn.
Through this period in hypercar to be as good in defeat as in sporting terms as they are in victory.
That has been a massive weak point through this dominance from Ferrari over the last two or three years, whatever that they feel the issue is.
You know, this is something that we know has been valued in this sport and that this great race for as long as I can remember.
And I'm sure it goes way further back than that.
I want to see the magnanimous in defeat at least once and we have not seen that on any of the three
occasions in the hypercar era when they've lost.
We have not seen that.
And there's always been a fairly acid public reason given.
This was a magnificent win.
It was a magnificent return to form.
There's been a tacit acknowledgement of where some of the weaknesses was in the fact that they brought a new car.
The what we've seen was the execution of this race as it was in Imola.
That's we're more back to the Toyota racing of old.
And I think there are very strong contenders for the World Championship at this point.
100% 100% they, like I said, they look back to their best.
And we'd go from Ferrari being touted as the favorites and being the new benchmark in hypercar.
And all of a sudden, they've not won a racing over a year.
The Toyota has won three of the last 44
Yeah, it breaks that cycle, doesn't it, with the TRO10 taking a win.
That is the first time in seven races that we've seen a eight races by policies.
We've seen a car win a second race in those eights.
And it is the Toyota TRO10 having taken the first and third races this year.
It takes nothing away in terms of the stats from the
point that we were making coming into this.
I know we made it repeatedly, either in copy on DSC or in verbal terms on this podcast,
that we expected a more to the point we hoped for a really close race.
We got it. 10 seconds of the gap at the end of the race, seven cars
on the lead lap at the end of the race.
The second biggest total ever.
In fact, the last three years have had the three highest totals of finishing cars
over all the lead lap.
I think ultimately, those responsible for the way that the rule set is implemented
will go away from this pretty satisfied, I think for the most part, the public.
And the more professional observers will go away, means to be satisfied.
Do I of course have questions as to individual performances and individual issues.
But what I think we saw and those that pay at the gates saw and those that pay to watch on TV saw
was a really good Le Mans 24 Hours.
Yeah, it was a very good Le Mans 24 Hours.
I wouldn't go as far as say it was a classic for the overwind.
What it lacked was high drama and it needed it for me to be
an absolute classic.
One of the best races I've ever seen at that circuit needed a few more proper on track battles.
There were some and there were some fantastic overtakes.
There was too much catching up parked behind someone couldn't get enough of a tow to make a pass
on particularly vignette of the Toyota, which was so good through the corners, but down the
straights and even in even in a or trying to draft and overtake anyone just didn't quite have an edge
and the pony's to do it.
There was so much of seeing two cars nose to tail and then one of them were pit the moment it got
like it got to a point where we were going to see a good fight.
So that's the only thing it lacked.
But if you've got a race with only two safety cars because there are so few mistakes and
nobody was throwing a car into a wall, you're going to get that.
I think so.
Let's move on.
Let's talk about the other classes for races, not one course 24 hours of the month.
We can't move forward without recognizing outstanding performance for inter-European
competition.
Both cars, excuse me, in the mix throughout the whole 24 hours for very much of it,
we're pretty much in formation and scored at the end a one to finish.
That's happened only three times in the current rules set.
Both of the other sorry, only three times now it's happened that the same team has
fielded cars for two podium positions.
113 in 2022 and 114 or start again, Graham.
112 and that was the 2017 Jackie Chan DC racing Jota.
And the other one was Jota again with the first and the third with that astonishing finish
on the line when the second WRT car was falling back and being caught by the Jota car.
It's not a stunning performance.
They had competition.
They had competition in depth.
The team car was unlucky, I think, to hit trouble and fall out of the race.
I think that was that looked all day.
That was the car.
If anyone was going to win it.
Absolutely.
I know the first year guys got close at times towards the end, but that was the car that was
going to upset this freight train like performance from from into Europe.
Just ridiculous that this is a team that struggles to win in European honsoons.
It finishes second all the time.
They come here and they just dominate routinely winning now three and four.
Three and four.
It is now what is that?
That's the most wins the Gibson era.
Three wins and two second places in four years.
That is nuts.
They looked capable of doing it all day.
There were other teams, like we said, in contention.
I particularly wanted to mention, by the way, the first year racing by Panist guys.
What a step forward from Vector Sport.
Yeah.
Yeah, they were very good.
Did they finish fourth or fifth in the end?
They finished fourth and had the first year of our Panist Cup and delayed any more because
it was an amazing combat drive.
And we would have seen Vector on the podium at the end, which was crazy.
But for what I'd like to say about this Europe was, well, they proved, I think,
that the 43 car and a rare win for an art car at Le Mans.
If not the only art car win that I can remember.
No, 1999.
Was that an art car?
Yeah, for a tow.
I don't know.
It wasn't that one, was it?
It was the one that didn't enter.
No.
Yeah.
I'm not sure an art car has won the race.
Answers on a postcard, ladies and gentlemen.
Okay.
But what they showed was they've got three drivers in Kubosz, Mioski, Tom Dillman and
Nick Yali.
The work really was a trio.
And they're all around them in that glass of a driver changes compared to last year.
Having the continuity, bringing back the same trio to defend that race, I think helped.
You know, to have that.
You're not coming into this.
It's such a big event.
And to come in with new teammates for an entirely new crew and how good your team is,
is always a tough ask.
Well, we're going to be talking about one of those crew members as we did the news round
up shortly.
But for now, congratulations to them.
That was a world-class performance.
What they've done is done exactly what they wanted to do in two forms.
One, take the win.
Two, slap down a calling card to say, we want to be in a hypercar.
We've got the quality to do it.
And having seen that, I don't think anybody would disagree.
No, not at all.
And then the second car they filled with Bezier Gar, Richard, Richard,
Charest and Nico Miller was fantastic.
Nico Miller looked really good.
I was really shouldn't feel like I need to say I was really impressed by Nico Miller.
He is a factory driver.
He has been in hypercar before, but it was a very, very strong field of drivers.
And he was brilliant.
I was really fun to watch as well.
And a few, a few camera shots we got of P2 during the race, but really impressed with that car as
well.
And that could have won it.
A bit like the Toyota scenario with two cars on a different day, the 343 could have won it.
So yeah, we had those two at the front and then the Fressa of our Panis car, which had Lou
Rousseff not had that spin that cost them a load of time, had the safety cars not fallen
in the way that they fell, which cost them further time and dropped them off the lead lap.
We could easily have been talking about Panis racing winning this race.
We could.
Excuse me.
Yes, again.
The creek of the bunk coming down.
Okay.
This cabin.
That's P2, but of course there were 10 cars in that class.
There were nine.
There's one more shower I want to give, which is the CLX crew, the 37 crew who finished fifth
in class with a trio of 19 year olds, the youngest ever lineup in it with Adrien,
Clomey, Neil, Ian Aguilera, Theodore Jensen, hats off.
Yeah, yeah.
Fifth place finish for three babies.
Yeah.
You know, they're all going to be back and they're all going to be sick.
They were brilliant.
Yeah.
Really, really good stuff.
And they went into the race, three kids to the theater, Jensen before the track actually
got underway with no expectation at all.
Just wanting to make the finish.
No pressure on them to finish anywhere like top five on the podium or anything like that.
And there was a problem, but they could have got a podium.
Yep.
It looked like so.
