So what about Porsche?

My last post about the Le Mans Test day failed to mention the new Porsche 919 Hybrid. Deliberately so, for I had the feeling at the Test that Porsche was ignoring everyone else and getting on with their programme. Although it makes sense to look at their performance at the Test day in isolation, we are, after all, looking forward to a motor race; and the purpose of a race is to compare yourself with the opposition. But regardless of the objective, let's have a closer look at Porsche's Test Day.

Porsche has, arguably, the most advanced hybrid system of all: a front-axle kinetic and an exhaust gas-driven turbine feeding energy into water-cooled, lithium-ion batteries. This provides much greater energy than Audi can achieve, and delivers the power much more flexibly than Toyota. The small-capacity engine can be boosted whenever the engineers have the fuel available to them, providing the team with the ability to make the most of opportunities that might arise.

We saw at Silverstone and Spa how fast the Porsches were; they are also economical. If any car in the LMP1-H class has the ability to manage 14 laps, then it is for sure the Porsche. The fact that they did not go that far during the Test Day is surely irrelevant. Toyota may also go 14 laps come the race, but they may have to shave ultimate performance to achieve that. Porsche will be able to complete 14 laps at full power.

How fast is fast? Here are the top speeds, measured at the speed trap located just before the first chicane on the Mulsanne straight.

No.	Car	Top Speed	Average top speed
1	Audi	333.9	325.5
2	Audi	332.9	326.1
3	Audi	332.9	321.8
7	Toyota	334.9	320.1
8	Toyota	336.0	318.4
12	Rebellion	326.8	322.4
13	Rebellion	331.8	323.3
14	Porsche	332.9	323.7
20	Porsche	339.1	330.3

The ‘average’ top speed is the average of the best 25 speeds recorded - removing the effect of any ‘bansai’ lappery or trickery to gain bragging rights.

The main conclusion to be drawn from this is that the two Porsches had very different programmes. I don’t think that is particularly surprising in the circumstances, but what is interesting is that the two cars finished the day separated by just a quarter of a second in terms of best lap, and the ‘ideal lap’ i.e. the one achieved by taking the sum of the best three sector times, for the no. 14 Porsche was within a hundredth of a second of that of the no. 2 Audi.

Porsche may be in only its third race, but it has spent a long time testing, and should, by now, know what it is doing. Reliability may be an issue, but then this technology is so new that Toyota must have similar concerns, and even Audi’s bullet-proof reputation puts it at risk.

The other thing to consider is going to be the time spent in the pits. Even though Michelin is providing tyres to Porsche, Audi and Toyota, it will be interesting to see if they all are able to make the tyres last the same. The more potent Toyota may find that tyre wear is more of an issue. And of course this is the area in which all the teams were concentrating at the test. And they won't tell us (at this stage) what they have learned!

I don’t expect Porsche to participate in what is undoubtedly going to be a no-holds barred battle at the front in the opening few hours, but I do expect them to get on with the job quietly and efficiently, and if they can stay out of trouble, they will certainly be a feature when the sun comes up next Sunday morning.

I’ve said it before; but it bears repetition: Toyota is the favourite for this year’s 24 hours, but if they are not perfect - on the track and in the pits - then they cannot expect to win.

Le Mans Test Day - more than sector times

In the ‘old’ days, when I first went to Le Mans, it was all about straight line speed. The Mulsanne straight, more than 6km long, represented very nearly half of the total lap length. Aerodynamics were important, of course, but minimising drag down that long straight was absolutely vital, even if it meant that the car was a bit lively through the Porsche Curves.

Then the chicanes were installed in 1990, and no-one was sure quite what to do. Porsche 962 entries were numerous, entered by experts like Reinhold Joest and Richard Lloyd. The factory recommended they be run in long-tail trim, but some privateers (most notably Walter Brun) ran short-tail, high downforce configuration. Those who were there will remember that short-tail proved the way to go.

These days, Toyota and Audi have had two aerodynamic configurations: one specifically for Le Mans and the other more suitable for the more typical circuits of the rest of the season. But Toyota demonstrated at the six hours of Spa that the ‘Le Mans’ configuration is really rather good at Spa as well, leaving Audi (run by Joest, coincidentally) rather scratching their heads.

Since the data from the Test Day has now been issued, I am trying to work out what it all means. Looking purely at the fast laps that were set by Marco Bonanomi in the no. 3 Audi in the morning session, the fastest lap of the session at 3m 23.799s included a sector 2 time of 1m 18.480s. Sector 2 is from the beginning to the end of the Mulsanne straight, if you are not familiar with the layout of the track, so really represents the ‘power’ element of the circuit. On that same fast lap, Marco’s time through the Porsche curves was 16.321s.

