[The Richard Mille sponsored Ligier-Nissan driven by Alex Brundle flies down the finishing straight]
It is THE endurance race for cars. It really is! Part of you thinks that its just cars going round and around the same track for a day and a night! Drivers must be on autopilot by the end! And engineering must be such that computer simulation should be able to simulate where the troubles will occur by the end of the sixth hour; or the twenty-third hour. But then you start to think about it: what must the stresses and strains be on a car to drive at maximum speed for that length of time. Twenty-four hours: a whole day and night. Irrespective of the complications that a computer can simulate, there is no substitute for “being there”; being in the race and actually racing! There are too many uncertainties in this world that a computer cannot simulate for.
[Cars passing through the famed Dunlop bridge. This year the crowds at Le Mans – which were over a quarter of a million – were the largest in twenty years]
[The LMP1 Toyota TS040 hybrid passing the LMP2 Alpine A450b – Nissan down the finishing straight]
In a way, it is strange that any watch manufacturer would want to be involved in a race where time is a constant! The race lasts 24 hours; one rotation of the planet on its axis. During which time, the cars are driven at their maximum from the start at 15:00 hours on the Saturday to the same time on the Sunday. The objective: to see what the cars are capable of and who can drive the furthest distance in that time. It is a true test of engineering and endurance. How can a car race for that long at that speed and not fail? The top LMP1 cars are faster than Formula 1 at top speed, and have to drive for over ten times the distance in terms of time. Coupled with the fact that pit-stops are not the orchestrated Formula 1 affairs, but a true garage stop where there is a need to restock the car with fuel, tyres, and a fresh driver! You even have to wipe down the windshield! Drivers drive in shifts of anything between two and four hours, before being rested. This ultimate test of speed and endurance has captivated car marques in the past and the obsession continues. This year, Porsche arrived with a tour de force team, spearheaded by the ex-Formula 1 driver: Mark Webber, and were attempting to win back the overall title. They nearly succeeded too! Porsche were as prepared as any team could ever be. Yet, as Mark Webber was pushing the lead Audi towards the end of the race he had to retire because of engine problems in the twenty-second hour. It was almost a fairytale return to the Le Mans circuit for Porsche.
[A Porsche 911 RSR GTE PRO (Team Manthey) comes into the pits for tyres, fuel, and driver. Before going back out into the race again]
Richard has been linked with the Le Mans Classic since the events’ inception. Not surprisingly for a man, and a brand for that matter, that has an interest bordering on obsession with mechanics and technique from the very start, it was only a matter of time before Richard Mille (man and brand) went into modern day racing. This past year has seen Richard Mille sponsor a Formula 1 team: Lotus. Richard previously sponsored (back in 2012) the Brundle family Le Mans team (http://richardmille.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-18/pi-5279043/ti-788428/s-0/ ). But this year, Richard was back to Le Mans 24 Heures with a vengeance!
[The paddock at Le Mans: the Porsche return is all too evident!]
[Mark Webber in the lead Porsche 919 Hybrid]
Richard sponsored cars in two classes: LMP2 and the GTE. In the LMP2 category, Richard sponsored two teams. The first was Sebastian Loeb Racing: a team who were racing at Le Mans for the second time. The Sebastian Loeb Racing car was an Oreca-Nissan. The second team also saw Richard as a sponsor for Alex Brundle’s seat in the car as well, was the Ligier-Nissan and marked a return for Ligier to the legendary circuit. LMP2 cars are basically a lower powered version of the LMP1 class of car that races for the top position at Le Mans. The GTE cars are more akin to the original idea of the Le Mans 24 Heures: to race publically available production cars on the circuit for a day and a night. The idea has changed a little over time (the cars are not necessarily street legal), but you do get (suitably qualified) amateur teams running a car in the race.
[The Sebastian Loeb Racing Oreca-Nissan running checks in the pits]
[From left to right: Peter Harrison (RM EMEA CEO), Martin Brundle, and Alex Brundle]
The Richard Mille sponsored cars acquitted themselves well; and at one point, the Alex Brundle led Ligier-Nissan was leading the LMP2 class. Of all things, difficulties with the humble spark plugs caused problems. In the nineteenth hour into the race, with Alex Brundle at the wheel, the car went into the pits ahead of schedule when it was clear it was not flying along at its usual speed. Although the problem was dealt with, it cost the car time. The Ligier-Nissan ended up finishing fifth in the class, ninth overall (and only a lap down on the overall winner over 24 hours). An impressive performance for a race team where the average driver age was only twenty-three!
[The Richard Mille sponsored Ligier-Nissan undergoing work in the pits before the race]
One place in front of the Ligier-Nissan (in both the LMP2 category and in the overall category) was the Sebastian Loeb Racing team LMP2 Oreca – Nissan. Both cars not only finished the race but over the course of 24 hours finished within a lap of the first placed car. The third car that Richard sponsored (by covering the car in a RM movement design) was the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the GTE AM category. At the race for the joy of racing, the team finished down the field, but unlike some of the more experienced teams, they did finish (fourteenth in the category and thirty-second overall). To show how cruel racing can be, the Richard Mille sponsored Porsche finished ahead of the Porsche team cars in the LMP1 category.
