The Porsche 919 Hybrid for Dummies.

Image: Dave Davies

No disrespect to our knowledgeable readers  but we have just received a press release from Porsche that is verging on comprehensible, even to this Muppet !

The Porsche 919 has two different energy recovery systems (ERS), and they  tell us that it is the most complex race car they have ever built. No surprise there then! They also describe it as their fastest mobile research laboratory for their future road cars . So expect to see this technology in the not too distant future in your shopping Porsche. The 919 is trimmed right down for extreme performance and above all efficiency.

It has two energy recovery  systems: a kinetic energy recovery system that works under braking (MGU-K) and the second one that recovers energy via the exhaust (MGU-H) when accelerating. This is all very new to Porsche themselves and of course ‘interesting’ territory for the drivers!

The energy from the MGU-K ( pay attention at the back.. that is the braking energy one) is stored in liquid cooled lithium-ion battery packs and when the driver wants to use this power he calls upon the electric motor that drives the front wheels. In the meantime the MGU-H power comes via the ‘internal combustion engine’ which is a 2.0 litres V4 direct injection jobbie putting out an impressive 500 bhp and that drives the back wheels so bingo you have four wheel drive.

One final mind boggling statistic is that the 919 is allowed to use 4.78 megajoules per lap here at Spa. If you convert this into kilowatt hours (kWh), which is the common unit of measurement for normal households, you get 1.33 kWh, stick with me.. the punchline is coming.  The Six Hours of Spa is run over approximately 170 laps, during this time each of the 919 Hybrids will produce 226.1 kWh and this would be the same amount of electrical energy that a German household uses during an entire month during the summer.  To use the immortal  words of the late David Coleman “ Quite remarkable”! 

Jock Simpson

FIA/WEC Spa - Qualifying

Lieb snatched pole in the final seconds of the session on a drying track.

This is Spa in its most awkward mode! After a dry, rather rapid second free practice the track has now been declared wet again.. all these rumours about Spa having its own ‘micro climate’ are true. To make things even more indecisive it is still raining but there is strong breeze which will hopefully dry out the track, but probably only in places. Who would want a team managers job! We wonder if Audi have got to grips with their dodgy tyre choices at Silverstone. There is much talk of these magic Michelin wets with no grooves . It is a tricky concept to grasp but they seem fit in somewhere between traditional ‘intermediates' and ‘slicks'… confused? You will be ! 

GT Qualifying

The session has been declared ‘wet’ which may seem a bit blindingly obvious but under the regulations teams can’t use wet tyres unless the race has been officially declared wet by the Race Director. 

The way this works is that the LM GTE Pro and Am go out on their own then the LMP1 and LMP2 go out after them in their own session . This session only lasts 30 mins so there is no time to dawdle. 

After about 15 mins it interesting to note that after a bit of lacklustre day so far the two of the Astons..#99 and #97 are tucking in behind the leading Porsche #91. Ferrari are back in 4th. The top ten are all on the same second.. it is close. But don’t forget the grid position will be down to the average time set over the four fastest laps set by two drivers. So the actual grid doesn’t take shape until the end of the session. All of a sudden the #71 AF Corse Ferrari sprang into life and with around 8 mins to go is at the top of the times on average, only to be bounced down the order by both the Porsches, and now Aston Martin are nowhere! Until that is, Darren Turner hauls the #97 Aston into a very respectable 4th. Then as the flag went out Darren Turner heaved the #97 Aston Martin into 2nd. This puts the factory Porsches on the 2nd row.

At the flag the first five cars are separated by less than a second..

#51 Ferrari 458 Italia

#97 Aston Martin Vantage V8

#92 Porsche 911 RSR

#91 Porsche 911 RSR

#99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage

With all this going on it was easy to miss that in LM GT Am it was the #61 Ferrari that took pole ahead of #75 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and #81 Ferrari 458 Italia.

Suddenly Bruni and Ferrari are back.. this is great stuff. 

Full results on www.fiawec.com.

LMP1 and LMP2 Qualifying

The track is still ‘wet’ but a dry line is beginning to show. Once again the times are mighty close with the front four all on the same second. But a stonking lap from Buemi in the #8 Toyota put a stop to all that.. 1.3 secs ahead of the #20 Porsche driven by Hartley.

LMP2 was initially led by #47 Oreca 03 about half a second ahead of the #26 G-Force Morgan Nissan. The #37 Oreca 03 Nissan that crashed out earlier today has not made it out.. rather as we had expected.

With half the session gone teams are now put their second drivers out on the track. This method of qualifying makes any sort of predictions very tricky because while you wait for the drivers to bank their four quick laps we don’t get the averages that give us the grid.. With five minutes to go Toyota looked strong with Buemi in the #8 car.. just behind him the two Porsches but we needed to wait for Audi’s last blast ! And as if to order, Lotterer puts the #2 Audi onto the provisional front row beside the Toyota and then takes pole with two minutes to go.. but Buemi responds.. and takes it back. But nobody told Lieb who does a superb job as the chequered flag came out he swept to a rather surprising pole. Wow .. that was amazing! Audi wont be all that happy with that result and it is good to see that Porsche do have the raw pace to take the fight to Toyota.

#14 Porsche

#8 Toyota

#2 Audi

#7 Toyota

#20 Porsche

#6 Audi

The LMP2 pole stayed with the #47 Oreca 03 with #27 Oreca 03 second.

