It’s a rough start this year for Nissan at Le Mans as their three LMP1 contenders are starting from the back of the pack. Earlier today we announced that Porsche had broken the lap record for Circuit de La Sarthe, but in more disappointing news the front-wheel driven Nissan LMP cars failed to set a competitive time.
The fastest of the three qualified with a 3 mins and 36 seconds, which is still blazingly quick for La Sarthe, but nowhere near competitive enough. The Delta Wing that had been running over the past few years was far more promising and entertaining to watch, and one wonders why Nissan bothered trying a front-wheel driven layout for the course.
The harsh reality is that the cars are only but a second quicker than the fastest LMP2 class car, and the third car of the bunch is even a second slower. That’s likely a slap in the face for the engineers and the drivers of the team.
