NASCAR stands out from the crowd at Le Mans. How could F1 do the same?

2023 F1 season

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I had doubts over the Automobile Club l’Ouest’s decision to allow NASCAR to enter a Chevrolet Camaro in its ‘Garage 56’ category for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours.

But the scheme has an undeniable appeal. Hendrick Motorsports’ tall Camaro dwarfs its prototype and GT competitors, immediately drawing attention to itself: Surely something of these proportions can’t hack it among the competition?

However on the times sheets its performance is more than respectable. It may leave its drivers wide-eyed in the braking zones, but it ‘hauls ass down the straightaways’. The race promoters revised their decision to make it start behind the LMGTE Am class once it out-qualified the lot of them by over four seconds.

Of course there is no fair basis for comparison between the two as the NASCAR-backed entry is not running to the same rules. But it means there’s no reason it should present more of a hazard to the top-class cars than the GT runners.

The roster of talent Hendrick has enlisted to drive the car further justifies its presence in the field. Not merely all-pro, but all-star: Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Mike Rockenfeller and seven-times NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

The Hendrick-run machine has been impressively quick
That said, the special dispensation for a team to run a machine which does not fit in one of the great endurance race’s three classes is officially termed ‘Car Displaying New Technology’. NASCAR’s heavily-prescribed racing breed may be unfamiliar to this category of racing but calling the steel tube construction racer an example of ‘new technology’ is a stretch.

This is ultimately more of a marketing exercise for NASCAR than an attempt to complete this gruelling endurance event in a truly novel way, as was the case for the unconventional IndyCar concept-based DeltaWing of 2012 or the modified LMP2 entry that enabled racer Frederic Sausset, who is a quadruple paraplegic, to the finish in 2016.

Above all, what the Garage 56 category might best be used to demonstrate is some groundbreaking low- or zero-emissions technology. But while various ambitious projects along these lines have been announced, none have yet come to fruition.

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That being so, what’s the harm in the ACO using the unoccupied ‘Garage 56’ berth to forge links with America’s favourite form of motorsport? A reciprocal arrangement is now in place, with Kamui Kobayashi making his NASCAR Cup debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway later this year. Sadly, he won’t be entering the 24th round of this year’s Cup series in a GR010 Hypercar, but a NASCAR-spec Camry

Le Mans winner Alonso drove an F1 car at the track in 2021
But having welcomed NASCAR to La Sarthe, would the ACO be willing to do so for another entrant – such as Formula 1?

The possibility of an F1 car being allowed to start the race is likely a non-starter on more than one count: The complications of adding lights plus the fact the La Sarthe circuit isn’t graded for F1 competition. Fernando Alonso demonstrated an Alpine F1 car at the track two years ago and concluded it was “way too fast and way too narrow in some of the sections” for F1.

However an F1-powered car may be a realistic possibility. The days when Le Mans commentators could confidently state the race lasted longer than an entire grand prix season are well behind us, such is the length of F1’s current schedules.

When the 2023 season was originally planned, F1 teams were required to use just three power units over 23 rounds, meaning one would have to cover eight race distances. That’s a total of 2,440 kilometres before practice and qualifying are taken into consideration. While that may be less than half the distance covered at Le Mans last year, it could be possible for a sufficiently detuned engine.

Mercedes have put an F1 engine into a road car
F1 engines have found their way into various exotic machines in the past. Mercedes has even fitted one into a road car, which might provide an obvious starting point for an F1-Le Mans bid, though their history at the event is marred by the disaster of 1955 and near-disaster of 1999.

Still, the potential for an F1-engined car at Le Mans is there. No doubt someone at Liberty Media has already clocked the massive potential NASCAR has tapped through Garage 56 and is wondering how they can stand out from the crowd in the same way.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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40 comments on “NASCAR stands out from the crowd at Le Mans. How could F1 do the same?”

  1. Your neighbor’s Chevy out on the road course!

  2. I think the Nascar is popular because it looks so out of place and also sounds rad.
    A F1 chassis in Le Mans won’t happen for the reasons mentioned. But even a modern F1 engine will probably not be a head turner. The technology is not unique enough compared to WEC and the sound is worse.
    A naturally aspirated V12, V10 or even V8 would of course be a direct crowd pleaser.

