24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 – Full Race Part 23

Name: 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 – Full Race Part 23
Uploaded: 2025-10-11T00:16:46+00:00
Duration: 1 h
Channel: Grand Prix

00:00:00less than three hours to go we're just past one o'clock here at the circuit

00:00:06de la sartre the centennial of the 24 hours of the most we're going to enjoy

00:00:12leaving you to do your own commentary for 10 seconds while we've swapped Jim

00:00:16into the commander's chair and Anne Davidson will join with Guy Smith so we

00:00:22will have our world champion and our Le Mans winner in the crew

00:00:28none of the rest of us have done either no no just those two so we'll take a

00:00:33quick pause we might have you in just a second

00:00:38hello again Guy hello what's been going on give us an update well we are pretty much in the same

00:01:04position as before with the Ferrari leading the Toyota still pretty close but sort of 14-15 seconds

00:01:11it's kind of ebbed and flowed a little bit but looks closer though than the last time I saw I left when

00:01:16there was a minute distance between the two of them so what happened there the Toyota made a

00:01:24short-stopped and did a pit stop under a slow zone and gained a little bit of time actually got down to

00:01:32about two seconds from sort of about ten twelve seconds down to two so that was a smart move but

00:01:37they gained a little bit track position but obviously it looks like the 94 Peugeot that is in the pits is

00:01:48getting a new steering rack so they had issues with the with the steering very early on in the race we

00:01:54heard was it John Eric Verne after the moment only went off in Mulsanne and got it beached in the

00:02:01gravel for quite some time and he had a message saying we need to cool down the power steering rack oh

00:02:08really yeah so it's clearly a bit of an Achilles heel on that car and now seems like it needs

00:02:16replaced I mean that doesn't sound like a a short yeah a short bit of work down there does it Jim

00:02:22no not at all not at all

00:02:24so yeah Hartley's uh Hartley's hanging in there he's um he's on uh he's on his third stint on the tires

00:02:33and they've asked him to stay now for a fourth stint um whether they've I doubt he'll stay on the

00:02:38the tires for a fourth stint but you never know they can do it I mean it's not unheard of uh to be

00:02:43able to do the quadruple on uh particularly the medium tire you know with the Michelin runners so

00:02:50yeah it can be done you obviously need to do quite a bit of time management as well and therefore you

00:02:56know around the high speed corners just throttling back a little bit not pushing them over stressing

00:03:00them and those are higher energy corners and you can see there the uh the conversation going on down at

00:03:05Peugeot with uh Loic Duval in the background suited and booted with helmet on

00:03:11there's the Glickenhaus technical team

00:03:16keeping an eye on the data still got there two cars in the mix I mean they're P8 P9 the car we see on

00:03:25screen there running in P9 and uh they've yeah they've had reliability but like many other drivers

00:03:32out there there's their drivers have suffered as well been a mistake or two hasn't yeah but you

00:03:37know it's it's to be forgiven because I've never seen a Le Mans like this it's it's it's calmed down in

00:03:43terms of the conditions now but uh the problem is now the drivers are so tired they're absolutely

00:03:49fatigued from what they've been through this relentless changeable conditions and uh yes this

00:03:55is a hard enough race anyway but this has been absolutely savage for them is this the type of

00:04:00time when it's just adrenaline that gets you through it when you're really that tired this is

00:04:05where you are digging in you dig in deep into your reserves at this point because you are tired you

00:04:08know you've not slept physically mentally tired and um you know but you know that the end is closed so

00:04:15you've got you know what the end game is so it keeps you going particularly when you're in broad in a

00:04:24immense battle like we got with uh Toyota and Ferrari they're essentially just down to the two cars the

00:04:31Ferrari 50 you know still about six laps behind so you can count them out so it does come down to this

00:04:38you know those two mighty brands fighting it out right through to the end with two hours 54 minutes

00:04:46to go 14.6 seconds separates them with two Cadillacs lurking they're lurking yeah and that's that's all

00:04:53they're they're lurking like the vultures just circling around waiting to pick up the scraps that's uh you

00:05:00know it's all they can do really they they have had the speed they put themselves in a position to be

00:05:05able to do that absolutely especially for the three car which is really had to work hard to get back

00:05:10into fourth position it's not been easy for those guys if they've had their their issues but um but

00:05:15they're still running and uh anything that happens to the guys in front they are right in the the pound

00:05:21seats too so just with just under three hours to go as Anthony just said we've got 14.7 seconds

00:05:28separating first and second overall in LMP2 we've got 23.7 seconds separating first and second and then

00:05:37down in GTM where we see the number 33 Corvette with Nicholas Veroni behind the wheel we've got three

00:05:44cars within a minute all on the same lap so it's the Corvette then the Iron Dames with Sarah Bovey in

00:05:51second position 23 seconds back and then the ORT by TF Aston Martin number 25 with uh Ahmed Al-Harty

00:06:02behind the wheel of that car a minute and eight seconds back so it looks like Michelle Gatting is

00:06:07going to be uh next in on the next round of pit stops and she will take the the next stint uh Sarah

00:06:15Bovey has now completed all of her drive time as has Ben Keating so we will probably see the pro

00:06:22drivers in these cars the rest of the way Ben has been formidable this race hasn't he absolutely I

00:06:28mean we call him you've heard of super silvers we call him the super bronze and uh I said it after

00:06:33qualifying he's better watch out because he's going to be elevated to a gold if he's not careful

00:06:37his performance has been that great actually I remember exactly what you said because it made me laugh

00:06:42out loud he says that gets you in instant gold territory exactly so I mean such was his performance

00:06:48in qualifying but there you're only comparing bronze for bronze yeah uh as in the GTM category you need

00:06:55to qualify in the hype in in the hyperpole your bronze drivers and uh yeah unfortunately for them at the

00:07:01time the uh the car we're looking at 85 the Iron Dane they weren't in hyperpole uh so yeah Sarah Bovey

00:07:09still at the wheel like you say Jim and uh so that's the bronze driver in uh in the Iron Dames so uh Ben

00:07:15has done his time you know it goes without saying of course the uh the pro drivers the the platinums

