24H LE MANS-- Keating Ford Stripped of Le Mans GTE-Am Win

[Saint Ho]

Very glad now that we (Ford) are done with Lemans and France and all the European "hate America bullshit."
I for one will never visit France or Europe again. I do not need the European hate directed at me as an American.
And (ajb)

Really a shame to read such things !!!

 

[Sinovac]

Really a shame to read such things !!!

Don’t worry about it. I’m as American as they come and I love France. I’ll be back. France has the best McDonald’s in the world. They are everywhere, and with free, high-speed internet access.

Nos menus Best Of. Mmmmmmm. Heaven.

 

[Ed Sims]

Really a shame to read such things !!!

J'aime la France et tous les Français. I love France & the French people.

I will be in France next year for vacation. The people who decide the race winners & rules are not all French. The French people have always been the friends of Americans.

Ed

PS Si vous n'aimez pas les Français, alors retournez la Statue de la Liberté!

 

[Ed Sims]

...The seeming minuscule "errors" of a total of 11 seconds in a 24 hour race and having 6 ounces too much fuel in the system...

Maybe 6 oz I could understand but it was less than that Jeff.

0.1 L = 3.3 oz.

Ed

 

[jaxgt]

J'aime la France et tous les Français. I love France & the French people.

I will be in France next year for vacation. The people who decide the race winners & rules are not all French. The French people have always been the friends of Americans.

Ed

PS Si vous n'aimez pas les Français, alors retournez la Statue de la Liberté!

Moi aussi

 

[Xcentric]

Frog legs taste like chicken.

 

[BAT]

Don’t worry about it. I’m as American as they come and I love France. I’ll be back. France has the best McDonald’s in the world. They are everywhere, and with free, high-speed internet access.

Nos menus Best Of. Mmmmmmm. Heaven.

But they don’t serve breakfast. Now THAT is a shame.

 

[Xcentric]

Royale with cheese.

 

[Russ Oasis]

I've read everybodys thoughts and it all boils down to this: If Ben was driving a Ferrari, would they have looked under ever pebble to find that he had over-fueled by 2.5 ounces? I think we all know the answer.

 

[Awsum GT]

Don't think I will ever watch another WEC race again... especially Le Mans!

 

[KennethClay]

Here was an interesting take from Bleekemolen:

https://www.motorsport.com/lemans/news/excluded-keating-ford-margin-bleekemolen/4476842/?

 

[jr66]

Unfair and biased decisions. I am glad I did NOT make the trip to Le Mans this year. I have taken that trip off my bucket list

 

[ENZO BTR]

Amen.

As I said in my first post, in 2016 I watched a Ferrari drive for hours without it’s proper exterior lights working, exactly like the Ford GT had done earlier in the race. The Ford was forced to pull in and sit for some amount of time (can’t remember the details). When the Ferrari’s IDENTICAL issue was pointed out the car was told to come in for a stop-and-go. The team manager and driver ignored it.

The Ferrari’s punishment? ZERO. It was in a tight race between three Ford GTs and it maintained its 2nd place standing, during AND AFTER the race.

So improper lights followed by ignoring a stop-and-go for Ferrari = ZERO CONSEQUENCES

Miniscule (let me repeat that: M-I-N-I-S-C-U-L-E) fuel and fuel timing issues for Ford equals disqualification.

Simple question Saint Ho — explain that to me in a way that doesn’t suggest anti-American bias by the rule makers.

I don’t want to overblow the situation...but I also refuse to ignore reality and give the ACO a pass on their bullshit.

Dear Saint HO - The disappointment in the post race technical review, with the resulting penalties, was a shock to GT fans. The seeming minuscule "errors" of a total of 11 seconds in a 24 hour race and having 6 ounces too much fuel in the system should not , by most standards of fairness, resulted in a DQ. The FIA/ACO has a known history of uneven enforcement, and to those who who follow their rulings, that seem to favor European teams and harshly penalize teams from the USA.

As has been said before racing can be cruel. I'm hopeful, as always, the the anger you noted was never intended to be anti-european in general, but specifically aimed at the organizsers and rules makers.

Best Regards from USA

 

[dbk]

 

[NJS]

There is bad blood right now between Ford and the ACO/WEC, it's been brewing for a while, and Keating/Wynn got particularly nailed in the crossfire. Everyone that races, works on, supports the cars and the efforts is a casualty of those politics, but that's a story for another day. I don't think anyone thought the mandatory fascia change and then the stop and go were anything but a prelude to the ultimate result dictated for the Keating car. It's a real shame, but it is what it is. You have to feel for everyone associated with the #85 effort, especially the beaming drivers who were so spent and thrilled in the aftermath of the race, and those guys just didn't deserve what they got.

This year should have been the pinnacle of factory GTE racing. It was a really incredible visual to see them all together. 4 Porsches, 4 Fords, 2 Corvettes, 2 Aston Martins, 3 Ferraris, 2 BMWs. I thought most of the cars could at least be competitive with this BoP, but it was irrelevant because one year after completely destroying the GTE-Pro race with a safety car a few hours in, they destroyed the GTE-Pro race with safety cars again. You cannot gift someone a 5 minute lead based on circumstances wildly out of their control and expect people to be pleased with the result. There are so many ways to fix it but they just can't do it. Mathematically, if you get separated by 90 seconds or more, you're almost guaranteed to get hit with a poorly placed safety car again at some point, which is exactly what happened to what, like 14 of the cars? Sorry fellas, race over unless those guys way up there crash.

Hundreds of millions of cumulative dollars and thousands of people who work their asses off to produce these efforts, and this is the kind of stuff that decides it. Regardless of the corporate drama, it's just sad for the people on the ground.

Great summary. Just a sad way to finish the factory program, and a such a fantastic effort by Keating.

Keating/Winn are a class act. Hoping they get to celebrate in future.

 

[fordification]

I'm still really new when it comes to FIA background but I bet one factor is the short period that ford came in and other teams have put their time in. That and ford obviously had a dominant race car and they just didn't want to give them the glory.

 

[fordification]

Thought this was related.

On the corvette power difference.

 

[THamonGT]

Dave did you get the flip flops!

 

[Ed Sims]

Here was an interesting take from Bleekemolen:

https://www.motorsport.com/lemans/news/excluded-keating-ford-margin-bleekemolen/4476842/?

They want to go back? The AOS will never let a Ford win again. They will just be disappointed. The only reason Ford won in 2016 was no one thought they would win.

Ed

 

[Simon]

I would like a pair of Wynn's socks!