by Francesco Svelto (www.f1sport.it)
For those who really follow it for the first time it may seem like something anachronistic, past, unreal. Or just weird. Have the desire to win a race circling for a full 24 hours, without stopping, on a track – technical and beautiful – and taking the car to the finish line as far forward as possible is certainly a concept that clashes with modern times. Yet behind it there is so much to tell, there are stories of challenges, cars and technologies. But most of all stories of men, of crews, of plots, of unparalleled emotions that only this race, the most important of the globe on the motorsport front, is able to offer.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans celebrates its hundred years of history this year and does so by promising us a race, the one that will be held between il 10 and 11 Junewhich will certainly see the Ferrari protagonists (returning to the queen category of endurance after 50 years) in the battle against giants such as Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, Vanwall, Peugeot. A challenge, that of this year, which is also of concepts, of technologies, between fantastic and very different cars, between heterogeneous design philosophies. But the emotion, no, that doesn’t change. It’s still the same as then.
Always that of that 26 maggio 1923, when three gentlemen decided to organize an endurance race to demonstrate the reliability of touring cars. Or even that of the epic Ferrari-Ford challenges of the 60s or the close fights of the manufacturers who have made the history of many editions of the last thirty years. Yes, the emotions are those, and they will remain unique. Attending the night of Le Mans, for those who lived it, is something that remains imprinted in the memory of the enthusiast.
Whether it’s in front of the TV watching one stint of this or that driver or directly from the track, the darkness pierced by the LED headlights of the cars and those authentic and uncastrated sounds is pure joy in the heart of every motorsport fan. Even better if this joy is shared among perfect strangers crowded behind the networks of Moulsanne or the curves Porsche, perhaps tasting spicy sausages and sipping a good beer, as tradition dictates. Why yes, because Le Mans is also this and it is something that we are sure will remain the same for another 100 years. In the face of those who rant, those who criticize, especially from the F1 front, because they are aware that they will never be able to reach such levels of motor ecstasy.
Congratulations!