I was mightily impressed by the three of those.
Good stuff.
LLP2 Pro have nine cars in that and...
Messy.
It was messy.
There were a couple of pretty high profile entries in that class.
It was taken by a team that came in with confidence.
I got pro racing with another win to their name with the CrowdStrike Racing squad, George Kurtz,
you know, bringing that team forward.
But they were right up there at one point.
Before we got into safety car time, they were right up there and in the mix for potentially
even an overall podium.
No, but then their strategy worked really nicely.
They front loaded the drive time to try and get George Kurtz through his minimum drive time
as quickly as possible.
And there's another team that we're going to talk about shortly that did that and did
that to perfection.
And Alex Quinn and Lauren Heinrich as a duo.
Wow.
I mean, we knew it was going to be good, but Lauren Heinrich coming into his first ever
LLP2 race and his first ever Le Mans.
Well, he came in and was, I would go as far as to say, probably the most impressive driver
in the whole class.
Lauren, I think has driven LLP2.
Has he driven LLP2?
I think I thought it was his LLP2 debut.
I don't know what it means is Lauren.
We're here in June and his record so far this year is overall win at Daytona, overall win
at Sebring.
Now, another Peter Brown win at Le Mans, that is a proper Grand Slam performance.
Yeah.
Wow.
And George Kurtz and the crowd struck racing APR effort.
Daytona win, Le Mans win, same year.
Absolutely.
And beyond that, we keep talking about Alex Quinn and it may well be that people are getting
bored of us doing that.
Don't care.
Watch this kid.
Pursha got their eyes all over him as their current development driver.
He's quick as a bunny, smart as well and works really well with the program setups.
It's run with a couple of teams this year.
He's done some running of course with, I've got pro racing, he's done some running as well
with Nilsson racing.
They all love him.
He's a great kid.
He's such a nice kid as well.
He's so humble.
For someone that's got his talent in the years, I actually stopped him at Scrutiny Ring and
what, you know, suck a microphone under his nose to get some quotes about the week because
it felt like this is a lineup that could deliver something particularly special.
And his kind of whole mantra was, it's not about me.
This, I'm just, I'm happy to be here loving it.
It's going to be fantastic to work with Lauren and gain some experience from him.
Loves working with API.
Loves working with George.
And has no concept.
It just doesn't feel like he has a concept or just how talented he is and how much
notice he's getting from people.
Not just the two of us by any means.
People are noticing how quick he is.
And quite right they should.
And he's already got that opportunity with the factory team.
It won't be the last.
It won't be the last.
So that's them.
And that was a nip and tuck battle for the positions in LMP2 of Brown.
But it was dominance really.
It was such a messy race.
And I think, I think it was hour seven or hour eight onwards.
They led every hour.
They just pulled away, got a lead lap and got a lap lead.
Sorry.
And then just held it, it through the two safety cars.
Didn't, no one sniffed them after that.
And they just pulled it home.
And it was actually quite a nice hearing, Lauren Heimerich, in the post-wrestling
press conference, say it was actually quite an easy race because they just,
they got that lead, maintained it.
And he had, he said, kind of had enough of a lead gap that when it was coming down
to the end of the race, he looked down, realized he had like three laps left of
his final stint.
I was getting quite sad because it was like, it's kind of over now.
It's like, it's my first Le Mans.
I love the event.
I understand what it means to be here.
And I'm not stressed about this at all.
I'm just sitting there thinking, that's quite sad it's coming to an end.
Well, what dramas await for him moving forward?
Yeah.
It was the 183 from AF Corsa, Francois Proto's squad that took second place with Ben
Harnicoats and Matthew Vassifiere.
The 99, the AO by TF car, Rocky the Pegasus, that took the third place for the
class with PJ Hyatt, with late replacement James Allen on the podium,
and with Dane Cameron.
Moving on to album GT3, feel good results.
Another one that a lot of people predicted, but I think I did.
And I came away from that thinking, I've predicted that.
I'm not quite sure why.
Because the form book didn't really show that this car had it, but somehow the combination
of the return of Ben Keating after injury, TF Sport, who just seemed to produce Le Mans
performances at will, Corvette into double figures with Corvette racing programs with
wins with this one.
Nicky Katzberg, who is just talismanic in these cars, in particular when he combines
with Ben Keating, and hats off for an absolutely epic finish to the race from Johnny Hedger.
Yeah, Johnny Hedger.
Was it four or five stints he did at the end?
He was in that car.
Yeah, he did five stints at the end, and it was only supposed to do three, I think he said,
and they just carried on.
Yeah.
Just like, I'll just carry on.
With the play of the tire strategy was working, and Matt was carrying on, mate.
And he was like, okay, what about now?
Matt, carry on, mate.
And he just went to the end.
And not only was he consistent, not only did he not make a mistake, he was utterly,
utterly rapid.
Like, and looking at, as always, to check out the B pillar afterwards, just to kind of
see where we are in terms of average stint performance and overall fastest laps.
He was second of anyone in the entire class as a silver.
It was outrageous performance.
A stand-up performance.
A stand-up performance.
Here's the thing.
Number one, he wanted to win Le Mans.
Congratulations, Johnny.
You've done that.
Number two is he'll recognize, as we all do, that there's a number of young drivers that
get our gel every year by staying as a silver.
He has.
He knows that that clock is ticking.
And the best way to continue with a career is to win the big races.
That's a box tick, isn't it, from this brief?
And to show you that you've got the performance that you've played a full part in it,
he's done both in one race.
So that will serve him well, I'm sure, as we move forward.
Congratulations to all three of them.
I've got to say in particular to Johnny and to Ben.
Ben was not still feeling 100% after this elbow injury.
He was in a lot of pain behind the wheel.
Yeah.
But a win is win.
And the history books will show that Ben Keating's going to have another trophy at home.
Second place was the Le Mans.
You're 78, Lexus.
78, Lexus.
First ever and potentially last ever podium at Le Mans for Lexus.
Of course, they've only competed in the LMGT3 era.
The replacement car.
I want to talk about just later on the show about the replacement car.
So the 78 car makes it home in second place.
And Aston Martin, the 23.
23, yeah, which was a really nice package.
Yeah.
Really nice package.
And he's raised naturally.
He was speaking to Hugh Tarska from Aston Martin before the race started on race day morning,
just asking him about prospects for both cars from heart of racing.
You know, at that point, we knew that the 27 was going to be starting from the front after
Mattia Drudy's fantastic qualifying performance again at this race.
And he was, you know, quite right in saying, don't, you know, don't look over the 23.
Gray Nils doing very, very well.
Eduardo Barricala, we know, is such a talent.
And Johnny Adam is, he's won.
He knows how to win.
He knows how to win.
He knows how to win without a question.
He's smiling all week.
He's looked on top of it all week.
Want to say a particular word for Gray Niel, by the way, he's been a WC Rocky this year.
He was amazing in qualifying.
I mean, that was not for my soul coming from Gray Niel.
Congratulations, young man.
That is an epic result this early on at this level of your LMGT3 career.
Yeah.
And it was a shame that the 27 had its gearbox issue retired because that was a car that
certainly was was well, even in the mix or better and could have won this race.
And it felt like by the end, not having them playing a part in the final froze of it,
you know, the race kind of suffered a little bit for it because that was a car that was
driven magnificently.
