A little clarification on Le Mans

[DM0407]

I'm not one to starting ranting posts but this journalism really grinds my gears.

From Autosport.com race review:

The Corvette held the lead over its #63 mate until early Sunday morning, when Emmanuel Collard spun the car into the barrier after the non-contact clash with Davidson. Again, the car did make it back into the race, but fell to an engine problem soon after - possibly a legacy of the rear-end damage sustained the crash. The #63 car had departed only recently, also with a blown engine.

Anthony Davidson was multiple laps down on the lead and forced his way through on the leading GT2 car. He had to pit to repair damage (how is that non-contact?) The Corvette was first in class at the time and Davidson should have taken more caution.

Davidson ended up screwing himself out of a further 1:30 seconds because the saftey cars were deployed and they lost more ground to Audi. The accident punctured the dry sump oil pump and the car limped back to the pits with no oil pressure. The crew did an amazing job of repairing the car and put it back out on track, they eventually failed from engine failure.

It aggravates me that they could explain this so wrong. Clearly it was contact and there is no mention of the positions each were in at the time. Clearly Davidson was at fault and ruined the race of 20 or so hard working mechanics and drivers.

Shame on you Autosport...

[dumrick]

If you looked really hard at what happened, the #1 Peugeot was repaired on the left side of the bodywork. Since he passed by the left of the Corvette, any contact would have damaged the right side of the car.

Although, I'm aware that passing at the Porsche Curves is always a big risk, but Peugeot and Davidson by then had no alternative than to take them.

Just a driver misunderstanding, really, and at least a true GT2 won the class, not a "performance balanced" car.

[roost89]

http://www.corvetteracing.com/history/2 ... ans6.shtml

That states there was no contact.

"I turned to the second left in the Porsche corner and the Peugeot was on the inside," Collard said. "I didn't know he was there, I was focused on my driving. There was no contact, but he was there on the inside and I missed the right line. The car lost grip, and I crashed."

[Fil]

There was no actual contact between the 2 vehicles - that is what Autosport meant.

Apart from that, the rest is your opinion on the matter. Pretty difficult for Autosport to cover everyone's individual opinion on the incident.


My opinion.. Davidson was aggressive and yes he could've waited for the following straight, but in no way was he obliged to.

[DM0407]

There were a couple of races going on. The corvette was in first and the Peugeot was likely out of contention. Weather or not there was contact (as I've been corrected, I was watching live and hadn't followed up on the incident) Davidson should have been more cautious and ruined someone else's race. Just because you are in a faster spec car does not mean your race is more important. Be it my opinion or not, it seems like autosport grazed over an important incident.


What is this about a performance equaled car? I thought the corvette was now a true GT2 car (smaller car and tire width and less HP)? Excuse my ignorance, I deal with US coverage of the sport.

[DM0407]

... and I doubt Corvette team, regardless of what they said, believe it was totally driver error.

Had he driven into the side of Davidson who's fault would that be? Just a racing incident as well? I doubt it.

[WhiteBlue]

If you looked really hard at what happened, the #1 Peugeot was repaired on the left side of the bodywork. Since he passed by the left of the Corvette, any contact would have damaged the right side of the car.

Although, I'm aware that passing at the Porsche Curves is always a big risk, but Peugeot and Davidson by then had no alternative than to take them.

Just a driver misunderstanding, really, and at least a true GT2 won the class, not a "performance balanced" car.

Although I do not agree with the Davidson move the BOPed Corvettes also rubbed me the wrong way. It was shameless sandbagging.

[marcush.]

oliver gavin is completely annoyed by Davidson arrogance and ignorance towards the GT classes..
Olli has driven them all so he should be qualyfied to make a statement.
You can´t force your way ,and for sure not in the porschecurves..silly.It´s not like the corvette was cruising ...it was the leader of the GT2 class..so it was imposssible to go offline in that corner.

[dumrick]

What is this about a performance equaled car? I thought the corvette was now a true GT2 car (smaller car and tire width and less HP)? Excuse my ignorance, I deal with US coverage of the sport.

It basically complies with the class description, of course. But, where the Porsche and Ferraris were developed by the rule book, other constructors like GM (and mainly Aston Martin, they are kings on that game), bargain with the ACO the homologation of non-compliant parts, usually on the grounds of cost-saving (recycling parts from the GT1 programme, e.g.).

The good thing is that there are more homologated models to race, the bad thing is that you never know the impact those exceptions have on reliability or performance.

[Pandamasque]

I don't know what caused the damage no the left side of the #1 but it was there for a looooong time. It kept flapping around on the straight and bits were falling off from time to time. Also I think they never fully repaired it.

And we don't really need a separate thread for this.