From the October 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
Who won, this year’s Indy 500 or the 24 Hours of Le Mans? If you’re casual with your commas, you’re shouting out “Josef Newgarden!” and “Ferrari!” right now, but which race is better? Which one should you go see? I’ve been to both events, but I never had the chance to do them back to back in the same year—until now. With rain-spotted credentials still on my desk, I’m declaring a winner.
Out of the gate, they’re neck and neck. Indy is older. The first 500 was in 1911, whereas the first Le Mans enduro was in 1923, so point to Indy for this. But then Le Mans is in the French countryside, and with all due respect to Indiana’s farmland, the French win for picturesque location.
As far as crowds, Indy attracted more than 330,000 fans, while Le Mans claims 325,000. The Le Mans circuit is bigger, 8.5 miles around its straights and chicanes versus Indy’s 2.5-mile stretched squircle. The average speed for the Indy field this year was more than 232 mph. Getting an average for Le Mans is harder, but Miguel Molina notched the race’s top speed when his Ferrari LMH car hit 212 mph. So Le Mans wins for size, but Indy does for speed. We’re still tied.
For a new fan, Indy is easier to comprehend. There’s only one class, and despite the many manufacturer logos painted on the bodywork, the cars all use the same chassis. There are only two engines to choose from: twin-turbo 2.2-liter V-6s engineered by Honda or Chevrolet. Race advantages come from choices in aero, suspension, and strategy, with something as small as a slight amount of drag in a wheel bearing capable of knocking a driver off the pace. Ahead of the start, driver Katherine Legge bemoaned the mysteries of IndyCar speed. “We’re getting drag from somewhere,” she said. Then she half-jokingly added, “Gearbox, bearings, brakes, aero? If anybody knows, tell me.”
The spotter’s guide is more complex at Circuit de la Sarthe. There are four classes, plus this year’s special guest, the Garage 56 stock car. An endurance race has all the challenges of an oval track spread out over day and night, so strategy and luck go hand in hand at Le Mans. “It’s quite a simple race if you stay out of the garage and you don’t crash into something,” said Cadillac LMDh driver Earl Bamber. His No. 2 car finished in third place, so apparently, that’s a solid approach.
How do you pick between the heated tension of a 24-hour race and the thrill ride of three hours at full throttle, between flame-shooting prototypes weaving through decelerating GT cars and the brain-deep vibration of 33 Indy cars on the front straight? Argh, tie again.
Fighter-plane preshow? Yes and yes, both trailing red, white, and blue across the sky. Musical entertainment? Both races have electronica dance pits, but only in France does it go all night. Whether that’s a point or not probably depends on your age. How about that classic motorsports requirement, sexy Italians? There are whole teams of them in the Le Mans garages, but then, Indy has Mario. Drama and heartbreak? Consider that Porsche driver Felipe Nasr set a blistering qualifying lap on what he knew was not enough fuel to get him back and then babied it into the pits for a P4 start before falling victim to a mechanical failure that knocked him out of the race, and compare it to Newgarden snatching the 500 win from Marcus Ericsson in a one-lap sprint to the finish after a series of hard-fought passes and heart-stopping crashes. I would say the food in France wins, but I dream of the shrimp cocktail at Indy’s St. Elmo.
I can’t pick. Go to both and decide for yourself.
Senior Editor, Features
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.