I thought that Roby Chon was really, really strong in James, didn't put a foot wrong and
had to have the opportunity to strap my tear, Drudy, and at the end, and if it was close,
who knows what would have happened.
Drudy was was very good.
Yeah, it didn't have the speed at certain times in certain temperatures,
the vantage.
The Corvette clearly did.
They were nowhere really in qualifying in terms of showing us what they could do.
But on long runs and on tire life, Corvette was fantastic.
And just they burned through Ben Keating's drive time in eight hours, which for someone
who was under in pain while he was driving was an Ironman performance.
The moment that he got on the car for the last time, and it was just a tag team effort for the
rest of it, there was no car like it in terms of outright pace.
So just go quick, rapid run through some of the other plays and that as the other Corvettes,
13 Autosport early-ish problem that counted them out as a systems problem that's just
overwhelmed them, JMR's entry via TF Sports.
I think they would have been quite happy with
Got to the end.
You did indeed.
Had a lot to learn today.
Prince Jeffrey, Matt met Prince Jeffrey for quite a while and a chat with him together
with Martin Haven.
What an inspiring young man with huge responsibility.
And there'll be later stuff to be written about the ambition that sits there in a variety of ways
to play a bigger part in this sport on either side of his life, whether or not that's the
responsibility he has in his nation or the responsibility he has to the team that is established,
take forward his career and others.
Porsche, can't ignore that.
Not great.
Lowest number of cars they've ever entered since 51 when they first came.
Neither car finished.
And it's the first time since 1991 that we've not had a Porsche on a podium for any class at all.
Look, call it sour grapes, call it what you will.
The decision to move away from WEC increasingly looks to be a bad one.
Yeah, I can't disagree with that.
I'd say, what I would say is the man side guys with the package they had did a decent job as a
hull through the week.
It just felt a piece in the race in two ways.
I mean, the 92 car on another day could have been a contender by the time we got to the end
of the race, had a pump very early, but basically counted out.
And the 91 when ancient government was behind the wheel was rapid and that was for me a car
that could have ended up on the podium, but had that steering failure, which sent him into the
That was the biggest accident of the race, was that calls that second safety car.
Thankfully, it was okay.
Car, not so much.
But for man tired to come away, especially after the disappointment they had, I guess at the
nevergreen 24 hours, not that long ago, we're kind of nothing to show for at Le Mans, you
know, in a race where they held real responsibility as the only person who could have been on the
as the only Porsche team there and a team that was running a special 75 and a rare three
Porsche works for livery.
There were eyes on that car.
There was expectation as defending winners two times in a row.
And it was another one like the 27 heart racing vantage.
It was a shame that the certainly the 91 car wasn't there at the end because it would have
been really interesting to see, you know, a Johnny Edgar slash Nikki Katzberg battle with a
Drudy and a Gooven, you know, if they were close, that would have been amazing.
And it didn't happen.
Ferrari had five bullets in the gun.
They had three entries by air of course, two full season cars and the beautifully
Brazilian colored 150 and the two Castle Racing cars, both of which earned their entry.
Couple of those cars ran pretty well.
21 car ran towards the front briefly so did the 150 as did the 74 but all sort of faded.
Some of them didn't make it home.
Big incident for Francesco Castellacci counted out that car, but they just didn't seem to have
the bite.
No, none of them did.
Never felt like they were wrong for for a big result.
There were some stand up performances here and there.
I thought Simon Mann was very good again.
He looked at home.
I thought that 74 Castle Car at times show what what it could do.
Dustin Blacknose very good.
Dennis Marshall very good as well.
But yeah, never felt like for a feature in the race and in a similar vein to probably
the next brand we should talk about, which is McLaren, which is Graz 39.
Should have won Amala lost out to a mechanical at the end.
One at Spa came to Le Mans.
Came to Le Mans.
On pace nowhere.
They were running a similar kind of strategy to a poor show.
We know we can't do it on pace.
We're going for a finish and hopefully we can get the best of it.
Yeah, what they did do is get both cars home, but it wasn't a stand up performance by any means.
It was a shame that a Tom Fleming, a Marvin Coffa and a Fingersitz
and Benji Gerstner didn't get a stage.
They're just nowhere.
I've seen with more trouble rather than less pace or rather a manufacturer, but is one team.
Iron links, two of the three AGs didn't come home.
The Qatar entered 62 car did, but that and its problems as well.
Two of them amongst the what was it 12, 13 retirement.
Yeah, no, it was an MGMG3 was the class that had the most retirements.
There's something about the iron links set up with Mercedes-AMG.
We've just not seen it yet.
We've not seen what we know Mercedes-AMG with that car, a Cobra Blvd plus iron links,
what they capable of.
It's just you look everywhere else and there's Mercedes-AMG is winning everywhere every weekend.
You're looking at never been 24 hours won that.
They're always there in the mix and I'm so with the windward guys.
They're a good in DTM.
They're good in you name it.
They're there and in WEC.
Wait for the new car perhaps for this challenge.
What else in that set of similar to Ford?
Yeah, for the Ford Proton effort again.
Didn't show us enough.
Yeah, it was a mess.
They got one car home.
Didn't they?
Which is which was last of the classified runners in LMGT3.
That was the 88.
And again, just I think I was asleep when the 77 went out.
So I'm not entirely sure what happened to it.
But again, it wasn't the car that you expected to be up the front.
And it was a very deep class and somebody's got to finish back.
I think it was gearbox.
Somebody's got to finish at the back.
So you can't have everyone fighting too for now at the front.
But there are some standout disappointments in there.
And again, Ford was one of them on the track.
And we have seen the Mustang do well out in the past.
Same for WR team BMW.
Yeah, well, BMW talked about the other side of the fact
the program and the prototype program, the one car in trouble,
one car with a really good run.
BMW seemed to push on them again times in the race where
the race sort of came to them.
There was a car in the mix.
Couldn't keep it there.
No.
No.
In qualifying looked more of a force.
Looked more like we were expecting them to be there in the race
when it came down to it.
Just faded and were never really a proposition.
And then one car had a gearbox issue which took it out.
That was a 69 car which looks splendid in it.
Well, both cars were way, they were mackedly turned out
sort of the best car looking cars in the race for me.
But yeah, disappointment there.
But that's a panic with the Vellum GT3, isn't it?
It was a good race.
It was a feel good story if you love your Corvette
and you love a story of somebody getting injured
and then nine weeks later getting in a car, driving very well
and then winning a race as significant as that.
I thought it was good on GT3.
But there are always two sides of the story, aren't there?
With impressive runs in some, not so impressive runs in others
when it comes to these brands.
Weather played the game, blisteringly warm for most of the 24 hours of the month after.
What a bit of quite cold and wet week.
Crowd phenomenal, absolutely huge crowd all week.
Great to see sports car racing's biggest stage
respected with so many people turning out for it.
I'll speak just briefly about our experiences with,
well, what is kind of a bit of a change, isn't it?
It's the new Atbase, the new platform for WC in the month, 24 hours TV
with our regular WC crew added to by David Lannerton,
always a fantastic addition to the crew.
He was world class again.
And then we have our two additional drivers this year.
And first of them, Michelle Gatting, was with us most of the week.
What about you, Steve?
I thought she was absolutely epic.
Brilliant, really, really impressive.
Thought both of them were.
Added a lot, added a lot of value, great analysis,
really just in perspectives at times.
