The so-called “backdrop” behind the safety car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be abolished in 2024. In a new draft of the regulations, which is available to “Motorsport-Total.com”, the SC procedure has been significantly revised. It now takes up a full ten pages in the sporting regulations. There is also a special regulation for the last hour of racing.
The principle of bringing the entire field together in the first 23 hours of the race does not change. It will continue to start with three safety cars, which will be brought together behind one safety car after the danger has been eliminated.
The “pass around”, better known from US motorsport as “wave-by”, also remains unaffected by the amendment. This means that vehicles driving behind the safety car in front of the leader in their class are allowed to circle back. Only the laborious sorting of the classes afterwards is eliminated.
In practice, this means that the gaps in the hypercar class are shrinking enormously. However, a string of pearls like in the IMSA SportsCar Championship does not arise at the restart because vehicles that are several laps behind form a buffer. The greater the distance in front of the SC, the more vehicles tend to be between two hypercars. At the same time, the other classes are not torn apart.
Controversial rule change in 2023
The reform of the safety car rules ahead of the 100th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 has been heavily criticized by both purists and in the paddock. A lead of three and a half minutes at Le Mans would be almost completely destroyed by an SC entry, which would not be the case on normally long routes. There was talk of an “Americanization” of the race that did not fit the character of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The ACO is now reacting to this with a special regulation, which only applies to the last 60 minutes of the race. In order to prevent the race from being decided in a sprint, there will be three safety cars, which will keep the gaps larger if they were already large before.
The regulations were heavily revised by the ACO last year to prevent the smaller classes from being torn apart by the use of three safety cars. The GTE-Pro class in particular was repeatedly torn apart because some vehicles “caught” a safety car.
Others who were just behind were caught by the next safety car. They were at the front of the next train and after the restart they were suddenly around 1:15 minutes behind the vehicles in front of them, even if they were only just behind them before.
However, critics of the new system argued that the ACO did not want to miss the chance of a blockbuster finale for the TV networks, which was completely inappropriate for the long-distance classic. Especially since the regulations were changed at a time when the LMGTE Pro no longer existed and the LMP2 would no longer be as hotly contested as before due to the WEC already foreseeable.
The ACO is at least countering these rumors with its latest rule change. However, the fact remains that the gaps can theoretically be almost eliminated up to 23 hours before the end if a safety car is sent onto the track before this mark expires.