00:07:21the golds they do have a natural speed advantage still over over Ben Keating um you know only joke

00:07:28when I say he's uh gold status he's not you know he's he's just a fine bronze driver and uh he really

00:07:34has made the difference though today he's not single-handedly of course but he's clawed back

00:07:40and got that car from barely even being on the on the timing page I mean it's bottom of the second

00:07:47timing page I think it's about fighting your individual battles so you know it's when he's

00:07:51against the other bronzes can he win that battle against the other bronzes yeah and he can and I think

00:07:57it's the same with the golds against the other golds or the silvers against the silvers let's check

00:08:02in with the pit lane and uh Louise Beck well unfortunately it's not looking good for Peugeot

00:08:09at this hour uh the 94 is in the garage I think we've seen that the team are working hard on that

00:08:14but they've just cleared that's the steering rack apparently and they've just cleared the 93 garage

00:08:22area looks like that one is coming in as well I can't speak to the team at the moment but when I

00:08:28get any more info I'll let you know yeah it'd be really interesting wouldn't it to find out how long

00:08:34that steering rack change would be I mean it doesn't seem like it can be done in a in a blink of an eye

00:08:40no at all it sounds like pretty hefty work to me but uh and you know with that are they even

00:08:46considering changing the steering rack having said that Michael Jensen has just said his fastest sector

00:08:51one in the Persia

00:08:54so more vibration issues being reported for the Toyota this time it's Brendan Hartley he definitely

00:09:08wants to get off those those those boots at this point well that's the thing you know that even if

00:09:13you don't suffer any lockups and flat spots you can easily end up getting your tires out of balance

00:09:19just the way they naturally wear and uh so the longer you take them in you know three stints

00:09:25maybe even four stints it's pretty natural to get some vibrations particularly through the fronts

00:09:30because that you feel that through the steering rather than the seat seat of your pants with the

00:09:35rear tires uh you feel the the rear tires vibration uh the vibration is a lot less than the front tires

00:09:41I was good I was gonna say uh before with the camera switched to something else that one of the

00:09:49things also about Ben Keating and we just saw it right there and that's what made me remember it

00:09:54is his enthusiasm is infectious so even if the team is down had some trouble I'm sure he's the

00:10:02kind of guy okay boys we can do this and then goes out and throws down some really fast laps like

00:10:07see we're all in this follow me he's got that American can do attitude my brothers and not abandon you

00:10:14yeah that American can do attitude you know it is infectious you're absolutely right

00:10:20and uh and that's what you need within a car crew you need somebody you know it's that relationship you

00:10:27need it when you're down you need someone else sometimes to pick you back up and and every team

00:10:32member has their has their chance to to to do that and uh that's part of the joy of uh of Le Mans and uh

00:10:41and sports car racing in general it's not a it's not a selfish game it's not you're not out there alone

00:10:46as you see now the 93 getting pushed back in as Louise predicted that car going back into the

00:10:52garage while the steering rack work continues now some teams will tell you that a steering rack could

00:10:57take as much as three hours so they did this earlier on they took the body work off and then

00:11:02they were blowing cool air so it's almost like it was getting too hot so they're trying to cool it down

00:11:06when the car's stationary at the end of pit lane I've heard it myself where it makes this incredible

00:11:11high-pitched noise it's almost like radio interference or something and I asked uh I asked one of the

00:11:18drivers said what's that noise about what was is it like there's a motor whirring or something inside

00:11:23is it something to do with a the hybrid system or what is it they said no it's to do with the power

00:11:28steering wow that was that was a long time I mean that was last year yeah yeah I think Monza last year

00:11:36I noticed it whether it still does that or not I don't know but uh yeah I just thought at the time

00:11:42I thought that sounded odd you can see the suspension and the brakes working on that Corvette and also the

00:11:53aerodynamic effects as well all the rain that we've had and the dirt it gets spread over the bodywork

00:12:00very cool model makers take hours trying to perfect that that patina when they when they're

00:12:09going to make a car that has got the dirt on it yeah I'm sure and that's that's one of the cool

00:12:14things about Le Mans is that afterwards if you do the winning car it's a tradition to just leave

00:12:19the dirt all the mud all the damaged bodywork flies everything yeah the battle scars yeah and I think

00:12:27Audi even lacquered the car over once yeah I heard that yeah what did they do to your one guy oh

00:12:32there's a story behind that in your garage is it no there's a story behind that they actually wanted

00:12:38to keep it um as you said with all the battle scars on and it went to a show um and somebody cleaned it

00:12:45you're joking it went to a car show and somebody cleaned the car

00:12:50oh we can't have it because it looked dirty no no and you can't you can't it's not like you can fake

00:12:57it just let's just throw some flies and some some dust on it make it look dirty oh dear so it's it's

00:13:03it's still got a few bath scars but it's uh hasn't quite got the full war paint on it

00:13:08here comes that driver change for the iron dames it'll be michelle gadding getting in

00:13:13terrible they getting out

00:13:15so yeah like you said earlier on guy it's so driver the driver becomes driver helper in gts

00:13:25and uh you can see the uh the shoulder straps going on into place and buckled in

00:13:30and then they also do the radio as well they have seen on the outside edge of the seat like where the

00:13:36headrest is quite quite often yeah but you have the radio on actually into the seat because it's

00:13:40um obviously it's accessible that way yeah yeah but it's interesting these girls have done

00:13:45fantastic again all day they've been they've been fighting all through this 24 hours but

00:13:49you just can't help but feel that the sort of balance has swung now towards the corvette it's

00:13:54worked its way up to the front and it it seems to have been the the quicker car it's going to take

00:14:00some beating yeah especially now that we've got um you know the pros in the car i think it's going to

00:14:05be uh between barone and kattsburgh very very quick two drivers i mean there's getting pole position

00:14:12and we've all said oh it doesn't really mean anything in the one anyway it's just a little

00:14:17bit of showboating but uh when you see the margin that ben keating to a pole buy well over a second

00:14:25you think okay if they can have a reliable car surely when he's in the car like he said guy is when

00:14:32it's bronze for bronze yeah that he's got the advantage he's got a massive advantage i think

