By: Stephen Kilbey 21 hours ago Ahead of his first public LMP1 run tomorrow at the official Le Mans Test Day, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button acknowledged the testing process leading up to the 24-hour race was long, but “necessary” to conquer one of the world’s most prestigious races.Prior to the Test Day, Button’s only LMP1 running came in a private test at Magny Cours following the season opener at Spa, where he tested not only the BR1 for the first time but an LMP1 car.Speaking to RACER, Button — who will share the No. 11 BR1 AER with Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin for the remaining WEC rounds of the 2018/19 season — admitted he still has a lot to learn, making tomorrow crucial in getting up to speed, as well as readying to qualify for the event itself.

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“As I’m a rookie I have to do my 10 laps to qualify,” he noted. “From what I hear the circuit is pretty green, so it’s just about getting laps in and getting my 10 laps done.“It’s a long process, but like this with all big events,” he continued. “The build-up is so long and you just want to get in the car. But it’s all necessary.”In addition to his WEC program, Button is racing in Super GT with Team Kunimitsu, and currently leads the points standings. The transition from GT500 to LMP1 is proving to be a challenge, one of the key differences coming in the pit stops.“We’ve been doing lots of driver changes; it’s much faster now with refueling and tire changes being at the same time,” he said.“Super GT pit stops are much easier, because it’s like a DTM car. You have to jump over the carbon fiber moncoque, but it’s easier to get in, and you have more time. With this, you have to be quick — one slip up and you can lose time. It’s tough, it’s been good to get practice in.”While it looks like his chances of winning the 24 Hours outright are slim with SMP Racing, Button is excited about the battle between the privateer LMP1 teams this month at La Sarthe. is focusing on what should be a very competitive race between the five non-Hybrid teams in the 10-car LMP1 field.“Obviously our aim is to challenge for the win, that’s always the aim in motor racing,” he said. “But it is very tough for us, you could say this is Toyota’s race to lose. It’s a shame, but it’s a 24-hour race, and you never know what’s going to happen.“There should be good competition from the privateers though; the Rebellion R-13 looks reasonably competitive, but it’s hard to know as it’s a very different circuit to Spa. We should have a good race, and who knows how far we will be off Toyota.

By: Stephen Kilbey June 2, 2018 5:38 AM Porsche’s full-season FIA WEC 911 RSRs will race in retro liveries at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, the German marque revealing the cars today trackside at the Circuit de la Sarthe ahead of Le Mans Test Day.“With these much-loved designs, we want to thank our loyal supporters who have cheered for us both on and off the track at every race, but particularly at Le Mans, where we as record winners with 19 outright victories received incredible support every year,” said Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser, Vice President, Motorsport and GT Cars.The No. 91 of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki will run in a “Rothmans-esque” color scheme, reminiscent of the Porsche 956 C and the Porsche 962 Cs back in the 1980s.Meanwhile, the No. 92 of Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Laurens Vanthoor will sport the famous “Pink Pig” design which the Porsche 917/20 ran in the 1971 running of the French classic.“The cars look really nice, so does the garage (pictured below), which has so much detail in it,” Walliser told RACER. “We felt we had to do something for the 70th Anniversary of Porsche — something special, more than just running a sticker on the car. So our marketing department came up with some ideas, and putting iconic colors on our WEC cars was the one we chose. It was an easy decision!”

By: IMSA Wire Service June 7, 2018 8:27 AM As he stood on the podium following a third-place run in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, Cooper MacNeil didn’t want to leave.“For me to see that and to have that experience was truly amazing,” MacNeil recalls. “I actually didn’t even want to get off the podium. They had to grab me and pull me off to do whatever else they were doing. I’m really looking forward to getting back there and hopefully standing on that podium there.”MacNeil — who drives the Scuderia Corsa-prepared No. 63 WeatherTech Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 full time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class — is returning to Circuit de la Sarthe next week for his fifth attempt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He will share the No. 84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE with Jeff Segal — with whom he co-drove to a fifth-place result in last Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit — and British driver Liam Griffin. The No. 84 WeatherTech-sponsored Ferrari is one of 13 entries in the GTE Am class. MacNeil likes his and the team’s chances.“The biggest thing at Le Mans is experience,” he says. “I mean, you can be the best driver in the world, but if you’ve never been at Le Mans before, you’re going to have a tough time. So, heading back there with the team that won (last year), with a co-driver (Segal) that’s won the race before, in a super-strong car being a Ferrari, I think we have a lot of the right tools to bring it home on Sunday.“We’ve got to keep our nose clean. It’s a very long, very fast-paced, grueling race, the toughest in all of motorsports. Basically, if you just run clean, consistent laps — they don’t even have to be the fastest laps in the world, they just have to be consistent — then you’ll be there at the end. That’s the important part at Le Mans is just being there.”One driver who’s definitely “been there” at Le Mans is Segal. In his first appearance back in 2015, Segal finished third in GTE Am alongside co-drivers Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler. The next year, the same trio of drivers won the GTE Am class in the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. This will be Segal’s first race at Le Mans since then.“We could have chosen a handful of professional drivers to drive with me at Le Mans, and we chose Segal, because the first time he was there, he was P3,” MacNeil said. “The last time he was there, he won the race. We have to keep his podium streak going.”If they’re successful, it also will start a podium streak for MacNeil. Last year, it was Bell, Sweedler and MacNeil sharing the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari at Le Mans, which came home two laps and two positions behind the race-winning JMW Motorsport Ferrari.“We were pushing hard for our own entry through Scuderia Corsa, obviously that didn’t happen, so our next best option was to join the team that beat us last year,” MacNeil said. “(It was) the team that won the race last year in a Ferrari, which made all the sense in the world to me.”The 25-year-old MacNeil has experienced a lot in his previous four runs at Le Mans. Enough to know that this race is truly unpredictable.“It’s such a long week and there’s so much going on,” he says. “There’s so many different things that can happen that you never know what to plan for. For instance, a few years ago, it was my teammate crashing the car and my team having to rebuild the car overnight the night before the race. Then, we were forced to just do the race with two drivers [Jeroen Bleekemolen being the other], moving up to a Pro category, which we finished fifth in, which I was very proud of.“Two years ago, I had a 103-degree fever the night before and the morning of the race and we couldn’t drive. You really have no idea what to plan for. You can’t plan for anything. Basically, you just have to hope for the best and hope things go your way. That’s exactly how the race goes.”A lot can happen on a racetrack with 38 turns that measures nearly eight and a half miles in length. Many portions of the circuit use what normally are public roads the rest of the year in Le Mans. That’s all part of the attraction for MacNeil.“When I drive around that racetrack and I do 190 miles an hour down the Mulsanne (Straight), and I could basically take a nap while I’m doing it for as long as the straightaway is, it’s pretty cool,” he says. “You kind of sit back and smile.“I get a big ol’ smile on my face that I’m doing 190mph on some road in the middle of France in a Ferrari. Yeah, I’m happy. That’s my happy place.” So too, is the Le Mans podium.“The fans make the podium what it is,” he says. “Obviously, standing up there higher than everybody, you’re looking down on everybody and you have a feeling like you’re on top of the world. But without their true passion for the sport, it would mean nothing.“It could just be a sea of people and it wouldn’t mean anything. But it’s a sea of people that have been there, have been up all night, have been there all week, have been camping there and really wanted to see you and other people on the podium just to be a part of that.”On-track activity for the 24 Hours of Le Mans begins next Wednesday, June 13. The race will run June 16-17. Live coverage of the race in the United States will be on Velocity.