Yeah, would love to see him do it again if there are a loose end at that race
in the future or any other WC race for that.
I think we know that Lawrence isn't for a little wee while because he's going to be joining
McLaren.
Michelle Gatting, desperate to get back in a competitive car.
And I think that's going to be predicated by a drive to see whether or not
she can be reclassified as silver rather than gold at the moment.
But hope so.
I expected to enjoy working with Michelle.
I loved working with Michelle.
She was just part of the gang from day one, from hour one of day one,
got it, understood it, understood what you and other viewers wanted and needed
and delivered it.
I thought that was great stuff.
So great start to that new era, if you like, with our new platform.
We then go on to the other things that we're going on at Le Mans in the last 20 years.
I'd like to say as well that I managed to get out trackside at this race
for the first time in a long, long time.
Usually I'm so nailed to that press room because there's so much to do
that I don't see cars on track.
The only time I've properly seen cars on track at this race since I started working in 2012
was the warm up of race day morning on Satinium Mon purely because I wanted to see the
Gatsby 6 NASCAR on the parade of all the winners that morning.
So I got out to see a couple of hours of the race early on,
spent some time with family and friends.
And what I got out of it was just how different the circuit is for a fans perspective
than it was when I was going as a fan, sort of pre-2013.
The infrastructure is so much better.
The choice of places to eat and drink are so much better.
The way they manage crowds, although there were a lot of bottlenecks in places,
as I was walking around principally up sort of Goodyear Bridge and across the bridge and
inside and outside the circuit to see the cars, just everything's so much nicer.
It's less medieval as an experience.
And it took me by surprise just how much more polished everything was.
I'll tell you what, there's a word for that.
It's called investment and they have progressively invested,
even though it's been a pretty difficult time to do that.
The basic facilities, the Luz, the shower blocks, places like the water bottle,
it's like all these things.
Absolutely.
They've got it that if you want to have the tag of being a truly world-class event,
you've got to be a world-class event.
And I think they've got that.
And I think you're absolutely right, by the way.
The fundamental difference, for the centerpiece there's the village
and the permanence of that now rather than it being a bunch of shacks.
And I mean, does it lose on the old world charm?
Yes.
Is that necessarily a bad thing?
No.
No, because it was.
When I first started going in 2006, it was like trying to stage the World Cup in a farm yard.
It's what it felt like.
It's not that anymore.
If you were camping and doing the camping experience,
everything about the facilities was as basic as it got.
And walking around the track and trying to follow the race was very hard unless you had a radio.
There's so much more to it now.
There's so much more you can do.
And it caters as well for people who aren't interested in gluing themselves in the race as well.
It does seem that they've been listening to people paying on the gate
for a while.
And by the way, before we move on to the news,
one part of that massive investment, and there's more to cover when we'll talk about that,
is with the expansion of, rebranding of, and launch of the new museum, the M24 Museum.
We were there this morning with the DSE crew.
Awesome.
Really good.
I had quite a moment and I think you know what that moment was.
When we walked into the first hall and there's a two minute...
The golf mirage, Graham.
I saw you take a look at it and you were in pitch.
The cars are magnificent.
But you know what?
You expect the cars to be magnificent.
It's essentially, it's the ACO collection, Richard Meals collection, some other
special cars there too, which is always told very well.
But to walk into that darkened hall filled with the modern legends,
cars are amazing.
And the, you know, every three minutes or so, the lights dim and they play
a video that takes you through the history of the race.
And they start it with a couple of minutes where they take you through the kind of rising
tension that you'll recognise the times you've done it, coming forward to the start of that race.
And then I heard my voice and I tell you what I was doing in tears.
And then we saw both Martin Haven and David Addison calling the start of that race.
Those two minutes, it was beautifully done.
And it matched exactly what my experience has been with this race, which is this joyful moment
when all of that very extended run up to the race starting.
It's finally, it's like firework and it matched it perfectly.
I do urge you, if you're going to Classic Le Mans this year, next month, please go and
sit up and use it.
Or going anywhere near the circuit at any time.
That's the point I was going to about to make, which is it is finally now worthy of
if you're going for a holiday anywhere in France and driving anywhere close to Le Mans,
do stop off and see it because it's world class.
There's some extraordinary cars in it.
Actually, as part of it, I don't want to spoil it for people because there's a couple of surprises
in there.
And I'll just say, dear Armour, but not like you've seen before.
Totally moly.
I walked into one of those areas and I thought I would have bumped into a friend of mine
taking a picture and it wasn't.
But I'm not just spoiling it for you.
Please go and see it.
If you're a fan of motorsport and a mean motorsport, because it's not just sports car racing anymore,
there are rally cars, indie cars.
There's a load of Formula One cars in there, including the best example I've seen of showing
you just how bloated the current ones are.
It is a beautiful building.
It's well executed.
And it was built so quickly.
I couldn't believe the fit and finish of the place.
It was like the Apple store of motorsport museums where there was nothing out of place.
Everything was completely clean and pristine, which is expected to just open.
This was a building that, what did they build this in a year?
And by the way, they've got room with a hall that wasn't in use to expand further in exhibition terms.
They've got so much potential to move things around and do different things.
Chappo to Richard Mille to the ACO to Lewis Howlton, by the way, is going to roll in backing this museum.
Chappo to them, it's a very worthy addition to one of the most special places in motorsport.
And that alone will serve the world.
It deserves it.
It deserves to be more of a destination of a place.
So let's talk about the aspects of the week and the news that you and the Delhi sports car
team were covering.
Before we go on to do that, I want to say congratulations to you.
This has been your first Le Mans as the editor of Delhi Sports Car.
And you know, we take it very seriously.
It's the first Le Mans that I've not been operating as a professional writer since I started
in that press room at the time of the century.
And between yourself and our US editor, R. Joe Coddle, the pair, if you're also servicing racer.com.
And yes, our two DSE Academy trainees we had there, you and Wayne and Natalie Johnston,
both of them very first ever, 25 hours of Le Mans.
I couldn't have been more proud of what I was reading.
And I know coming into it, looking at the schedule and emerging potential announcements,
actual announcements, PO opportunities.
It's a scheduling nightmare.
And when you've got people without a lot of experience of that event,
that could have been a really tough week, but it didn't look it.
I'm sure it was, but it didn't look it.
So I want to say from me to you, you know, I love you dearly.
Congratulations.
That showed why you've got the opportunity you've got to do what you're doing in our sport.
Congratulations to R. Joe as well, because I think he stepped up
and showed what he's actually got on the international front.
He's been epic in the IMSA press room these last couple of years.
But particularly, and because they're new to you and Nat,
I couldn't be more proud of what they're doing with us.
And there's a lot more to come.
Yeah, no, they were excellent.
R. Joe was excellent.
And everyone survived.
We say lying shattered on a couple of bunks.
I tell you what, I'm mentally exhausted in a way,
in a different way to normal.
Normally, I'm physically exhausted.
Yeah, but it's a different exhaustion right now.
We're not going to do that difficult thing when you are exhausted
and think back what news that they've actually had over the last 10 days.
And there's been a lot of it.
So let's start with just me rattling some stuff at you.
Calendars.
Let's get started backwards and come forwards.
So we were expecting an Asia Le Mans series calendar.
We knew that that was unlikely with the current geopolitical situation.
