List of cars admitted to Le Mans 24 Hours test day - Sunday 1st June 2014

Changes abound today. Drop-outs have already exhausted the reserve list to zero, and there is no guarantee that there will not be more to come. That said, the entry list is still pretty healthy, particularly in the LM P2 class. 

N° LM P1 - H TYRES CAR Hybrid DRIVER NAT 

1 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST DEU MICHELIN AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO Hybrid Lucas DI GRASSI BRA Loic DUVAL FRA Tom KRISTENSEN DNK 

2 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST DEU MICHELIN AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO Hybrid Marcel FÄSSLER CHE André LOTTERER DEU Benoit TRELUYER FRA 

3 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST DEU MICHELIN AUDI R18 E-TRON QUATTRO Hybrid Filipe ALBUQUERQUE PRT Marco BONANOMI ITA Olivier JARVIS GBR  

7 TOYOTA RACING JPN MICHELIN TOYOTA TS 040 - HYBRID Hybrid Alexander WURZ AUT Stéphane SARRAZIN FRA Kazuki NAKAJIMA JPN 

8 TOYOTA RACING JPN MICHELIN TOYOTA TS 040 - HYBRID Hybrid Anthony DAVIDSON GBR Nicolas LAPIERRE FRA Sébastien BUEMI CHE 

14 PORSCHE TEAM DEU MICHELIN PORSCHE 919 HYBRID Hybrid Romain DUMAS FRA Neel JANI CHE Marc LIEB DEU 

20 PORSCHE TEAM DEU MICHELIN PORSCHE 919 HYBRID Hybrid Timo BERNHARD DEU Mark WEBBER AUS Brendon HARTLEY NZL 

N° LM P1 - L TYRES CAR DRIVER NAT 

9 LOTUS ROU MICHELIN LOTUS T129 - AER Christijan ALBERS NLD 

12 REBELLION RACING CHE MICHELIN REBELLION R-ONE - TOYOTA Nicolas PROST FRA Nick HEIDFELD DEU Mathias BECHE CHE 

13 REBELLION RACING CHE MICHELIN REBELLION R-ONE - TOYOTA Dominik KRAIHAMER AUT Andrea BELICCHI ITA Fabio LEIMER CHE 

N° LM P2 TYRES CAR DRIVER NAT 

21 STRAKKA RACING GBR MICHELIN STRAKKA DOME S103 Nick LEVENTIS GBR Danny WATTS GBR Jonny KANE GBR 

24 SEBASTIEN LOEB RACING FRA MICHELIN ORECA 03 - NISSAN Vincent CAPILLAIRE FRA René RAST DEU Jan CHAROUZ CHE 

26 G-DRIVE RACING RUS DUNLOP MORGAN - NISSAN Roman RUSINOV RUS Olivier PLA FRA Julien CANAL FRA 

27 SMP RACING RUS MICHELIN ORECA 03 - NISSAN Sergey ZLOBIN RUS 

29 PEGASUS RACING DEU DUNLOP MORGAN-NISSAN Julien SCHELL FRA Nicolas LEUTWILLER CHE 

33 OAK RACING - TEAM ASIA FRA MICHELIN LIGIER JS P2 – HPD David CHENG USA Ho-Pin TUNG NLD 

34 RACE PERFORMANCE CHE DUNLOP ORECA 03 - JUDD Michel FREY CHE Franck MAILLEUX FRA 

35 OAK RACING FRA DUNLOP MORGAN - NISSAN Alex BRUNDLE GBR 

36 SIGNATECH ALPINE FRA MICHELIN ALPINE A450 - NISSAN Paul-Loup CHATIN FRA Oliver WEBB GBR Nelson PANCIATICI FRA 

37 SMP RACING RUS MICHELIN ORECA 03 - NISSAN Kirill LADYGIN RUS 

38 JOTA SPORT GBR DUNLOP ZYTEK Z11SN - NISSAN Simon DOLAN GBR Harry TINCKNELL GBR Marc GENE ESP 

41 GREAVES MOTORSPORT GBR DUNLOP ZYTEK Z11SN - NISSAN Thomas KIMBER-SMITH GBR Chris DYSON USA Matthew McMURRY USA 

42 CATERHAM RACING MYS DUNLOP ZYTEK Z11SN - NISSAN Michael MUNEMMAN GBR Alessandro LATIF GBR 

43 NEWBLOOD BY MORAND RACING CHE DUNLOP MORGAN-JUDD Christian KLIEN AUT Gary HIRSCH CHE Romain BRANDELA FRA 

