What's new Audi fills the top four places at the Le Mans test so are we in for another Audi win at Le Mans for the R8. This would be the 4th OA win and the 5th straight LM P1 victory for the car which would surely mark its place in perpetuity for this superb car but perhaps not be a good result for the race itself. The domination of the Audi has perhaps not been good for maintaining spectator interest at Le Mans and perhaps the true level of achievement has also been reduced by the fact that it has had little real factory opposition. Only Bentley has come close before beating the R8 last year but as both marques come under the same manufacturer umbrella there has always been just the faintest hint of collusion.

So for the race in June is there anything new that might change the status quo? Well amongst the Audi fleet we have three teams each with fiercely competitive driver line-ups all with something to prove. They each have at least one Le Mans winner who would like to add another to the portfolio, They come from Japan, the USA and Britain, The two British cars raced each other hard at Sebring and it is perhaps the Sebring race that should perhaps give the rest some hope. Racing hard increases the chances of an incident, an error or perhaps contact with a slower car, Champion had just such an incident, the damage effectively ended their hopes for victory. The Herbert UK Audi too wilted under the strain, a drive shaft bearing failed. In the past this would have been just a minor inconvenience, a mere two to three minutes to swap the entire rear end, At Sebring because the new regulation ban the changing of major components it had to be repaired. At a stroke its strength became a major weakness, the box is not designed to be repaired trackside, it took over half an hour, but for the fact that most of its off track time was during a full course yellow the car would not have been able to recover its podium position. So for 2004 one of the Audi strengths may have become an Achilles heel. Their strength probably remains as fuel mileage from the direct injection engine. What also should not be overlooked is the Michelin dry tyre but Jan Lammers has already started a rain dance as wet weather should suit his Dunlops and the Goodyears of the smaller private teams.