The 75th 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview

Audi have been due some serious opposition for some time now at Le Mans. While the German team have stamped their authority on the 24-hour race throughout this decade, it seemed there were no manufacturers brave enough to take Audi on.

But all that is about to change. Peugeot will go head to head with Audi this weekend, and the iconic R10 could be about to face its toughest challenge yet in the French classic, with the diesel-powered 908.

The War for the Win

When Peugeot announced their return to Le Mans, in a bid to repeat their success of the early 1990s, Audi's ageing R8 was still the class of the field. But a new LMP1 monster was on the way from Ingolstadt, and anyone that was going to take Audi on was going to have to take it very seriously.

Peugeot have done just that. They've run to a similar time frame with the preparation of their new diesel car as Audi did one year before them, and they've recruited a driver line-up that could hardly be any stronger.

It was a point that wasn't lost on Audi even before the 908 had taken two comfortable wins in the Le Mans Series. Allan McNish admitted at the start of the year that he had been impressed with what he saw and heard of the car, and the pace of the French machine in the official 24 Hours of Le Mans testing proved that the car is a genuine competitor to Audi.

But Le Mans is unique, and it's not a simple case of qualifying on pole and clearing off at the front, waiting for the chequered flag to fall. Audi have plenty of recent experience to draw on so they know exactly what it takes to win, but Peugeot have been there and done that as well, so they won't be making any rookie mistakes just because it is their first year with this project.

The test day probably didn't give a true indication of how the cars compare, though. Audi know what their car is capable of, and they are sensible enough to know that they didn't need to get into a battle of the lap times with Peugeot in the test. They had a programme, and they stuck to it.

Peugeot pose for a team photo with the 908 HDIs © LAT

So in speed, it is likely that the cars will be very evenly matched. Both have strong driver line-ups, although Audi's clan boasts more sportscar specialists than Peugeot's. However, Le Mans is often described as a 24-hour sprint race now, so the likes of Jacques Villeneuve and Sebastien Bourdais won't have to rein themselves in too much.

It probably means that reliability will decide the outcome, but that doesn't mean that the race will be a strategic plod for victory. As drivers have pointed out in the past, if someone charges off at the front, you can't run the risk of letting them build up a big gap and just hoping that they will break down.

If it does come down to a test of stamina for the cars, then Audi will be expected to win. Peugeot have had their fair share of problems in the six-hour LMS races, and their 24-hour tests have also been troublesome. But they will have done a lot of work on the car since then, and as the speed has always been there, they will have been able to focus on their weaknesses.

The good news is that things are too close to call. Peugeot really arrived with an aggressive approach to the race, and nobody, especially those at Audi, is believing those claims that they are working towards winning the race next year.

Waiting in the Wings

Two years ago, Henri Pescarolo's cars were the class of the field at Le Mans. They qualified on the front row of the grid, and cleared off at the start of the race to the delight of the French crowd.

The Audis in the field were heavily handicapped for their final appearance in the race, and the 2005 event was Pecarolo's to lose. Unfortunately for them, they did just that.

Driver errors and reliability issues ruled the Pescarolos out of contention for a victory, in what was without a doubt the best chance they ever had to win the prestigious event.

Things have slowly gone downhill since then. Last year the French team were expected to mount a serious challenge to Audi, but the team could offer little opposition to the diesel-powered R10, and Henri Pescarolo has spent much of his time over the last year complaining about the equivalency formula that enables diesel-powered cars to race against cars powered by petrol.

This year he has admitted that his cars have no chance of competing with the five diesels at the front of the field, but the Pescarolo team are back with two brand new cars, and based on the performance of the lead car in the test, they might just be close enough to capitalise on any slip-ups from the big boys.

Pescarolo Judd © LAT

Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Romain Dumas are all proven stars in sportscars, and Pescarolo's hopes of any kind of result really rest on their lead trio. Their line-up may not feature the likes of Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian, Frank Montagny and Sebastien Loeb as it has done in recent years, but if they work on putting a solid race together as they did in 2006, they could sneak on to the podium at the expense of a few of their illustrious rivals.

The rest of the LMP1 category will be fighting among themselves for the lower places in the top 10, in the hope that some of the more fancied runners fall down the order and promote them into the top five.

Rollcentre Racing have shone in the past in the big category, and they will have a customer Pescarolo at their disposal this year. Team boss Martin Short will step back into the cockpit alongside the speedy pairing of Joao Barbosa and Stuart Hall, so they have all the ingredients for a very strong challenge.