00:14:37that's what he's had around here usually they're fairly evenly matched we've seen that with uh

00:14:41sarah bovi all year long actually in qualifying in the world endurance championship first three

00:14:47rounds we've had there it's always comes down to those pretty much down to those two in quality

00:14:51and it's separated by the few tents and the race you know they in weck they have to start the

00:14:56race as well for hans drivers so uh and it's always a bit of a showdown between those two

00:15:01but not here it seems like ben's just had the advantage the whole time and the other thing that

00:15:07was interesting about hyperpool was that he had the the pole sewn up and went back out and just

00:15:17you know hold my beer i can beat that and and basically did i mean not just beat thrashed yeah

00:15:25yeah yeah annihilated his own lap time so yeah look the car is clearly hooked up but uh bad luck

00:15:31certainly struck them at the start of this race but my goodness since then they have more than

00:15:38taken the fight to the rest of the field and now head them with uh what have they got

00:15:43about a minute lead yeah 13 seconds wow yeah into europa again doing a great job 21 seconds ahead of

00:15:54the uh wrt car so uh yeah just maintaining that lead as you say that's kind of how that's pretty much

00:16:00level out that's pretty much staying constant so is the 17 second margin between collardo and

00:16:07hartley out in front that since we've been talking about the gts and other categories and

00:16:13peugeot's problems it was 17 seconds it still is it's kind of it's kind of like half a second

00:16:20lap just just chipping away just adding a little bit each time just that a little bit quicker and

00:16:25gradually building that lead up so i think um hartley will be keen to uh get these tires off and get

00:16:31some new tires on and see what pace he's got and go about trying to uh close that gap down to uh

00:16:36collardo how does uh ferrari answer at this point if they do start to show some speed with those new

00:16:44tires do they do they just stick to their uh tire strategy i think at this stage they've got to stick

00:16:51to the the plan uh it really depends if if hartley comes back with with some real pace and it's a

00:16:58concern of other speeding which is catchy then they will have to go with tires or be a bit more aggressive

00:17:04but i can't help but think that they've still got that advantage um even with with the older tires

00:17:09they seem to still seem to have the pace yeah um it does it so the start of the race you know

00:17:15obviously not as much rubber down as there is now uh slightly different wind condition cars in a bit

00:17:21of a different state they've taken a bit of a beating all of them out there but uh the toyota

00:17:26more than held its own at the start of the race when we were in the hottest conditions we're now

00:17:31back into the hottest conditions at uh quarter past or twenty past one in the afternoon here

00:17:37so hotter conditions the sun's actually out it's probably warmer now than it was at the start of

00:17:42the race actually and i feel like that's where the toyota's at its best and now they're on the

00:17:47medium tires and yeah i you would naturally expect the ferrari on fresher tires to be engine weight

00:17:53is there is there any advantage and i and i certainly wouldn't expect them to do this with

00:17:59two hours and 40 minutes to go but on the last stint if they're close you know if they're if they're

00:18:04almost the single digits maybe they're they're only 11 seconds back or something like that is it worth

00:18:10throwing a set of softs on and trying to uh get it or is it is it a misnomer that the softs are going

00:18:16to get you more speed even if they don't last so the softs i mean it's more complex than that the

00:18:21softs are it's not necessarily just soft medium and hard in terms of compound it's uh there's there's

00:18:30heat element to it as well so you can have a soft higher temperature tire or a soft lower temperature

00:18:36tire we've got a team radio here from harley first copy okay brendan box this lap fit confirm

00:18:45box this lap fit confirm vibrations are not a concern from the number side

00:18:50so the team can see yeah exactly so he look the driver has to relay the information obviously he's

00:18:57concerned sure that it might be damaging the car so the driver can take a you know quite a bit of

00:19:03vibration through the body and the hands whatever but he's more concerned for the car and they're

00:19:08still right why is this doing yeah i don't want this thing to shake itself to bits so i relay the

00:19:14information you look where you need to on the data they have the load cells through the suspension

00:19:18and they can see and report back to the driver don't worry it looks good we can take a certain

00:19:25amount of frequency and it's well within that at the moment so chill out it's cool just carry on

00:19:32driving as fast as you can but we'll if it's hindering lap times we'll bring you in we'll get

00:19:37you on another set you know when it when the time comes which i think we can't see the energy levels

00:19:42uh at the moment but uh i assume they're getting to a point where you're talking to box this lap so

00:19:47they'll change the tires i suspect they'll keep him in the car that's that seems to be the plan

00:19:51but they didn't know whether it was because of the energy level like the fuel load the fuel level at

00:19:55point or because of the vibration that's the thing i i i need to confirm so i assume it's their energy

00:20:01levels um so yeah he'll get on on a different set and he'll be he'll be fine but um so yeah

00:20:08it says louise confirms from the pits that it's mediums uh that will be going on the number eight

00:20:14car as uh hartley comes in we saw the three car come in and make their pit stop

00:20:19no driver change there so brendan hartley will stay in the fuel goes in come take a tear off

00:20:27off the uh windscreen

00:20:29saw them uh reaching up there you can see just above the wheel well those little white tabs

00:20:36just going off the top of your screen there that's where they reach around and pull off

00:20:41one of the tear offs 12 per windscreen

00:20:44and the windscreens come to the track and those are already applied

00:20:48so the tear off uh request has been answered he wanted a towel and some water

00:20:55ah energy gel he took some energy gel as well yeah that's that stuff's

00:21:02well that stuff's mad that's better living well i i had a story about aj aj fight the daytona 24 hours

00:21:10and he came in he asked for a burger and a coke and he came in and he literally

00:21:14had a swig of coke what left the pit lane with a burger in his hand and apparently when he came

00:21:19at the end of his his stint it's like mustard all down his white overalls

00:21:22some ketchup you think he's kidding no i don't think i don't i mean yeah you can imagine i'm surprised

00:21:29if it had a wrapper if the last thing that didn't come out of the car before the door went down

00:21:32was the wrapper that's amazing very different i mean that's the only thing missing from that

00:21:39uh nascar car entry okay brandon new set of mediums new set of mediums on the car