We knew as well, and we've talked about it on this show before,
that if we don't go to the Middle East, it's highly unlikely
that the Asia Le Mans series will take place in Asia at all.
And that, I think, is where we are right now.
Yes, as we sit here now, there is a deal in place between Iran and the United States.
Whether or not that is enough, there's confidence it holds,
there's a rapidly ticking clock for that.
So let's wait and see what happens with that.
We can then move forward and talk about the FIWC calendar.
And we need to talk about two calendars.
This calendar, 2026, no firm decision made yet.
What is emerging is we are firmly pushing to deliver Plenay, which is with Qatar and Barcelona.
Bar rain at the end of this year.
What we should say is, and having spoken to some of the people involved in the circuit side at
therein, they are ready to go.
Yes, 100%.
It's the big, the decision is coming from the LMEM side of things on whether we go.
If they turned around at last minutes, and we're definitely going to do this,
the good news is the QMMF, the Qatari Motorcycle Motor Federation,
plus the guys who run the Bahrain International Circuit,
appears to be ready to host the event at any time.
Absolutely.
And I think we are getting to the point where the final decision will need to be made in
a very few number of weeks.
And asking for guidance on what was most likely, what I've been told is, look,
right now we are pushing to go.
But we have got a plan B, and that's ready to.
Now, we don't fundamentally know what that plan B might be,
but it's pretty clear that it would involve Southern Europe.
Yeah.
And I think I've got an idea of which circuits they're certainly closing in on.
I'm going to mention a circuit that every single time we've asked the question,
and pretty much everybody has said, well, what about Porto Mail?
And the answer has been, no, no.
And all of a sudden, it's not no anymore.
I think there have been some smart conversations with other sporting bodies,
other motorsport bodies in the background,
try to make things happen seamlessly if we have to.
So we'll wait and see.
But if we do get to the stage where we're going to Middle East,
great, because that means two things.
It means that we can get back to a degree of normality.
It also means that people in that region are safer than they currently are.
And that is the most important thing as far as I'm concerned.
It means that the conflict is over, and we can start to analyze how we make sure we
don't make the same mistakes to do the same things again.
If we don't, then there's a really enigma, because then what you've got is the end of
WC season, the prospect that it might hang over to the following season,
if things don't get sorted, and the national and non-sewn season,
all of which are most likely to focus on Southern Europe,
and all of which can't really take place at the same circuits for a variety of reasons.
That's a lot of pizza and beer, isn't it, Graham?
Well, the issue, and again, we're kind of overlapping stuff here, and it's a neat segue
to something I want to talk about next, which is you're looking with hypercar
not to run those cars in the Asia Le Mans series on the same circuits
for the reason to the testing regime.
So that in itself opens up the prospect, the more than possibility,
that you will not see races for the WC if they come to Europe on the same circuits as the Asia
Le Mans series, if they come to Europe. Put that one to one side. So that's calendar 2026.
There was, though, some really exciting news about calendar 2027. We've been expecting it,
but it's great to get it confirmed.
Yeah, it was quite a long time ago, and we wrote that Silverstone was going to be in 2027,
wasn't it, Graham? It was. And it is. Hooray! We've got a home race, Graham. It's been a long road,
hasn't it, to getting Silverstone back on this calendar for the first time since the pandemic.
It will be a four-year deal for the circuit. It's got an eight-year course. It's great. It's a long-term
vision. It's my birthday weekend. It's an extension of the calendar rather than
replacing your current round, which I think there are clearly some financial implications
to doing this, but I think the majority of teams, fans and manufacturers
will all agree that it's worth it for this event. It's a really nice addition to what is going to be
an unbelievably congested start to the season if you factor in the LMS as well.
Almost the best... I'm so pleased.
Almost the best news is that it's not a replacement for the European Le Mans series weekend,
because that continues. So what it means is, after all the shenanigans with
Britain's natural acts of self-harm, Brexit, and COVID, both of which combined to make,
to give reasons why not to do it, to be blunt, we're back to a degree more normality,
to a circuit where we can be assured that there's going to be a very large and very knowledgeable
fan base, and we can bring this astonishing era of sports going to race into a British audience.
I have zero doubt that is going to be one hell of a weekend.
Yeah, the crowd is going to be big. They're expecting it to be big. There's a lot more to come in terms
of content from our side on this event. It was really nice. It did obviously the announcement
of the calendar and the notes that Silverstone is going to be on it. Then we had the day later
on race day morning a proper media time and a proper opportunity to chat. Not only some of the
key manufacturers, British manufacturers in particular, McLaren and Aston Martin,
who are going to have representation of these races, but also speak to Silverstone
directly for a long time.
Schipingel who was there with a crack team that have helped deliver this announcement.
There's so much good news out of it really, and we can throw some of it at you.
So yes, it's a four-year deal. Fantastic. It's not going to be held in the same weekend as
the LMS. Fantastic. It gives them two bites in the sports car. Cherry, they're expecting the big
crowd. They are committing to keeping the entire circuit open. So fans will be able to roam the
entire circuit. Not every grand slam will be open, but you will over the course of the weekend be
able to go to all the amazing vantage points of that track. They're expecting to bolt on lots of
additional fan activities, whether that turns into concerts. They're not entirely there yet on
announcing things, but we're going to see plenty of manufacturer activation. There's going to be
all sorts going on that weekend. They're going to go big on it. They believe it's a really big
important event. The other key thing, by the way, is that the WC will base around the wing.
It's going to be at the major, and the LMS will remain with the national pits, is my
understanding moving forward. That's my understanding of the deal. Great news. We move on,
because clearly you've still got stuff to write about that from what I heard from you and from
others was a really good media opportunity. We had Stuart and the booth for TV overnight.
Spoke really well. It was all great stuff. So that's sort of the calendar bits.
Let's talk about some of the other news that kind of emerged through the week. Probably the biggest
surprise, I think, for anybody and everybody was Asia Lamont and this Otter Froschini
with High Class Racing. Talk to me a little bit about that.
I'm sitting on my desk and it drops into my lap.
Is Otter Froschini program revived? High Class Racing entered into a partnership with
Is Otter and with Mikalotto to develop the car and to bring it back racing. So the partnership's
underway. They're going to do some development work on it this year. The aim, I believe, after
speaking to High Class Racing that day, so I immediately picked up the phone and was like,
hang on a minute, what's going on there? What are you going to do with this? Now,
where are you going to race? It was very vague. The plan is Asia Lamont is a very good opportunity
for them to race it. I think that's for me the perfect place to start with this.
And it's not only is it a category where you could see a better developed Is Otter,
T-Pro6 getting perhaps a result or two. The right drivers are in it. It's also a championship that
High Class Racing know well, don't they? So if that comes off and we get a calendar and the series
runs to plan, great. And then you've got the aspect of potentially bringing it to WC in the
future if it all starts to work out. Well, here's the thing. I think that there are obviously two
other prospects for them. One is if they get the backing, if it all comes together, they'll need
two cars, but the WC is there and is as potential as a platform for them. The other one, which I
think could be quite interesting. In the background, we've had some concerns with accurate leaving with
the possibility that we may have one more season after this year for the factory Porsche
Effect Nimza. Could we start to see accommodation for hypercar other than the big spending OEMs
from the Nimza WeatherTech Sportscar Championship? Could we find a way in for them to know it's there?
