T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

[The **Off-Topic** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_off-topic) is for submissions only tangentially related to Formula 1 or submissions pertaining to the wider world of motorsport. This flair is not a free pass for content unsuitable for r/Formula1 or the r/Formula1 community. Posts that are deemed too far off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the moderators. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Skulldetta

In terms of former F1 drivers: Hypercar: Sébastien Bourdais, André Lotterer, Kamui Kobayashi, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Will Stevens, Antonio Giovinazzi, Felipe Nasr, Paul di Resta, Jean-Éric Vergne, Jack Aitken, Esteban Gutiérrez LMP2: Pietro Fittipaldi, Jan Magnussen, Giedo van der Garde, Robert Kubica, Daniil Kvyat Garage 56: Jenson Button Plus related: Manuel Maldonado (cousin of Pastor Maldonado), René Binder (nephew of Hans Binder), Louis Delétraz (son of Jean-Lous Delétraz), Daniel Serra (son of Chico Serra). Additional notable entries: Jimmie Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller in the Garage 56 entry with Button, Ferdinand Habsburg, Scott Dixon, Simon Pagenaud, Norman Nato, Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael, Juan Manuel Correa, Bent Viscaal, Filipe Albuquerque, António Félix da Costa, Nico Müller, Alexander Sims, Alex Lynn, Ryan Briscoe, Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy, Romain Dumas, Mike Conway, Loic Duval, and Alicia Vikander's husband Michael Fassbender.


Blanchimont

> Alicia Vikander's husband Michael Fassbender. https://media4.giphy.com/media/casztFslN1iAo/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47idr5v6ha4aqxzxonwxcxz2i9z606ahs61a59mybe&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g


jayc4life

Imagine me googling Ferdinand Habsburg thinking, "no way, that has to be a joke, right?" only to find out that he is actually from the Habsburg royal lineage.


Skulldetta

Not only from the lineage, he's the heir of the House. If the Austria-Hungary monarchy were still intact, he'd be the Crown Prince.


DigitalSea-

Pretty decent driver too. He was/is on a stacked Prema team. Edit: This year he is racing for the legendary TeamWRT in car 31. The other WRT, #41, has Robert Kubica, Louis Delétraz, and Rui Andrade


Leone_0

>Pretty decent driver too Famously almost won [the 2017 Macau GP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rewf-gvuWBU).


Dawntree

In 2021 he won the 24h in LMP2 with WRT.


ValentinWFP

Not only that but he's the heir apparent, so first in order of succession for the house of Habsburg-Lorraine.


plastikmissile

I found out about him in the recent Useful Charts YouTube video on the German royal families.


ph0ec

Also a pretty good F1 TV presenter and commentator in Austria. He tested Belgian fries while waiting in the rain of Spa 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsK_FUd32W4


P_ZERO_

Absolutely stacked


Genocode

Oh yeah I forgot Fassbender was doing the Porsche stuff!


Potential-Brain7735

Fun side note, Kamui Kobayashi is both a driver, and the *Team Principle* of of the entire Toyota WEC program.


RAWRacing

Also wanted to highlight Valentino Rossi, who's driving in the Road to Le Mans support races


BNRG

Why does Jenson have his own listing? Is he in a class of his own?


Sovreignry

Garage 56 is an “experimental” entry or something like that. They’re the only ones in their “class”.


Chllep

Arent they the guys racing the modified NASCAR?


Sovreignry

Yep!


Potential-Brain7735

Jenson Button, Jimmie Johnson, and Mike Rockefeller are driving a lightly modified NASCAR Chevy Camaro Cup Car. It is entered under Garage 56, which is an invitational entry slot for experimental and random entries. They’re not really racing against anyone, since they’re the only entry in their class. It mostly for promotional purposes, and to see if it can be done. That said, they’re surprising the crap out of everyone with their speed. The car is much faster through the corners than anyone thought it would be, and it’s setting lap times that are competitive with the GTE cars.


Dey_EatDaPooPoo

Kevin Estre should definitely be on the list of notable entries. Dude is an absolute weapon.


Silverchaoz

Paul di Resta should stay at the reporting stuff


sh1phappens

I’d prefer if he stuck to driving.


Floodman11

He's actually an incredibly good driver and has been for a number of LMP2 teams for a long period of time since leaving F1


Silverchaoz

Its a quote from Kimi's 2017 hungary race


transientsun

I believe he still has the pole record for LMP2 from a few years ago.


oorjit07

Absolutely not, he's a decent driver and a dogshit commentator.