There are cars from regular entrants Courage Competition and Creation Autosportif, while there's an Arena International Zytek and a handful of Lolas to throw into the mix as well. None will be a match for the frontrunners on pace, and accordingly they will set their sights on making it to the finish.

LMP2

There's one thing about Le Mans that will be a relief to Audi: They won't have to spend the race scrapping with those pesky little LMP2 cars, and there's two reason for this.

Firstly, the Porsches and Acuras that have given Audi so many headaches in the American Le Mans Series this year won't be heading across the Atlantic for the race. Secondly, even if they did turn up in France, the 2007 rules (which are not applied in America) would mean that they would be unable to compete for overall wins.

It is a shame that neither manufacturer will bring its serious operations over for the race (for now), as the RML team would undoubtedly relish the challenge. The British squad is on course for a hat-trick of class wins at Le Mans, and for 2007 they are coming armed with the same tools that worked so well last year: A driver line-up of Thomas Erdos, Mike Newton, and 1988 winner Andy Wallace, and the trusty Lola B05/40.

Their opposition will probably come from the Barazi-Epsilon Zyteks, one of which features former Champ Car star Adrian Fernandez and A1GP race winner Robbie Kerr in its line-up.

The team Bruichladdich Radical SR9 should be quick, although like most of the cars in the class it will be fragile. It might also be worth keeping an eye on the Kruse Motorsport entry, as they have got their hands on a brand new Pescarolo that will run to LMP2 regulations unlike the other French machines in the race.

Aston Martin DBR9 and Corvette C6R in the pits at Le Mans © LAT

The Atlantic Battle

It is easy to miss the battles in the GT classes when trying to keep track of more than 50 cars in a race, but the scraps in the slower classes are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

If it weren't for those nasty final four hours of the race, Aston Martin could have been coming into the 2007 race on the verge of a hat trick of wins. As it stands, though, after two years of going flat out against the factory Corvettes, the green cars have suffered two painful defeats due to problems late in the race.

There is little doubt that yet again the American cars will do their own thing while the Astons try to maximise their package by screaming ahead, but even if they do get into Sunday afternoon with an advantage, there won't be any relaxed faces in the Prodrive garages.

The Aston Martin Racing line-up is formidable this year, with Johnny Herbert, Peter Kox, and qualifying specialist Tomas Enge in one car, while David Brabham, Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell will share the second.

The Corvettes may have to fight off a few more of the British machines this year as well, as there are four more DBR9s in the race this year, but the American outfit might also have to look out for threats from teams running their C6-Rs as well.

The GT1 class has the potential to be far more than a battle between the works Aston Martins and the works Corvettes, and with that in mind, the American outfit have adopted the same strategy as the 2006 class winners in the prototype classes, by changing very little for this year.

While their six drivers remain the same for this year, there has been a switch, with Jan Magnussen joining Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell, while Max Papis will team up with the drivers who shared victory with Magnussen in recent years: Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta.

The Aston/Corvette battle could be spoiled by the Saleens of French squad Team Oreca, who boast a fast line-up of Stephane Ortelli, Soheil Ayari and Nicolas Lapierre in one of their cars.

Best of the Best in GT2

Flying Lizard Porsche 997 GT3 RSR © LAT

While some of the fastest LMP2 cars in the world are not heading to Le Mans this year, and the rapid Maserati MC12 is not allowed to compete in GT1, you can at least turn to the GT2 class for an absolute clash of the titans, as the best cars and teams from the ALMS and LMS battle for glory.

The latest model of the Porsche 911 will make its debut in the race this year, but while there had been times in the past where the class winner would definitely be a German car, the iconic 911 will face stiff opposition yet again this year.

The likes of IMSA Performance and Flying Lizard Motorsports will get to do battle with plenty of Ferraris, including of their ALMS rivals Risi Competizione. One of the 430s features the impressive line-up of Mika Salo, Johnny Mowlem and Jaime Melo, while FIA GT frontrunners Scuderia Ecosse are back for a third attempt at the race in another of the red cars.

But while the Porsches and Ferraris fight each other, they'll have to be careful not to overlook the bright orange Panoz Esperantes of last year's class winners Team LNT.

The British outfit did everything right while their rivals tripped over last year, and they proved that a consistent run to the finish is still the most crucial ingredient required for success at Le Mans.

When one of the biggest races in the world is at stake, it's easy to get caught up in the moment, and forget that, but it's a lesson that should be noted by everybody who lines up on the grid on Saturday afternoon.