There's a conversation that we have had and I'm sure that right now is probably a good opportunity
to pick up the phone with John Loon and come forth from the plan. So you've got our GTP entry,
I'm sure he'd welcome it with open arms, but you have to see if that's on the agenda for them in
the realistic column of what was achievable with this, whether it's just that we see it in Asia
Lamarn and they take a step back and see, right, okay, let's take stock and see what the plan is.
There's so much we don't know. There's a long way to go about it. But I'm delighted that it's a car
that's clearly captured the imagination of fans. People are very, very, like the reception that
that news got was amazing. And I'd be delighted to see it back racing. It was a cool little project,
wasn't it? It is interesting. I mean, the cross-spectre Asia Lamarn series on hypercar, clearly,
as we said earlier, the calendar side of things is going to make that complex for anybody to get
the things nailed in. I will tell you that at least one program that I've seen written in at least one
reputable journal, online journal in this instance, is an absolute no-no. 100% not happening.
Assumptions about where the funnets is coming from are baseless. There's a lot of ground to be
covered before we can decide and determine and discover what that grid is going to look like.
I think there's prospects of it being reasonably good.
Friar reiterated as well in their pre-event press conference that if Asia Lamarn series goes ahead,
has a calendar, has a hyperclass, there will be there.
And I believe that's two cars. I believe that is two cars. So let's wait and see with that one.
Beyond that, not a lot emerging to put any more meat on the bones of the 2020 LMP2 class,
which I think was a surprise to some people. Including me.
Yeah. But a bit more about the 2030 hypercar regulations.
Yeah. Where'd you start with this?
The easiest way to explain it is we've essentially had the starting gun fired on
2030 formally. There have been discussions that started back around the time of the Austin WC race
last year. There was a long period of silence where not a lot happened, but manufacturers
were talking amongst themselves. I think the rule makers were talking amongst themselves
about the direction this is all going in. There were a couple of meetings I've been aware of
that happened before Lamarn, one that was with the rule makers and the key suppliers,
another one between the rule makers and the manufacturers. And that was principally to
explain the direction that ACO, IMSA and FRI are going to take this rule set and what the
fundamentals of it are. So what we were presented with on the Friday was essentially
the pillars of how this is going to work. It was a framework. It lacked detail, but that's,
you know, because we are always off of the rules actually being published. And it was
dumbed down to put with it just basically trying to get across. This is how the formula is going
to be built. This is what it's going to look like. And so it was a combination of trying to
get some of the finer details of what they were able to say at this point and then gauge some
reaction from the manufacturers. What does the 2030 rules that look like? It's essentially a merger
of LMH and LMDH, but I would go as far as say it leans into the philosophy of LMDH more than it
does LMH. So we've got rid of the four-wheel drive solutions that LMH cars employ with their
hybrid systems. Everyone will be two-wheel drive. There will be the option to take an off-the-shelf
hybrid system like there is now with Bosch or you'll be able to do your own as long as it's the
same spec. There will be options to potentially take a chassis from a supplier that's off the shelf
or you can do your own or partner up with a chassis to do your, chassis supplier to do your own.
There will be freedom of engine choice like there is now. There will be a bit more restrictions on
error in some places like underfloor, splitter diffuser, but again no great detail into what
that actually looks like in practice. There'll be the potential, they went as far as to say
they'll be updated like visual styling for these cars. I think they're kind of expecting these to go
maybe one step further in terms of looking like road car product from the manufacturers.
But then there's so many gray areas, Graham, about what the transition period certainly looks like.
The biggest one for me is can you take a current car realistically and then LMDH car and move it
into the 2030 regulations? Can you adapt the current car and take a shortcut to race?
I'm dependent on who I asked as to what answer I got.
And I know I've asked a couple of questions and previously I think of the answer, no.
But I suspect that might not be quite as solid at this point.
It's an interesting moment, isn't it? And it is a moment right now where we're getting closer and
closer to go-day in terms of the confirmation, the styling of those regulations.
And that means we're beginning to hear some public lobbying. We're beginning to hear from
some significant players in the field what their views are expressed quite publicly.
So we're clearly into not go-no-go but detail that matters to some of those players.
Yeah. So I would say there's kind of two camps in this. There's the LMDH manufacturers,
the LMDH manufacturers, and there seems to be a general agreement within those two camps on
whether this is positive or negative. What I would say is an overall
overall view of this is it's a pretty positive direction. I think what stands out to the
manufacturers and what's most positive about them from the manufacturer reception is
they all seem to be very happy that this is going somewhere, that we've started the process,
we're thinking about it, and there's plenty of time to get this all up and running.
There are some frustrations in places, and I think the LMDH manufacturers in particular
are concerned in some areas and pretty clear in others that they want there to be a kind of a
technological roadmap for this. I think the likes of Ferrari, Toyota, Peugeot in particular,
value technical freedom, they like the ability to be able to develop their own cars, their own
whether it's hybrid systems, aspects of this like that, they're keen to take use this platform and
this rule set as an opportunity to further technology, learn and develop systems that are
road relevant. I'm not sure what entirely does that, these are cars that are going to be heavier,
these are going to be cars that are going to be, even if you do your own hybrid system,
you've essentially got to match a spec system that everyone's going to use. There's question
marks about just how technologically advanced are these hybrids going to be, but there's a long
way to go yet. I would say Toyota was perhaps the most downbeat about it.
Let's see what a Le Mans windows for their...
Well exactly, that was before they went and won Le Mans again. So who knows what they think sitting
here on the Tuesday afternoon afterwards, but there was no immediate cause for concern that,
oh they've got this massively wrong, this is all going to blow up. That's the best news,
the best news is that every manufacturer seems to be leaning positive or very positive. There
were a couple of outliers to say, but as a whole it looks like we're going in the direction which
is going to see plenty of manufacturers sign up again. And that is the most important thing,
you're not going to please everyone and it feels like everyone understands that you can't please
everyone. There are going to, there's going to be fights to come about the detail in certain
aspects of this rule set, but that's for people to work up behind closed doors. And if we get to
a point where 57 of these manufacturers at minimum come back, it's a massive success for
me. A couple of other bits and pieces, one bit of Asia Le Mans series news that was out there in
Outline, we've sniffed out a bit more detail, is that the Asia Le Mans series will have a support
series moving forward, the Asia Le Mans Cup. Yeah, I was going to kind of ask you about this.
Yeah, it's sort of a reinvention of the old Asia Le Mans Spring Cup, but it will be on,
the indication is it will be on the same weekends as the Asia Le Mans series. It's effectively a
place for LMP3 to go with hypercar coming in. That means in terms of the grid sizes and for that
matter, the performance of the cars on the grid. And I know this was doing the rounds in the paddock
with views being taken by officials from the teams during last season. So this will be LMP3
and GT3. It doesn't mean that GT3 is leaving the Asia Le Mans series not at all. It's effectively,
it's the mission of the Mon Cup. It's the mission of the Mon Cup is exactly that. So that I think is
potentially good news for those teams that wish to have another product. It's bad news that there
won't be effectively duplicating for the LMP3 teams, the European Le Mans series, because
winter test aspects there, they lose that. But the LMP3 goes on with another product.
Do you think there's enough for an appetite to sustain the grid? I think, do you think they've
got to come out and say, if you win the championship in this, you get an invite to something or you
get some sort of prize in times people go? I don't know. I think it's the only sense is I don't know.