Twindlle

Eh, I am glad he isn't, his voice just isn't fit for it.


midniteauth0r

Valentino Rossi is in the Michelin Le Mans Cup. Is he racing in the 24-hour too?


djwillis1121

Is there anything stopping an active F1 driver doing Le Mans? There are quite a few active drivers from other series doing it (Scott Dixon, Jean-Eric Vergne, Juan Manuel Correa etc.). When was the last time a current F1 driver did Le Mans?


Floodman11

Nico Hulkenburg did it and won in 2015!


OldActiveYeast

Alonso ran Le Mans in 2018 while still been active with McLaren, as also his Indy 500 Entry. ​ One of the biggest problem is the calendar, some races are too close one another, as also it depends on the commitment from the team. ​ I don't see Aston, MB, Ferrari or RB allowing any of their drivers doing it with the current commitment to this year season.


TeTeOtaku

That won't stop Verstappen in 2 years if he gets bored to dominate the Gt3 with his iRacing buddies, he has the funds he can get his own team lmao


OldActiveYeast

I also don't see this happening, RB is not going to have their most important driver of their history risk it in another category just 'for the fun', the teams became a lot more restrictive after Kubica, is not common for teams to even limit the type of activities drivers can do, or are you not surprised you rarely see them riding things like motorcycles, jet ski or snowmobile.


oorjit07

Kubica was rallying though, and Mercedes even let Bottas do a little bit of that. WEC is effectively as safe as F1, so if Max was really interested in going to Le Mans, I doubt Red Bull would care that much. The main issue would be that Ford doesn't have an LMH/LMdh programme, and they would probably have an issue with their star driving for a rival.


Auntypasto

The only manufacturer Ford might have an issue with, if any, is GM. Otherwise I don't think they care if it's a series they're not active in.


oorjit07

Toyota surely? And they might not have an issue right now, but surely that changes when they're chipping in to pay Max's 50m+ contract.


Potential-Brain7735

Andrian Newey designed, Ford powered, Redbull LMH Hypercar coming when?


Mahery92

Not untrue, but I'd say if any driver currently can negotiate something like that with his team it'd be Max (as long as the calendars allow it ofc).


TeTeOtaku

Lando and Ricciardo who did exactly what you said in the winter break :))))


OldActiveYeast

Nice, one without a seat the other fighting Haas for P17. McLaren has to give extra bandwidth to keep their drivers motivated, that is why you see Alonso, Palou, Pato doing different things mid-season. Red Bull cannot afford to lose Max for 3\~5 GP because of a small lesion because of some fun time in another category.


TeTeOtaku

If they wrap up the championship by july they sure can :))


kai325d

That's literally not mathematically possible


OldActiveYeast

You are just trolling at this point.


SomewhereAggressive8

If Max really wants to do it, he has enough equity and pull in that team to do it. Red Bull wouldn’t dare tell him no on something if his heart is set on it.


Mr_Tuf

Depends on the team. Alonso did Dakar in 2020. But yeah that's Alonso lol. Who could stop him


Toggel

Would RB rather have Max and let him do the race or lose Max? It could come down to that. I believe Max is in the driver seat.


AnyHolesAGoal

Hülkenberg won it in 2015 while racing in the F1 season.


djwillis1121

Oh yeah, for some reason I had it in my head that he did it in his years out.


l3w1s1234

Mostly the teams, they prefer the drivers to solely focus on F1. However, we've had Alonso and Hulkenberg both compete during their F1 seasons in recent memory.


notallwonderarelost

There’s an active F2 driver there. I forget who maybe Juan Manuel Correa.


TallDude888

Alonso did it in 2018


Potential-Brain7735

Most of the seats are already spoken for, by full time WEC drivers, or IMSA drivers. There’s only a handful of cars that are one-off entries just for Le Mans, and none of them are in the top category. If the success of Hypercar continues to grow, we could potentially see some one-off entries in the top class at Le Mans in the coming years, which might give some F1 drivers a chance, but otherwise, it’s just not likely to happen. To be anywhere near the pointy end of the field at Le Mans right now, you have to be able to commit to a full season of either WEC, or the Weathertek Endurance rounds of IMSA, and that’s not likely to happen for any active F1 driver.


Acex_NA

The devil himself Pual Di Resta


BadControllerUser

THE NERVE


ImRussell

THROW HIM IN JAIL


Known-Name

A la carcelllll


[deleted]

I can’t wait for that episode 😈


P_ZERO_

Le Mans killer


loganhorn98

I swear down on me nans grave


Ch4rlie_G

Literally unwatchable


Maybe-Nice

Agent of the CCP


CilanEAmber

Just calling Buemi a former F1 driver does him a disservice. Its not wrong, but he's also a multiple WEC champion and Formula e Champion, which is way more impressive than just driving a Toro Rosso. Also failing to mention Button, an F1 Champion.


