2021 - Don't get too excited

[LM240]

lowdrag said:

LM240 said:

Not saying similar for Le Mans, but decisions like this clearly not off the table.

Er- I think it might be difficult to restrict the 24 Hours to the French. I mean, 2/3rds of the marshals' posts will be empty to start with. Then you have the drivers; can we get enough? Will there be enough garlic in the Sarthe? Or striped tshirts or berets? Gauloises might be rationed, along with Camembert and Livarot. The list goes on and on.

It’s not just Japanese athletes or officials taking part in the olympics!

Spectators are the limited factor. Teams, infrastructure (marshals) etc would clearly get exemptions/allowances..

I’m not saying this will be the case, merely pointing out it’s not beyond consideration. As for physical tickets only being sent to French addresses or having to pitch up with a French passport isn’t that tricky either with restricted numbers.

Paris apparently on verge of lockdown again. Just being realistic about the chances and limiting my expectation of being back this year.

Edited by LM240 on Tuesday 9th March 20:58

[lowdrag]

Making it French only isn't an option. Making it members of the ACO would be, but there are less than 25,000 members. If, as they say, they may have up to 50,000 then it will be a ticket lottery I guess. Anyone for tombola?

[LM240]

Of the usual 250,000 claimed spectators, surely the dominant attendance is French nationals?

I’d expect they must make up well over 50,000-100,000 of that figure. So filling a limited attendance race wouldn’t be too hard.

All just speculation. I’d love nothing more than rolling off the ferry in August.

[Red Firecracker]

LM240 said:

Of the usual 250,000 claimed spectators, surely the dominant attendance is French nationals?

I’d expect they must make up well over 50,000-100,000 of that figure. So filling a limited attendance race wouldn’t be too hard.

All just speculation. I’d love nothing more than rolling off the ferry in August.

The word doing the heavy lifting there is 'claimed' of course

I'm not sure there is quite enough salt in the world to take a pinch with the published attendance figures.

[lowdrag]

I think you will find that the "attendance" figures are the number of turnstile clicks, or so I have heard here. I did a very rough calculation once of just how much camping space was needed for half the number of "attendees" and my figures didn't compute the camping sites were big enough. Could just be my maths though.

[Red Firecracker]

Every time a pass is scanned, in and out.......

[delta0]

lowdrag said:

I think you will find that the "attendance" figures are the number of turnstile clicks, or so I have heard here. I did a very rough calculation once of just how much camping space was needed for half the number of "attendees" and my figures didn't compute the camping sites were big enough. Could just be my maths though.

I’ve always wondered what the camping capacity at Le Mans was.

[lowdrag]

Just think of football matches. Watch a premier division match crowd and multiply by a factor of 4. Now add their cars, tents, gazebos, BBQ's and so on. And a bit of space between plots. Each plot is is 35 sq metres, say four people max. Let's assume that 2/3rds of people coming camp, so rounded off 150,000 according to the ACO. 150,000 ÷ 4 = 40,000 × 35 = 140,000 sq metres. We need at least 20 football pitches plus toilets showers and infrastructure. Surprisingly, I think they have that if you add up Maison Blanche (now tiny though) Blue, Blue South, Epinettes, Houx, Houx Annexe, and Beauséjour, although half of that is unusable with a lot of rain. You may note I have rounded off for man maths. But I have never seen Beauséjour full, in all my time here.

[chrisring]

my initial thoughts were that they would honour last years tickets, and then add in ACO members and those who would be staying on the 'private' sites.
But as we know much can change between now and August!

[delta0]

lowdrag said:

Just think of football matches. Watch a premier division match crowd and multiply by a factor of 4. Now add their cars, tents, gazebos, BBQ's and so on. And a bit of space between plots. Each plot is is 35 sq metres, say four people max. Let's assume that 2/3rds of people coming camp, so rounded off 150,000 according to the ACO. 150,000 ÷ 4 = 40,000 × 35 = 140,000 sq metres. We need at least 20 football pitches plus toilets showers and infrastructure. Surprisingly, I think they have that if you add up Maison Blanche (now tiny though) Blue, Blue South, Epinettes, Houx, Houx Annexe, and Beauséjour, although half of that is unusable with a lot of rain. You may note I have rounded off for man maths. But I have never seen Beauséjour full, in all my time here.

