[LM24] Le Mans NEW Qualifying Format! Double the Fun?

[tomcug]

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ans-hyperpole/
Things just got even more weird.

[Gerard C]

It was an Adam last year request I think, was it? Now he loves Q and Hyperpole ACO want to please their client/fan #1.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by tomcug

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ans-hyperpole/
Things just got even more weird.

How does this fit with efforts to reduce tire usage?

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

It was an Adam last year request I think, was it?

Ha!

Now he loves Q and Hyperpole ACO want to please their client/fan #1.

I did enjoy it last year. So did my kid at their first Le Mans. Which is what counts.

I wouldn’t have any special qualifying. I’d have all sessions count and nowt else. It’s a 24 hour race so it doesn’t matter. I’d probably still do this if it was up to me and I was selfish.

Then I thought, if qualifying doesn’t matter why does it matter what they do. So I used my own logic against myself.

I like seeing the cars being hustled. I like seeing drivers under pressure. This means I know what time I’m going to see that. And what time my kid will see it.

This latest change seems silly, but hey why not. It doesn’t matter.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I wouldn’t have any special qualifying. I’d have all sessions count and nowt else. It’s a 24 hour race so it doesn’t matter. I’d probably still do this if it was up to me and I was selfish.

This is (and always was) the correct way - and the best way for the fans to see the cars at full chat going for it - for much much longer.

[clkgtrlm1]

The old format where the shootout was up to anyone who wanted go out at 10 to midnight on Thursday and run a balls-out qually lap in the clean, cool air, to take a last minute pole,for me please.
No need for all this feckery!

[Simmi]

I got an immediate headache trying to read through all those new sessions.

I'm not really sure it completely solves the biggest knock on the format in the last few years, in that there wasn't enough time to get into Hyperpole. There's now less time (30mins vs the previous hour), albeit the track is clearer of traffic.

There's a slight irony in expanding Hyperpole when the Hypercar grid actually might be marginally less next year.

For TV it makes sense to extend the spectacle, but it's all going to be about tyre warm-up when you condense it down to these short 15min blasts. Half the session is redundant in a normal scenario.

I think probably the bulk of complaints (myself included) come from attendees and/or hardcore fans who watch every session - and this just makes a few of them less interesting. But what it does do is extend the story of qualifying I guess - albeit in smaller portions.

I'd expect to see this eventually move across to WEC in another year. Will reserve any more judgement until I've watched it play out.

[Mike E]

I will be shepherding a couple more first timers around next year and it's another thing to explain. It's complicated enough already. Anyway, it's only qualifying for a 24 hour race. Whatever.

[GT6]

To be honest quali at le mans is not much use apart from perhaps avoiding the incidents that sometimes ha[[en at the first few corners. Although you do get some extra coverage of the cars on the tv

[Gerard C]

No doubt hey will keep the Hyperpole but I think it should be one hour long.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

No doubt hey will keep the Hyperpole but I think it should be one hour long.

This is the answer. More time for fast cars on track, more time for eyeballs on said cars.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by J Jay

This is the answer.

But what is the question?

[Gerard C]

To hyperpole or not to hyperpole, that is the question.

[eps]

Obviously we're not the target market for this.. It feels like it's all for television, etc..


As with most I'd rather it was the old style. It worked and it worked because the laptime, especially the outlap and inlap are longer than at most if not all circuits, well all WEC circuits. So 1/2 hour or whatever doesn't work.

or maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy? There's change and then there's fiddling because.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by eps

Obviously we're not the target market for this.. It feels like it's all for television, etc..


As with most I'd rather it was the old style. It worked and it worked because the laptime, especially the outlap and inlap are longer than at most if not all circuits, well all WEC circuits. So 1/2 hour or whatever doesn't work.

or maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy? There's change and then there's fiddling because.

I'm old and grumpy too, but your comment on the outlap and inlap made me think. What if the format was one car at a time, and your lap time consists of leaving your pit box, doing a lap and returning to the pit box. No warming of tires, just leave on cold tires and come back.

[broadrun96]

Dear god man, the number of days needed for that would be exhausting. Ok, it's not that crazy but say 5 min out 4ish fast, 5 min back for all 55 cars. Yeah, probably over time really and truly needed for entire field but for ease of math instead of 3 classes each with own numbers. that's 15ish minutes per car, 62 cars is a full day of just that. Stagger them 1 minute apart leaving so 3ish running at a time and you're down to 6ish hours. Drivers all want to cry about traffic ok, no traffic for you then.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Dear god man, the number of days needed for that would be exhausting. Ok, it's not that crazy but say 5 min out 4ish fast, 5 min back for all 55 cars. Yeah, probably over time really and truly needed for entire field but for ease of math instead of 3 classes each with own numbers. that's 15ish minutes per car, 62 cars is a full day of just that. Stagger them 1 minute apart leaving so 3ish running at a time and you're down to 6ish hours. Drivers all want to cry about traffic ok, no traffic for you then.

This would only be for hypercar, but i think you misunderstood, it would be a single lap, no out, fast, in, just a single circuit pit to pit.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

This would only be for hypercar, but i think you misunderstood, it would be a single lap, no out, fast, in, just a single circuit pit to pit.

Ahh well that's much quicker then and I like it. But I stand by my every minute or 90s let another out

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by eps

Obviously we're not the target market for this.. It feels like it's all for television, etc.. As with most I'd rather it was the old style. It worked and it worked because the laptime, especially the outlap and inlap are longer than at most if not all circuits, well all WEC circuits. So 1/2 hour or whatever doesn't work

Sooo true. IMO.

[PascaLM]

For the qualifications sessions, one hour for prototypes and one hour for GTs would sound nice to me.

[Truckosaurus]

Originally Posted by joeb

This would only be for hypercar, but i think you misunderstood, it would be a single lap, no out, fast, in, just a single circuit pit to pit.

Perhaps like the Nurburgring Bridge-to-Gantry time, using the Dunlop bridge as the start and then the new footbridge from Maison Blanche to Karting just before the pit entry as the end....

[Gerard C]

And then turn the qualification of one of the greatest race in the world into a hillclimb, jeopardizing with safety adding another risk: to be ridiculous? Hard to swallow. I think the ban of tyre warmers is enough a dangerous thing. IMO.
They should adapt the duration of the Hyperpole or Q to the length of the track. 30 minutes at LM means nothing in terms of laps when you start on cold tires.