70 Fun Facts About 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is held near the city of Le Mans in which country?

Le Mans sits in the Sarthe department of north-west France, and the circuit is partly made of public roads that reopen to traffic soon after the race.

In what year was the first 24 Hours of Le Mans run?

It is the oldest active endurance race in the world. The 2023 edition was billed as the Centenary race.

Which organisation runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans?

The ACO, founded in 1906, also lobbies for French motorists and runs a roadside assistance service for its members.

How is the overall winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans decided?

Unlike a Grand Prix, there is no fixed distance: whoever has gone furthest when the 24 hours are up wins.

On which track is the race held?

It is named after the Sarthe department. The shorter permanent Bugatti Circuit sits inside it and hosts other events year-round.

The circuit's long straight, the Ligne Droite des Hunaudières, is usually named after which village?

The straight leads to the village, where cars have to slow from more than 320 km/h to about 100 km/h for a sharp corner.

Along with Le Mans, which two races make up the informal Triple Crown of Motorsport?

There is also a Triple Crown of endurance racing, made up of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Who is the only driver to have won the Triple Crown of Motorsport?

Hill completed the set with his 1972 Le Mans win in a Matra, having already won at Indianapolis in 1966 and Monaco five times.

Porsche is the most successful make at Le Mans. How many overall wins did it have by 2025?

Seven of those wins came in a row from 1981 to 1987, and Porsche has also racked up more than 100 class victories.

Which driver holds the record for the most Le Mans wins, with nine?

Six of the nine came consecutively from 2000 to 2005, mostly with Audi, plus one for Bentley in 2003.

The record nine-time Le Mans winner comes from which country?

He was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog by the Queen of Denmark in 2014.

Feeling the traditional start was unsafe, what did Jacky Ickx famously do at the start of the 1969 race?

He took the time to fasten his belts, was nearly hit by a rival while walking, and still won the race by about 120 metres.

How many times did Jacky Ickx win the 24 Hours of Le Mans?

His record stood from 1982 until 2005 and earned him honorary citizenship of the town of Le Mans.

Since 1971 the race has begun with what type of start?

It is sometimes called an Indianapolis start: the field follows a safety car on a formation lap before the French flag waves.

Which flag is waved to start the race?

The flag drop is usually preceded by a fly-past of jets trailing blue, white and red smoke.

Le Mans is usually held in which month?

Being close to the summer solstice means the shortest possible night, though heavy rain is still common.

At what local time does the race traditionally start on Saturday?

It finishes at the same time on Sunday. Only a handful of editions have used a different start time.

Under the 2025 regulations, how many drivers had to share each Le Mans car?

No driver may do more than 14 hours in total, and in 2014 two drivers managed the whole race between them under the older limits.

Which was one of the three classes that raced at Le Mans in 2025?

It replaced LMP1 as the top class in 2021 and admits both Le Mans Hypercar and LMDh designs, alongside LMP2 and LMGT3 in 2025.

Roughly how long is one lap of the full Le Mans circuit used since 2018?

That makes it one of the longest circuits in the world, and up to 85 percent of a lap is spent at full throttle.

Why were two chicanes added to the circuit's 6 km main straight in 1990?

The straight was cut into three roughly equal pieces, and top speeds dropped from over 400 km/h to about 366 km/h.

Which car set the never-beaten Le Mans speed record of 407 km/h (253 mph) in 1988?

The crew taped over the engine openings for the run; the car was almost undrivable elsewhere and the engine soon cooked itself.

The record distance covered in the race, set in 2010, was roughly how far?

That is more than six times an Indianapolis 500 and about 18 Formula One Grands Prix in a single day.

Which driver's car went into the crowd in the 1955 disaster, motorsport's deadliest accident?

At least 82 spectators died. The pits were rebuilt further back afterwards, and several countries banned racing entirely.

Which country reacted to the 1955 disaster with a ban on circuit racing that lasted for decades?

The German, Spanish and French Grands Prix were also cancelled that year, but the Swiss ban outlived them all.

Which manufacturer's D-Type, winner from 1955 to 1957, had a vertical fin behind the driver?

Designer Malcolm Sayer came from the Bristol Aeroplane Company and applied aviation ideas, including a monocoque tub.

Disc brakes were first seen at Le Mans in 1953 on which car?

Two years later Mercedes answered with an air brake: a huge flap that rose from the tail of the 300 SLR.

Before Ford's breakthrough win in 1966, how many years in a row had Ferrari won Le Mans?

The GT40 project was Ford's answer after Enzo Ferrari walked away from a takeover deal.

What does the '40' in Ford GT40 refer to?

Forty inches was the minimum height allowed, measured at the top of the windscreen.

Ford staged a three-car photo finish in 1966, but Ken Miles lost the win to Bruce McLaren. Why?

Because winners were then judged on distance from their starting position, McLaren was ruled to have covered eight metres more.

Ford's 1967 win, the only all-American victory at Le Mans, was driven by Dan Gurney and which co-driver?

American drivers, team, chassis, engine and tyres all won together, something that has never happened again.

Le Mans 1967 saw the first televised instance of a winning driver celebrating how?

Dan Gurney shook the magnum and soaked Henry Ford II and Carroll Shelby, then gave the bottle to a Life photographer who used it as a lamp.

Which two actors star as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles in the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari?

The film won Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing and was released as Le Mans '66 in parts of Europe.

In the 1971 Steve McQueen film Le Mans, what is the name of McQueen's character?

The film used real footage from the 1970 race, and driver Derek Bell narrowly escaped when his Ferrari 512 caught fire during filming.

Which car gave Porsche its first overall Le Mans win, in 1970?