To put these two times into context, the fastest time through sector 2 in the morning session was 1m 17.667s and the best time through the Porsche Curves was 16.156s, so Bonanomi was around 1% off the best time in both the ‘power’ element and the ‘handling’ element of the circuit. So where did the time come from?

Well, fairly obviously, it came in sectors 1 and 3. But it didn't come in the ‘tight bits’ of sector 3; in both the Porsche Curves and the Ford Chicane, the Audi was not the quickest. So the advantage must have come from the Dunlop Chicane up to Tertre Rouge and from Mulsanne Corner back through Indianapolis and Arnage, to the start of the Porsche curves.

Traffic may have played a part - Bonanomi overtook five cars on that fast lap - and we cannot really know what fuel was being used, but it would certainly seem that there was more going on there than met the eye.

In the afternoon session, of course, Toyota established its position as the fastest car; a situation to which we have become accustomed this year. Right at the beginning of the session, Sebastien Buemi went out in the no. 8 car and set a series of fast laps. In two five lap stints, he set three laps under 3m 24s, with an outright best of the day of 3m 23.014s. Again, though, it is interesting to note that Buemi's best time through sector 1 on these laps were not as quick (by a margin of more than 1%) as those achieved by Davidson in the same car, later on. Down the Mulsanne though, and back through sector 3, Buemi was practically as quick as the best - to within a few tenths, at least.

Again though, the time does not seem to be coming from the Porsche Curves nor the Ford Chicane: Buemi’s time through the Porsche curves on his fastest lap was 16.034s; his time through the Ford Chicane 6.068s. Compare these times to the fastest times in those specific sectors in the afternoon session: 15.709s by Kristensen in Porsche Curves and 6.011s in the Ford Chicane (by Buemi on a slower lap earlier in his stint). So it must be the long straight(ish) bits before and after Arnage where the Toyota was making up time.

I’m aware that all this analysis doesn’t really prove anything conclusively. But it seems to me that we have moved into an era where the hybrid power units are delivering power in a different way from what we are used to; where driver techniques have changed so that time is made up differently.

Toyota, with over 100,000 hybrid road car drivers in the UK alone, seemed to have the Test Day nailed. Whether Porsche and Audi will be able to learn and adapt by the time the tricolor waves on Saturday afternoon next week, remains to be seen.

Bentley on home soil

As I wrote in my last post, I was lucky enough, last weekend, to be at Silverstone when the Bentley Continental GT in the hands of Andy Meyrick, Guy Smith and Steven Kane scored its maiden win in the second round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series.

It was lovely to be able to spend the weekend jumping between the commentary box at Becketts and the pit lane, while Jonny Palmer competently held the fort in the main box and kept the flow going. All three of the winning drivers managed to find time to talk to me, as did several of the ART Grand Prix drivers, who perhaps were justified in feeling that the race had been stolen from their McLaren MP4-12C in the Safety Car period during the final hour of the race.

Of course, motor racing is full of ifs and buts, and far be it from me to rain on Bentley's parade in their hour of victory, but thanks to the availability of relevant data, it is the matter of a few moments' work to remove the impact of the three Safety Car laps from the race, and come up with a result that (arguably) more fairly represents the performance of everyone at Silverstone. The table below shows the cars in the order that they finished the race, but with the time for 81 laps, rather than the 84 lap race distance.

Car No.	Car	Drivers	Time
7	Bentley Continental GT	Smith/Meyrick/Kane	2h 50m 29.072s
99	ART McLaren MP4-12C	Soucek/Estre/Korjus	2h 50m 19.902s
1	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	Basseng/Ramos/Vanthoor	2h 51m 38.813s
26	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	Sandström/Ortelli/Guilvert	2h 51m 28.081s
85	Mercedes SLS AMG	Afanasiev/Wolf/Dusseldorp	2h 52m 13.228s
84	Mercedes SLS AMG	Verdonck/Primat/Schneider	2h 52m 18.904s
98	McLaren MP4-12C	Parente/Demoustier/Premat	2h 51m 43.713s

The folly of this exercise is of course in that the winner's trophy went to Bentley, and the victory cannot so simply be taken away; but also in the fact that Premat's half-spin as the green flag flew cannot so easily be ignored.

But it is still interesting to reflect on how the race might have ended without that safety car period - certainly there is a good argument that the top three positions would have been McLaren ahead of Bentley and Saintéloc Audi.