46 THIRIET BY TDS RACING FRA DUNLOP LIGIER JS P2 - NISSAN Pierre THIRIET FRA Ludovic BADEY FRA Tristan GOMMENDY ITA 

47 KCMG HKG DUNLOP ORECA 03 - NISSAN Matthew HOWSON GBR Richard BRADLEY GBR Alexandre IMPERATORI CHE 

48 MURPHY PROTOTYPES IRL DUNLOP ORECA 03 - NISSAN Tor GRAVES GBR Rodolfo GONZALEZ ESP 

50 LARBRE COMPETITION FRA MICHELIN MORGAN - JUDD Keiko IHARA JPN 

N° LM GTE Pro TYRES CAR DRIVER NAT  

51 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Giammaria BRUNI ITA Tony VILANDER FIN 

52 RAM RACING GBR MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Matt GRIFFIN IRL Alvaro PARENTE PRT James ROSSITER GBR 1

71 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Davide RIGON ITA James CALADO GBR 

73 CORVETTE RACING USA MICHELIN CHEVROLET CORVETTE - C7 Jan MAGNUSSEN DNK Antonio GARCIA ESP Jordan TAYLOR USA 

74 CORVETTE RACING USA MICHELIN CHEVROLET CORVETTE - C7 Oliver GAVIN GBR Tommy MILNER USA Richard WESTBROOK GBR 

91 PORSCHE TEAM MANTHEY DEU MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 RSR Patrick PILET FRA Jörg BERGMEISTER DEU Nick TANDY GBR 

92 PORSCHE TEAM MANTHEY DEU MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 RSR Marco HOLZER DEU Frédéric MAKOWIECKI FRA Richard LIETZ AUT 

97 ASTON MARTIN RACING GBR MICHELIN ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 Stefan MÜCKE DEU Darren TURNER GBR Bruno SENNA BRA 

99 ASTON MARTIN RACING GBR MICHELIN ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 Alex MACDOWALL GBR Daryl O'YOUNG CAN Fernando REES BRA

N° LM GTE Am TYRES CAR DRIVER NAT DRIVER NAT 

53 RAM RACING GBR MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Johnny MOWLEM GBR Ben COLLINS GBR 

55 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Duncan CAMERON GBR 

58 TEAM SOFREV ASP FRA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Fabien BARTHEZ FRA Anthony PONS FRA Ayari SOHEIL FRA 

60 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Peter Ashley MANN USA Raffaele GIAMMARIA ITA Lorenzo CASE ITA 

61 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Luis PEREZ COMPANC ARG Marco CIOCI ITA Mirko VENTURI ITA 

62 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Yannick MALLEGOL FRA Jean-Marc BACHELIER FRA Howard BLANK USA 

R1 66 JMW MOTORSPORT GBR DUNLOP FERRARI 458 ITALIA TBC TBC TBC 

67 IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT FRA MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR Erik MARIS FRA Jean-Marc MERLIN FRA Eric HELARY FRA 

70 TEAM TAISAN JPN MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Matteo MALUCELLI ITA 

72 SMP RACING RUS MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Andrea BERTOLINI ITA 

75 PROSPEED COMPETITION BEL MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR François PERRODO FRA Emmanuel COLLARD FRA Matthieu VAXIVIERE FRA 

76 IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT FRA MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSR Raymond NARAC FRA Nicolas ARMINDO FRA David HALLYDAY FRA 