00:21:45go get them that's the message yeah exactly a minute and 41 seconds down at this point but

00:21:54obviously the that will change drastically when the 51 car james colado has to come in for his pit stop

00:22:00so this is the this is the that classic racing the the in lap the out lap you know this is

00:22:06this is tough yeah this is tough especially this time of the race absolutely 22 21 and a half hours

00:22:13in yeah it's hot out there you're sweating you feel it running down your face inside the helmet

00:22:19you're you're so tired you're drained you're nothing left but somewhere within you you have to dig

00:22:26even deeper in these moments to try and find that lap time that you know the car can do

00:22:32but probably the only better radio transmission you're going to get from your engineer is that

00:22:38you're the winner then go get them in this day and age of oh we need to save fuel or we need to

00:22:44conserve this or don't do that and easy on this no go get them it's a head game yeah you know you got

00:22:50two cars very evenly matched in performance very evenly matched and you got two drivers very even

00:22:55it comes down to a head game box this lap box this lap driver change driver so driver change colada

00:23:07will come out interesting uh two american voices as lead engineers on on these cars

00:23:13yeah he's uh he's been a bit of a revelation this year to us uh in the world endurance championship

00:23:20justin taylor the uh yeah car 51's engineer he's come out with some quality quotes

00:23:30is he former audi was he an audi i think before i believe he was india car as well yeah yeah

00:23:36yep and he was uh he he was kind of an understudy to um oh i'm embarrassed

00:23:48here's some more radio radio drinks tube radio

00:23:54a slice of pizza so yeah so i mean you you get reminded obviously when you come down the pit lane

00:24:01to detach the radio uh and uh remember your belts as well because uh when your car stops you need

00:24:10to loosen them before you unbuckle so that the next driver getting in isn't compromised with the

00:24:16seat belt still in the the tight position because the driver helper won't be able to buckle them in

00:24:21so uh yeah all those things can really uh hold you back you see there pierre greedy uh sorry joe

00:24:27benazzi in and he's pulling down on the shoulder straps getting himself comfortable making sure they're on

00:24:30the hands device in the right way you don't want them slipping underneath the hands device or twist

00:24:35in in any way um you don't want anything to to compromise your uh your focus and with the ferrari

00:24:42been at the beginning of the pit lane it gives you the option to be able to tighten your belts while you

00:24:46go down the pit lane you can tighten them up brendan reporting that the car feels much better with

00:24:52these tires so maybe he flat spotted them or something like that uh the the name i was trying to get

00:24:58a guy helped me get brad kettler that's he was an understudy of brad kettler at out yep champion

00:25:05racing yes right yeah so yeah you asked me earlier on jim about why wouldn't you put the set of soft

00:25:12tires so brendan is obviously he's on the mediums uh as is uh joe benazzi and uh the reason for that is

00:25:19this high-speed circuit i mean there's only one or two uh relatively slow corners good point

00:25:24on a high-speed circuit you get a lot of uh movement within the shoulder of the tire the softer

00:25:30tire in its construction by nature flexes around a lot more and it spooks the driver it's part of what

00:25:37makes it softer exactly it's just basically more squidgy so that's why they put it on in the the wet

00:25:43damp conditions it's your best chance of survival in those in those lower temperatures and because

00:25:48you then you need the pliable nature of the tire to be there yeah it heats itself a bit like a squash

00:25:53ball you know you whack it against the wall when it heats up physically it heats up through the

00:25:57kinetic energy and that's what the tires are doing um but the hotter it gets ambient and track and the

00:26:04faster you can go and the less moisture on the track there is you can then afford to start running

00:26:09a stiffer construction tire i.e the mediums or a stiffer a stiffer compound and effectively that gives

00:26:15you more of a platform so when you're in the corner in the porsche corners the tire is a little bit

00:26:19stiffer the shoulder of the tire is a little bit more solid so you can feel effectively it's almost

00:26:24like feeling the grip because when the tire is moving that's when the car feels like it's squirming

00:26:29around and it doesn't feel like it's taking a set it it makes your contact back bigger doesn't it it does yeah

00:26:38so after the after the exchange of pit stops it's now 16 seconds

00:26:42so brendan hartley's outlaps and his uh time on those new tires let's see how giovannazzi can respond

00:26:53as he come is about halfway through his outlet i can't jim let's dramatize this a bit it's 15.8

00:26:59seconds come on let's get into the driver's heads here 50 now forget it let's just call it 15 seconds

00:27:07brendan you're 15 seconds behind i used to tell our announcers in the united states when somebody says well

00:27:12that's you know they pretty much got this in the bag it'd be like well that loud click you heard

00:27:16was everybody turning off as they go to watch exactly

00:27:22not in this case nobody will be going anywhere this is going to be right down two and a half

00:27:27hours remaining in the centenary celebration of lemar the 91st running the 100th anniversary 1923 was the

00:27:35first time that they got together to try and prove the automobile and prove that the innovations and

00:27:42that the technology was safe and that the car was car automobile was going to be reliable well we're

00:27:49doing the same thing today it's all about innovation 100 years later the first fully subscribed year for the

00:27:56hypercar here at lasar and they have delivered they have delivered the uh front of the field

00:28:07both ferrari toyota two cadillacs a porsche two glickenhouses a ferrari and a peugeot all in the top

00:28:15nine so absolutely stellar first first time out here at lemar for a full hypercar field not the not the first time for

00:28:24hypercars but clarify it full time for the hypercar field yeah literally all of the major manufacturers

00:28:30ferrari toyota cadillac porsche uh peugeot all had a chance to lead this race that's something i didn't

00:28:38think we would see honestly speaking in this event at the centenary i didn't think based on what we've

00:28:43seen so far in the world endurance championship you you wouldn't have put money on the fact of that

00:28:49happening so i joked earlier on when i said that the first two hours of the race i thought i can't i

00:28:55don't think i can keep up doing this for 24 hours it was like a sprint race it was changing positions

00:29:02all the all the way through 33 car out of the lead of gtm driver change nicholas veroni out nikki