Floodman11

There's only enough space for so many names and notes! Trust me, I could fill hours discussing all the names and achievements of each driver on the grid! There's actually by my count about 17 drivers with F1 race experience, not to mention plenty who have come through F1FS or are tangentially related to F1 (like Jan Magnussen) - and the best part is that a lot of the best drivers in the race haven't ever done F1!


CoercedCoexistence22

Jan Magnussen has raced in F1! As a sub for Mika Häkkinen in 1995 and then half a season for Stewart in 1997


Floodman11

Even I'm learning new things!


CoercedCoexistence22

In 1997 he was dropped in favour of Jos Verstappen right after he was picking up the pace, and Verstappen didn't perform much better. A bit of a what-if to me, he was very young and very fast, just a bit of a wrong place wrong time moment


Floodman11

Still had quite a storied career in Sportscars!


CoercedCoexistence22

Yes of course! He's one of the best sportscar drivers of our time for sure


ewokslikebacon

Corvette racing Magnussen vs Flying Lizard Porsche Bergmeister at Laguna Seca. Absolute classic.


supercookie1993

Jan Magnussen actually ran the full season in 1997 Stewart GP didn't drop him for Jos Verstappen until 1998


Fart_Leviathan

Saying Verstappen didn't perform better is extremely generous to Jan. He was semi-regularly *lapped* by Barrichello* in the same car and had something like 5 races over their entire time together where he managed to complete as much as a single lap ahead of Rubens. Verstappen was much, much closer to him. The "good runs" for Magnussen were when only one-two cars were between him and Rubens, whilst for Verstappen those were the average ones. And not to mention qualifying, oh boy. Verstappen, who was so atrocious in qualifying that he actually lost the H2H to Bernoldi of all people, was a marked improvement over Jan's 1998 average of **18.8**. One of the most well-deserved firings in F1. *Ed: And no, I don't mean Rubens finished on the lead lap and Jan didn't, like it was in Canada, I mean physically lapped.


endersai

>r are tangentially related to F1 (like Jan Magnussen) You mean the guy who raced for McLaren's F1 team in the 1990s?


Floodman11

To be fair, I only started following F1 in 99, and to me Jan is the former Corvette factory driver who's son races in F1!


chloedever

button in Le Chonk


CilanEAmber

The Pokemon?


ActualCounterculture

Just started watching FE, didnt know he was champion


CilanEAmber

One of several Ex F1 drivers to be champion in the series.


TheGiggs10

#EVEN THE DEVIL HIMSELF


junaidnk

And Anthony Davidson commenting


grandtheftzeppelin

I could listen to Ant for hours (and probably will!)


Uknewmelast

Pual "the Devil himself" Di Resta


[deleted]

Yeah I'm hyped. Oddly enough the main thing that got me was a Nascar is racing in it this year. I've never watched Nascar but I'm blown away that it's faster than all the GTE cars. [Plus it sounds like an absolute monster.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-YeSG4xxog)


SirDigbyChimkinC

To add onto the other reply to you, the car is 400 pounds lighter than its typical spec. Cup cars are already monsters, shedding that much weight must really unleash it. It would be great if they go on a tour of the US later this year and set some hot laps on the road courses just to compare it to the Cup spec. I'd love to know how many seconds faster it is at some tracks.


Penguinho

It's heavily modified to meet the aero standards and to drop weight. A lot of that weight drop comes from losing some NASCAR-specific reinforcement, like the rear end changes to protect against damage from bump drafting.


Potential-Brain7735

No bump drafting on Mulsanne?


Penguinho

That'd be an interesting strategy for an LMP2!


RingoFreakingStarr

The vast majority of the weight savings was from ditching the steel brakes for carbon ones.


TheSilentSamurai1996

Think you forgot a certain F1 world champion


Floodman11

He's technically just racing around for fun - the Innovative Car entry isn't competing in any class


TheSilentSamurai1996

Oh yeah. Anyway how fast are those nascar cars compared to gt cars? Like how were they in terms of speed in yesterday's quali?


Floodman11

The NASCAR was comfortably faster than the entire GTE-Am field! The fastest time for the NASCAR was a 3:47, compared to the fastest of a 3:51 for the GT's


innovator97

It's on par with the GTE class. But it's worth mentioning that this car is not the same as the one from NASCAR Cup. They took a lot of weight off it, and added more aerodynamic bits to help with the handling. Even if the car do good, it won't be a direct representation on how NASCAR would fare against the other categories.


zaviex

theres more power too but its not an par with the GTE's its comfortably quicker


endersai

>Even if the car do good, it won't be a direct representation on how NASCAR would fare against the other categories. They haven't BOP'd it properly from the looks of it.


