The rescheduled 24 Hours of Le Mans won’t have a test day two weeks prior to the event, as is tradition, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) has confirmed.
The blue ribbon event of the World Endurance Championship calendar, the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has been postponed to September 19-20 as a result of the coronavirus.
A reshuffled schedule has therefore been put in place, but test day won’t be included because of the logistics involved as it would be too close to the 24H Motos event, which also takes place at the Le Sarthe Circuit.
“We decided not to hold the 24 Hours of Le Mans test day this year,” confirmed ACO president Pierre Fillon. “The reason is that competitors would have been overtaxed.
“As you know, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is now scheduled for 19–20 September. Test day is usually a fortnight before the race. However, the test is not as old as the race itself and has been skipped on several occasions.
“Two weeks before the race would have meant holding test day a week after the 24H Motos, now scheduled for 29–30 August. Holding two major events within three weeks of each other is already a challenge and we had to rethink our priorities.
“The outcome was to sacrifice the test day. We shall be holding free practice sessions during race week to allow time to test machines and for inexperienced drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit. We’ll announce the details in due course.”
Provisional schedule for the 24 Hours of Le Mans:
13 and 14 September: Administrative and technical checks (place to be confirmed)
16 and 17 September: Testing
19 and 20 September: Race
21 September: Post-race technical checks