00:29:12catsburg in and they show you how it's done don't they yeah the corvette garage crew they really show

00:29:18you how it's done this year it's a combination of not only the pratt and miller guys but some of the

00:29:23labra competition guys who for many years were kind of the european answer to pratt and miller in the

00:29:30united states with the corvette when it was the the c6 models but the c8 here is the c8r is

00:29:40being run by a combination this year so remain dumar in the glickenhaus is just on a 329.5 so

00:29:48it's pretty impressive lap time you know not not a million miles away from from the uh the rest of

00:29:52the hypercar so you know well done to those guys and that guy doesn't give up i don't care if he's

00:29:57racing here in the clicking house or he's in a galaxy 300 at goodwood revival he does not give up and

00:30:04there you see handshakes all around for uh nicholas veroni and that's a great feeling you know you get

00:30:10out the car and the whole crew is high-fiving you i suspect he's done well you're done but also you

00:30:17know that is job well done yes um you know there's no better feeling than that and you know it's

00:30:24that's is that marks the difference really for me and highlights exactly what sports car racing is

00:30:30all about that real family feeling within the team and you can share that emotion with your other

00:30:37teammates as well and success is is trebled in that way yeah

00:30:41yeah and it all as we said before it goes back to the attitude of the of the team leader but not

00:30:51only that that is the you know you used to see the same thing when it was uh the full factory effort

00:30:59you know dan binks and and and and and the guys in in the corvette squad that was the kind of reception

00:31:06that the drivers would get after a job well done there's our our lmp2 leader the inter-europole

00:31:12competition entry number 34 albert costa behind the wheel of that car they have uh had a running

00:31:20race with the team wrt robert kubinson number 41 for gosh at least the last uh eight hours or so

00:31:30there have been others that have tried to come up and challenge uh paulo jitan now is in third place

00:31:38in the number 48 car for the uh edec sport and the other team that's been been right there in the hunt

00:31:45for the podium has been neil yanni and the decaying team number 30 but everybody's been chasing 34 and

00:31:5241 for for the last little bit and it continues on with just under two and a half hours remaining

00:32:00i wonder if they'll ever change their car back to that luminous yellow and green concept that they had

00:32:05the whole time look more like their their garage hoardings actually yes yeah that's the colors

00:32:10that have been running but that's the color of the other car remember they started two cars in this

00:32:14race yeah but usually the solid colored car the white is the luminous yellow and i always felt like

00:32:22it really clashed and i do prefer this tell you what if they win this thing they're never going back

00:32:27on those colors that's the difference right there surely i think the only people in the sports world

00:32:33who are more superstitious than race car people are uh nhl hockey hockey really oh yeah you make the

00:32:40playoffs you're not allowed to shave until you get until you get knocked out of the playoffs so all these

00:32:45guys look like lumberjacks by by the end of the playoffs so they're gonna wear the same set of socks

00:32:51until they they fall apart i mean it's it's the same the car's going to grow a beard and they're never

00:32:56going to uh change back from that uh golden golden yellow color still two hours 25 minutes to go though

00:33:06and there is the uh the competition the number 41 wrt behind his sister car actually 31 that is in

00:33:15well this is what is fifth fifth yeah not that far off the hunt wow common friends there's the uh the

00:33:27joda squad they had such high hopes at one point they were leading overall and they were leading lmp2

00:33:35and what an accomplishment that would have been but it's going to be an accomplishment just to get these

00:33:40two cars to the finish line as they have the those crew guys they're gonna they're gonna deserve their

00:33:48their post-race adult beverages after this one because they sure have earned it and at the front

00:33:53the ferrari uh and the toyota the gap now is 15 seconds it's pretty much kind of been 15 seconds for

00:34:00well since they did the pit stops it's maybe gone down to sort of 13 14 and back to 15. so

00:34:05so hartley's not really making any inroads into giovannazzi's lead at the minute

00:34:12doesn't seem to be uh yeah last lap both in 328 yeah high 28 for brendan and slightly lower 28 for

00:34:21giovannazzi and it's really you're in the hands of the traffic i feel that the two cars are so evenly

00:34:27matched on pace at this point in the race that uh you can have as we often said as drivers you can have

00:34:33the golden stint where every car you come up you just are taking a straight line yeah you get the

00:34:39slipstream off them as well for good measure you you come and you go i honestly i had the golden

00:34:44stint i always used to joke with uh women about it and him too you won't believe it man i had the

00:34:49golden stint okay okay don't worry about the fast lap times it was it's not me it was the traffic

00:34:56yeah and then there's a stick where traffic just appears from nowhere yeah every time

00:35:09that's what you pray for when you're inside the car you're constantly thinking okay right i've

00:35:13overtaken another car here that was a good one i've overtaken the car a semi-bad one there but i wonder

00:35:19the other car in front is going through hopefully they're having it worse than i am

00:35:23like the battle at the front that has kind of settled out at 15 seconds this battle here

00:35:28in lmp2 is settled out at 22 seconds there you see the uh the lodge livery

00:35:36it's amazing when you're in traffic how you become a mind reader because you're always thinking

00:35:40what are they thinking yeah i always try to put yourself in the car a heads position and what are they

00:35:45thinking what are they going to do because you're trying to second guess all the time what what are

00:35:49they going to do and i'm going to do the opposite and you're constantly hearing the gap if you're

00:35:53jovennazi you're hearing hartley behind 14.5 seconds and partly you'll be hearing the the opposite of

00:36:02that yeah and uh how much further ahead the car is and and you're just you're trying to assess you

00:36:08know okay right they've just i've caught the gap a little bit there but i was a bit lucky in traffic so

00:36:13maybe that's because they were a little bit more unlucky than me that time around and then you

00:36:18hear the next lap and the gap creeps up a little bit you go no okay and my traffic wasn't so bad that

00:36:23means that yeah it was traffic the lap before for him oh no i'm not quite as fast compared to him as i

00:36:29thought i was and you're constantly going through that thought process in the car this is our third

00:36:35place car in lmp2 you may recognize the badge on the nose of that car delage if you're a student of

00:36:44history here at the 24 hours of le mans that is a name plate that dates all the way back to the