Powered by a flat-12, it was so unstable at first that factory drivers preferred the smaller 908; the 917 then won again in 1971.

The old running start is credited with inspiring Porsche to place what on the left of the steering wheel?

A left-hand start let the driver engage first gear with the right hand at the same time, saving a few tenths.

The 1991 winner is the only Le Mans-winning car not powered by a piston engine. What did it use?

The 787B's four-rotor R26B made about 700 hp during the race and is remembered for its ear-splitting shriek.

Which was the first Japanese manufacturer to win Le Mans overall?

It stayed the only Japanese winner until Toyota finally broke through in 2018.

In 1963 Rover partnered with BRM to enter a car powered by what?

It was the first Le Mans entry without a piston engine. Turbines were powerful but ran hot and drank fuel.

Which manufacturer's R10 TDI became the first diesel-powered car to win Le Mans, in 2006?

Unveiled in Paris in December 2005, it won at Le Mans just 200 days later and took three straight victories.

Which car was the first hybrid to win Le Mans, in 2012?

Its flywheel system, built by Williams Hybrid Power, drove the front wheels but only above 120 km/h.

Which two-time Formula One world champion won Le Mans in 2018 and 2019?

He is the only driver to hold both the F1 world title and the World Endurance drivers' title.

Which Formula One driver won Le Mans in 2015 while still racing full-time in F1?

He shared a third Porsche 919 with Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy and, having never returned, has a perfect Le Mans record.

Which manufacturer's leading car stopped with about three minutes left in 2016, handing Porsche the win?

Kazuki Nakajima was at the wheel. Neel Jani swept past on the final lap for the win.

What happened for the first time in the race's history at the start of the 2016 edition?

Heavy rain was the cause; the field was released once the track had dried enough.

Which car won the centenary race in 2023?

It was the marque's first overall win since 1965, taken by James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Which American car took pole position in 2025, the first American car to do so since 1967?

The Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R of Will Stevens, Alex Lynn and Norman Nato started first; the race went to a Ferrari.

Which British driver shared the winning No. 83 AF Corse car with Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye in 2025?

It was Ferrari's third straight win, and the first of them for a privateer-entered 499P.

Which rocket-shaped car was the first experimental 'Garage 56' entry, in 2012?

It used only about 48 percent of the fuel of an LMP2 car but retired after six hours following a collision.

Petit Le Mans, the American version of the race held since 1998, lasts how long?

It is run at Road Atlanta and forms part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Why was the 1936 race cancelled?

It is one of only ten cancellations in the race's history; the other nine were the war years 1940 to 1948.

Which make won the very first race in 1923?

Thirty cars finished that rain-soaked first race, a figure not matched again until 1993.

Woolf Barnato won Le Mans in 1928, 1929 and 1930 — from how many starts?

The 'Bentley Boy' financier is one of a handful of drivers, along with A. J. Foyt and Fernando Alonso, to have won every Le Mans he entered.

In March 1930 Woolf Barnato famously raced his Speed Six from Cannes against what?

He was already in his London club before the train reached Calais, and the cars became known as the Blue Train Bentleys.

Which British marque, a winner in the 1920s, returned to win overall in 2003 with its Speed 8?

Corporate partner Audi supplied engines, staff and drivers, and the factory cars beat the privateer Audis.

The McLaren F1 GTR won on its 1995 debut using a V12 engine from which manufacturer?

The road-car-based GTR beat faster prototypes in the wet; Gordon Murray had never intended the F1 to race at all.

Which manufacturer quit sportscar racing after its CLR flipped three times at Le Mans 1999?

Mark Webber went airborne twice in practice and Peter Dumbreck flew over the fence during the race; nobody was seriously hurt.

Which French manufacturer won in 1992 and 1993 with its 905?

The 905 raced only 17 times and won nine of them, taking the 1992 world championship as well.

Four-time winner Henri Pescarolo was instantly recognisable by a helmet of which colour?

He also holds the record for the most Le Mans starts, 33, and later ran his own team at the race until 2013.

How many times did Briton Derek Bell win the 24 Hours of Le Mans?

He also lived with Steve McQueen's family while filming Le Mans, and escaped a Ferrari 512 fire on set with minor burns.

What happens to a car while it is being refuelled in the Le Mans pits?

Mechanics also may not touch the car during refuelling, which is why teams became so inventive at speeding up stops.

To be classified, a car must complete at least what share of the winner's distance?

It must also cross the line on the final lap, which is why crippled cars used to wait by the track and crawl over at the end.

What happens on the Friday before the race?

Friday is a rest day; qualifying is done in the evenings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Why was the 2020 race moved to September and run without spectators?

The 2021 race was postponed too, to August, before the June date returned.

The inaugural 1923 race was planned as part of which three-year prize decided over consecutive races?

The idea of crowning a winner over three straight 24-hour races was abandoned in 1928.

Which car gave Ferrari its first Le Mans victory, in 1949?

Luigi Chinetti and Peter Mitchell-Thomson drove it in the first race after the post-war rebuilding of the circuit.

How many times did Henri Pescarolo start the race, a record for Le Mans appearances?

He won four of them; Japan's Yojiro Terada holds the record for most starts without an overall win.

What braking innovation did the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR bring to Le Mans in 1955?

A large hood section flipped up to slow the car for the Mulsanne Corner, two years after Jaguar debuted disc brakes.

Which system for neutralising sections of the track was introduced at Le Mans in 2014?

The same rule change required every LMP1 car to have a closed cockpit.

Le Mans, Daytona and which Florida event make up the informal Triple Crown of endurance racing?

That is distinct from the Triple Crown of Motorsport, which pairs Le Mans with Monaco and the Indianapolis 500.