77 DEMPSEY RACING - PROTON USA MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 RSR Patrick DEMPSEY USA Joe FOSTER USA 

81 AF CORSE ITA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Stephen WYATT AUS Michele RUGOLO ITA Sam BIRD GBR

88 PROTON COMPETITION DEU MICHELIN PORSCHE 911 RSR Christian RIED DEU Khaled ALQUBAISI ARE Klaus BACHLER AUT 

90 8 STAR MOTORSPORTS USA MICHELIN FERRARI 458 ITALIA Vicente POTOLICCHIO VEN Gianluca RODA ITA Paolo RUBERTI ITA 

95 ASTON MARTIN RACING GBR MICHELIN ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 David HEINEMEIER-HANSSON DNK Kristian POULSEN DNK Nicik THIIM DNK 

98 ASTON MARTIN RACING GBR MICHELIN ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE V8 Paul DALLA LANA CAN Pedro LAMY PRT Christoffer NYGAARD DNK 

N° INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TYRES CAR Hybrid DRIVER NAT DRIVER NAT 

0 NISSAN MOTORSPORTS GLOBAL JPN MICHELIN NISSAN ZEOD RC Hybrid Lucas ORDONEZ ESP Wolfgang REIP BEL Thomas ERDOS BRA 

(Source : ACO Press Information 28-4-2014)

Hybrids and Mega Joules Explained

Fiona Miller, a key member of the WEC Media team, gave us the following explanation of what hybrids are all about. Unlike our piece earlier this has been seen and approved of by the WEC Technical guys.. 

“We will hear a lot in the coming months about the hybrid technology used by the manufacturers in the LMP1 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship. While complex, the automotive companies involved (Audi, Porsche and Toyota) have fully embraced the introduction of both the technology and the regulation of its use as it has a direct relevance to the different companies’ production cars of the future.

Following the provision of data and information from the manufacturers in the LMP1-H category (those who use hybrid systems on their LMP1 prototypes), the regulatory authorities  have produced a table which defines the exact maximum amount of fuel that can be used on a lap of the Le Mans 24-Hours circuit.  That circuit has been used as a reference, or baseline, around which all other calculations are made.

Within the regulations, each LMP1 car has potentially five ways of running their cars.  One is to have no ERS (Energy Recovery System), and this option is open to Rebellion Racing or other LMP1-L/non-manufacturer entries.

There are also four hybrid powertrain options.  These are defined by how much hybrid energy is released per lap at Le Mans.  The options are 2, 4, 6 or 8 MegaJoules per lap of Le Mans. A MegaJoule is a unit of energy. Because Silverstone is a shorter circuit, the amount of hybrid energy that can be released is reduced appropriately.

With Audi continuing to choose a diesel-powered engine for its R18 e-tron quattro, as opposed to Toyota’s and Porsche’s petrol-powered units for their TS040 Hybrid and 919 Hybrid, Equivalence of Technology regulations have been formulated to enable both types of fuel to compete on equal terms and to provide them with the same chance of victory.

This means that fuel energy per lap, maximum fuel flow rate and fuel tank capacity are all strictly defined for each fuel and ERS combination. In the table produced by the regulatory authorities, the amount of fuel allowed per lap reduces as the hybrid energy increases.

The first table was drawn up in June 2012, and it was modified with the approval of the manufacturers as a result of the information gathered during testing and practice carried out up until the end of March. 

This table will remain in force until the end of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours. If it has to be modified, this will be done before the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship on the Circuit of the Americas (Austin USA) on 20th September 2014. No further modifications will be made before the end of the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Thank you Fiona Miller

Early finish in deluge for the Silverstone 6 Hours

Toyota had a good day all round.

The good news is that the new hybrid technologies gave us some great racing. The most unhappy team will be Audi, who always appear totally in control and run like clockwork. Not so today, they didn't seem quite as calm as usual. In the end they had to dig two damaged cars out of the gravel and neither car finished. This is not a regular occurrence as you know, the last time they didn't bring a car home was in 2011 at Petit Le Mans. That is some track record! 

