World Endurance Championship: 24 Hours of Le Mans LM GTE Pro/Am rundown

LM GTE Pro

While the various GT classes are nearly guaranteed to bring in an exciting wheel-to-wheel racing, Le Mans and the FIA/ACO has fallen into a bit of a mess trying to balance the cars from the various American and European endurance series.

For example, the class-winning #92 Porsche achieved an average race speed of 212.9 kilometers per hour, while the #68 and #67 Ford GTs were able to achieve average race speeds of 213.2 kilometers per hour and 213.1 kilometers per hour, respectively.

Compare this to the new yet unproven #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR, which only managed to achieve an average race speed of 211.1 kilometers per hour. While these numbers may seem small at first, it is important to remember that these cars are doing this every lap at a rate of roughly three minutes and 50 seconds per lap for 24 hours.

The FIA and ACO have taken small and somewhat convoluted efforts at tightening up the GT fields with observations and tweaks made pre-qualifying and post-qualifying. Weight adjustments and boost regulations have been the popular means of adjustment, with teams like Ferrari, Aston Martin, and BMW being gifted various levels of boost to utilize.

Ford were given a slight boost reduction, but they had 13 kilograms removed from their car. Corvette were given a 10 kilogram weight increase. The pace-setting Porsches did not have any changes in pace.