  3. I don’t see adding lights an obstacle.

    Also, it is not an F1 race. Why wouldn’t a “random” prototype car be allowed to race there? It would be modified anyways. Refuelling should be easier and the mentioned lights. Break disc would either have to be changed many times during the race or also should be modified to cope for 24 hours. I guess the open cockpit is a bigger obstacle than anything else.

    1. Most prototypes were open top 20 years ago. I don’t see the safety issue if drivers sign up to do it, see this week’s Isle of Mann TT, thats scary watching from your sofa. Bet no current F1 driver would dare though,if it happened it would have to be a private team using an older F1 car with none current F1 drivers. F1 car at Lemans would be fine compared to the TT, Pikes Peak, the Porsche LMP1 that was heavily modified and did the nurburing (as fast as an F1 car).

      1. I don’t see the safety issue if drivers sign up to do it, see this week’s Isle of Mann TT, thats scary watching from your sofa.

        I don’t think you can look at the TT and say “If that’s acceptable, so should this be”. It’s a complete oddity, out of place with every other major motorsports event. They refuse to show it live because there’s a very good chance someone will die: In fact, there’s been at least one fatality in every event since 2013.

        I say this as someone who loves the TT races, but Le Mans would never accept a risk even approaching that even if the drivers did.

  4. By being an eyesore? Weren’t the early 90’s prototypes powered by f1 engines or derivatives? I seem to vaguely remember the whole world engine thing. 3.5 liters for F1 and the WEC?

    1. Yeah, from 1991 onwards the engine regulations were pretty much the same in F1 and WSC.

      1. Thanks. I wasn’t sure as the article goes on and on as if that never happened.

  5. Spectacle would be better if they ran a modified 2011-13 car. Screaming high RPM engine can still tell the hybrid story with KERS. Cheap to operate and modify. Detune engine for longevity, add requisite modifications.

    1. @spencer KERS has been on Le Mans prototypes since 2008, on LMP1. It is thus considered old news. It is especially unlikely to consider promoting a car that started using it only after LMP1 did to be any sort of technical scoop.

      1. There were cars using KERS before that – Panoz had an LMP1 car with KERS in the 1990’s (I think it was in 1997), so it is even older technology than you think. However, given that poster seems more obsessed with spectacle, they probably won’t listen to you.

        1. Yes, that Panoz with an electric motor – affectionately nicknamed ‘Sparky’ – was an adaptation of the GTR-1. Not entirely surprisingly, that addition made the car much heavier than the competitors (like all hybrid vehicles) and it was consequently quite slow.

  6. Le Mans organizers will – rightfully – never agree to F1 steal their thunder and have and F1 car beat the track record. That would take away from the greatness of the WEC cars competing at the track and setting track records, and it would ultimately diminish the value of the entire race and the WEC racing series.

    The LeMans24h and the Indy500 are the two greatest motorsport events, which also show fans that F1 is not the be all and end all of motorsports. For many casual fans, those are the only events that show them there IS motorsport outside of F1 in the first place. This should be cherished and protected.

    1. I’d add Dakar Rally to that list of motorsport spectacle. 5000 kms raced over difficult terrain across two weeks is the greatest event in cross-country rallying.

      I’d also add Isle of Man TT (for its incredible average speed on two wheels) if it wasn’t so extreme and dangerous.

      1. I’d definitely list the TT as one of the greatest motorsports events. It’s certainly my favourite, and I don’t think there is any other event quite like it. Those bikes cover an F1 GP distance or more, often in a quicker time, on “normal” roads with walls, houses, kerbs and spectators often within inches…

        Of course, doing so is incredibly dangerous, and unfortunately we see at least one death every year. Nowhere else accepts that kind of risk. It’s become a special case where the danger is somehow acceptable… I don’t really condone that, but it’s such a special event that I couldn’t countenance it being dropped, either.

    2. If the events are great, then surely an F1 car entering them would be no danger to their prestige, especially a multi class event like Le Mans 24?

