Opinion: Why Le Mans Thriller Could Shift Perceptions of BoP

Jamie Klein believes BoP may no longer be a major talking point after last weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans classic...

The 92nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans certainly didn’t disappoint. It was hard to see how an incredible centenary running in 2023 could be topped in terms of entertainment and sheer unpredictability, but a rain-soaked 2024 race did just that.

Notwithstanding the at-times dreadful conditions and lengthy safety car interventions in the night-time hours, nine cars finishing on the lead lap stand as testament to an epic fight between four pretty evenly-matched manufacturers that will live long in the memory.

A final winning margin of 14.221 seconds between the winning Ferrari 499P and the second-placed Toyota GR010 Hybrid meant the 2024 race narrowly misses the record for the tightest-ever timed finish set in 2011. But that record would almost certainly have fallen had Jose Maria Lopez not looped it at the Dunlop chicane in the final hour, although the Argentinean driver insists that moment was not the difference between victory and defeat.

With a few hours to go, it was impossible to pick a winner between Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche and Cadillac, with the remaining Hypercar manufacturers having either fallen by the wayside (Alpine, BMW) or simply not proven quick enough (Lamborghini, Peugeot, Isotta Fraschini).

And it would probably be fair to say that this was the most competitive Le Mans ever in terms of the competitive spread between the top four cars. Even going back to the halcyon days of 1998 and ‘99, the high-water mark for manufacturer participation prior to the current era, the gaps between the best cars in raw pace terms were measured in seconds rather than tenths.

It almost goes without saying in the Hypercar age that Balance of Performance is to thank for ensuring this closeness of competition (as well as, of course, the number of cars present in the first place). And perhaps what we saw last weekend at Le Mans could mark the start of a rehabilitation of sorts for BoP, which has become almost a dirty word in motorsport.