24 Hours of Le Mans - The fine of discord

The traditional Drivers Briefing of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was held yesterday at 3pm. 186 drivers gathered for the occasion in the Welcome. Last night, this one was the subject of almost all the conversations in the paddock... but not for good reasons.

Before the Briefing, about forty drivers were told that they would have to pay a rather high fine. This led to a hoot in the assembly. To understand this, we must refer to article 5.1.1 of the Special Regulations of the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours.

"Any late arrival or absence to the administrative checks and briefings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (see Article 9.3.1) is forbidden (substantial fine and sanction up to disqualification of the driver) except for cas de force majeure duly assessed as such by the Panel of Stewards or :

A permission could be granted in written by the ACO, because of the driver’s taking part in an automobile competition - the timing of this competition must prevent the driver from complying with the obligations of the Test Day.

The competitor must send a written request, duly motivated, to sport@lemans.org, at least 7 days before the administrative checks of the Test Day.

A contribution to expenses of 3,000 € will be levied by the ACO, to be paid within 24 hours of the request."

Forty-five drivers would have missed the Scrutineering in the city center, as they were held back either in Detroit for the IMSA SportsCar Championship, or in Jakarta for Formula E or at the Paul-Ricard for the GT World Challenge Europe.

"IMSA and the ACO are partners, WEC and Formula E are both governed by the FIA and SRO (promoter of the GT World Challenge) and ACO are now working together for GT3, we heard last night. In the end, all these championships work together, it's incomprehensible...".

Wouldn't it have been possible to do otherwise? From the moment this article appears in the regulations, it is difficult to go back. However, this is not a technical or safety issue and a little flexibility and common sense might have been better. "If someone is absent because they have a wedding, I hear them, we were told. But this is about professional obligations in a partner championship!"

In view of the outcry, the ACO has admitted that this point of the regulations will probably be reviewed in the future... but not this year.

To conclude, another question arises: is it normal that championships with so many common interests continue to schedule events on the same weekend? For many reasons, shouldn't the Sarthe double clock tower be protected? It seems like a long time ago that Jean Todt, the former president of the FIA, set up a "calendar commission" to avoid this kind of thing.