24H of Le Mans: The last few times a car was forced to compete with only two drivers
With the whole motorsport fandom frantically talking about the possibility of Drugovich missing Le Mans, it reminded me of this story.
While I do not think that the 311 will only run with two drivers, as there are several drivers with recent top class experience at Le Mans (Alex Sims for example that raced this car at Le Mans in '23). And there is still quite some time before race week. The #14 entry of Kolles was forced to only race with two drivers as disaster struck mere minutes before the race.
André Lotterer, Charles Swolsman & Narain Karthikeyan (as pictured above in order), were set to compete in the race's 2009 edition. The team qualified 14th overall. Narain Karthikeyan was set to start the race, but quickly had to visit the restroom before the race would go underway.
With just 10 minutes left to go, he jumped over the pit wall to enter the pit lane. But he tripped, and fell dislocating his left shoulder. Below, a recording of the broadcast as they found out what happened.
Karthikeyan was immediately seen by the Audi doctor who re-located his shoulder and put it in a sling.The Audi doctor then cleared him the race, but the doctor at the circuit did not. Which meant Swolsman and Lotterer would have to complete the race with each other.
A few other cars were also left without a third driver, the eventual winner in GT1. The #63 Corvette of Magnussen, O'Connel & Garcia, was only able to utilize Magnussen during the first half of the race as he fell sick during the latter half. And the #009 entry of Hall, Primat & Kox had to miss out on Hall for the latter half of the race. Stuart Hall, was involved in an accident with the #26 LMP2. And while he initially was allowed to continue, the ACO deemed the incident his fault, and he was penalised for it. A heavy penalty at that as he was excluded from the race.
More recently, in 2014, the #79 Porsche was entered in the GTE-Am class. Its bronze driver, Bret Curtis, crashed the car during qualifying. The chassis was irreparable and Curtis was hospitalized. The team managed to find a new chassis but their replacement bronze driver, Sebastien Crubile was denied by the ACO to take part in the race as he did not have any night time driving laps.
This meant Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil would have to drive the race without a third driver. As they were both Pros they were moved to the GTE-Pro class and would eventually finish the race in the top 5.
A similar case came relatively recently when Philippe Cimadomo was excluded from the 2022 24H of Le Mans due to a concern for safety.
For a moment it seemed like the car would not be able to compete in the race due to this but Nyck de Vries was called up to compete in the race. This meant the car moved up from LMP2 Pro/Am to LMP2
A substitute driver is defined in the Le Mans regulations as only being allowed after the opening of scrutineering if due to force majeure. But the replacement driver has to conform to these regulations as written below.
• Hello !!! This blog is dedicated to the Bmw Sauber F1 team (2006-2009). I'll mostly use this blog as an archive.
• I will try to post about almost all of the drivers that were associated with the bmw sauber project. But my blog will mostly be dedicated to the main drivers for now.
• this blog is owned by @parc-fermeypng (i also draw, so I might as well post my doodles of the bmw sauber drivers here)
• here is my strawpage !!!
(Yes. I decided to finally post on my bmw sauber blog on the 18th anniversary of Canada 2008. I thought it was the most perfect day)
24 Hours of Le Mans Edition. A way of telling the story behind the little girl who dreamed of becoming a racing driver and competing in the world's greatest races. A dream, but also a strong desire to make it come true.
Le Mans, you are special.
And even more special because every single one of you has a word of support written on this helmet.
I can't wait to wear it on track and create new memories at this incredible race ♥️🏁
“Competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans isn’t just for the glory, it’s a HUGE opportunity to gain Championship points and get ahead for the rest of the season…
5️⃣0️⃣ points are awarded for finishing P1, and there’s also big points up for grabs for the top ten finishers!”
my tags are mess but im past fixing them - there’s like over 5000 posts on this blog🫠
to make it easier for wec overall
follow tags if u wanna see a certain one or to mute them
info about tags as tagged in order:
wec - for overall news like race guides and i post only ferrari stuff
on rare side i post non ferrari videos i like
for le mans only the tag is 24h le mans 2026
ferrari hypercar - for red ferrari hypercar team, car no 50 and 51
i dont tag drivers unless its their posts or i see them in someone’s post. sometimes i don’t tag them for group pics, it depends ngl🥲
ferrari af corse - for yellow ferrari hypercar team car no 83
don’t confuse it with af corse gt3 car, i cant go back and fix all those posts🫠😭 that one is af corse on this blog🥲
ferrari lmgt3 - for all ferrari associated lmgt3 cars
sometimes i tag which team but i forget so its better to follow the main tag i have for them
im bad at tagging lmtg3 drivers cause i only know a few by name😭💔 idk kessel racing drivers names im so sorry, theres so many drivers i need to keep up with
fyi: i dont post live much during the weekend & races cause of work or im doing chores while watching them so if u want live updates im not the person for that🧍♂️
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