What I do know is we did turn away a fair number of GT3 come-offs last season.
And there's the opportunity to talk to the grid with that.
I favor an outlook and an attitude
of trying something different and being bold. I'm not being afraid to say,
okay, we either need to change that because it wasn't quite right or that didn't work.
I favor that. I think giving people options, allowing them to determine whether it's for them
is exactly the right way to go right now. We've got too many championships that are oversubscribed.
We should not be turning people away from international motorsport. We've got a credible
reason to be there, whether or not that's a driver, a car owner, a team or a manufacturer.
We should not be doing that. Move forward then to, from my point of view, and I'll be blunt in my
gathering fatigue, the last two things I can remember from last week, which revolve around
the prospects for two new GT3 cars. First of which is the replacement for Lexus and RCF GT3.
And along with your own Polycom on the team owner of a Cody's ASP, obviously the WC team
that run the Lexus at the moment. I was asking him principally around whether or not we finally
are going to see the new GR GT3, Tota GT3 in 2027. The answer at the moment is yes. The
first track testing for his team should be later this summer, I think August for that,
with the full intention of that car being the replacement for the Lexus car, which means,
as I said earlier in the show, ending the Lexus brand and the WC for 2027. Spoken to him before,
when we had a bit of a full start about this car with the monogation process just taking
what seems to be traditional with the Tota GT3 product just longer than everybody else, firm
intention to regrow the Ecoli's ASP business as we've seen previously, Stephen, with their
efforts with Ferrari, but most notably with Mercedes MG. That car, if he's got anything to do with it,
is bound for programs in GT World Challenge, in GT Open, and the European Monsoons too,
which I think is good news for people that love to see variety in GT racing.
Yeah. Excited to see that car properly in the Fletcher's Fields, like you say, the
the run into actually having this car under competitive race has been quite a while and it
looks, it's a looker. And hopefully the reason they've taken their time over it is because they want
to be great off the back. So I'd love to see a proper effort with a new car from them because
I think they can do wonders. Talk about, therefore, Lexus and Toto. We talked previously on the show
about the aspirations of Great Wall. You mentioned them again with them unveiling effectively
the underpinnings for a potential future GT3 car. But now we've seen not just the underpinnings,
but a concept. It looks down-site more than a concept to me of a brand new manufacturer in GT3.
They're the last brand new manufacturer that we've seen in the hypercube, which is Genesis.
Yeah. Going, you know, pushing their motorsport aspirations even further with a GT3 concept
car that was shown off in the flesh at Le Mans on the Friday. What is it? It's a gorgeous looking
race car. It's a car that's based on GT3 technical regulations. But it's not a car they're ready to
say this is a car we're going to take to WC and the LMS and IMSA and SRO and wherever. This isn't
a confirmation of a program. This is basically a hint at the direction that they're going in the
motorsport space. So I wouldn't expect this time next year we're talking about Genesis being on the
grid in GT3 as well. I think it's slightly too early for that. They have been running the car though.
They have been running the car and it has been pictured and it was presented on Goodyear Eagle
tyres. So no doubt the Mike McGregor's of this world have got their hands all over this, trying to
push them in a direction of supporting their product in Le Mans GT3. So I really hope that it's
not too long before we see a dual effort from Genesis in WC in particular in two classes.
Because this is a car that just looks awesome. If you've not seen it, go and have a look at the
pictures on the DSC and Racer. It's gorgeous from every angle as far as I'm concerned. And in person,
I didn't get a chance to see it because I was so busy at the time of that press conference.
In person, it looks even more spectacular. So no, it was great. It was really good to see Genesis
just again, just not doing anything behalf measure, not rushing into anything being very
ambitious very quickly. And it was good to have that good bit of news at the end of the week
because I think the start of the week, perhaps not so positive from Genesis, we haven't talked about
yet. But Sat down with Cyril, people before or between the test day and the start of track
action. And the first thing we're talking about is how's this Le Mans going to go? What's your
kind of vibe? And he said, he was worried about the reliability of the car. And of course,
it would be because it's very early days. But we also talked about aspirations for IMSA.
And I think it's becoming clearer and clearer now that 27 almost certainly not going to happen.
I think at this stage, it's going to be very challenging for them to put something together
at this point for next season. Haven't chosen a team that haven't got a base out there
to run in GTP. And they haven't got a firm plan of when they're going to enter. And that is down to
the current status of the WC program as it always was as a proviso. And it's also down to the general
just situation economically in the world. And the state of the GTP class, he did name check,
Honda and Acura leaving as not being great news. We hope that with some of the rule changes to
come in this new 2030 rule set and freezing the cars and restricting performance evolutions might
entice the likes of Acura and HRC to come back to the form and if they feel it's more cost effective.
It's the point. They did use that. the word pause. We've seen it before.
They are briefed elsewhere that they're concerned about escalation of cost.
I respect the fact that if that's what they said publicly, that's the feeling on it.
But it'll be interesting to see whether or not a cost controlled step forward
changes everybody's mind at Honda. I have to tell you, I don't think it will.
We'll see. We'll see, won't we? For 2027, yeah, for MSGTP, not looking like unless something comes
out of the blue, we're going to see any great additions to the class. But what I would say is
there still should be plenty of optimism for 2028 for GTP. And that's brought to
plenty of people up and down the paddock about what they think about GTP going forward. And it
seems certainly from within IMSA circles that we are going to see a genesis arrive at some point.
We are going to see Ford. We are going to see McLaren in some capacity. It just looks like it's
going to be 2028 now for all that. And that just means there's more excitement to come. And what
I said to Surreal actually, when I was talking about IMSA GTP, and he was talking about the
accurate side of things not being great news, I said, for me, it actually gives you an opportunity.
Because if Accura walks around at the end of this year, classes may be a little bit thinner.
But if you add to it, one, you get a load of noise because you're a big dog coming in,
trying out, you know, a new championship with a car that people are going to want to see.
And you also got a chance to get some good results and some good races. And we've seen enough from
that car now to say that they took that to Daytona and it ran really well.
It could be contender. Yeah. What would it be?
Why wouldn't you have a crack at one of the Daytona's?
Why wouldn't they? It's an opportunity as much as it is a risk.
We know the ruleset suits a car that may not have the ultimate performance.
We know that. They're just the way that the IMSA ruleset, the ability to get a lap back,
if you have a bit of a stumble, we know that suits that. I'm going to stumble through to
what was the last bit of news that I can remember. We've had, we talked about Genesis,
McLaren all over the place, all their glitterati were there. Good seed,
Zach Brown choosing Le Mans over the Grand Prix at the weekend.
Congratulations, Lewis Hamilton.
Yeah, as did Mohamed Bin Slime. The FIA president was there for, I think, the whole of the race,
stayed over. I'm not going to tell you what I saw and where I saw it.
I do know that they had accommodations on site.
So you hadn't seen me compounding the car in your,
money or caravan?
Yeah, you had a bit of a lie down under our snack table, which as you'll know,
our snack table is extensive, so there's plenty of room.
Pretty heavy floor.
So McLaren were there as before, and Ford did give us some news. Now, I know the fan base out
there is just desperate to see this brand new car. We're not much longer to wait for that.