Benoit Treluyer attempts to get his car back on the circuit

Anyway it wasn’t to be and one of the lasting memories for us was Benoit Treluyer who stuffed the #2 Audi into the scenery with some enthusiasm however he believed that he could get the car back to the pits … nope.. you need at least one wheel pointing in the right direction! The #1 Audi was taken out of contention by Lucas Di Grassi who also crashed his Audi earlier in the race. They did get that car back but it was ‘beyond economic repair’ as they say in the insurance world! Audi may have to find two new ‘tubs’ by Spa.

The race was red flagged with less than 30 minutes remaining.

The surviving Porsche was shaping up rather well in the final stages with Webber having an impressive début with Porsche.  They  had a fairly good day all round but were off the pace compared with the Toyotas and Audis but will be happy with their first outing and will take away plenty of data leading up to the next round at Spa in fortnight.  The #14 car appeared to lose a wheel after one of its pits stops and damaged the front suspension getting the car home and it was retired.

Toyota had a very good day all round really with very few serious problems other than a few spins there and there.   They seemed to be the calm well organised team rather than Audi. Maybe having Porsche lurking around rattled their cage!

LM P2 was not looking all that exciting from the word go and it didn't disappoint! We only had three out of the four cars started  and only one finished but the result was actually all to do with penalties and stop go penalties. Not ideal ..

In LM GTE Pro Porsche had a very sound start to the season. The 991 model with added aero and a more powerful engine for 2014 had a great scrap with the Ferrari of Bruni and Vilander but they faded away and the Porsches ran 1^st and 2^nd for while.  The battle was then taken up by the #97 Aston Martin driven by Turner and Mucke. At one point it seemed that Aston Martin were off the pace but the race came back to them  so they got a sound result in the end. However they may be a little concerned about their  general lack of pace this year but the result in the end wasn't too disappointing.

In LM GTE Am was won by #95 Aston Martin and  the #98 Aston Martin was second. Which was a much better result than many of us had expected. But they were saw off Porsche and Ferrari so will be happy.

With about twenty five minutes to go the weather collapsed big time and it truly chucked it down and the race ended early behind the safety car about twenty minutes early. It was a good decision as far as the drivers were concerned because the track was awash with standing water.

For us the lasting memories will be the opening fifteen minutes which was sensational. There was a some real ‘do or die’ racing that wasn't what you would expect in 6 hour race. The other one was Treluyer’s utter determination to get his ruined Audi back to the pits. He totally failed, probably fell out with the marshals but you couldn't fault his efforts. Finally these new hybrids are sensational.. great credit to the teams to meet these innovative new regulations and great credit to the drivers who have had learn how to drive the things !

So to summarise:-

LM P1

#8          Toyota Racing Toyota TS 040 Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi

#7          Toyota Racing Toyota TS 040 Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima

#20         Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid Bernhard/Webber/Hartley

LM P1 L

#12         Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 Toyota Prost/Heidfeld/Beche

LM P2

#26         G-Drive Racing Morgan–Nissan Rusinov/Pla/Canal

#47         KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan Howson/Bradley/Matsuda

#27         SMP Oreca 03 Nissan Zlobin/Minassian/Mediani

GTE Pro

#92         Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR Holzer/Makowliecki/Lietz

#91         Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR Piet/Bergemeister/Tandy

#97         Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 Turner/Mucke/

GTE Am

#95         Aston Martin Racing  Aston Martin Vantage V8 Poulson/Hansson/Thiim

#98         Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8 Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard

#81         AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird

Full Results can be found at fiawec.com

No 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro makes spectacular exit from Silverstone 6 hours

Audi driver Benoît Tréluyer made a sudden exit from the Silverstone 6 hours at 15:05 when he ran over a curb on the entry to Copse and lost control, driver unhurt. He made a vain attempt to get restarted but both front wheels were pointing at crazy angles and had to give up.

Thanks to Kristof Vermulen for these images.