That’s interesting. We know about 25,000 brits go there and they are probably one of the biggest groups at the event. That could put us towards 100,000 campers.

[Vette_1978]

chrisring said:

my initial thoughts were that they would honour last years tickets,

Maybe I need to check emails. We kept 4 tickets from out group of 8 as we hoped to still attend in Sep, the others got posted back. Then I got a letter (I think) which said all the tickets bought have now been credited to my ACO account. So actually, nobody is in possession of tickets they can use. I still have those tickets from last year, but won’t be able to use them as I’ve been credited. I then use the credit for the next race, and the credit I think expires sometime next year. I stand to be corrected.

[LM240]

Vette_1978 said:

chrisring said:

my initial thoughts were that they would honour last years tickets,

Maybe I need to check emails. We kept 4 tickets from out group of 8 as we hoped to still attend in Sep, the others got posted back. Then I got a letter (I think) which said all the tickets bought have now been credited to my ACO account. So actually, nobody is in possession of tickets they can use. I still have those tickets from last year, but won’t be able to use them as I’ve been credited. I then use the credit for the next race, and the credit I think expires sometime next year. I stand to be corrected.

I think these were options for 2020 ticket holders;
- Refund option was given up to a certain date last year.
- Carry tickets over to ‘21 as per booking option (up to a certain date last year)
- The above then changed to credit notes only in terms of value of tickets with actual tickets booked not carried over.
- Any credit notes not used by end of April ‘21 (I think it was) will be refunded automatically.

Edited by LM240 on Wednesday 10th March 19:16

[delta0]

France easing travel restrictions with other countries including UK. https://news.sky.com/story/france-to-ease-coronavi...

[LM240]

delta0 said:

France easing travel restrictions with other countries including UK. https://news.sky.com/story/france-to-ease-coronavi...

Sounds positive.

[LawrieC]

LM240 said:

Sounds positive.

Just don't look at the test and vaccination figures

[LM240]

LawrieC said:

Just don't look at the test and vaccination figures

Allowing a little bit of a positive note to come out! Still cautious over getting too carried away with idea of spectators being allowed.

However, being allowed to travel in the first place would be a big hurdle crossed.

Though report still mentioned ‘the other restrictions currently in place would remain’ (or something similar), without specifying what that meant. So it doesn’t have to be essential travel but does that mean quarantining?

[ecsrobin]

LM240 said:

LawrieC said:

Just don't look at the test and vaccination figures

Allowing a little bit of a positive note to come out! Still cautious over getting too carried away with idea of spectators being allowed.

However, being allowed to travel in the first place would be a big hurdle crossed.

Though report still mentioned ‘the other restrictions currently in place would remain’ (or something similar), without specifying what that meant. So it doesn’t have to be essential travel but does that mean quarantining?

Other restrictions are negative testing no more than 72hrs before travel and I assume the curfew still exists.

[LawrieC]

ecsrobin said:

…... and I assume the curfew still exists.

So the cars will stop at 6pm and start again at 6am, so we only get a 12 hour race

Seriously, this might still be in force in August

[lowdrag]

LawrieC said:

So the cars will stop at 6pm and start again at 6am, so we only get a 12 hour race

Seriously, this might still be in force in August

Reminds me of the Grand Prix du Roc by Peter Ustinov where they stopped in front of the palace and saluted! Girling Foss and the Schnorcedes etc. etc.

[Vette_1978]

LawrieC said:

So the cars will stop at 6pm and start again at 6am, so we only get a 12 hour race

Sounds like the Britcar 24hr, don’t think I attended one which wasn’t stopped for fog.