The chequered flag has been shown for the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual \u2013 the grand finale to this season\u2019s Le Mans Virtual Series. The event\u2019s 45 entries brought together 180 elite drivers from both the real and esports worlds. Together they represented 41 different countries, and raced on the legendary French track on 164 different simulators located around the world.<\/p>\n
At the chequered flag 37 cars successfully concluded the world\u2019s biggest virtual endurance race, with the first 6 cars completing 356 laps of hard racing.\u00a0 A total of\u00a0 188,038 kilometres were covered during the 24 hours of racing and the winners today were the No.2 Team Redline of Felipe Drugovich, Felix Rosenqvist, Luke Bennett and Chris Lulham. In GTE the No.888 of Romain Grosjean’s team R8G Esports took victory, the Ferrari 488 GTE in the hands of Alexander Smolyar, Scott Andrews, Timotej Andonovski and Erjan Jajovski.<\/p>\n
The race didn\u2019t run entirely smoothly for many, however, with two red flag stoppages and a number of subsequent issues for individual competitors.\u00a0 To explain further we asked G\u00e9rard Neveu, Executive Producer of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Q1:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We didn\u2019t see any stoppages during the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual last year.\u00a0 What happened in this 2023 edition?<\/strong><\/p>\n “It became clear within the first 7 hours of the race that we had some serious server issues which led to us showing the red flag on the race twice.\u00a0 After some initial investigation, it seems that some race competitors accidentally shared to the public the IP addresses connecting them to the server, which is not supposed to happen. This put us in a weakened position, and we were subjected to some security breaches which caused the global disconnection of all competitors.\u00a0 It should never happen if the IP addresses are well protected.”<\/p>\n Q2:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Why were some cars given laps back for lost time, and others not?<\/strong><\/p>\n “Within the Sporting Regulations (article 14.11) for the Le Mans Virtual Series it states that if four or more competitors suffer disconnections, Race Control will compensate any time lost by \u201cgiving back\u201d the time in laps. This was done for the red flag stoppages and on other occasions. Where fewer than four competitors are affected by disconnections, it\u2019s difficult to prove where the fault lies and therefore the rules state that laps are not given back.<\/p>\n “We obviously feel very sorry for all the affected competitors including Max Verstappen, and understand their frustrations, but we cannot change the regulations mid-race, even if it\u2019s for a double World Champion who we fully respect, as this would be very unfair on all the other competitors.<\/p>\n “We have asked the rFactor2 platform to launch a full investigation to find out where these problems are coming from and of course we will look at our processes and guidelines to try and reduce chance of similar issues taking place in 2024.”<\/p>\n Q3:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How did the event run otherwise?<\/strong><\/p>\n “These problems apart we think that when we look back at the 2023 edition, we can have a certain satisfaction about what we have achieved in terms of bringing together this amazing field of competitors and top teams, and with the broadcast that came live from Le Mans Virtual Series\u2019 studio at Silverstone in the UK to TV and digital channels across the world.<\/p>\n “37 cars took the chequered flag and millions of viewers followed us during the weekend. The race itself was really intense and competitive delivering worthy winners and champions. You know, the 24 Hours of Le Mans always delivers drama and passionate emotions, and this is the same in the virtual version, with some competitors ending up happy and some sad.”<\/p>\n Q4:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And what about the Le Mans Virtual Series as a whole?<\/strong><\/p>\n “As well as our Team Redline and R8G Esports race winners, we of course have crowned our series\u2019 champions Porsche Coanda and BMW Team Redline.\u00a0 Over the five-race season 365,038 kilometres of racing have successfully taken place and \u2013 this race apart \u2013 we have had very few issues.<\/p>\n “It takes a huge team effort with many, many people involved in multiple areas and we want to pay tribute to everyone for their energy, persistence, professionalism and expertise, especially in light of the technical problems we had.\u00a0 Specifically, we want to thank:<\/p>\n Thank you all for being part of another great chapter in esports history and for all that has been achieved together. See you in June for the real 24 Hours of Le Mans and, of course, next year for the fourth edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chequered flag has been shown for the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual \u2013 the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"\n\n