Corvette Racing’s Fehan Not Happy with Safety Car Deployment at Le Mans 2018

3
2028

Corvette Racing's Fehan Not Happy with Safety Car Deployment at Le Mans 2018


Count Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan among the critics of the usage of three safety cars during last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ferrari and Ford also complained about the safety car period that ultimately played a key role in the outcome of the race, which was eventually won by the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR.

Basically, what happened was that the No. 92 Porsche pitted at the “right” time and fellow challengers No. 63 Corvette, No. 91 Porsche, and No. 68 Ford GT at the “wrong” time.

In the fourth hour, the No. 92 Porsche completed its service and driver change one lap before the majority of the field chose to do so, including the No. 63 Corvette. That forced the Corvette into the next safety car pack more than two minutes behind.

Fehan admits he doesn’t necessarily have a solution to the safety car problem, but says he has “just identified it as a challenge.”

“My opinion is that we need to find a way to keep the groups clustered,” Fehan said. “We had (one safety car) in the past, but the circuit’s so long that they worry about how long it takes (to catch up).”

He wonders if three safety cars could still be used but then allow individual wave-byes.

Fehan said that FIA and ACO should seek a way to keep from splitting groups of cars involved in positional battles because last weekend “it divided one car from the pack of GT cars, with a two-and-a-half minute gap that sat there for the entire race.”

“Why did it sit there for the entire race?” Fehan told Sportscar 365. “Because of safety car and Slow Zone areas.”

He said there was no way to get the gap back. “If you keep it in your group, you can race internally in your group, and you saw some of that at the back.”

With the race actually decided in the fourth hour because of the safety car issue, the 24-hour event turned out “not to be a very good race,” Fehan said.

Ferrari driver Davide Rigon in the No. 71 Ferrari 488 GTE agreed with that assessment.

“In the end, the race was less spectacular,” Rigon said. “You cannot invent anything, you cannot do any strategy. You must do a stop every 14 laps … It was very frustrating.”


Source:
sportscar365.com

Related:
Corvette Racing Officially Moves to 4th Place at Le Mans After Ford GT Penalty
Corvette Racing Receives a 5kg Weight Reduction in Late Breaking Le Mans BoP Changes
[PICS] Corvette Racing Continues Le Mans Tradition with the Official Team Photo

 



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3 COMMENTS

  1. Too much meddling – may as well give out participation trophies, what with BoP, Safety Car gimmicks, and fixed numbers of laps and driver hours. Remember #63 moved up a spot to 4th because Ford driver Kanaan did not drive a full 6 hours – so the team got sent back to 12th, penalized 44 laps for that infraction.

  2. Just got back into the LeMans/IMSA racing a few years ago and am sadly disappointed with how things are headed. I hate to draw a parallel to government but it seems that the more of it there is, the worse things get.

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