00:36:51beginnings of the french motor industry and the early days of this great race in the in the 20s and 30s

00:37:00here's your fourth place car in the class the team duquesne car with neil yanni behind the wheel

00:37:09understand neil is going to be moving on from this ride to the proton porsche which is a great

00:37:17opportunity for him to get back inside the get back in a porsche i'm sure he'll bring a lot of experience to that team

00:37:25a lot of prototype experience yeah an awful lot of prototype experience and the uh the number 30 car

00:37:35there as you say jim duquesne meanwhile matthias case has had a bit of a shortish stint in the uh vector

00:37:43sport number 10 and it's now uh gabby aubry behind the wheel of that car and he's in now apparently until

00:37:50the end of the race i think with neil yanni export porsche factor driver the links that he has with

00:38:03porsche will help smooth the way with the proton team and that kind of development path i i think i

00:38:11think they uh proton themselves as as you will know have great links to porsche themselves but what

00:38:19he i think will add to that is the prototype knowledge and also um i saw that uh proton are

00:38:26going to be the first customer of the ford gt3 for the mustang so really yeah so they're going to be

00:38:31running the the so they could potentially have the the porsche in hypercar and the mustang in the gt3 wow

00:38:39do you think we'll see a ford hypercar if we're going to see a ford gt3 car here comes the 93 back out

00:38:47three back out much faster change than we uh than we feared yeah now is that the one that had had the

00:38:55steering right yeah it is okay so out they go great good team effort there by they both had enough

00:39:01problems i'm starting to get the confused yeah that's probably not what the team are going for this

00:39:07this race but uh you know sorry i did fear though and uh i'm sure the team felt the same that they've

00:39:16been riddled with lots of different reliability problems so far this year and well since they've

00:39:22come back to sports car racing frontline sports car racing and uh so yeah we i didn't expect them to

00:39:30to to to be quite as reliable in many ways as they've been let alone the pace that they've had

00:39:37there is uh gabby albury that i spoke about earlier on in the number 10 vector sport gets

00:39:41lapsed by the number 50 ferrari with nick nielsen he started this race did nick

00:39:49and he was in the lmp2 category of course last year in the a of course and sean he had a an early pole

00:40:00position made a real name for himself and uh here he is now now we just uh a few minutes ago had a very

00:40:07interesting discussion but i thought was a great explanation from you anthony and guy about about

00:40:14the soft tire and then we see the the lmp2 car the graphic came up and showed that they were as we see

00:40:20the uh the camaro the number 24 car having some work done uh looks like uh looks like that's almost

00:40:28exploratory like they're trying to figure out what might be going on as opposed to trying to fix what

00:40:33they know is going on wonder why did it drop down the order now in 39 because it sits in the pits

00:40:39getting lapped uh gearbox is what we're hearing a gearbox issue so that would be that makes that you

00:40:48know that's that's going to be stressed on that car but my point sorry sorry while we're still on the

00:40:53on that car just a question uh for all the fans that don't follow nascar how so obviously the ovals

00:41:00you're not you're not really changing gear that much but what about the street how long is a street

00:41:04course race for those competitors um normally a couple hundred kilometers like an hour an hour

00:41:14oh no more than that one now two and a half hours okay yeah so like the length of a grand prix or

00:41:20something a little bit longer a little bit longer than a grand prix but no way as long

00:41:24no no no no so it's quite a good proving game for it then to come here oh yeah than that yeah the

00:41:30minute oh yeah in 24 hours this thing has probably lasted eight cup races right so you know and how

00:41:37long would they usually keep the gearbox in do they have restrictions on that in the series no okay it's

00:41:43just why whatever your maintenance plan is i'm sure a new one comes at every event that sort of thing

00:41:49but like you say i mean on an oval depending on the on the oval certainly on the super speedways

00:41:57they're they're very seldom shifting but on the mile and a half there's a lot of times you'll

00:42:01shift certainly on the short tracks there's there's a little bit more shifting but like you say

00:42:06no not like it is here so brendan harley now has just done the fastest lap of the number eight on a 337

00:42:13i'm sorry 327.8 and the gap's now down to 11.8 so whoa he's starting to to chip away now at that lead

00:42:21and make some inroads we've got a race in our hands yeah here we go two hours and 16 minutes to go

00:42:27just to put a finish what i what i was trying to say we saw the graphic come up of the lmp2 car with

00:42:33hard tires on now what we need to point out is is that they are not michelins they are goodyear

00:42:40so goodyear comes at this from a completely different standpoint it's a controlled tire so they really just

00:42:46have kind of a soft and a hard they don't have a they don't have that medium option yeah exactly

00:42:52jim so you know controlled tire like you say you could you could go out and buy those tires if you're

00:42:56racing you can buy them you can keep them um you know the technology is still very high but it's uh you

00:43:02know there's no tire wall in uh in lmp2 it's you know part of the reason that gets expensive yeah exactly

00:43:08is to keep costs down um you know it is uh they have the monopoly there uh as a tire manufacturer

00:43:15you know in many ways for good reason because it it's a it's a privateer category should be a

00:43:21privateer category with amateur drivers paying their way to go racing and uh so it makes a lot of sense

00:43:27you just have the one slick tire the one wet tire and uh they they brand it as a as a hard tire it's

00:43:34a nice bit of marketing as well and sure it's it's it's great for them um that they have lmp2s

00:43:41as their category and so it's great to have a good year involved of course for the world endurance

00:43:46championship but the tires that you see on this car number eight the michelins you can't go and buy

00:43:53those yes there's a lot of tech in there and uh you know and if one comes apart the engineers are out

00:43:59there looking for the pieces oh yeah afterwards please collecting they're actually going to get

00:44:04missing technically they're a confidential tire so yes you know they actually the teams have to sign

00:44:09a contract yes to basically say that they will not every time yeah the tie has to be returned because

00:44:15they've got all their tech and their ip in that tire and the last thing they want is that to go to

00:44:20another manufacturer so proprietary information now here we go uh we talked earlier uh i asked kind of

00:44:28uh just maybe it was a silly question i don't know how much it bothers you when the when the car that

