I'm not sure I’ve ever headed to the Le Mans 24 Hours hoping for high temperatures and sunny weather. I’m no sun worshipper, and too much heat doesn’t make life any easier for a pasty-faced Englishman over the busiest week of my year. But this time I’m praying that the 24 Hours next month is a hot one. That’s not for my benefit, you understand, but for the sake of driver safety, the workload of hard-pressed mechanics, and the environment.
Some decent temperatures during the night are what I’m really hoping for. The ban on tyre warmers - traditionally diesel-heated ovens in endurance racing - in the World Endurance Championship for this year has created a situation that to my mind is dangerous and doesn’t yield the intended environmental gains. The sight of drivers struggling to warm up the rubber underneath them on an out-lap at Spa last weekend, and then spinning, wasn’t comfortable for me. Seeing cars spearing off into the barriers was somewhere between very concerning and bloody frightening.
