Alex Brundle: ‘The magic of Eau Rouge in an LMP2 car’

There have been times when LMP2 cars were kicked in the nuts and given a lot less downforce to keep them behind LMP1, but the best era for LMP2 was back in 2017. Full-fat, well over 600bhp, weight around 900kg-ish including the driver.

You’d get to the base of the hill at Eau Rouge and the magic, in a car that’s only just flat through there, is to remember how much space you have at the top that you can’t see.

When you hit the top kerb, you have a full car’s width of real estate, and a lot of people forget how wide the track is beyond that kerb to the right. You’ve got a lot of space to catch the car, and the kerb beyond that is very flat.

The technique is muscle memory in many ways. Everyone is scared of that right-hand wall before you turn in, so you’ve got to get as close to it as possible and then it’s a pure geometry exercise, a matter of maximising the metres.

You get most grip in the compression as it turns right, so do all the turning you can possibly get done there. So you point the car straight and then, at the top of the hill, remember you’ve got enough room not to need to lift.

Any car that’s set up properly will smash the deck on the first lap on low tyre pressures and heavy fuel, so you’ve got to be pinpoint perfect.