By Sam Tickell
Peugeot should have won the title but let it slip away, to the benefit of Audi
The 2008 Le Mans Series was truly a battle of the titans. Audi vs Peugeot – a battle for diesel and manufacturer glory. The Le Mans Series has always had battles, but not usually at the front. 2008 changed that.
Peugeot had it all their own way in 2007 – as the only diesel runner and the only P1 car with manufacturer backing, it was hard for them to lose. With the arrival of Audi in 2008, Peugeot would find it harder to win.
But not seemingly too much harder as they took the first four wins of the year. Yes they had some reliability problems but they won at Monza, Spa, Barcelona and Nurburgring .
They had the fastest car and a rival who came under something of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’. Audi would come and race in Europe if Peugeot would race at the major ALMS races. You could imagine that Audi could be lacking a little in the commitment department.
But it was not the case. As the Championship rolled down to the season’s finale at Silverstone, poor Peugeot tactics in the German round before allowed Audi to fight for the title at Silverstone.
A crafty set of team orders would have sealed the title for the #7 crew. But surely, Peugeot, the stronger of the cars throughout the year would not fail at the final hurdle – would they?
They did.
In a display that seemed to defy the viewer’s eyes, Peugeot crashed their way out of contention. The title that would have been so easily theirs, they threw away. They got nervous, impatient, disorganised – maybe some of these, maybe all of these but, in any case, it allowed Audi to take the titles – with only one win.
The rest of the P1 field – the unofficial ‘petrol’ class should not be forgotten as they did put on a might display.
The highlight of the year was surely the Charouz Aston Martin Lola coupe. The return of a coupe and Aston Martin to the leading class was a welcome return.
It was even better when the car was competitive and battling with the Pescarolos, Creations and Orecas for the unofficial class honours.
The Pescarolos and Creations are getting a little old and 2006 must seem like a lifetime ago for the Pescarolo team – a year that they won every race.
Oreca and their ‘art’ car had their share of bad luck but that team has the potential to progress further up the grid.
Although the car did not achieve many points throughout the year, the Epsilon Eusakdi made good progress at the end of the year and was arguably the best looking car on the grid – let’s hope it can find the funding to become truly competitive.
The Porsche, Embassy and WR - three new cars to P2 and three tales of competitiveness
P2 also offered a couple of interesting aspects for the fans. Without doubt, the arrival of the Porsche RS Spyder was the talking point at the start of the year.
And that interest was repaid with a dominating championship of the Van Merkesteijn team.
With budgets that other P2 runners could only dream of, the Dutch squad’s title was never in doubt and unlike the P1 Championship contenders, there was no ‘choking’ in P2.
But the surprise was the competitiveness of the Speedy Sebah Lola. A podium at its first event, this car could battle the might of Porsche with a little more development. But the team could not relive the first round heroics and slipped in the title battle.
But its competitiveness was confirmed with RML replaced their open Lola for a coupe at season’s end.
The Saulnier Racing team, the best of the non-Porsches deserves a special mention in any post season recap.
The P2 squad was near the pace of the P1 teammates and ran a very consistent season, with a best finish of second in class at the German round.
Two other cars made their debut in the 2008 Championship.
WR bought their duck billed machine and Embassy debuted their bespoke P2 car.
Neither car set the world on fire although there was some glimmer of hope for the Embassy car which began scoring regular points by the end of the year.
But the P2 world has changed and those with cars just a few years old are struggling to score points.
2006 saw Radical, Zytek and the (old) Lola fighting for major points. This year they were fighting for scraps. The Quifel ASM team, however ended the year well in their old machinery, proving, at least for a short time that P2 can still be for the private cars and not for the big budgeted teams.
The GT1 title chase was small but competitive.
As GT1 dies a death in ACO racing, four cars finished the season, after a season high of just five earlier in the season.
Out of the four cars racing, it was a two horse race between the Luc Alphand Adventures Corvette and the Modena Aston Martin.
There would be only six points between the two at the end. The two teams kept the victories for themselves and Modena’s retirement in round 1 ensured the Corvette took the title.
Lamborghini made its mark on the 2008 series with competitive performances
But return of Lamborghini to Le Mans Series competition allowed a crowd favourite car to race. What made the IDP Spartak Racing entry even better was that the car was competitive – something we haven’t seen before in ACO or FIA GT racing.
The GT2 race was again all about the little team – Virgo Motorsport.
Running an older Ferrari with just a hand full of guys, the team was able to take four of the five victories.
Undoubtedly assisted by a great relationship with their lead driver, Robert Bell, the team failed to win at Monza but were able to take the other four races – despite having major mechanical issues at the final two rounds (in practice/qualifying that is).
But Virgo could never rest as Team Felbermayr-Proton finished second to Virgo at all four chances.
For the rest, Monza was the only chance for a top spot in GT2, as Farnbacher took out that round.
The year had good racing with Spyker and Aston Martin racing new cars in the regular Ferrari/Porsche battle.
But some teams had a disappointing season. This was led by IMSA Performance Matmut which finished 11th and second last of the regular runners. This will surely not be satisfactory for a team that is used to winning and fighting for titles.
Virgo had a fiery but successful season
Overall, despite the general success of the series in 2008, there were concerning elements Series. The main concern was the ability of the cars to get airborne throughout the year. A frightening crash for Oreca at Monza, with Audi and Creation also getting airborne at the same race. This set the tone for the year.
The Series was lucky that all drivers involved were able to race again by the end of the year but they did rush in some changes to prevent cars from getting airborne when sideways. This worked with limited success and further measures are to be implemented in 2009.
But the year was a positive one for the series. It ended with a record crowd figure at Silverstone and the support of Autosport. The manufacturer support should continue in 2009 and the Series in conjunction with the ALMS should lead the ‘green’ push.
The Series saw massive grids and increasing professionalism and funding for the teams. Whether this will continue to improve in 2009 with the global economic crisis is still to be seen but the series is still ‘affordable’ and unlike almost every high level international series, still offers room for development and competition at almost every level.
That is what makes racing great – and that is why the comparably apolitical Le Mans Series succeeded in 2008.
And that is why we are looking so much forward to 2009.
Finally, our vote for the best looking car of 2008 - the Epsilon Euskadi ee01