Lotterer: Le Mans points decide WEC title too early

Porsche LMP Team driver Andre Lotterer feels that the Le Mans 24 Hours should not be a points-scoring race, after the attrition level at this year's running has left himself and teammates Neel Jani and Nick Tandy almost out of the title race.

Heading into tomorrow's 6 Hours of Nurburgring, Le Mans winners Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber in the No. 2 919 sit 17 points clear of the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 crew of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Lotterer and the No. 1 team meanwhile, are now 55 points off the lead, after retiring from the lead of the Le Mans 24 Hours in the closing hours.

For that reason, the former WEC and Le Mans champion says that it's a race that's important enough in its own right, and that it makes the second half of the season almost a formality sometimes, when scoring double points at the biggest race of the season gives one team a big lead.

Lotterer's had to accept, that with six races left in the nine-race calendar, he's out of contention for the title.

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"It's going to be difficult for the rest of this year now," Lotterer told RACER. "We're now going to work as a team to help the sister car fight for the championship. It's not going to be mega for us.

"It will be case by case," he continued, when asked if it was an order from Porsche to take the role of helping the sister car win the title. "In the points we are nowhere, so if we happen to be in a stronger position we will try and help the sister car and work as a team. That's the thing with Le Mans, having double points. When you don't cross the line it's a big hit, even if you finish fourth it's still a lot of points.

"Le Mans is such a great race that you shouldn't get points. Just have no more points there – it deserves attention, but the race itself is a big part of the cake that everybody wants. It just makes the championship...not boring, but it decides it too early.

"If Le Mans was at the end of the year it could be interesting, but for us, having it early has ruled us out completely. With so few cars participating, unless they retire, we can't catch up. With a big gap after Le Mans, you can finish fourth in every race after and still win the championship, sort of like what Neel (Jani) did last year."

Commenting on the No. 2's engine failure at Le Mans, while he held an enormous lead following issues for the other three factory hybrids, Lotterer says he knew it was over the moment the car slowed.

"I never thought the win was in the pocket," he said. "Unfortunately, the issue happened with the engine, and there was nothing we could do. I tried to bring the car back; what could we have done though?

"That's the only part in the car you can't change. If they could have brought it back alive with just one or two cylinders, I don't know what they could have done.

"I knew it was over as soon as I heard the noise. I knew it was a terminal engine failure.

"If it was a really good fight for the win, and my first attempt to win, it would have been heart-breaking, but I've won it a few times. What Toyota experienced last year was even more heart-breaking than that, so it's not as bad as it seemed. I accepted it pretty quickly."