00:44:34a couple laps down is behind you harassing you well now the tables are turned the 50 car is now ahead

00:44:40of the eight car the eight car is catching the 50 car how wide is this ferrari suddenly going to become

00:44:47probably about as wide as the um the circuit as wide as as wide as the uh the blue flags will allow

00:44:53uh that's uh i mean you gotta you gotta be careful uh but uh yeah you can make life a little bit

00:45:01difficult great information great information so uh brendan referring to turn 14 yeah uh i've been

00:45:23leaving unless they've changed things since i was there turn 14 for them unlike our turn 20 is the

00:45:30multi-hand corner okay yeah where he had the real liking so it makes sense to me so that that's you know

00:45:36every every team i've ever driven for has their own uh references for which corner numbers or names

00:45:42they give around here so uh yeah we we go by the uh the aco and fia's uh version of the track so for us

00:45:50it's turn 20. but that's very interesting to me as a layman that you know tell the next driver be

00:45:57careful of brake modulation and that's that's the that's the kind of things you might talk about

00:46:06those are the things you might talk about uh on an old driver exchange right now it might be done over

00:46:12the radius it might be that you know we've seen before that under braking the cars maybe stepped out as

00:46:17he braked into moss and corner and he's just basically warning the next guy that this might

00:46:22catch you out the last thing he wants to do is not warn him and uh the next driver has an issue

00:46:29let's hear from uh nick nielsen oh that toyota is coming behind we'd like to stay in front and they

00:46:37will ask for blue flag soon so let's push as much as you can for those last uh three laps and we stay in

00:46:44front of that toyota let's give it all so there's your answer yeah i mean stay in front but within

00:46:53reason within the allowance of what the blue flags yeah which is much different stay in front is a much

00:47:00different command than don't let him buy exactly and uh you know there's no it's not like a single

00:47:07seater racing where you got huge wings uh that get affected from even this far back but right now

00:47:12uh you can get a lot more a lot closer than that uh as this now switches to the car 51 with joven

00:47:18nazi not to be confused with the uh number 50 car that's further down the road 11 seconds down the

00:47:25road nicholas nielsen behind the wheel of the 50. so out on the racetrack right now we've got antonio

00:47:34joven nazi leading in the 51 brendan hartley trying to chase him down 11 seconds back and then in the

00:47:41cadillacs or uh richard westbrook is in the two car ranger van de zander is in the the three car that's

00:47:47one of my favorite names christoph boucher and ranger van de zander doesn't get much better than that

00:47:52frank makovicki is uh in the number five car romaine dumas is in the 708 709 is nathaniel breton and

00:48:02michael jensen is in the number 93 peugeot and when he said about the the maps the circuit maps um quite

00:48:10often well most of the time actually the team will print out a little map and they'll put it inside the

00:48:15car whether it be on the steering wheel or and then whenever i've had it where people have sat in the car

00:48:19they've seen this little map of the circuit say le mans fragment say and then we go why have you

00:48:23got a map do you do you not know where you're going do you know where the circuit goes and basically

00:48:28it's for that very reason because when you're discussing the the the the circuit to the engineers

00:48:33they may is to make sure that we're all calling the corners the same so if they say it's turn 10

00:48:38i look on the map and i know where they make or if i've got an issue and the car stopped they know

00:48:43where we are on the target from the same page yes it's more so for you know when you're in the garage

00:48:49and you're doing the debriefs between free practice session or during a free practice session

00:48:53when you're back in the garage you can even point if you need to yeah and the engineer's got that

00:48:57you know got the circuit map usually just plus on their laptop somewhere and so yeah you're

00:49:02you're referring to the same corners but yeah the reason you have it in the car for the race is

00:49:07like say guy if you've had a mechanical failure like we saw with kobe ashi due to that

00:49:13it's still i can't believe he's out of the race from what happened for those of you that missed it

00:49:16yeah yeah the dead of the night uh there was a slow zone next slow zone on the run-up towards tetra

00:49:22rouge and uh he was about to overtake a slow moving am driver in there in the lmp2 car so it's after

00:49:32this sequence of corners here the s is on the straight towards uh tetra rouge kobe ashi goes to

00:49:38overtake the lmp2 realizes he's a he's in a next slow at this point here slams on the brakes two

00:49:45racy lmp2 cars coming behind him one of them guido van de garda in the 39 car and there was a

00:49:51unfortunate gt ferrari that was in their number 66 he got completely smashed into the back from van de

00:49:58garda sent the car flying the ferrari as a result smashed into kobayashi then the alpine on the right

00:50:05hand side smashed into kobayashi as well car out of the race yeah it wasn't camus he did exactly what

00:50:11he was exactly what he's supposed to do there's the map

00:50:17so when kobayashi did pull over he would have been looking at the map and uh the team would have had

00:50:22their map and they would have been saying hey if you can get to such and such corner or such and such

00:50:27barrier near such then you can get into a recovery position try this with the car try that with the car

00:50:34but the car just didn't respond it was uh the red lights came on the telltale sign that uh there

00:50:39was a serious hybrid issue and had to be taken away on the on the low loader and dropped off in area 51

00:50:47as they call it there's united 23 of tom bonquist working his way back up the field after uh some

00:50:54problems earlier in the race but doing a great job

00:50:56yeah let's check in on the uh other united card with stephanie down in the pits

00:51:06well i'm in the garage with that 22 car at the minute and it was in the garage a little bit earlier on

00:51:12for uh some quite a bit of damage repairs but it's getting a new front wing right now

00:51:18and we just move out of the way uh but that car went out for one lap and has come back in so clearly

00:51:23whatever fixes they have done have not worked sufficiently driver in the car shaking his head

00:51:28don't know how long this is going to be

00:51:29well anytime at this point it's going to be uh disappointing for those guys

00:51:38philippe albuquerque was the one who was behind the wheel when he brought the car in

00:51:41there is the alpine number 36

00:51:52you said goodyear's going to go on that car phil hansen frederick lubin and philippe albuquerque

00:52:00sharing that number 22 car looks like they may be ready to come back out indeed they are