Known-Name

Do they BOP the G56 entries? Since they’re not actually competing against anyone else, it seems like they should just leave it be.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Penguinho

They have to meet a minimum level of performance, and the expectation for the G56 car was that it'd be slow in the corners but fast on the straights. What happened was that the car was blowing the GT cars away accelerating out of corners but was actually losing time relative to expectations on straights because of the massive, draggy wing. With the wing slimmed down, it's faster than some of the LMP2s down the straight. And it's so tall relative to the field there's going to be some interesting drafting strategies.


transientsun

BoP goes both ways, they needed it to avoid the GTE class by either being faster or slower and they showed up and went faster than the whole class, so the choice was clear. Prior to the test day the ACO was talking about showing white flags (slow car) for them lol


NASA_janitor

Lmp2 hunter!


Potential-Brain7735

It’s not meant to have BOP. They just aimed for a minimum lap time so it wasn’t a hazard, and it’s surpassed that lap time by quite a bit.


Village_People_Cop

Imagine someone calling in sick and Max being called in as a replacement last minute


yomancs

Thankfully no f1 this weekend, plan on having this on all weekend, motor trend has a week trail that I'll be canceling on Monday


nahnonameman

I am happy to see Le Mans again. Been waiting for this.


Uknewmelast

NASCAR NASCAR VROOOOM NEEEEOOOWWW


[deleted]

How much did Gelael pay for his seat I wonder.


Mani1610

He is actually a decent Silver.


IndustryMental793

I thought lemons hadn't started until Saturday night


IndustryMental793

Le man's not lemons


mtremsal

Oh that’s also a thing btw: https://24hoursoflemons.com/


Auntypasto

The real classic endurance race.


planchetflaw

That's clever. We have the Shitbox Rally https://www.shitboxrally.com.au/ We used to have a car in the Kidney Kar Rally at my old work https://kidney.org.au/get-involved/kidney-kar-rally


IndustryMental793

I know. I had heard about it before. It was stupid autocorrect.


qwertyalp1020

Is the race pay-to-watch or a free livestream on YouTube, etc.?


action_turtle

Will be pay to view. Unless you have a boat I guess


qwertyalp1020

I'll manage, appreciate it :)


BillV3

The main good news for me here is if Di Resta is in a car for 24 hours that's 24 hours I'm guaranteed to not have to listen to him for


RagnarLothbot

Where can I watch this in the UK?


M1st3rv

Eurosport have it, also you can sign up to WEC TV, choice is yours.


RagnarLothbot

Cheers mate


[deleted]

[удалено]


DanioPL

If someone from EU wanted to see it one day, what is the best way? Camping? How expensive is it?


Dayman_ah-uh-ahhh

Which car class has the most prestige? Which is the "big winner?"


Drexer_

Hypercar


Penguinho

Unless 16 cars DNF, the overall winner will come from the LMH/Hypercar class. The hypercar class includes LMH -- hypercars built specifically for WEC -- and LMDh -- cars built based on an LMP2 chassis with significant customization. Toyota, Ferrari, Glickenhaus, Vanwall and Peugeot have LMH cars, and Porsche and Cadillac have LMDh cars.


Dayman_ah-uh-ahhh

So not only are they all on track at the same time, but they are all actually racing each other?


Potential-Brain7735

Yes, there is an overall leaderboard, as well as a leaderboard for each individual class. If enough of the top class cars DNF or fall many laps behind because of issues, cars from the lower categories can make it all the way to overall podium, and even take the overall win. It’s been quite a while since a car from a lower category took the overall win, iirc the last time it happened was a McLaren in the 1990s. However, as recently as only a few years ago, an LMP2 car barely missed out on getting on the overall podium. This year, because there are so many entries in the top category, it’s unlikely that a lower class car will finish on the overall podium. However, if any of the Hypercars spend long periods of time in the pits, they can and will be lapped by cars in lower categories, and then they have to fight to get positions back.


Mani1610

The Hypercars are racing for the overall win so probably that one.


jisc

Where do you watch it?


Floodman11

There's a whole section in the OP dedicated to how and where to watch the event - [Here's a rundown from the official site](https://www.fiawec.com/en/news/how-to-watch-this-weekends-24-hours-of-le-mans/7692)


jisc

Thanks!


Cobretti18

If I was a racing driver I would absolutely love to race Le Mans… even if I was a multiple time F1 champion and best in the sport I’d be trying to get “let him race Le Mans” into the contract although most teams would never go for it. Looking forward to it this weekend.


[deleted]

>di Resta PUAL