LMP1 Starting Drivers for Round One of FIA/WEC 2014

#14        Porsche 919 Hybrid              Neel Jani

#20        Porsche 919 Hybrid              Timo Bernhard

#1         Audi R18 e-tron quattro         Di Grassi

#2         Audi R18 e-tron quattro         Andre Lotterer

#7         Toyota TS 040 Hybrid            Alexande Wurz

#8         Toyota TS 040 Hybrid            Sebastian Buemi

Starting grid for the 6 Hours of Silverstone

Air Temp: 10.2C
Track Temp: 11.2
Humidity: 86% 

Tom Kristensen sports odd headgear during driver autograph session

The weather is overcast, cool, breezy and a bit dreary. In other words just like it normally is for a UK bank Holiday weekend.. but it isn’t raining.. yet. The humidity looks quite high. There is a suggestion that we will see rain about midway through the race and then again at the end  which always tends to spice things up a bit. Tactics play such a huge part in Endurance Racing, more so of course over 24 hours, even so the odd grid position here and there can often be resolved by the use of various clever strategies during the race. This will be first time Porsche have had to work this out while Audi and Toyota will have stacks of historical data to help them. If previous races are anything to go by the opening drivers clearly don’t grasp the concept that this will be a six hour ‘endurance’ race rather than a sprint and they will set out at a ferocious lick for the first 30 mins or so and then settle down.  This makes for great TV.. or are we being cynical? These races are won, as often or not, by the team that spends the least time in the pits which is an intriguing prospect since we don’t know how far these things will go to the gallon or the ‘Joule’! 

1 7 LMP1 WURZ, SARRAZIN, NAKAJIMA Toyota TS 040 - Hybrid M 1'42.774
2 1 LMP1 DI GRASSI, DUVAL, KRISTENSEN Audi R18 e-tron quattro M 1'42.779
3 14 LMP1 DUMAS, JANI,  LIEB Porsche 919 Hybrid M 1'43.087
4 2 LMP1 FÄSSLER, LOTTERER, TRÉLUYER Audi R18 e-tron quattro M 1'43.137
5 8 LMP1 DAVIDSON, LAPIERRE, BUEMI Toyota TS 040 - Hybrid M 1'43.189
6 20 LMP1 BERNHARD, WEBBER, HARTLEY Porsche 919 Hybrid M 1'43.226
7 13 LMP1 KRAIHAMER,  BELICCHI, LEIMER Lola B12/60 - Toyota M 1'44.285
8 12 LMP1 PROST, HEIDFELD, BECHE Lola B12/60 - Toyota M 1'44.392
9 26 LMP2 RUSINOV, PLA, CANAL Morgan - Nissan D 1'49.156
10 47 LMP2 HOWSON, BRADLEY, MATSUDA Oreca 03 - Nissan D 1'49.439
11 37 LMP2 LADYGIN, SHAITAR, LADYGIN Oreca 03 - Nissan M 1'51.236
12 27 LMP2 ZLOBIN, MINASSIAN, MEDIANI Oreca 03 - Nissan M 1'51.514
13 51 LMGTE Pro BRUNI, Toni VILANDER, Ferrari F458 Italia M 1'59.125
14 91 LMGTE Pro PILET, BERGMEISTER, TANDY Porsche 911 RSR M 1'59.380
15 92 LMGTE Pro HOLZER, MAKOWIECKI, LIETZ Porsche 911 RSR M 1'59.717
16 71 LMGTE Pro RIGON, James CALADO, Ferrari F458 Italia M 1'59.841
17 81 LMGTE Am WYATT, RUGOLO, BIRD Ferrari F458 Italia M 1'59.932
18 97 LMGTE Pro TURNER, MÜCKE, Aston Martin Vantage V8 M 1'59.954
19 52 LMGTE Pro GRIFFIN, PARENTE, Ferrari F458 Italia M 2'00.216
20 98 LMGTE Am DALLA LANA, LAMY, NYGAARD A/M Vantage V8 M 2'00.923
21 61 LMGTE Am PEREZ-COMPANC, CIOCI, VENTURI Ferrari F458 Italia M 2'00.971
22 95 LMGTE Am POULSEN, HEINEMEIR HANSSON, THIIM A/M Vantage V8 M 2'00.982
23 99 LMGTE Pro MACDOWALL, O'YOUNG, REES A/M Vantage V8 M 2'01.122
24 75 LMGTE Am PERRODO, COLLARD, VAXIVIÈRE    Porsche 911 GT3 RSR M 2'01.886
25 88 LMGTE Am RIED, BACHLER, AL QUBAISI Porsche 911 RSR M 2'01.917
26 53 LMGTE Am MOWLEM, PATTERSON, COLLINS Ferrari F458 Italia M 2'01.953
27 90 LMGTE Am POTOLICCHIO, RODA, RUBERTI Ferrari F458 Italia M 2'01.982

