Brendon Hartley: At warp speed through the night
“One of my most lasting memories of Le Mans was my first experience of taking on the Circuit de la Sarthe during the night in 2012. Coming from a single-seater background, there were many things to learn during my first Le Mans but for the most part I felt prepared. However, nothing quite equipped me for my first laps in darkness.
“Up until that moment, I believed I was a driver that drove purely by feel, and that I didn’t use many visual markers like others. Oh how wrong I was! All the houses, guard rails, trees, lines in the road, sometimes seemingly useless objects in the distance that you don’t put much thought into, were gone! That’s when I appreciated how much my brain relied on those markers without me realising it. During those first five laps it felt like I was learning the track all over again, taking in completely new visual markers, most of which flashed by extremely fast, reflections and lights that weren’t there during the day.
“The next thing I noticed was how there was a completely different sense of speed and how I was slowing the car too much at every apex. This was because when things are coming in and out of your tunnel vision created by the view of the headlights, it felt like the car was travelling at warp speed. After the shock of my first five laps in the dark I started to completely embrace the experience, enjoy the extra adrenaline flowing through my blood, and let my senses naturally heighten. It felt amazing! Although it’s not physically harder to drive in the night, mentally you feel much more strain after a long stint. I now embrace the challenges of the night at Le Mans and always put my hand up if someone is needed to do an extra stint in the lonely early hours of the early morning.”
