Tag: 919

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Best photos of the 2014 WEC season

2014 6 Hours of Shanghai

In the 2014 WEC season the three main LMP1 teams all got something they wanted. Toyota won the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships. Audi won yet another Le Mans and Porsche found its way to the top step of the podium in the final race of their return to the top flight.

Now you can get something from the WEC year too by taking a look at our gallery of the best images brought to you right here on AUSmotive.

We trust you’ll like looking back at the season that’s gone and make sure to click the headings if you’d like a recap of each race.

Stay tuned for a similar look back at the 2014 WRC and F1 seasons.

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

2014 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in pictures

2014 6 Hours of Sao Paulo

As you can see we’ve enjoyed a quiet break here at AUSmotive HQ and it’s a bit remiss to be starting the year with an update that’s well over a month old. That said, here’s a gallery of images from the final WEC race of the 2014 season.

It will be remembered for a few reasons. First, it was the maiden win for Porsche since their return to the LMP1 category. Their progress in 2015 will be well worth watching.

Second, it was the final race for Audi’s Tom Kristensen, who, thanks to his incredible nine wins at La Sarthe is known as ‘Mr Le Mans’. Kristensen’s #1 Audi R18 finished third and it was great to see him on the podium in his farewell appearance.

Finally, Mark Webber had a very big shunt towards the end of the race, which subsequently ended under yellow flag conditions. Thankfully, Mark escaped with nothing more than a “stinking  headache”.

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Porsche Video WEC

Mark Webber OK after big crash in Sao Paulo

Mark Webber crashes heavily during closing stages of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo race.

The final FIA WEC race for the year, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, ended behind the Safety Car after a massive crash involving Mark Webber.

Webber, driving the #20 Porsche 919, appeared to have some contact with a Ferrari 458 which saw both cars crash into the concrete barrier on the outside of second last corner at the Interlagos circuit. Details are not clear as to the cause of the accident but the entire left side of Webber’s car was ripped apart after he already lost control before hitting the wall.

Early reports suggest that both Mark and the Ferrari driver are okay. The official FIA WEC twitter feed has confirmed Mark is “awake and alert” in the medical centre.

Webber, who helped put the #20 car on pole position, was taken away on a stretcher and was able to give a thumbs up sign to the crowd at television audience.

You can see video of the incident after the break.

In better news for Porsche the #14 919 won the race, the teams’s first WEC race victory. Toyota did enough to secure the manufacturers’ championship, beating Audi to that title the first time.

We’ll have a photo gallery and reports from all three LMP1-H teams later this week.

UPDATE: A second video, with English commentary, has been added below.

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Formula 1 WEC

Porsche signs Nico Hulkenberg for Le Mans

Nico Hulkenberg

Force India Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg is the first person named to drive the factory Porsche team’s third 919 Hybrid at the 6 Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015.

It’s both rare and welcomed to see an active F1 driver taking part in categories such as the World Endurance Championship. We hope the 27-year-old German does well.

“Porsche and Le Mans—this combination probably attracts every race driver,” Hulkenberg said. “I’ve been a Porsche fan for a long time and have been watching their return to the LMP1 class closely.

“The desire grew to drive that car at Le Mans. I am very pleased the 2015 Formula 1 calendar allows for it and I’m grateful to my Sahara Force India Formula 1 Team’s generosity to let me go for it. Now it’s up to me to work hard to satisfy both commitments.”

Team Principal Andreas Seidl explains Hulkenberg will have a steep learning curve in the short-term switch from F1 to WEC and shared sentiments of gratitude towards Force India.

“Having caught the interest of another world class driver like Nico is validation for the job the entire Porsche LMP1 crew had done in our first WEC season,” Seidl said. “Now we will prepare Nico for his new challenges such as dealing with the traffic of the slower GT cars and racing into the Le Mans night.

“We’re looking forward to working with Nico and we want to thank the Sahara Force India F1 Team and team principal Vijay Mallya for loaning him to us.”

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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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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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