- There will be new procedures during safety car periods during June's 24 Hours of Le Mans, as noted starting on page 79 of
the Le Mans Supplemental Regulations (stick to the right side of the page for English). As in past years, safety car periods will begin with three safety cars being put out the track. However, wavearounds will be allowed in order for teams who are between the overall leader and their class leader to get behind their class leader.
Once that is done, the second and third safety cars will move over and allow all of those cars behind them to pass so that they can catch the queue behind the first safety car. To accomplish
all of this will likely lengthen safety car periods on the 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe.
In addition, said restarts will be in class order. The Hypercars will be first, then LMP2 cars and GTE-Am cars in that order. That will be done first by the LMP2 cars moving to the right and
dropping back to allow cars to pass, then the GTE-Am cars moving to the right and allowing everyone to pass.
The move primarily alleviates an issue that has resulted from safety car periods in recent years at Le Mans, that being that teams could get separated by minutes due to getting put into a
different safety car group, then literally spending 15 hours trying to make up an artificial deficit. The new rules will likely result in a more competitive and more orderly race at Le Mans, but don't expect all that many safety car periods where this procedure could come into play.