Toyota #8 gets prepared for the starting grid.

Looking at that lot there are not too many surprises. Certainly Toyota will be pleased with their pole position and maybe Audi are relieved that their current, relatively ‘old tech’ car is still on the pace. Porsche we imagine will be happy with the second row. We obviously don’t know the team tactics but Webber’s come back was sensible and modest and maybe that car is in the ‘long haul’ while the other one is maybe doing the ‘tortoise and hare’ bit by pushing the Audis and Toyotas a wee bit harder than they would like. In the non-hybrid league it is basically Rebellion.v.Rebellion… so maybe a Rebellion will take LMP1 L honours if one of them finishes!

LM P2 is hard to predict. Certainly Pla was a good bit quicker than his team mates and everybody else so our money would   be on them for a win.

In the LM GT Pro it looks like a straight fight between the Porsches, now with their ‘quick engines’ and the lone Ferrari. It seems that the Aston Martins are off the pace but it is a long race.

In LM GT Am the #81 AF Corse Ferrari is a quick as most of the ‘Pro’ cars and it is up against the Aston Martin #98 who is three palces behind the Ferrari. Predictions? Audi in LMP1, LMP2 #26 G-Drive, GT Pro one of the Porsches , probably #91. GT Am we reckon the #81 Ferrari has a well balanced set of drivers.

We have been way off the mark in the past and this could be no exception! 

Sponsorship and Porsche in the FIA/WEC.

At the outset of 2014, one of the prime motor sport sponsorship opportunities in 2014 must have been Porsche’s return to prototypes as a factory team to the world of endurance racing . But the 'writing' on the cars is nothing if not confusing, (see our blog post on Porsche livery) except for one bit that very clearly states in big letters ‘DMG MORI’. If you inhabit the world of engineering this is maybe a name you are familiar with, but we had never heard of them . Bring on Google and Wiki !

It seems that  DMG Mori Seiki AG (formerly Gildemeister AG) is a German mechanical engineering company and machine tool builder with its HQ in Bielefeld, Germany, some 450 kms north of Stuttgart.  It is a leading manufacturer of machine tools and their controls (such as computer numerical control). Their products include lathes, milling machines, machining centres, and mill-turns. OK so we don’t know what the exact meaning of that lot is but they are a certainly a big operation with 12 factories located in Europe and Asia. One of our team seems to recall reading somewhere that they are connected with Porsche in some way, hence maybe the sponsorship deal.

Dr. Rüdiger Kapitza, the chairman of the executive board of DMG Mori, said: “DMG Mori represents tradition, precision and technological leadership on a global scale and, therefore, fits perfectly well with Porsche’s values and high technological standards. We are looking forward to a strong and fruitful partnership.”

Another sponsor is Chopard watches. It all began in 1860 in the small village of Sonvilier, Switzerland. Here Louis-Ulysse Chopard, a talented young craftsman, established his workshop. By virtue of their precision and reliability, his watches quickly gained a solid reputation among enthusiasts and found buyers as far afield as Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia. Nowadays they remain renowned for their creativity, state-of-the-art technology and the excellence of its craftsmen, it became one of the leading names in the high-end watch and jewellery industry.

