Breakin’ It Down: How Ferrari fairy tale was able to become reality

Making its first appearance at Le Mans in 50 years, Ferrari takes the top spot

The 24 Hours of Le Mans brought the drama that all would expect for a race as anticipated and intriguing as this year’s centennial race.

From the unforeseen weather that caused many winning contenders to spin out due to their cars being on slicks during the downpour, to the fact that cars just ran into mechanical troubles due to the length and wear that a race such as Le Mans can endure, it had a little bit of everything for race fans this weekend.

Heading into the final 12 hours of the 24-hour event, the battle to watch was Ferrari vs. Toyota, being that both entries were consistent and quick all weekend long on track and didn’t run into much trouble.

On race day, that can be a different story, especially with the unknowns of a 24-hour race, but Ferrari and Toyota truly led the weekend on track. However, Ferrari was more consistent, especially on stops, rebounding after what was a scary moment for the team around the 15-hour mark, going into the gravel after coming out of the pits, potentially coming off the fact of having cold tires.

The ups and downs that the #51 Ferrari had were truly a cultivating story throughout the weekend, and for Alessandro Pier Guidi, the Italian-born driver for the Italian sportscar manufacturer, to be able to take the car from one of its worst points of the weekend to making that pivotal pass in hour 5 on the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercar truly made this weekend one of the most special of the weekend, ending the 50-year absence on an incredible high note.

French fairy tales:

This weekend’s race was truly a story unfolding in front of our very eyes.

As mentioned, a race such as Le Mans just creates drama. Drivers push much harder, and teams will do everything in their power to stay on track to etch their name in history, which we saw many times this weekend, especially in the Hypercar class.

Entries such as the Action Express Racing #311 and the Cadillac Racing #3 both had their own forms of trouble this weekend. Action Express destroyed the driver's side on their car, resulting in the team needing to replace the front end of the machine. However, the team was able to get back on track with it being an early incident in the opening hours.

For Cadillac Racing’s #3 Cadillac Hypercar, featuring Sebastian Bourdais, who was able to lead the team to a podium finish, they would run into problems when weather started to become a factor prior to the midway point of the race, as teams ran on slicks, resulting in a handful of GTE Am cars and the #3 Cadillac Racing machines spinning all over the wet surface, something that teams truly could not plan for in time.

Other notable "fairy tales" this weekend in Hypercars were the #94 Peugeot team, which led a handful of laps at the midway point of the race, putting together what was a storybook weekend for a team that in previous races hadn’t been a true contender but showed speed at Le Mans.

The Hypercar class in general was truly special, with five manufacturers having a shot to take home not only the overall but also the class win at Le Mans. The storybook moments of the weekend would even come in the lower classes as well.

LMP2 and GTE Am:

Inter Europol Competition, a Polish-based organization that has only run for less than 10 seasons, showed consistency all weekend and finished their class win in dominant fashion. The team didn’t make any mistakes down the stretch and gave this young team the dream win of a lifetime.

Finally, in GTE Am, which may have been one of the most competitive classes of the weekend, due to the sheer amount of leader changes and overtakes in the race, the #33 Corvette Racing took the win, being able to take advantage as Iron Dames, ORT by TF, and GR Racing were shuffling throughout the 24 hours on the podium.

Although every single class had its fair share of "French fairy tales," Ferrari and its team as a whole were the stars of the show. The history-making weekend they had from hyperpole to race time was iconic and is something that fans will remember.

It almost had Dale Earnhardt winning the Daytona 500-like feeling at the track with the celebration of victory.

The performance that Toyota Gazoo Racing as a team with both their #8 and #7 Hypercars was showing that they may win their 4th straight race of the season as they truly did not miss a beat in practice. However, Ferrari seemed to have stayed calm, cool, and collected, something easier said than done, and wrote the final chapter on what has been a long journey to get to this point.

Successful Garage 56 debut:

Everyone may focus on the true competition on track for a race such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it's truly hard not to keep your eyes off a big, beefy Chevrolet Next Gen Camaro.

The look may not be so hard to miss, but the level of performance that the Garage 56 entry had was bar none, and it stamped the envelope of the exciting future that NASCAR has and where it is at on the spectrum of racing.

Many people may look at the Garage 56 Camaro as a novelty act by NASCAR, and in some cases, the goal at the end of the day is to promote the innovative evolution that NASCAR has done over the past year and a half, but what the car was able to do on track was truly remarkable.

Garage 56 looked quick all week long heading into race day, and while there was nothing truly that the team was competing for (essentially being in a one-car class of its own), the idea that this Next Gen car could have almost won a GTE Am class if it wasn’t for a late race transmission issue in the final 5 hours of racing shows how NASCAR is taking their sport.

The team was able to take home the pit stop challenge podium, finishing 5th overall and 1st over all the GTE Am cars that were in the field.

Leading up to race day and even on race day, while struggling a bit on the turns, the Garage 56 entry was quick and seamlessly navigated through the esses at the track.

With the entry being a success, now comes the part about what NASCAR can take from this experience in the future.

Beyond the promotional side of things, there are no more opportunities in terms of style of racing, such as endurance NASCAR races, or even pieces of the car that could be implemented towards the continued development of the current Next Gen.

The opportunities are truly endless, but the performance and ability for the car to be able to finish at the checkered flag, blowing their 1976 predecessors out of the water, which was the last time NASCAR was at Le Mans, is truly a promising site to see for the growth of the sport and in racing.

Final Thoughts:

The broadcast said it best: "Convergence is real."

This year alone has been history-making for many different reasons, whether now or in the future.

From the introduction of the GTP class in IMSA, Ferrari joining the Hypercar fray in the World Endurance Championship, and even Toyota announcing the introduction of a hydrogen-based Hypercar, the growth of racing seems to be trending upward, and with this year’s Le Mans, it seems to show those growths.

For Ferrari to be a new manufacturer in their first season and grab the overall and top spot in class at one of the most storied races in the world shows how evolution and competition are at an all-time high in the world of sports car racing.

This year’s Le Mans race was a centennial, and normally the focus is to honor the history and heritage, but by the end of the race, people knew that the future and intrigue surrounding the growth of sportscar racing begins now.