Why Alonso's Win At Le Mans In 2019 Was Not As Good As The Previous Year

Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Buemi, And Kazuki Nakajima In The Number 8 Car Had Struggled To Find Pace All Weekend But They Still Managed To Clinch A Prestige Win At Le Mans. But Was It Fully Deserved?

Normally in Motorsport if a driver (or in this case multiple drivers) were struggling for pace but still won the race, I would still perceive that as a very well deserved win. That is, unless they are behind a car that had dropped out of the race and so was the case, in the 2019 24 Hrs Of Le Mans.

Over the course of the weekend, the number 7 Toyota proved to be quicker than the number 8 car for reasons at the time down to a loose door causing significantly more drag.

What Happened To The Number 7 Toyota?

Toyota number 7 had led the race for almost 12 hours when disaster struck. Jose Maria Lopez was called into the pits to replace a tyre that was experiencing a slow puncture. Both he and the team believed that the problem was now solved after the pitstop only to leave the box and experience a puncture on his out lap. Race ruined, after the event, the team said to the media that a faulty sensor had caused the pitstop crew to change the wrong tyre because the problem seemed to be on the front right tyre when in actual fact the problem was on the rear right.
Many believe that this could have been a deliberate mistake from Toyota bosses in order for their new world champion, Fernando Alonso to take a second Le Mans Victory. With Alonso being involved in multiple controversial events in Formula 1, the speculation will continue, although I myself don't believe that a Le Mans Win could be falsely engineered in such a way that the team would risk their own drivers' live's to help Alonso win especially because he had also won the race in the previous year so this would have been unnecessary to say the least.