Also supporting Porsche are their long term oil suppliers Mobil One, a familiar name to anyone having visited a petrol station recently.

Porsche 919 livery explained

The subtle, mostly grey and white Porsche 919 livery has been the subject of scrutiny and knitted brows. As far as the CA team are concerned the jury is still out. It really does look like a bit of a mess. The car actually looked better in our opinion when it was ‘camouflaged’..

Image : Porsche Motorsport

The way to understand it is to hire a hot air balloon or maybe a helicopter and hover above the car   and you will see how it works.

Image : Porsche Motorsport

Don’t panic you have not gone mad it does read PORS…INTELL..PERFO .. we did wonder if when you back a second car up to it will read PORSCHE.. INTELLIGENT.. PERFORMANCE or maybe simply make the race car twice as long.

Take a look at Club Arnage Forum thread "919 in race livery" for some other ideas ! 

Silverstone FIA/WEC Qualifying

Air temp: 10.3 C  Track: 11.1 C   Humidity: 58%  Track dry.

As often happens, the spotlight was again on LMP1. For some reason the powers that be seem hell bent on making things as incomprehensible as possible (at least to our addled brains) as far as regulations are concerned. This year, as in F1, there is the knotty subject of fuel flow. The commentary team came up with a neat beer analogy... something your scribe understands!  Imagine you are going out on the town and have allowed yourself  a maximum of ten pints for the whole evening, however it is down to you to decide how you consume the stuff.. maybe you fancy slurping the lot down in the first few minutes and become legless almost immediately or maybe you prefer to spin them out over the whole evening and then get bladdered more slowly.. You still consume the same amount but the ‘flow’ is different. As in F1 the teams are allowed a given ‘flow’ of fuel and should they exceed that flow they will get excluded, whether it is in qualifying or in the race. So we may have the odd post qualifying drama.

‘Regulars’ will remember the slightly tortuous method of establishing final grid positions… two of  the drivers from each team go out and set their two fastest laps.. the time keepers then take the average of these four times and bingo, you have a grid position based on that average. In some ways it is rather clever because it gives an indication of the ‘team’s’ performance rather than just their fastest driver.

Toyota will be very chuffed,(however that translates into Japanese), with their pole position. The #7 car (Wurz,Sarrazin and Nakajima) was a ‘comfortable’ 0.005 secs ahead of the #1 Audi (Di Grassi,Duval and Kristensen). The #14 Porsche 919 (Dumas, Jani and Lieb) were just 0.313secs behind the leading Audi. The first six LM P1 cars were separated by just 0.452 secs.  Proof this formula seems to be working.

Sadly the underpopulated LMP2 class went largely unnoticed but pole was taken by G-Drive Racing Morgan Nissan (Rusinov,Pla and Canal) next up was the #47  KCMG Oreca 3 ( Howson,Bradley,Matsuda) and third was the #37 SMP Racing Oreca 3 (Ladygin,Shaitar and Ladygin).

In the GT classes honours were evenly shared.. in GTE Pro pole went to the #51 Ferrari F458 Italia (Bruni,Vilander). Porsche persist in calling everything a 911! However these beasts  are the latest ‘RSR/991’ cars armed with the next engines that were debuted last year at Bahrain. They are now right on the pace with  #91 Porsche Team Manthey (Pilet, Bergmeister and Tandy) second and the porsche Team Manthey #92 car was third (Holzer,Makowiecki and Lietz).

In GTE Am it was Ferrari again with the #53 RAM Racing Ferrari 458 Italia behind them proving that Aston Martin hadn’t lost their edge was the #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 (Dalla Lana,Lamy,Nygaard) and third was #61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (Perez-Companc,Cioci and Venturi)

There were no on-track dramas except for the #13 Rebellion Racing which had a spin and rejoined.

Pictures : Dave Davies (c) 2014

The FIA/WEC 2014 kicks off at Silverstone.

