Pesage ... Sunday

Your Eagles have landed.. we are back from the UK and this time settled in the middle of Le Mans in the Place de la République. We are hidden away in a dark secluded room in the Chambre de Commerce..a wee bit remote from the action but also well away from cars, people and noise ! Very exclusive!

Now, what is this 'Pesage' all about? Well, the precise translation is 'weighing'.. this is just one part of the process, the rest is all about 'Administrative Checks' and 'Scrutineering'. It goes on for two days and is a major 'Do' as far as the town is concerned and the public turn up in their droves. This might be due to the fact it is free, not a familiar concept as far as Le Mans is concerned! It is all very impressive and one of the few opportunities the public get to be within touching distance of the cars. There are however plenty of other opportunities to spend your hard earned euros...

The teams have no choice but to turn up, they have to attend pesage and 'pass' or they won't be allowed to race! The cars arrive on their transporters and there is no end of excitement parking up the trucks and unloading the cars.. it is all part of the drama. The first step is check the driver's race licences, which probably have not changed much from testing. More important are the safety checks on things like helmets and race suits. While this is going on the Technical fellows from The ACO set about checking the various dimensions of the cars, the lights, extinguishers, seat belts, extinguishers and so on. Again not much will have changed since Testing. Oh yes and they weigh the cars .. remember 'Pesage'.. weighing.. this is where we came in ! 

This all takes about an hour , followed by interviews and a 'team photo'  of the car and whole team, mechanics included. The cynics amongst  you may be thinking 'why not rebuild the car between pesage and qualifying' (after all pesage is on Sunday and Monday and qualifying Wednesday) .. a good point well made! To get over this little quirk cars are pulled into scrutineering during and after qualifying.