2014

Porsche was put into the LMP1 category while Audi was approaching a number of wins. Porsche was up against the other German manufacturer and the Toyotas sixteen years after its last overall victory in 1998.

The Japanese team who failed to impress were grateful to Kazuki Nakajima for the first pole position from a Japanese driver at the wheel of a Japanese car. 

Among the great champions of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the crew formed by Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer, the German André Lotterer, and the Swiss Marcel Fässler is surely the most formidable of the early 2010s. Their successes are incomparable to those of the R18 version of Audi cars. This model is unique as it is a closed prototype. The manufacturer did in fact always enter open cars between 2000 and 2010.

One visual and aesthetic signature of Audi automobiles is that the R18 adopts more economical LED (Light Emitting Diode) headlights, which have been widely used on production vehicles ever since. The Ingolstadt firm took a new step with the introduction of laser lights on its 2014 model. These headlights generate a unique ray of light in the Le Mans night time which is even more efficient (a range of 500m)!

The successfully created R18 was the first diesel-electric hybrid car to win the 24 Hours in 2012. It is also the last Audi to win at Le Mans back in 2014. The car covered 5,167.13 km during this thirteenth victory, its best performance from the manufacturer.

The keystone of the trio formed by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, race engineer Leena Gade won the Le Mans event three times alongside them (in 2011, 2012, and 2014). These victories were accompanied by the title of world champion for the 2012 season.

That year, she became the first and only woman elected “Man of the Year” by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a distinction that does not go unnoticed!

As a personality still active in motorsport, Leena Gade took on the role of ambassador for the FIA Commission for women in motorsport and she participated in the launch of a 100% electric GT championship while still under the wing of the FIA. She holds the position of chief engineer at McLaren for the Extreme E program, an electric SUV car racing championship.

Fabien Barthez, 1998 world champion and a charismatic figure of French football, is at the start and shares a passion for cars. This was the first of his three participations in the Le Mans 24 Hours (previously in 2014, 2016, 2017).  

Edmond Dujardin invented a boardless card game with a simple objective in 1954. This was to be the first to reach the 1,000 km covered. A classic had been born!

The "Milles Bornes" game is getting its first facelift since 1971 for its sixtieth anniversary.

Times they a changin’...