24H Le Mans – After examining how the leading teams performed during the 24 hours hours of racing, now let's take stock of the situation on the rest of the grid.
Let's start with Cadillac. The American team arrives on the eve of the great classic with great ambitions. The team's statements were all aimed at underlining their desire to improve on the 2023 podium and aim for victory.
Helped by a favorable Bop, which gave it the lowest minimum weight of the lot hypercar, thanks to the participation of two additional cars to the single Cadillac number 2 (regularly fielded in the Wec championship), there seemed to be all the conditions to see the Americans as great protagonists of the 24 hours of Le Mans.
However, the results arrived were slightly below expectations. As with Porsche, between qualifying and hyperpole, Cadillac had given the impression of being a team in form, ready to battle for the top positions in the standings. It had come out of qualifying leading two out of three cars to compete in the hyperpole, and until Estre's magical lap in the Porsche number 6, the Cadillacs monopolized the front row.
The race, however, didn't exactly go the right way. The number 2 had a handicap start due to the five-place grid penalty for the accident at Spa which caused the red flag. The yellow number 3 had to give up after finding an oil leak from the bottom and the number 311 managed to finish the race, but was very delayed due to an accident which cost it many hours of repairs in the pits.
In the end, the best result achieved was seventh place for the starting Cadillac, number 2. The same argument made for Porsche applies: beyond the problems they never really seemed able to compete with Ferrari on the dry and with Toyota on the wet.
Let's move on to the two home teams, the French Alpine and Peugeot. The first, benefiting from a weight reduction and an increase in power above 250 km/h, after a debut in the Endurance World Championship without any performance highlights, they started the long race weekend positively, showing interesting performance progress. Already during the tests they regularly appeared near the leading group, giving the impression of being able to battle to compete for a place among the top ten in the class and lead the group midfield.
Even during qualifying the French car performed very well, placing the number 5 in fifth position, allowing it to enter among the eight teams that would contest the hyperpole. Closing this last session in sixth position, immediately behind the two official Ferrari 499p cars and placing the second car in tenth position. An excellent performance so far. Unfortunately, the race saw them as negative protagonists, ending their 24 hours prematurely due to two problems with the Mecachrome engine which forced them to retire.
Peugeot. This year's mysterious object. A car profoundly revised compared to the version without wings of 2023. The change of appearance should have helped Peugeot in conforming to the technical characteristics of other hypercars, so as not to have to take advantage of an excessively favorable Bop, being able to compete on equal terms. But the reality of this new version of the 9×8 was very different from expectations.
At Imola and Spa they had the excuse of a very castrating BoP, resulting in it being the heaviest car of the lot. But a decisive change of pace was expected at Le Mans, also given the notable weight reduction attributed to it by the new Bop dedicated (-18 kg) to the very classic French car.
Despite this, the performances did not arrive, a clear sign that the problem does not lie in the Bop, as was thought in Imola, but there are much deeper problems linked precisely to the ability to make the French car work. They have always been far from the leading group, but also from midfield, also seeming to be in difficulty compared to debuting teams like Lamborghini and its cousin Alpine.
Qualifying in sixteenth and twenty-first position, they finished the race in eleventh and twelfth position, placing themselves between the two Lamborghini Lmdhs. For a team that has been in the hypercar program for two years already, and which boasts a highly respected and highly experienced team of technicians, the budget is very slim.
From what is rumoured, Peugeot's top brass are not very happy given that they are demanding results and quickly too, but honestly at the moment they seem very far from being able to worry the leading teams. Due to its history and the technical capabilities within the French team we hope to soon see them emerge from this performance impasse.
Let's now move on to BMW of the Wrt team. She seemed to be very comfortable on the circuit de la Sarthe, capable of doing very well in the official qualifying session, even placing number 15 with Dries Vanthoor in first position. Unfortunately, apart from this flash, the German manufacturer's weekend was decimated by errors. Far too many. Starting right from number 15 again with Dries Vanthoor who in the initial stages of thehyperpole, in the round push, makes a mistake by going out causing the red flag which will then mark the course of the session.
In the race things didn't go any better. The number 15 was involved in the accident with Robert Kubica, which forced her to retire. Collision caused by a clear error by the Pole during the lapping phase, but with evident contributory fault on the part of Vanthoor who, in an attempt not to be lapped by the yellow AF Corse, leader of the race at that moment, ignored the blue flags, and shortly before of the toccata also cuts a chicane.
The number 20, however, in the damp phases of the track, due to an error, turns and touches the barriers, forcing the team to make a very long repair in the pits, then finally managing to go out and complete the race but with 215 laps of gap and in very last position. A very meager budget for them too.
Finally we analyze the two Italian debutants, the Lamborghini and the Isotta Fraschini. The declared objective for both teams was to get to the end and gain experience and it was perfectly achieved. For the occasion, Lamborghini brought the second car taking part in the IMSA championship to the track, fielding two very respectable crews. She managed to make a good impression with a clean race, with interesting ideas from a performance point of view, allowing a glimpse of potential.
In the end they managed to finish without any particular mechanical problems, finishing just two laps behind the leaders and taking a valuable lead top ten with number 63, keeping the two Peugeot 9x8s behind. A very respectable result, which bodes well for the future.
Note of merit for the Isotta Fraschini team. Without the pharaonic budgets of the big manufacturers, with a crew made up of very young drivers, Carl Wattana Bennet and Antonio Serravalle, she managed to finish the race on her debut placing the car in fourteenth place overall, just a whisker away from winning the first points in the world championship Endurance. A fantastic feat, celebrated as a victory by the team in the pit lane at the arrival of the 24 Hours. Everyone's dream is that this could have been a fabulous starting point for the Milanese team.