[Donnchadh MacGarry]

So just did the race there, had a bit of fortune to finish 2nd as other people had problems. Fuel usage is much higher than other tracks since the car is flat out most of the time, I used around 124L which is 30L more compared to the 90L for other tracks. Note this means that adding fuel in the pitstop is necessary since a full tank is 100L, so you might as well change tyres too. Tyre wear seems to be slightly less but still roughly the same as before. For example my softs go to the yellow medium grip after 3 laps which is 9 minutes, which is roughly 40 seconds longer than for my test at Imola. For the race, I ended up starting on hards with a full tank, pitted with 5 laps to go (about the 47:00 mark I think) and did those final 5 laps on softs. I was debating going hards or softs as I wasn't sure how softs would be after the first 3 laps, but I went with softs since I was running on my own and could afford to try it. They felt good at the end, my final lap was slow because I made a mistake with my gearing and coasted a corner to avoid a mistake as I tried to find the right gear. I started on a full tank to minimise the fuel I needed in the pitstop. I pitted so late, so I could run longer on a lighter fuel tank than if I pitted at the halfway mark and also so that I could have a comfortable 2nd stint length on softs.
Unsurprisingly, I have too much wing and (most likely) also toe & camber to be able to keep up on the long straights as I have far less topspeed than most. I used RW=4 in qualy and RW=5 in the race as I lost my nerve and just wanted to do a race with no spins, front splitter is on 0. I'll need to reduce these things to have a chance of keeping up with the fastest guys. I feel more confident with how to drive on this track so I think I'll be able to do that hopefully. However, if you do not feel confident in the corners at all with such a light rear, don't be afraid to use some RW. The time you gain in topspeed with extremely low aero is not worth it at all if it causes you to crash in the corners. My advice would be to brake early and gently, ease the car through the corners. This helps prevent the weight of the car from shifting too much and so the light rear doesn't suddenly kick out causing a spin.

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One major thing I noticed in the race and would like to talk about is using the slipstream. During the race and having skimmed through the replay, I often found people were battling for position on the straights, even from lap 1. Some drivers were moving from side to side on the road in an attempt to prevent an overtake. In reality they were just slowing themselves down and losing time to those in front, which crucially meant they lost the slipstream which is essential to use to keep up with the leaders. Then when drivers got side by side, they tried racing and side drafting each other to the end of the straight which further slowed themselves down and also increased the chance of an accident.

Let's consider an example of what should, in my opinion, be done. Consider Driver A is just ahead of Driver B entering onto the Mulsanne straight (that's the very long one, you can't miss it). Since Driver A is the lead driver of the pair, they should hold to one side of the road and not move from side to side trying to prevent an overtake. Driver B should tuck in behind and use the slipstream to gain speed. Driver B can do one of two things

1. Stay tucked behind Driver A for the whole straight, where they can reduce throttle input and still maintain constant speed since there is less drag. Do this for multiple laps in a row and they can save some fuel. For my first 6/7 laps I did a quite a bit of this and was averaging around 0.2 - 0.3 L of fuel per lap less than when in free air. In fact I could have done it better at times and maybe increase this to 0.4 L, note that requires slip streaming around the whole lap not just on the Mulsanne Straight. If a driver did this for 10 laps, they save 2L - 4L of fuel which would make the pitstop 1.2 - 2.4 seconds quicker, which is enough time to gain track position and even break the slipstream I think. Do it for more laps, like my 15 lap 1st stint, then the driver can save even more fuel.
   
   
2. If Driver B wants to make an overtake, they should move out at the last second to get the slingshot past. Normally this slingshot is enough to get the drivers roughly side by side before Driver B loses some topspeed again. At this point, if Driver B is slightly ahead, Driver A should very briefly ease off the throttle so they can let Driver B by, and then Driver A should tuck in behind Driver B and start slipstreaming. Conversely, if Driver A was still slightly ahead of Driver B when side by side, then Driver B should very briefly ease the throttle so they can safely tuck in behind Driver A to begin slipstreaming again. This process should happen over and over right up until the final few laps if the two drivers are keeping pace with each other. The two drivers will end up boosting each others speed, where they can break away from the pack, or close down people who are a few seconds in front and out of the two drivers slipstream.
   

For those in the race, go to the replay and watch how Simon Speth and Simon Meisinger did this to great effect in the race, I think Hugo Hekkenberg also did it on lap 1 with Simon Speth before he ran into trouble. Pull up the pedal input app and notice how they sometimes ease off the throttle while slipstreaming or to let the other driver ahead so they could tuck in behind. Even though they had the best qualifying times so they were always going to gain a lead, by working together like this they easily broke away from the pack. If they fought in the first few laps, they would have slowed each other down and other drivers might have caught up. This race is an hour long, there is no point fighting for position on the long straights until the last lap or two really. Otherwise you should work with the drivers around you so you can give each other speed boosts and maybe catch up to drivers a few seconds ahead of you. If you weren't in the race then maybe you'll be able to see this on the saved SRS livestream video of the race, I'll add a link when the video goes up as it takes a few hours (if it was recorded that is).
 
Just as a final analogy, in the Tour de France breakaway groups need to work together like this, where they slipstream each other and then slingshot those behind to the front, so that they can gain some time over the main pack. If they do it successfully, they gain enough of a lead that they are then able to fight among themselves for the win over the last 5 or so kilometers. When they don't work together like this, they end up slowing each other down, lose energy and always get swallowed up by the main pack long before the end of the race. I know the Tour de France is cycling and not car racing, but the same principles apply to racing cars on a track like Le Mans especially.