Category: WEC

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Porsche WEC

Porsche to enter third 919 for Spa and Le Mans

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Porsche has announced it will run three cars in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans (13–14 June). Further, in preparation for the 24 hour classic Porsche will also run its three car program prior to Le Mans at the 6 Hours of Spa (2 May).

All six current Porsche LMP1 drivers will remain in 2015, driving for the full WEC season, with no word yet on who will pilot the third car for its two races.

“Our decision to compete with a Porsche works team in the WEC’s LMP1 category proved to be the right one,” said Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Board Porsche AG. “This is what we feel at every race.

“The highly demanding motorsport programme contributes directly to the development of future sports cars for the road. For the development and testing of future hybrid systems, you can’t ask for any harder test bench than the World Endurance Championship and especially the Le Mans 24 Hours.

“The same goes for the newly established Porsche LMP1 crew. More than 230 people had to grow together quickly to form a strong team. The human factor is not only crucial for the men at the steering wheel, but for the entire project—and this reflects very much the Porsche philosophy.”

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain

Toyota capped off a weekend of mixed results with champagne for both cars at the WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain yesterday. The #7 TS040 driven by Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz won the race. It’s the first win for the #7 car this year and Toyota’s fifth race win for the season.

However, the glory went to Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi in the #8 car, who finished well down in P11 after suffering alternator problems. Despite this they’ve done enough to wrap up the WEC drivers’ championship. With just one round to go Toyota Racing remains favourites to secure the manufacturers’ title for the first time as well.

Porsche also enjoyed a first this season, by seeing its two cars finish on the podium. The #14 919 once again started from pole position and enjoyed a reasonably smooth run. The #20 car had a scrappy day but the lack of major dramas meant they could get a valuable third place.

Audi had a pretty horrible weekend with major work required before taking the track aftrer discovering damage to the monocoques of both cars. In that respect they did very well to get out and compete and remain relatively competitive.

Yet, for the first time in the short history of the new World Endurance Championship format Audi is in danger of losing its world championship status. The team is 40 points behind Toyota with only one race left on the calendar, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo later this month.

2014 6 Hours of Bahrain – top 6

  1. Conway/Sarrazin/Wurz (#7 Toyota) – 195 laps in 6h 00m 18.056s
  2. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (#14 Porsche) + 50.460s
  3. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (#20 Porsche) + 57.268s
  4. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (#2 Audi) – 1 lap
  5. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (#1 Audi) – 2 laps
  6. Belicchi/Kraihamer/Leimer (#13 Rebellion-Toyota) – 7 laps
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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai

Strap yourself into the AUSmotive time machine and tavel to China with us to look back at the WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai.

Held across the first weekend in November Toyota’s late season form continued securing a one-two victory and edging closer to drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship success.

Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi consolidated their lead in the drivers’ championship by winning the race in the #8 TSo40 and enjoyed a comfortable 72 second margin ahead of their teammates in the #7  sister car.

Porsche had to make do with P3 and might have hoped for more after the #14 919 started from pole and early on both cars headed the field until tyre dramas cost the #20 car any chance of a decent result. In the end Webber and his mates had to make do with sixth.

That means the Audis filled positions four and five. The R18 hasn’t enjoyed much success since winning Le Mans and you sense Audi will have to come up with a great car in 2015 to maintain its recent dominace.

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai – top 6

  1. Buemi/Davidson (#8 Toyota) – 188 laps in 6h 01m 15.319s
  2. Nakajima/Sarrazin/Wurz (#7 Toyota) + 1m 12.564s
  3. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (#14 Porsche) – 1 lap
  4. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (#2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro) – 1 lap
  5. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (#1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro) – 1 lap
  6. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (#20 Porsche) – 2 laps

Now, get ready for our time machine to bring you back to the present where we’ll have a 6 Hours of Bahrain up date for you real soon!

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Fuji in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Fuji

Toyota won its home round of the World Endurance Championship—the 6 Hours of Fuji—a couple of weeks back, leaving Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi with broad grins on their faces. It was a one-two finish for Toyota and Porsche filled the final podium spot with Mark Webber’s crew tasting the champagne.

We’ve had five of eight rounds in the WEC now and Audi still looks the goods for the overall championship. With three races in November we’ll have to be much sharper in getting these updates to you!

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Video WEC

VIDEO: This is racing

This is racing, by Drive

One of the ways /Drive can make money these days is with sponsored content. This video, filmed during the 6 Hours of Austin, is just that. Still, there are worse ways to watch a five minute ad for an Italian automotive accessories company.

Eventually this clip will be available in 4K too. The best you can see at the time this article was published was 1080p.

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Formula 1 McLaren WEC

Button to make endurance switch in 2015?

2014 British Grand Prix

Mercedes AMG, Red Bull and Ferrari (we think) have locked away their drivers for the 2015 Formula 1 season, leaving all eyes are on McLaren to see who will drive for the Woking-based team next year.

With the return of the McLaren-Honda partnership rumours suggest dual world champion and free agent Fernando Alonso has already signed a deal with the Japanese car maker. If that proves true then it seems logical that one of McLaren’s current drivers will be forced to make way for Alonso.

Will McLaren go for the youth and qualifying pace of Kevin Magnussen or the experience and racecraft of Jenson Button? If it is the 2009 world champion Ron Dennis taps on the shoulder the BBC reports Button may look to follow Mark Webber into the World Endurance Championship.

