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The 24 Hours of Le Mans has a new safety car procedure. They will institute the same rule as the IMSA Sportscar Championship in America. In a shocking reaction, this move displeased Toyota director Pascal Vasselon.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans had three safety cars in its rules. Now, only one safety car will pack up the whole field. The safety car can be overtaken by any driver behind the class leader. Drivers behind can also complete a lap. This new procedure made Pascal Vasselon fume. He had some blunt words to say on the “Americanisation” of Le Mans, per Jamie Klein of Motorsport.com.
“The new safety car rule does not seem to us to correspond to the spirit of Le Mans. When you look back at what made Le Mans so great, it's precisely the opposite of this kind of artifice where, if you're not good at pitstops, if you make a mistake in strategy, it doesn't matter because the safety car will put everything back together,” said the Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director.
He adds that Le Mans loses its spectacle as teams no longer have the incentive to push throughout the race. Pascal Vasselon likens it to IMSA's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“At Daytona, you have the spectacle in the last two hours, and the rest of the time the cars just manage to stay on the lead lap and there's no racing for 22 hours. We're going to take a step in that direction,” said Vasselon with much disdain for what has happened to his beloved motorsport.
Only time will tell if Le Mans does get less exciting like Daytona. Until then, do you think a part of the racing triple crown will lose its magic?