Now we know who's going to drive it. So we got the final three of the six full season factory
drivers and an interesting trio, Stephen. A really interesting trio. So you've got
Matt Campbell moving from a long decade long association with Porsche to join Ford,
and you've got two members of the current Acura MSR,
Imza GTP sets up in Tom Blonkvist and Nick Yelalee.
Yeah, this is a long winner.
This is a, yeah, yeah, what weekies have.
It's a complete lineup now because these three add to
Seb Priot, Mike Rockenfeller and Logan Sargent.
So we now know what the shape of the driver line is going to be
for a hypercar for them in 2027.
And it was great, really, really positive announcement, three really highly talented
drivers that are going to bring a lot to the program with plenty of relevant experience
and L and D, H racing to get this program off the ground.
In terms of the nitty gritty of it, good news is that they can join Ford and start work
pretty much immediately. They can be involved in testing and in simulator work.
So hats off to Porsche, Acura for being so accommodating to them,
changing manufacturers. I think that's really, really healthy to see.
As for when we're going to see them on track for the first time,
I don't think every driver is going to be there at the first test, which isn't all this fifth,
and I believe a pull record off the top of my head, but it's not much longer to wait.
And the last kind of, I guess, a side to this is spoken to Mark Reichbroek again about
one driver selection to how they're going to play it next year.
No decision taken yet on whether we will see all six drivers at every race.
They haven't made that decision yet, but clearly a very talented roster.
Clearly, there's going to be some opportunities short down the line for the likes of a Mack Campbell
to get behind them with a Mustang and how much fun would that be at a place like Bathurst?
But yeah, just a really, really positive announcement.
Delighted to see it come together from Ford and excited to see what combinations they put together
and what they bring to the class. Not a short list of news, and as you say,
we'll have more to come on DSC and I'll race you on a fair number of those and others
in the coming days. Anything I've forgotten of major importance?
No, there's the odd snippet here and there and I would say a couple of bits.
We mentioned the pit building project, which is going to be completed.
The aim is to be completed by 2031.
So that's effectively a resurrection of the pre-COVID plan, which is about
the pits really do need renovation and it's a general renovation of that whole complex.
It looks fantastic from the concepts. Really, really does. It looks modern, looks sleek,
but it retains the styling of the current pit building in a sense that it looks recognizable
as the Le Mans pit straight from the concert session. I really liked it.
And to be clear as well from certainly one of the sources I've seen this from,
we are not immediately looking at an extension in terms of number of cars at Le Mans.
No, no news on that, certainly that I was party to.
But a facility upgrade, fantastic, look forward to seeing what that's like.
The only other thing I would say before we wrap it up is when we're looking at 2013
beyond, there was updates about hydrogen and there was updates on that. I would say it's
probably worth pointing out that the 2030 regs will be adopted by MSGTP in year one.
There won't be a staggered approach to it. So in terms of hydrogen, the significance of that is
we may see a garage 56 project taken up by hydrogen. To make clear, garage 56
named for back when we had 55 carlos and they built the extra garage and that was a while ago now.
But the idea behind that is to bring in a program of merit, principally technological merit,
although we've seen other programs in since, including Frederick Soze's,
efforts, both himself and his team. But yeah, that will always have seen to be
where we expected to see that coming from. Yeah, no. And I hope it comes together because I want to
see what this technology can do. I keep getting told it's going to be mature enough. It's going to
get there. But I'm yet to see the evidence that we've got a car that's capable of doing a race
like this. Well, it needs to do the race like this on performance. In other words, we do not want to
be dumbing down the cars we've currently got, the cars we've got coming to accommodate
an emerging technology. It needs to be able to do it on both pace and on endurance. That's the point.
If this thing either can't be as quick as it needs to be, or it can't go as long as it needs to go,
the questions will be asked, is that therefore a mature technology and therefore what's the point?
So, but the other aspect of this beyond the garage for the six bit is they're adding hydrogen to the
2030 rule set. So they will agree on a set of regulations for hydrogen power prototypes,
which is kind of adopt the kind of 2030 principles for powertrain and hybrid systems
with the two two-wheel drive drivetrain. But there will be an element of equivalence of
technology and that makes its comeback in trying to balance any hydrogen cars that rock up in that
era. That is going to be a massive challenge because of where the technology is. To me,
that's go no go. Right there. That's zero doubt we can have a meaningful garage 56.
For me, it's that announcement tells you that they don't feel it's possible to feel a big
class of cars. It's either it's got to be properly balanced with what we've got,
because we're only realistically going to get 1234 cars.
Gives the opportunity for manufacturers to do something left field.
Yeah. And this is what we've been missing.
Yeah. And this is where a Toyota frustrated with the way the rule set is going and doesn't like
the fact that there might be some tightening of the purse strings here and there in terms of cost
cutting measures. And we may see some of the tech of this being not dumbed down, but just not
progressing quick enough. Gives them the opportunity to go, all right, we'll suck that off. We'll do
hydrogen instead. Traditionally, based on their R&D budgets and aspirations.
And they already long down the road of a prototype, aren't they?
And I think the other thing to say with Toyota, they, like everybody else,
is they're now they're beginning to look at it and I think proven by the fact that the look of
the car changed, not just the aero, that they restyled the new car is that they're beginning to
see opportunities with this growth in the FI World and German Championship, not just in the
competition, but in terms of the audiences online, on TV, and the race meetings, the return
investment for the marketing side of things is beginning to become not beginning to become,
it is a more persuasive part of the package that ever has been in the WEC.
Yeah. So that's about it. Well, it was, it was, Le Mans happened. It was a thing. It was great.
I had a great time. I was delighted at the event that it was. I thought it was a major success
pretty much all around really. I thought it was a great addition of this race.
And just so much still to unpick and so much more to write, Graham. And I absolutely shattered.
Well, we're all going to get a day off, I think tomorrow at least. We're on our way home.
And our families love ones. I know we're grateful for that. It's been a long trip,
this one, but upon two weeks, we'll be back in our homes by about midnight tonight.
Thanks, Stephen Kilby, and to the whole DSC and racer.com team. And for my part,
to the whole WC Le Mans 24 hour TV team, it's made my enjoyment of the 24 hours of Le Mans in 2026,
both easier and better than for many a year. Stephen is going to get a bit of a kip.
I'm probably going to go and walk on the deck and see if I can wake myself up
round up the crew for a bit of dinner a little later.
With thanks to Stephen Kilby, with thanks of course to Marshall Pruitt for putting together
the Marshall Pruitt podcast family. Now over 1700 editions long, and with of course, thanks
to Justice Brothers and to toronto motorsports.com.
You've been with us for the whole of this journey. I've been Graham Goodwin.
This has been The Week in Sports Cars. We will speak to you next week.
About this episode
Le Mans 2026 takes center stage as the hosts review the 94th running of “the Great Race,” breaking down what actually happened versus the chaos people expected. They cover standout pace and strategy (including tire calls and dirty-air traffic), plus retirements, crashes, and why some teams drove conservatively. The discussion widens into the future: 2030 hypercar rules, hybrid standardization, hydrogen possibilities, and how calendars and programs (like Alpine and Chinese OEM partner rumors) may shift. The show closes with a wrap-up of the week’s coverage and fan experience.
If you'd like to join the PrueDay podcast listener group, send an email to [email protected] and you'll be invited to participate in the Discord chat that takes place every day and meet up with your new family at events.
