Toyota: New safety car rules risk devaluing Le Mans win

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon believes that the revised safety car system could make “Le Mans a bit of a lottery”. 

The old system of three safety cars being deployed on the long 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe is being replaced by a new procedure whereby the field will be lined up behind a single course vehicle when the race goes green. 

“The nature of the race could now completely change with a safety car,” Vasselon told Autosport.

“It makes Le Mans a bit of a lottery, and that changes the value of the win.  It could devalue a Le Mans victory because you can get it by chance somehow.”

Vasselon pointed out that any safety car system will have an effect on the race. 

“A safety car always has a sporting impact. You can minimise that impact with the three safety cars, or maximise it, which is what has been done for this year,” he explained. 

“The procedure that was in place was probably the best possible one to have the lowest sporting impact on a track of 13.6km with a lap time of 3m30s. 

“Now, all you have to do is stay within three minutes of the leader and wait for a safety car.”

He described the move as “not very positive” and a “kind of Americanisation of the race”. 

Safety car leads (a portion of) the pack at Le Mans...

Photo by: Paul Foster

The new safety car rules have polarised the WEC paddock. 

Porsche Penske Motorsport boss Jonathan Diuguid said: “More cars on the lead lap at the end of a 24-hour race is more exciting than not. 

“After Le Mans last year, we looked at how the caution periods affected our LMP2 programme. And at the end there, one worked for us and one worked in favour of the [class winning] Jota car. 

“Trying to eliminate that as much as possible has to be good.”

United Autosports team principal Richard Dean pointed out that the new system would allow scope for delayed cars to make up lost time.

That, he argued, “had to be good” given that last year his team’s #22 LMP2 entry lost two laps in a startline incident and was unable to make up for the delay.

“Anything that gives you the chance to maybe get a lap back if things work for you has to be viewed as positive,” he said.

“Last year, we lost those two laps at the start, and our drivers drove flat out for 24 hours, but we were never going to make up any ground.”

Jota team boss Sam Hignett, whose team is joining the Hypercar class of the WEC with a Porsche 963 LMDh this year, explained that he had mixed feelings about the new rules.

“In the short term, it is probably good for us because we will be going to Le Mans with a car that’s new to us and probably aren’t going to be as quick as some of our rivals,” he said.

“Anything that keeps us in the mix is good in that respect, but looking at it long-term, a safety car that bunches up the field takes away from our strategic IP as a team.”

The race will be neutralised behind three safety cars as in the past, before a merging of the queue behind a single course vehicle. 

Any car ahead of the leader of its class in the pack will then get a wave around. 

This will be followed by what has been termed ‘drop back’, which will form the cars into class groups with Hypercar at the front and GTE Am at the rear.

The system was practised on the opening day of the WEC Prologue test at Sebring earlier this month. 

A time of 20 minutes has been estimated for the procedure to be completed at Le Mans.