It is the 18th of April and the Club Arnage editorial team are at Silverstone. Yes, the WEC season has started. Le Grand Fromage, Jock and Tony are here working variously with Club Arnage and 'Live Texting' for the official FIA/WEC website. Avid readers of the motor sport press will know that a fair few things have changed.. whether for the better or worse remains to be seen.

Obviously the big news surrounds Porsche and their return to factory prototypes in Endurance Racing, their spiritual home. The general view is that they may have a bit of catching up to do, particularly as far as technology is concerned. Audi and Toyota have respectively many and several seasons under their belts but let us not under estimate Porsche.. as AA Milne might have written "this is what Tiggers are good at"!!

Some are questioning the logic of Audi and Porsche racing against each other. Up until the arrival of the Audi R8 these two VAG companies were never directly in competition with each other, they were building very different cars, aimed at very different markets. We are also led to believe that both companies are funding their racing out of their own budgets so all is fair in love and war. Whatever the case it is good to see another serious, high profile contender in LMP1.

Something has gone astray with LMP2.. it was a very healthy baby last year and it was well populated and very competitive. However it seems the original idea to contain costs did not seem to have worked well enough, plus the expense  of competing all over the world has probably not helped. This weekend there are just four LMP2 cars here, all powered by Nissan and all but one are Oreca 03 models. If you want to see P2 cars, there is an ELMS round here this weekend with eleven prototypes. So LMP2 remains popular, but not in the WEC it seems. However they will be back for Le Mans, and plenty of them.

Now lets have a go at explaining LMP1 and the wonderful world of hybrids.. not the work of moment but interesting all the same. It is intriguing that the three prime 'Hybrid' movers Audi, Toyota and Porsche have all gone down distinctly different routes. So it is great credit to the technical law makers that after first free practice the leading Porsche, Audi and Toyota were separated by a slim 0.675 secs. OK it is very early days and nobody knows who was trying at this stage, but at first glance Porsche are on the pace, straight out of the box!

Audi have been fairly conservative and are relying on a development of their original system which recovers energy under braking, stores it in a flywheel and then squirts it back to the front wheels when needed.  This gave them four-wheel drive while the hybrid system was active and was handy in the wet!

Toyota on the other hand recover their energy and store it in a ‘supercapacitor’ for later use. They gather energy via an MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) and also via an MGU-H (Motor Generator Unit – Heat). The advantage of their ‘supercapacitor’ system is that it allows for more rapid charging and discharging than a battery, although they are slightly larger than batteries of a similar capacity. The two units work in tandem and Toyota are masters of the hybrid system so the two MGU’s can either work together to achieve acceleration or separately with the front MGU helping pull the car out corners. Unlike Audi they use a petrol engine.

Porsche are late comers to the hybrid ball, but they will have learnt a lot while busying themselves in development and cutting their teeth on the 911 GT3 R Hybrid which started life back in 2010. They chose not use that set up  believing that it might not stand up to the rigours of endurance racing, instead they had major rethink. Their system now has similarities to the current F1 hybrid cars. Based upon Lithium ion battery technology that they developed for their hybrid road cars. It works by capturing power under both acceleration and braking and storing it for later use .  Power is harvested by a ‘kinetic’ unit upfront and a ‘heat’ unit mounted onto the exhaust working off the turbo at the rear. The engine may be the forerunner of future  road car units producing an astonishing  500 horsepower from a two litre V4 engine.  What ever happened to those famous ‘boxer’ engines!

The battery lives in a water cooled casing within the cockpit and it has been made as small and light as possible. The whole things works for several reasons. Firstly the engine is light, powerful and compact which leaves space and spare weight for the battery.  Next the MGU-H (the heat one at the back) instantly transmits its power without the need  for complex storage under acceleration.  It also works perfectly with the lithium ion battery which at the same time can push out 300hp of electrical energy for several minutes at a time. Clever stuff .. the kind of solution you might expect from Porsche!

Let us not forget that there is a healthy grid of LMGTE cars too, but more of that later...

Jock Simpson.   

Pictures (C) Dave Davies 2014