Button’s manager Richard Goddard said: “Jenson is an incredibly competitive racing driver who wants to race. He’s too good to sit at the back of the F1 grid. So he either gets a competitive car in F1 or he goes to get one elsewhere.”

Apprently Button’s management has already held discussions with Porsche and Goddard has described the WEC as “as formidable series that is gaining strength.”

A Webber–Button partnership at the wheel of a Porsche 919; if nothing else you’d reckon WEC organisers would love that to happen.

[Source: BBC]

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Porsche Video WEC

Timo Bernhard laps the Circuit of the Americas

Timo Bernhard, Porsche 919 Hybrid

If you take a quick look inside the cabin of the Porsche 919 Hybrid it’s soon apparent that visibility may not be as good as you might expect. Those A-pillars are damn thick.

This dash-mounted video from inside the cabin doesn’t give you the driver’s eye view, but you still get an idea of the compromised sightlines faced while wrestling your way around the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Timo Bernhard is at the wheel, enjoy the ride!

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Porsche WEC

Check out the Porsche 919 Hybrid steering wheel

Porsche 919 steering wheel

Who doesn’t love a close up look at the steering wheel of a thoroughbred racecar! Here’s the wheel from the Porsche 919 Hybrid, there’s 24 buttons and six paddles in all, along with a multi-function display in the middle.

Two of the most important and most frequently used buttons are on the hand grips: the red button on the left is the let magic happen overtake button and releases the energy stored from the battery; the blue button is the get out of my way flashing light button, one press will flash the lights three times to warn slower cars ahead that the Porker is coming through.

The six paddle arrangement on the back is interesting, too. The two larger paddles in the middle are for gear changing, right for upshifts, left for downshifts. The lower paddles operate the clutch, both sides performing the same function. The top two paddles relate to the energy recovery system, the left side releases the boost and is a duplicate function of the red button from the front, the right side to commence manual energy recovery.

It always amazes how fiddly a modern steering wheel is on topline racecars and that under the pressure of competition drivers wearing thick gloves are able to operate all those buttons with accuracy and composure.

More photos and details from Porsche can be read after the break.

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Formula 1 Porsche Red Bull Racing WEC

Mark Webber: LMP1 v F1

2014 6 Hours of COTA

As the only man to compete on the Circuit of Americas in both the World Endurance Championship and Formula 1 Mark Webber took some time out on the weekend to share his thoughts on the two categories.

Downforce

LMP1’s just a bit heavier … I need to be a little bit more patient with the car, [the] F1 car’s obviously a very light and nimble [car], downforce is the biggest difference.

More downforce on the F1 car, obviously that makes it probably more precise, a lot more load on the driver, but yeah, it’s just that downforce is a big factor on a track like this but then also power wise, we have probably more power with the Porsche.

Tyres

There’s no contest there, Michelin is a real racing tyre, Pirelli was for show business in Formula 1. These are real racing tyres so it’s a tyre which all the drivers can enjoy, which was backed up when Andre Lotterer raced [for Caterham] in Spa and he was very surprised at how the grip level was very very low on Pirelli and the Michelin tyre gives a lot of grip for a long time.

Which is best, LMP1 or F1?

They’re just different categories, I think the F1 car as a driver you want to go quick as possible, so that was the ultimate machine. I never got to drive an F1 car here when F1 was at its peak, obviously it dropped off in the last few years in terms of pace because of the regulation but when it was at it’s peak in the mid 2000s it would be a really good track.

[Source: motorsport.com]

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Audi wins 2014 6hrs of COTA

2014 6 Hours of COTA

In dreadful conditions across the weekend Audi won a rain soaked 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas. It was a race where all three major LMP1 teams enjoyed time in the spotlight, but the experience of Audi was shining when it mattered most.

The #8 Toyota TS040 started the race on pole, with the two Porsche 919s behind. Sebastien Buemi was in the lead Toyota and built up a strong lead early. Then, about 100 minutes into the race, chaos ensued after a massive downpour saw cars sliding everywhere except on the racing line.

Race organisers had little choice but to bring a halt to proceedings and the race was red flagged for around 45 minutes. Heavy rain had been experienced during practice and qualifying sessions prior to race day as well. So the teams at least had some idea of how the track would react in the wet.

Although, the rain during the race was torrential and both Toyotas ended up off track losing a lap to the field while they recovered. The #20 Porsche 919 also lost time after an unwanted excursion.

After the restart it became a race between the two Audis and the #14 Porsche, which was leading during the latter stages of the race until a loss of power saw the car drop to fourth. From there a one-two victory was Audi’s for the taking and they didn’t falter.

2014 6 hours of COTA (top six)

  1. #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) – 157 laps
  2. #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen) – +53,016s
  3. #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi) – +1:03,945m
  4. #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) – +1 lap
  5. #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Bernhard/Hartley/Webber) – +2 laps
  6. #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Wurz/Sarrazin/Conway) – +2 laps
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Video WEC

A stop animation look at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Porsche 919 Hybrid, 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Here’s a short and sweet photographic essay from the the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. There’s a lot of behind the scenes off-track imagery which somehow brings you closer to the action. The black and white images add to the documentary-like feel and the stop animation technique brings it all alive for those of us unable to be there.

The video has been published by Drive and the images are from Camden Thrasher.

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Audi Porsche Toyota Video WEC

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans in 3 minutes

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

Couldn’t sit down all day Sunday to watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans? Then fear not because here’s all the best bits put into a three minute video. It’s produced by Michelin so see how many times you can count their logo during the video!

There’s also a bonus clip with just under a minute of close action slow motion footage as well.

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