[The Richard Mille movement designed covered Porsche 911 RSR GTE AM]
The Sebastian Loeb Racing team was set up by the reknowned World Rally Champion and Richard Mille ambassador: Sebastian Loeb. In France, Sebastian is a national hero: as evidence of such he was awarded the Legion d’honneur by President Sarkozy in 2009. He is the most successful rally driver of all time (he has won the World Championship a record nine times). He has also competed in the Le Mans 24 Heures race (in 2005 and 2006). In 2006 he finished a notable second in the LMP1 class (in a Pescarolo-Judd) splitting the two Audi team cars (who won this years race as well) in the process. This year, as a Richard Mille brand ambassador, was notable for Sebastian as he had taken possession of the watch that was designed for him. The watch debuted at SIHH 2014 and a lot of people were a little perplexed by the design and movement. Usually Richard Mille brand ambassadors’ watches were of the tonneau case shaped variety, but in this instance, the case shape was round and contained a rather unique movement. It was still a tourbillon, but there were other complications involved. The other complication was designed with the very forces acting on car and driver under racing conditions.
[The Sebastian Loeb Oreca-Nissan flies the straight]
The RM036-01 Sebastian Loeb is a watch movement that is specifically designed to compensate for G-forces inflicted on a watch being worn while driving at high speed. It is difficult to appreciate the degree to which G-forces are inflicted on both watch and driver unless there is both a means to measure it, and this is where the RM036-01 Sebastian Loeb watch comes in. While the tourbillon escapement will compensate for varying gravitational forces on the escapement (and with it the watch) as a time keeping mechanism, the G-force indicator will indicate just how much force may have been applied as the car corners, serves, or is shunted around the race course.
[Sebastian Loeb’s RM036-01 prototype: note the wear and tear on the bezel. He has been putting the watch through actual testing while driving his rally car]
Being a guest of Sebastian Loeb Racing and Richard Mille gave me the opportunity to talk to the man himself about the watch, the design, and how it was performing. You can see that Sebastian has been testing the watch: look at the wear and tear on the bezel of the prototype. It has been in the car and basically bounced around with driver from start to finish. Anyone who saw the initial prototype and the current prototype being tested would have noted that the current case is shallower compared to the initial form. The watch is less bulky and this has resulted from refinements made to the movement. What I had not seen until I was up close and personal with Sebastian’s own watch was the depth to the movement and the degree of complexity on show. There is depth to the movement and it is clearly visible through the sapphire crystal dial and case back.
I asked Sebastian if he ever looked at the time when driving? He laughed! No, how could he look at the time when all his concentration was focused on keeping the car on the track or road! However, he did add that he would glance at the time when finished with driving and note the time. Irrespective of the bumps and abuse that the watch had received, and despite being subjected to G-forces of up to 6G, the watch always kept perfect time. In that, Sebastian was very impressed. All too often mechanical watches can receive an inordinate amount of abuse from being on the wrist and that can lead to the watch losing time or simply stopping.
[Sebastian Loeb standing outside the hospitality area for his own racing team]
In terms of the design, I asked if Sebastian had been involved, but no, he had not. In the same way that he would not require advice on the design and set up of a Rally car, he said that he preferred to leave such matters to a specialist such as Richard, and instead played the final arbiter of possibilities for the watch. However, now that he has the prototype and is using it (look at the bezel to the watch), he thinks that that it is what he would have liked to design all along! In an uncanny sense of déjà vu, the bezel of the watch looks a lot like the symbol for the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) who run the Le Mans 24 Heures race.
What is clear is that there is more to the RM036-01 than initially meets the eye. I will admit that I was not very excited about the watch when I first saw it at SIHH this year. The rotary G-sensor, that has become the prominent feature at the centre of the watch, is only 17mm in diameter, but it contains 50 components and can display forces of up to 6G through a moving weight connected to a needle, which moves between a green zone (for mild force) and a red zone (critical). The button in the centre is for re-set. The direction in which the force is to be measured can be set by turning the brown ceramic bezel, with the display being instantly reset with a prod of the button protruding from the centre of the dial. As expected from Richard Mille, the watch contains some esoteric materials. The case band is made from an anthracite polymer (a form of carbon fibre) injected with carbon nanotubes. The baseplate and the bridges are made from a new alloy of 90 percent grade 5 titanium, percent aluminum and percent vanadium, making the whole watch extremely rigid and resistant to corrosion, or racecar driving!
The G-forces exacted on both driver and watch, in a rally car under normal race conditions (or any high speed race car for that matter) are not the one-off colossal G-force that a crash may exert (and that Felipe Massa subjected an RM006 to once) but the perpetual kind. Every corner, every turn, requires that G-forces between 3G and 6G are continually exerted on the watch. It is a machine to withstand racing conditions that you wear on your wrist. You see, racing machines, whether on the track or on the wrist, are all about the engineering and the techniques to overcome problems. Find solutions to problems, manufacture the improved machine, and then try them out where it counts: racing, competition, or simply in the every day. Racing in the Le Mans 24 Heures is not simply driving as fast as you can go. It’s running the distance. Not only do you have to race; you have to endure. There is no substitute for racing! Whether a racing machine on the track, or a racing machine on the wrist!
Andrew H
This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-06-22 15:28:40 This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-06-22 15:31:17 This message has been edited by 219 on 2014-07-06 14:00:31 
