There were many who considered that Porsche was the great favorite to take victory in the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, after having won the two previous rounds of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Imola and Spa.
The technical director of Toyota, David Floury even said that Porsche wouldn’t have done a “nice job” if it didn’t end up winning the race.impressed by the pace of the 963 in testing.
And although the team, which competed with three cars run by the Penske factory, led the race on several occasions, including on Sunday afternoon, there seemed to be a clear difference in performance compared to the LMH of Ferrari and Toyota.
In the end, fourth place was the best result that Porsche could achieve in its second participation in Le Mans in the Hypercar category, since Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer were just short of the podium with the 963 LMDh #6.
At the end of the race, Kevin Estre responded to comments made earlier in the week by Toyota, stating that it was the Japanese manufacturer that had failed.
“It’s funny to me that Toyota people say after Test Day that if we don’t win this race it’s because we screwed up. Today they are the ones who screwed up,” Estre told Motorsport.com.
“In the end, We were going full force from the first day, and I think they didn’t. We expected to have a good race and we did. We gave everything we had, but it wasn’t enough,” she explained.
#4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
Christensen also suggested that Toyota and Ferrari played with their potential during the commercial part of the race weekwhich ultimately allowed them to overtake Porsche and engage in a direct duel for victory.
“I think the others picked up the pace,” Christensen told Motorsport.com, finishing sixth behind the wheel of the #5 Porsche he shared with Frederic Makowiecki and Matt Campbell.
“The others raised the pace when it mattered and we gave everything from the beginning,” he said.
Porsche’s head of motorsport, Thomas Laudenbach, did not want to comment on the fact that other manufacturers hid their true pace before the race. However, he agreed that the hierarchy was very different from what was seen in training.
“I can only say that we have followed our program in training,” he told Motorsport.com. “We gave it our all. We thought it was the right thing to do and we showed that we can do it. If other teams preferred to show everything in training, that has no meaning for me.”
“We do what we think is right and that’s our program. Yes, in the race it looked a little different than in practice, but that’s not a problem for me,” he added.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photography by: Alexander Trienitz
The speed deficit on the straight slowed Porsche down at Le Mans
The structure Porsche Penske, like other teams, made some costly strategic mistakes, as the weather was unpredictable for much of the event. However, he also didn’t really have the pace to stand up to Ferrari and Toyota, especially in the last two hours, when it rained again at the Circuit de La Sarthe.
The head of Porsche LMDh, Urs Kuratle revealed that the 963 LMDh suffered from a mysterious lack of speed on the straightsa problem that is aggravated at Le Mans due to its long straights and fast acceleration areas.
“We lacked speed on the straight,” Kuratle explained in an interview with Motorsport.com. “That’s something we have to understand where it comes from, from acceleration, from aerodynamic efficiency, I don’t know.”
“We are not talking about much, 2 or 3 km/h [o menos], so it’s not much. But these differences at Le Mans are even worse. The straights are longer than on normal circuits. “We will analyze it.”
Kuratle said he was proud of the effort made by Porsche Penske Motorsport in his second appearance in the Hypercar category at Le Mans, but also admitted that the team “just wasn’t good enough” to take the win.
“It’s not the result we wanted,” he said. “I’m proud of the team and that includes all the drivers, engineers, mechanics, everyone who has participated.”
“It’s the high point of the year for us in the WEC and being fourth is not what you want. You might be wondering why [acabamos cuartos]”We just weren’t good enough, that’s what happened.”
“We would have made one decision or another [estratégica] differently, but that’s the same for everyone. And in the end we finished 40 seconds away from victory, which is incredible after 24 hours,” he said.
