Endurance race cars continue to evolve and as they do so, the cars we all drive benefit – tune into Le Mans France this week

While #F1 teams are having a rest from racing this week, later this week the automotive racing world will have eyes on endurance racing at the Circuit de la Sarthe Le Mans in France. The circuit is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race. Comprising private, race specific sections of track along with the public roads which remain accessible most of the year, its present configuration is just over 8?miles long, making it one of the longest circuits in the world. Unlike fixed-distance races whose winner is determined by minimum time, the race is won by the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours.

I’ve watched the race from the pit wall many times and in my view, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a greater test for the teams than F1’s 90mins of racing. Don’t get me wrong, F1 teams are cutting edge and theirs is also a brutal test for the teams but endurance racing is even more unforgiving and brings in way more factors, including luck, that all need to come together for cars just to finish the 24 hour race. Indeed, while many aim to win their class, many teams are also grateful and happy just to complete and cross the line – that’s the size of the challenge they face, even with cutting edge technology helping them at every turn.

This year, for the 92nd running of the race, sixty-two cars and their pit crew along with 186 drivers (most professional but also amateur ‘Gentleman Drivers’ too) will be on the go for 24 hours in THE race. Today, the race comprises two classes: prototypes and Grand Touring cars – like ASTON MARTIN RACING Vantage GT3. Having the different classes on track at the same time already brings spice to an already spicy race.

Each team, racer and car is going through extremes throughout – in the car the drivers spend 85% of the lap time spent on full throttle, putting immense stress on engine and drivetrain components. Additionally, the times spent reaching maximum speed also mean tremendous wear on the brakes and suspension as cars must slow from over 200?mph to about 62?mph for the almost 90 degree bend at the corner at the village of Mulsanne. ?

That’s just two small elements impacting the car, there are many more, but take a moment to think about the human, driving on the limit and the forces exerted on them, along with the different senses they experience. Afternoon to night to day light and back to late afternoon. Dawn mist, smells of spectator bbqs wafting into the cabin, the impact of rain at somepoint, but also fatigue through lack or sleep and battling behind a wheel for many stints that they have to each complete as part of the 3 man drive team piloting the car throughout the race.

The pit crews also go through an ordeal, unlike #F1 which nowadays is just changing tyres, in the 24hr pits, these crews work way harder. Tyre and fuel change is just a regular part of the job every 30mins or so, but they also fix and repair. So, if a car breaks down and can make its way back to the pits under its own power, it can be repaired and re-enter. If it can't, it's out. I’m already think back to driver Derek Bell removing the whole back clamshell on a Porsche AG 962 back in the 80’s and repairing connections to the ECU – it all makes fascinating viewing for a spectator. Over the years we’ve seen everything, gearboxes and suspension changed, wrecked rear ends rebuilt by skilled technicians at the top of their game.

I could go on but what this means for the race teams is that they prep everything very hard to give them the best possible outcome for the race. Everything is meticulously planned for numerous outcomes to feed into an overall strategy, although not fueling enough and calculating too little has seen some fail on the very last lap. Most teams are using #AI in some form or shape, to help them plan and understand the data that comes at them throughout the race whether that be weather data or just making sense of the data streaming in from all the sensors on the cars.

What the Le Mans race really shows off is what’s showing up next in production cars – manufacturers are testing things to the limit to gain competitive advantage but that also means that the production cars get better and more efficient for the everyday consumer. Take for example lighting – it’s evolved significantly over the years from poor bulbs which barely cast any light through to laser and dynamic LED matrix lighting – better lighting on the race track allows race drivers to potentially react quicker to a situation ahead, that extra yard of vision might avoid a collision or mean that they are located in a better position to get their car around a bend quicker. Some of this technology then trickles into wider production cars.? So for example, you see high end cars which can now drive with full beam with anti dazzle technology which uses cameras and technology to effectively blank out where the beam is landing on oncoming traffic – the driver has more perception on the road as it brings daylight to the nighttime, while in theory the oncomers are still able to see too (I know that’s not always the case).

With all that said, the best is yet to come, what’s on the race track this weekend is going to be old tech by next year. Race car designers already tap supercomputers to help design and simulate engine components and aero impacts. While today's supercomputers, can simulate simple molecules, they can as brainy as they are, still take a lot of time with chemical modellers who attempt to come up with new compounds for things like?better batteries or engine parts. ?The modellers are forced to approximate how an unknown molecule might behave, then test it in the real world to see if it works as expected. The promise of quantum computing is to vastly simplify that process by exactly predicting the structure of a new molecule, and how it will work with other compounds. This means race designers might be able to discover new, stronger, more efficient, more sustainable components for their cars which then, just like the lights, show up in the cars we drive everyday - how about a panel that couldn’t dent/bend as light as carbon fibre but even stronger? Is it possible? Probably, we’ll just need quantum to help us discover it..

You can read up on IBM’s #Quantum computing here there’s a batch of case studies that you might find interesting here but see how Mercedes-Benz AG is betting on Quantum to craft the future of electric vehicles here.

When you’ve done reading and researching Quantum, if you’re not at the circuit then put your feet up this weekend and tune into Eurosport TV or listen to the excellent John Hindhaugh on Radio Le Mans to catch some of the racers just hoping they make it around the circuit.

BTW at this year’s race, as usual, I’ll be cheering on the Aston Martin Racing teams but with that said I already have a burning desire to fast forward to see new technology hitting the race when Aston Martin is set to enter the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar class with 6 prototype Valkyrie racecars going for the all out win!

#WEC, #ACO, #Lemans24