00:52:05they'll feel the car out drop it down off the dollies fire her up put some new goodyear rubber

00:52:12on that car and set it on its way let's go down to uh stephanie just on that it seems that they've

00:52:22changed the front wing back to the one that they came in to replace there is a little bit of

00:52:27superficial damage at the front of it but it doesn't look too structurally uh unstable so they've put that

00:52:33that wing back on after going out and doing one lap on the replace wing

00:52:44so looks like brendan hartley now is uh closing in even further he's got to try and get by the 50

00:52:52he hasn't gotten by him yet he's apparently reportedly on the radio asking for the blue flags yeah but he

00:52:58is uh i'd like to see another shot uh can't wait to see that when it comes but uh yes clearly he's

00:53:05uh clutch catching up now he's just dipped inside the 10 second bracket 9.996 seconds behind 9.871

00:53:15it's just changed and he's fast laying down and he's yeah he's properly got the bit between tip he needs

00:53:22this little bit of uh aggro i feel yes it's like something to wake him up and although you know he's

00:53:27doing a brilliant job anyway but this is the fire that he needs to uh fuel him on in his bid to try

00:53:33and catch giovanazzi and that's only two tenths of a second off the fastest lap of the race by the

00:53:39ferrari of nielsen so you know they're finding some pace in the late stages here they're really kind of uh

00:53:44as you say got the bit between the teeth and the fight is on definitely seems so i wonder which

00:53:50drivers they have left uh to cycle through i think it's going to be rio hirokawa in the car next but

00:53:59you never know if if the team feel like seb is the one to uh bring it home and take this fight to ferrari

00:54:07then then uh you can always adjust your plans and do whatever it takes basically

00:54:19i think this is heartless fourth step now in the car i believe so he's doing a great job

00:54:24yes it is remember they came on and asked him if he could physically do it and he says i sure can

00:54:29do it again now he is and here we go yeah you need you start needing blue flags now at this moment

00:54:37yeah where he was before uh he wasn't getting affected by the dirtier but you are now so i think

00:54:45for a fair fight i think the stewards have to do the right thing the race director yeah he is close

00:54:51enough now he has to back out of it i suspect the 50 cars should be in either this lap or the next lap

00:54:59you could have a little slow slow slow ride through the porsche curves yeah you just want to see a

00:55:06fair fight and uh you know that it's not his race it's um here we go let's hear what brendan thinks

00:55:14about this situation yeah copy the car ahead will box this lap normally the car ahead will box this lap

00:55:25even if he doesn't get out of the way well there you go and i don't think it's gonna as they go

00:55:31around the number 33 car with uh nikki katzberg behind the wheel imagine the penalties that would

00:55:37be coming uh becoming car 50s when nick nielsen's way in formula one right imagine doing this in f1

00:55:43racing a lapsed car and the blue flags it's one thing in uh in weck that would often frustrate me as a

00:55:50driver would be like oh you know the blue flag's there the blue flag means get out of the way of

00:55:56the lapping car well but i also think and this is just my personal opinion i think some of the blue

00:56:03flag stuff in formula one while it's necessary for some of the cars i think some of it's a little over

00:56:09you know why should you have to roll over and play dead you know especially if you're in a battle with

00:56:15somebody else no you know i mean this is a classic case he's not in a battle with anybody else oh no

00:56:20but if you're in a battle with somebody else why should you have to roll over and play dead because

00:56:24lewis is coming through but no then yeah oh you mean if you if you're a battling car with somebody

00:56:29yeah that's what i mean yeah the problem is the problem is jim is that it's it's all to do with the

00:56:33aerodynamics oh i understand it's just all to do with it and and just because you can't see the effect

00:56:38oh yeah on the outside it doesn't mean that it's not there it is this invisible barrier and it's

00:56:44you know you you start hemorrhaging downforce when you get even you know within three seconds

00:56:49of the car in front uh you can't believe how it feels so uh i think that's why you know they are

00:56:55there the engineers get involved and they're overly vocal and you know they're trying to make a point

00:57:00about it but yeah there's there's a time and place definitely but most of the time i think i stand by it

00:57:07i think that it's you know you want it to be as pure as possible and as fair as possible you and i need

00:57:11to have a bottle of wine sometime and get into this i don't disagree with you but i i think i think

00:57:18it's a little too newer entertainment wise yeah you know let them fight well and i don't even think

00:57:23it's entertainment wise i think it's more uh again if you're if you're battling for that last uh points

00:57:30paying position that's that's important to you um absolutely as a team monetarily and everything else but

00:57:38that's not why we're here to talk about formula one we're here to talk about the the uh

00:57:45race at hand which is brendan hartley now less than 10 seconds behind our race leader and in in the

00:57:54american vernacular of what we call stick and ball sports which is anything but car racing when you can

00:58:02get that if you're trying to come from behind if you can get the uh the number of points you're behind

00:58:08into single digits it's it's very much yeah it's it's very much uh a mind game and it encourages there

00:58:17you go and there is yeah how far out is he i can't see him well now he can see him how do you keep the

00:58:24red mist from coming in when you can see him yeah is it a red car or is it red mist

00:58:32and the two front cars in the 27s they are really the pace is really hot

00:58:38almost matching the fastest laps of the of the race oh yeah joe benazzi joe benazzi is not hanging

00:58:44around no he's not he's not lifted off trying to save fuel trying to save tires trying to save the car

00:58:50he's he is uh doing his best we are now under two hours under two hours to the end of this race

00:58:58and it is all to play for still all to play for just nine seconds separating our leaders

00:59:07in the overall category the hypercar category in lmp2 27 seconds separates our leaders

00:59:15and we still have in gtm five cars all on the lead lap now the corvette has a substantial lead

00:59:24of a minute and 19 seconds but any sort of issue on the racetrack that lead will evaporate and that

00:59:31will open the door for the iron dames who are in second place and or the number 25 aston martin who is

00:59:38in third so with two hours to go there's a look at the full running order

00:59:47there you see that uh gtm battle down in 27th position

00:59:54looks like the um garage 56 car is back on track again yes it's gone

24 Hours of Le Mans 2023 – Full Race Part 23

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