277 days. That is how long it has been since I have last witnessed WEC track action with my own two eyes. Track action at Le Mans was therefore a very fine treat.
The last time I had seen the cars of the FIA World Endurance Championship live was during the rookie test at the Bahrain International Circuit, on the Sunday after the Bapco 8 Hours of Bahrain in December 2019. I hadn’t anticipated it to be that long, but then again, I don’t think anyone’s 2020 went as anticipated.
Track action for the 24 Hours of Le Mans got officially underway at 10:00 am local time, with the first free practice session. Arrival at the track was accompanied by the heavy V8 rumble of the Road to Le Mans’ LMP3 class, which sound wonderful and act as a nice warm-up to the main thing.
Entering through the main gate and walking to the paddock briefly provided another sudden reminder of the nature of this year’s event as the fan village, normally buzzing and packed with shops, stands and normally fans, was completely empty and void of life, with the area for standholders now taken in by row after row of RVs, housing some of Le Mans’ many drivers.
Being back in a live paddock is a wonderful thing. Watching from a livestream at home can sometimes mute your perception of how loud and impressive the WEC’s cars can be, but that perception was quickly corrected once practice began.
In total, Thursday provided a staggering 11 hours of track time. The condensed schedule means an almost non-stop day, with two three hours practice session, the 45-minute qualifying session, followed by four hours of night practice, which is still going on at the time of writing.
While the paddock felt a strange place on Wednesday, it became a much more familiar sight once track action started. Once that got underway, the Le Mans paddock returned to its own busy self, with drivers walking to and from the garage and mechanics and team members going about their business.
Of course, the main thing missing was, like yesterday, the presence of fans. Some saw it as a positive however, with United Autosports driver Job van Uitert quipping he liked it because it gave him plenty of room to speed around on his electric scooter.
One odd observation inside the paddock was that the merchandise stand near the main paddock entrance was open as usual, which seemed strange in a paddock filled with teams, journalists and other staff and no fans, which one could argue would be the primary target group for such a stand.
On the other hand, it provides those that are in attendance with the opportunity to grab a rare memento from a very unusual and historic edition of Le Mans. I might just grab something myself later this week.
Tomorrow, the track action continues with the all-new Hyperpole format, which looks set to be very exciting with the six fastest cars (or five, in LMP1) battling it out for pole position.
Le Mans is back in action, and it’s looking as good as it has ever been.
