As in all power sports, the driver is the key component: he or she needs to be the fastest and the most reliable on the track in addition to providing an assessment of the car to engineers in order to fine-tune it. In the Le Mans 24 Hours, however, it is more accurate to talk about “drivers” in the plural. There are usually three per team driving in stints. This involves developing a keen sense of teamwork: the car must be tuned to suit all the competitors taking the wheel.
Another specific feature of the Le Mans 24 Hours is that there are several driver categories: Platinum (professional drivers), Gold (professional or amateur drivers satisfying one of a list of performance criteria), Silver and Bronze (amateur drivers). Depending on the car category (LM P1, LM P2, GTE Pro and GTE Am), the racing teams are required to adhere to a specific configuration (in LM P2, a team must, for example, include at least one Silver or Bronze driver).