In the Pro-Am class, the MP Motorsport Aston had just made its stop (from the outright lead of the race) when the Safety Car appeared, and its lead over the Nissan was shrunk from the best part of a lap to just a few seconds by the time the green flag was waved. One can question the wisdom of holding Mark Poole back for the final stint, but without the Safety Car period, it is hard to see how Florian Strauss would have been able to catch up the bronze driver (who also lost places to the two PRO class HTP Mercedes).

It was good to see that Bentley's public relations machine kicked into action following the result though, with a full-page advertisement in the Daily Telegraph to celebrate the Crewe manufacturer's victory on home soil.

The Blancpain Endurance Series is a real success story in today's motor-sporting tapestry - even if the grids aren't as big as last year, they are still healthy enough to provide a great spectacle and great racing. The crowd at Silverstone wasn't huge, but those who know their racing will have been there and will have gone home relishing not just result, but also a jolly good race and a fine day out.

Where GT racing is bound is quite another question - the inability of those involved to agree on a unified future is surely regrettable. I had a long conversation with someone (who had best remain nameless for now, but who is heavily involved in bringing yet another manufacturer into the series) - and it is clear that even though GT3 entrants have a large range of 24 hour races to choose from, the one that matters is Le Mans. And Le Mans has to appeal to the privateer entrant. There certainly seems to be no clear solution to me, but less intransigence from those with vested interests would help foster a better spirit of compromise.

A Personal Word.

I am very much aware that posts onto this blog have been somewhat few and far between recently, and rather than complete silence, I thought a word of explanation would be appropriate.

Many readers will be aware that I have a proper full-time job as an IT consultant, which enables me to earn my living and keep a roof over my family's head. Anything that I do which is motorsport-related, while it may pay me some money, does not do so sufficiently well to keep all the bills paid. So there are times when I have to make decisions about where my priorities lie - and for the past few months, those who pay the piper have been calling me to play their tune rather more than usual... leaving less time for leisure writing activities than I would like.

I have had time to analyse the data from the Spa Six Hours - what I have not had is time to present the results of that analysis here. I have also been looking ahead to what might happen at Le Mans, but again, I am afraid that I may not have time to post that here either.

I have just returned from a splendid couple of days at Silverstone, commentating with Jonny Palmer on the Blancpain Endurance Series GT race, and witnessed at first hand Bentley's historic win on home soil. I was even standing at the right place at the right time (overlooking Woodcote corner) as Steven Kane hustled the big Continental GT up the inside of the McLaren MP4-12C of Andy Soucek to take the lead with just a quarter of an hour of the three hour race remaining.

I would very much like to share impressions (and some data analysis) of that with you too - and I hope that the coming week will be sufficiently free of distraction to allow me to do so. The race also saw a brilliant battle for honours in the PRO-AM Cup, out of which Nissan came home winners. A late race safety car period probably affected the results of both classes, but nevertheless, the fact that the race provided (in my view) three hours of compelling entertainment, at the very pinnacle of GT3 racing, is an indication of the strength of the GT3 category. Stephane Ratel has a very special product in his hands. What it needs is support and nurturing - not a political battle with other organising bodies.

There is a lot going on - in the world of motorsport, in my home life and in my professional career: I am not going to go into further detail here, but I would appreciate your thoughts as I try to steer my way through all the challenges. If all goes well, I will be able to continue to share my musings here. I look forward to doing so!

A Brief Encounter with a Toyota

Regular readers will be aware that I drive an Audi as my regular road car, and that occasionally, the friendly folks in the Audi Press Office lend me something special from their fleet to allow me to experience their latest products and technology. Well, recently I had the opportunity for a brief drive in a Toyota, and I thought I should not only express my gratitude to Toyota but also give my impressions of the experience, by sharing my feelings with you, dear reader. It is possible that the timing might have been opportune, as the month of June beckons, and it strikes me that with that 24 hour contest in France on the horizon, the Sun might just be Rising a little further in the East - if you get my drift...

The Toyota in question was a rather well-specified GT86 - the latest addition to Toyota's sporty range - and apart from a hybrid Corolla that I drove last year, was the only Toyota I've driven since owning a Celica back in the early 1990's. And I have to say I was mightily impressed.

The GT86 is powered by a 4-cylinder boxer engine (a layout I first came across on my first beloved Alfasud), of 'only' 2 litres capacity giving just under 200bhp. So it is not a supercar, by any stretch of the imagination. But it is not priced as one either. The basic GT86, starts from a little over £25,000 - but I understand that the version I drove, with every imaginable TRD extra, would probably set you back at least another £10,000!

