As an engineer, the lure of working at Le Mans can be the most exciting phase of a sportscar career. The whole experience, from the scrutineering that takes place in the town’s centre square with all the teams forming up one by one to have photographs taken, to being on the pitstraight with the cars lined up across the road in their qualifying order before they are wheeled to their start positions, is magical.
I have only engineered at the 24 Hours four times, but back in the 1990s there was no such thing as a backup or data engineer to relieve you during the night. Therefore, it meant preparing and steeling yourself to stay awake for at least 36 hours. The only data we had was just for the engine management team who had telemetry, only one-way from the car as two-way was not allowed, and of course the radio.
At Peugeot, having failed in our first attempt at La Sarthe in 1991 with the 905, we undertook several tests of 24 hours or longer at Paul Ricard. Being in the South of France, you would think that the weather would be ideal. But when these tests were completed during January and February, I can tell you that nothing about the weather was ideal! During the night, we had heaters in the covered pitwall stand to stop our fingers from freezing, but this didn’t help when we were all fighting the need for sleep!
What these tests did do for Peugeot was to iron out all the little niggles that can cost so much time by having the car stationary in the garage. I would estimate that across the three cars that were used, we covered at least 10 event lengths. The sort of actions needed to be honed down to the second was a change of brake discs and pads, making sure the mechanics had all the equipment they needed and that the action was completely safe, given the heat involved.
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An important consideration when you need to stay awake during the whole 36-hour event is diet. Eating the right food can make a huge difference. However, with every good intention, Jean Todt, then the boss of the sporting side of Peugeot, was keen to look after his troops and so employed the best chefs who travelled everywhere with the team.
The food was certainly rich and plentiful, but they sometimes forgot that when the personnel were working through the night, a huge steak dinner was not what we needed. It was suggested, carefully, that maybe a lighter menu featuring fish would be better, but this was met with derision! “What the mechanics need is something substantial to keep them going!” the head chef told me.
Source: Autosport