      1. @yaru
        Things being great doesn’t make them indestructible. One has nothing to do with the other.
        Look man, F1 has the fastest racing cars out there, and it’s got a gigantic crowd of fans who don’t care and won’t care about any other motorsport seeing them as inferior. The F1 marketing machine helps that a lot.
        If F1 competed in LeMans 24, all the LMP/Hypercar cars would be diminished to being just a background to just another F1 Grand Prix – the 24h Formula 1 Grand Prix of Le Mans.
        When a hypercar Porsche smashes everybody on track – it’s perceived as a beast and it becomes a legend. But when the same hypercar Porsche runs 20 seconds a lap slower then the F1 cars, it’s no longer that. It becomes just another sideshow backmarker.

  7. The top image is just so wrong, especially the Nascar car in the middle – purely unfitting in the mix with WEC & GT machinery.

    1. I think it’s great! However, I think the everyone is going to have a tough time seeing around it, going to be like trying to see around these full size SUVs on the highway while I’m in my car…

  8. Call me crazy, lunatic or whatever, but I want to see F1 cars and IndyCar’s participating together at the Indy 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. Secondly, I want to see NASCARs race at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

    1. That wont happen with Indycar running a decade+ old car and every owner looking to Roger to buy them new kit if he were ever to commission a replacement.

    2. IndyCar’s would put on a great show at Monaco!

  9. The nascar entry makes no sense as it doesn’t really fit what the Garage 56 entry is supposed to be.

    It’s supposed to be for an entry bringing something innovative yet there is nothing especially interesting, innovative or special about a nascar.

    The Garage 56 entry has gone from the interesting and unique delta wing, The Zero emission Nissan that ran a lap under 100% electric power, Planned hydrogen powered cars and cars featuring new technology to allow drivers with disabilities to compete (Including a driver with no arms or legs)…..And now a nascar.

    Whole thing reeks of them bending the rules of that entry purely to appease the US market.

    1. Its not actually a nascar. And it doea have innovative things

    2. Well, yes, of course, it’s a marketing exercise for everyone involved.

      Then again, I find this year’s “Nascar”-derived machinery less silly then other Garage 56 entrants of the past.

    3. Agree. You think they could come up with something better for 56 than a marketing exercise. Especially nowadays.

  10. This may be a ship that has sailed. The 2014-era engines have the MGU-H, which is indeed special.

    But by 2026, there won’t be anything particularly unique about F1 engines. The balance between the ICE and the MGU-K may be different from what’s normal in LMH, and they amount of battery storage and deployment might differ, but there’s nothing really exciting about any of that. It’s just a different way to work the numbers.

    1. Very true.

    2. Agreed, the time to showcase the technology was ten years ago when the power units were new, special and different. There is little point showcasing them now, a decade later, and there will be nothing that special to showcase about the new engine regs coming in. F1 is falling further and further away from “the pinnacle of motorsport technology”. The cars are very fast, particularly in the corners, but they are not actually that technologically advanced.

    1. Thanks for the video! What sort of gearbox does this car run? I was counting 5 speeds, although he may not have been using 1st; is this a paddle shift? Quick gear changes so I doubt manual shifting.

      1. Yes, they went with paddle shifters for their Le Mans entry.

  11. Forget about F1 in WEC, time for Nascar in F1, also add F3/F2 in the same race to make it more WEC.

  12. Great read Keith, I see your passion in the choice of words

    1. @jeff1s Thanks very much, really appreciate it.

  13. Surprised Le Mans and the WEC’s not getting a McLaren team to go with its Ferraris. (Every other series seems to have McLarens – they’re getting like black “Lotus” cars 10 years ago!)
    I’d always assumed the next move for United Autosports would be running a McLaren Hypercar team, but Zak Brown’s team’s leaving WEC next year to continue racing its LMP2s in the US. No sign of a Hypermac then, although I’m sure there’ll be a private McLaren or two in the new GT3 class.

    1. McLaren was involved in the Hypercar discussions, along with Aston Martin and such. Neither decided to pursue a program.

      McLaren’s might make an appearance as GTE is phased out in favour of GT3 (where McLaren’s are indeed ubiquitous).

  14. Surely something of these proportions can’t hack it among the competition?

    There is no competition there. They don’t compete with anyone. And the only ones in competition at Le Mans are entries of the same make and model.

    Everyone else just participates in a non-sporting event.

    1. Yes and that’s the same reason they had to change it’s restart order, yes?

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