So whether I was impressed by the extras, or by the basic car, I can't really tell. First impressions as you settle into the cabin are certainly favourable. It is one of those cars that welcomes you, where you adjust the driving position to make it more comfortable, rather than just being able to get comfortable. All the controls are just in the right places already. Clever Japanese ergonomic engineers, I expect.

Once out on the road, the car is lovely to drive. A six-speed manual gearbox is easy to operate; all-round visibility is good, and the raspy exhaust note supplies just the right amount of decibels without being too raucous.

I find it an interesting car to look at. It is not outrageously styled, and the performance doesn't blow your socks off in the way that some of the high-priced and high performance Audis that I have driven. But its road-holding is outstanding. For a car that is not particularly low-slung, its ability to change direction is astonishing. I found myself just playing with the steering, and marvelling at the responsiveness. In traffic, or out on country lanes it comes close to putting the joy back into motoring. On the motorway, I imagine it's as dull as dishwater.

Although the acceleration was nothing to write home about, it was perfectly adequate. The brakes, though, were outstanding. A confidence-boosting dab when arriving slightly too quickly before a corner where there was uncertain grip levels left me quite happily able to continue on my way, and when another driver decided not to venture out onto a perfectly clear roundabout, I had to come to a complete halt rather more quickly than I had anticipated, but without any drama whatsoever.

It has to be said, though, that the calipers were part of the special TRD package, described in Toyota's publicity material as 'ABS with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution and brake assist Vehicle Stability Control with steering assist Traction Control': I've no idea what that all means, but it worked!

Overall, a brilliant driving experience - maybe not in the league of some of the Audis that I have driven over the years, but nevertheless a car with a great deal to offer its driver, and a price tag that is within the grasp of many more possible buyers.

The original Truswell Toyota - circa 1991!

Looking forward to Spa...

The Spa 6 hours promises to be a fascinating contest. Nine cars competing in the LMP1 category, seven of which are works cars, all of them approaching the race with different agendas and technologies, all of them focussing very much on the Le Mans 24 hours, but none of them able to forget that World Endurance Championship points will be at stake.

I will not be there, in person, although I will be covering the race for radiolemans.com, based in the spare bedroom at home with more screens than I will be able to shake a stick at. If past experience is anything to go by, this provides a perfectly adequate environment from which to watch the race, and even if I am lacking in “Ardennes Atmosphere”, at least I save myself the time and strain of travelling and gain - or should I say, not lose - valuable brownie points at home.

There are a number of reasons for wanting to post this article immediately ahead of the Spa race; the main one is to draw attention to a number of significant factors that I find interesting, and hence might also be interesting to my readers.

First off, in the GTE class, the Aston Martin Vantages will be (are allowed to be) 15kg lighter than they were at Silverstone. Although the result for the British-built cars was in the end reasonably satisfying, the fact was inescapable that the cars were off the pace. Also, the Porsches will have to carry an additional 25kg, which will certainly prevent them from scampering away up the Kemmel straight at the rate that the Silverstone race implied that they might.

It is in the battle for overall honours, though that the chief interest - and intrigue - lies. What fascinates me is that Audi is the only LMP1 manufacturer that will have a high-downforce (non-Le Mans configuration) chassis at Spa. Fascinating, because historically, it is the Ingolstadt manufacturer that builds its season around the Le Mans 24 hour race - even to the extent of running three cars at Spa.

Having run two Silverstone-optimised chassis at the first round, Toyota has opted to configure both chassis at Spa in full Le Mans trim. Readers may remember that last year, the Japanese team had one car in each specification at Spa, enabling us to compare the low-downforce Toyota with the long-tail Audi.

Audi will once more have a long-tail car at Spa, but it will be in the hands of Marco Bonanomi and Felipe Albuquerque. All due respect to both, but they are two of the most inexperienced WEC drivers in the LMP1 entry, so any conclusions drawn about the expected performance of the long-tail Audi at Le Mans, based on its performance at Spa will be speculative indeed.

Porsche will be concentrating fully on preparing for Le Mans. Any result that is achieved at Spa will be against that background. I expect them to be closer to the Toyotas and Audis than they were at Silverstone, but I believe that we will only see the full potential of Stuttgart unleashed when we convene in France next month.

