When F1 Ran At Le Mans (And Was VERY Fast)
534,038
Published 2024-07-01
Back in 2021 a Formula One car ran at Le Mans - with Fernando Alonso driving.
I wanted to know more, so I went to Alpine to speak with the project lead on this event.
And I wanted to know if Fernando Alonso was really pushing, how they adapted the car for such an unusually long and fast circuit, and what was the lap time—would it be quicker than LMP1s or Hypercars?
Well, that team shared the lap time data with me - and it’s fascinating.
Now, you might expect that this was just a demonstration run, one to please the 300,000 spectators at Le Mans.
But in fact, the team were very well prepared - they’d run many simulations and had engineered the car to be as fast as possible on this incredible circuit.
And Le Mans is no normal circuit - it’s almost eight and a half miles long. But, the biggest difference is just how many long straights it has.
📹 All source footage can be found here 👉 bit.ly/3L8s55g
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All Comments (21)
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Imagine having an F1 endurance race at Le Mans
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I read the thumbnail as "Fiat Le Mans". This is perfect.
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Next year they should let the Porsche 919 EVO do an unrestricted solo run around Le Mans like they did at the Nordschleife
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I'd love f1 endurance races because it'll force the designers to make f1 cars even more durable and reliable over a long period of time
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how did Alonso's first few sector times compare to le mans until he hit traffic?
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I was not expecting sub 3 minute time projection. That's insane. I'd love to see it a real lap unimpeded.
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Yooo, happy Monday ya gearheads
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The fact that they wrote all of that complex simulation software which 'just' gives them a base setup is astounding
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if theres DRS available everywhere why not have a very big wing to go faster through corners but still be very fast on straights with DRS
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If an Alpine/Renault can go sub 3 minutes at Le Mans Imagine what the Mercedes W11 can do on it 💀
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8:36 But Alonso was driving for McLaren in 2018, and Ocon for Racing Point. Hulkenberg and Sainz were the Renault drivers in 2018.
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FWIW - LMP1 (1 min 45 sec) is 13 sec/lap slower than F1 car (1 min 32 sec) at COTA (3.4 mi/5.5 km). Indy car has lap time (1 min 46 sec). All are qualifying times.
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TLDR: 0:20 They didn't get to complete a lap and the estimated timed lap is a sub 3 minutes, save yourself 12 minutes folks.
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Very cool stuff. Thanks for making videos like this.
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Love it when concepts like this are explored
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Love your videos, always interesting, thanks.
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love this new style of editing