Full results can be found on www.fiawec.com 

Jock Simpson - Image by Romain Scholer

Second Free Practice - Porsche give a hint of their potential pace

Image: Romain Scholer

There were a couple of red flags .. the first was when #37 SMP Racing 03-Nissan had a big and damaging accident at Raidillon when Viktor Shaitar lost it. He was fine but it looked as if the floor pan of the Oreca 03 Nissan might have been damaged. This brought out the red flags. Then some laps later Simon Dolan in the #38 Zytek Z11 Nissan brought out the red flags again when he had a lurid spin in almost exactly the same place. However he missed the scenery and the marshals sorted him out, he rejoined and the flags came in.

Image: Romain Scholer

The weather dried out nicely so the front runners began to get stuck in and put in some serious laps. In fact Jani’s lap in the #14 Porsche was quicker than the fastest lap in last year’s race with a 1:59.887 sec. Team tactics were a bit hard to fathom all round since we don’t know what the teams are actually up to.. it  might be they were running in race specification, or maybe qualifying specification. One thing we thought was certain was that nobody would show what sort of pace they could run at. So Porsche’s fastest lap came as a surprise. 

After that honours were pretty even between Audi and Toyota. There was one slightly curious anomaly with the #3 Audi which we were led to believe was running in Le Mans specification which meant the long fast Spa Circuit would rather suit it. But it didn’t show at this stage. Mind you Audi have had a busy week shuffling tubs and building cars so maybe this was more of a shake down all round

Rebellion's new R-One Toyota eventually finished a fairly modest 12th behind a couple of LM P2 cars but we think they will be happy that it went well and is all in one piece ready for 

the serious business of qualifying..

Image: Romain Scholer

LMP2 went well for #26 Morgan Nissan , the rest of the pack are on the pace despite various excitements so let’s wait and see what occurs in qualifying ‘proper’. The balance of performance adjustments seem to have been rather effective and nobbled the factory Porsches rather successfully! They were ‘awarded’ an additional 25 kgs of ballast. They probably won’t be happy lying way behind the #88 Proton Porsche which is last year’s un-penalised) model. The #88 heads the GT grid ahead of a flurry of Ferrari F458’s.

The factory Aston Martins have either lost their way or are being a bit canny because they do appear to be off the pace. After all they have ‘lost’ 15 kgs of ballast since Silverstone. As we said before this is ‘free practice’ so lets wait until the main event before drawing too many conclusions.

Full results on www.fiawec.com

Jock Simpson

Competitors of Spa FIA/WEC face the uncertain climate of the Belgian Ardennes.

Your faithful team of scribblers is alive and well and Tony and Jock are at Spa. You will find Tony’s input under live text on the WEC website (live.fiawec.com) and Jock’s stuff here on the pages of Club Arnage.

There are certain ‘givens’ at Spa.. beer, chips, mayonnaise, waffles and unpredictable weather. You will be pleased to know that all these are safely in place. It rained so hard on the way down that the several huge dollops of bird droppings have been washed off the car ! So, we are watching ‘Free Practice’ which, as a rule, doesn't prove too much. The good news is that Audi have raided their parts bins and are here with three cars. Quite an achievement after the carnage at Silverstone where you recall they destroyed at least one and possibly two tubs.  We are told that the #3 Audi  is running in ‘Le Mans’ aero spec so may not be as quick as the other two.

Toyota are carrying on where they left off at Silverstone and have sat in 1st and 2nd all the way through the session right up to the last few minutes when #1Audi with Duval at the wheel went fastest. 

Porsche LMP1... nothing to report..

The two new examples of the Toyota powered Rebellion R-One made their first and rather cautious appearances and we need to point out the entry list you may have seen is wrong.. the #13 Rebellion Racing is in fact an R-One not the old Lola B12/60 Toyota.

Interestingly the ‘old’ Prospeed Porsche GT3 RSR was ahead of the new factory 991 RSR. Rumour has it that they have been calmed down a bit after their stellar performance at Silverstone.

We went a news conference held by the WEC/FIA/ACO to explain more about the intricacies of the new breed of hybrid and how they are trying to ‘level the playing field’ regarding big Joules, little Joules and petrol vs diesel. Sadly your scribes are nowhere near clever enough to a) understand it all and b) explain it. However we may get to see a paper copy later and can then perhaps put some meat on the bone. 

Incidentally the rain has stopped and the mist is lifting .. 

Jock Simpson

 

Start of a new era for Rebellion at Spa

We are used to seeing the Rebellion colours embellishing the skin of a Lola B12/60 but it is all change at Spa when the Swiss flag flies on the new R-One developed in partnership with Oreca. The R-One LM P1 has been in an intensive test programme at Paul Ricard HTTT since early April, and makes its racing debut after just over a year of development.

Group ORECA, president Hugues de Chaunac, is proud of his new baby; "It’s a mix of emotion and stress because it’s a colossal project, very important, and realised in a very short time span. There is a lot of pressure because under normal conditions, we would have needed three or four more months. But this timing was also part of the challenge and I’m proud to say that our teams designed the Rebellion R-One and built two complete examples in 12 months."

Bart Hayden, REBELLION Team Manager ; "Just getting to Spa with two new cars is already a massive achievement for the team.  Everyone has given everything that they have to get these cars ready and I'm very proud of the work ethic and professionalism of everyone that has been involved.  Our expectations for the race are quite modest, we anticipate new car teething problems, but we considered it to be crucial to be at Spa to give ourselves the very best preparation for Le Mans.  We start a new chapter for the team this weekend and we hope that it will be a great continuation of what has already been a fantastic story for REBELLION Racing.?

Image: Rebellion Racing

Image: Oreca Technology

Source: Oreca press information and REBELLION Racing press release

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