By: IMSA Wire Service June 4, 2018 2:06 PM Hot on the heels of Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit, several IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams and drivers were in Le Mans, France on Sunday to participate in the annual test day in preparation for the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16-17.There were 13 drivers in the Detroit field who also are competing at Le Mans this year, making up exactly half of the 26 full-time IMSA drivers in this year’s twice-around-the-clock French endurance classic. The other half already were in Le Mans and primarily compete in the WeatherTech Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.And among the GTLM competitors, one of two entries from the United States-based Porsche GT Team was quickest of the 15 GTE Pro class entries during the test day. French racer Patrick Pilet – the 2015 WeatherTech Championship GTLM champion – did the honors for the No. 93 Porsche 911 RSR team, turning in a best lap of 3 minutes, 52.551 seconds around the 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe.“At the beginning of the tests, the track was still very slippery, so we had to be a bit careful,” said Pilet, who is sharing the No. 93 with his full-season co-driver in the WeatherTech Championship, Nick Tandy, and another 2018 WeatherTech Championship regular, Earl Bamber, who is a two-time overall winner at Le Mans.“But over the course of the day, it was very good. We tested at full power. The car’s balance was really great. Due to this, I could finally score the fastest lap time.”Also posting a top-five speed in GTE Pro was Dirk Mueller in the No. 68 Ford GT at 3:53.064. Mueller and his regular co-driver, Joey Hand, are going for their second 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in three years after winning in 2016. The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing teammates will be joined for the race – as they were in 2016 – by Le Mans native Sebastien Bourdais, who competed in Sunday’s IndyCar race at Detroit and therefore was not at the test.Another group of IMSA regulars were represented in the top five in the GTE Am class. Patrick Long, who co-drove to an 11th-place result in the GT Daytona (GTD) class at Detroit alongside co-driver Christina Nielsen in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, was fifth-quickest in GTE Am in Sunday’s test.Long is sharing the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR with fellow Americans Tim Pappas and current IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class points leader Spencer Pumpelly.Nielsen, meanwhile, also was in Le Mans on Sunday to drive the No. 80 Ebimotors Porsche 911 RSR that she is sharing with Fabio Babini and Erik Maris. Unfortunately, the two-time defending GTD champion had a tough day.“My racing heart is bleeding a little bit after this weekend,” Nielsen shared on her Instagram feed. “My teammates jumped in the car in the morning, and around midday when I was supposed to get in, we found an issue that took most of the day to repair.“Everyone did a great job getting the car back out in time for the final 20 minutes of the day. Unfortunately, I had a rear tire explode on my out lap when I was in sixth gear approaching (the) Arnage (turn). I will be going into Le Mans next week without having a single lap during the test day.”Cooper MacNeil and Jeff Segal were fresh off of a top-five finish in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship race in Detroit and jumped right into the No. 84 JMW/WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GTE AM car at Le Mans. The pair, who were joined by Liam Griffin, were able to turn maximum laps on the day without any issues to get their footing for the race in two weeks. The trio turned 68 laps around the 8.4-mile circuit.“Overall a good day at Le Mans,” MacNeil said. “The car showed a lot of pace right from the beginning as did all three drivers. JMW prepped a great car that was ready to go. We were the fourth fastest Ferrari on the day. We made good progress working through some setup changes. We hit on a handling package that works for all three of us. I am looking forward to the race in two weeks.”All other IMSA regulars participating in the test day managed to do so without incident. On-track activity for the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans begins next Wednesday, June 13. The race will run June 16-17 at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Live coverage of the race in the United States will be on Velocity.

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