To my mind, the two season-long Audi entries, despite the strains of the past fortnight spent preparing the cars, will arrive at Spa-Francorchamps as the favourites: primarily because theirs will be the only LMP1 cars running without compromise. It is not in my nature to stick my neck out, but I would not be surprised to see them a lap or two ahead of the field at the end of six hours racing.

The other point of interest, more relevant (perhaps) to Le Mans than to Spa, is that the third Audi will be engineered at both races by Matthias Huber. Huber is from Audi Sport, as opposed to Progressive Motorsport. Last year, you may remember, this car was run by Progressive director, Howden ‘H’ Haynes. Haynes was able to oversee the running of both cars in those races where Audi entered only two cars, but at Spa and Le Mans he was principally focussed on looking after the no. 3 car.

Promotion this year for ‘H’ means that he will be overseeing all three cars (although with Kyle Wilson-Clarke and Leena Gade looking after the no. 1 and no. 2 cars, respectively, he might be giving a bit more of a helping hand to Huber initially). Ralf Jüttner now plays a less technical role, and so Haynes’ competitive spirit will not be lost on any of the Audis in the highest profile races of the year.

Audi's start to the season may not have been the one they would have wished, but no-one at Toyota or Porsche should under-estimate the likelihood of them bouncing back from the setbacks of Silverstone all the stronger.

Five and a bit hours of Silverstone

I’m not sure that the opening round of the 2014 World Endurance Championship at Silverstone will go down in history as a classic race; but nevertheless it was a fascinating encounter and one which provides plenty of food for thought ahead of the next round at Spa, and more importantly the 24 hours of Le Mans in June.

With a little over a week before the teams assemble at Spa-Francorchamps, there is much to do at Ingolstadt, Cologne and Stuttgart, and also of course at the various suppliers that support Audi, Toyota and Porsche.

Obviously, Toyota had a perfect result at Silverstone, bringing home its TS040 Hybrids a lap apart and a lap ahead of the competition, but is that a realistic reflection of the pecking order?

The only period of the race for which a comparison can be made for all 6 LMP1-H cars is the first 20 laps - before the first rain shower sent everyone scurrying for the pits (or in Audi’s case, the gravel).

No.	Car	Driver	Best	Average
1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Di Grassi	1m 44.656s	1m 46.104s
2	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Lotterer	1m 44.217s	1m 45.903s
7	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	Wurz	1m 44.326s	1m 45.933s
8	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	Buemi	1m 44.708s	1m 46.304s
14	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Jani	1m 45.452s	1m 47.223s
20	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Bernhard	1m 45.245s	1m 46.733s

Before reading too much into this, though, remember that the two Porsches were in Le Mans ‘low-downforce’ trim, whereas both Audi and Toyota had aerodynamic set-ups more suitable for the demands of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. If I were in the Fritz Enzinger’s shoes at Porsche, I think I would have wanted to be a little closer on lap times, but even so, the times shown above are encouraging for all concerned.

It’s worth pointing out as well that not only was the ‘average’ Audi ahead of the ‘average’ Toyota in lap times, but also in consistency: the Audi lap times are slightly less spread than those of the Toyotas.

Just before the race, of course, there was a small tweak to the regulations, aimed at balancing the petrol-diesel equivalence, reducing the amount of fuel that Audi could carry and increasing the amount available to the petrol-fuelled manufacturers. This tweak also reduced the rate at which Audi could pour the fuel into its (smaller) tank, so it really was a ‘triple-whammy’. It won’t matter, of course, at Le Mans, unless that half-litre reduction makes the difference between 13.1 and 12.9 laps on a tankful. But my calculations before the Silverstone race suggested that Audi would be comfortably in the 13-lap range on a tank: I don’t think they would have been considering 14 lap stints anyway.

Again, though, the data from Silverstone is interesting, if minimal. Audi only completed one full stint that wasn’t affected by changing weather conditions, when Benoît Tréluyer drove the no. 2 car from 13:51 to 14:41, completing 27 laps, with an average lap time of 1m 47.826s.

There was more data to go on from Toyota and Porsche. Both Toyotas managed 28 laps on a tank of petrol, without assistance from the Safety Car, in the hands of Nakajima and Lapierre. Nakajima was the quicker of the two, averaging 1m 46.978s for his stint - a pace that surely must be a concern for Audi.

Brendan Hartley completed the longest stint for Porsche (unassisted by the Safety Car), completing 29 laps from 13:39 to 14:33. The average lap time for the stint was only 1m 49.171s though, which perhaps goes some way to explaining its economy.

But again, before reading too much into this, remember that even two laps of Silverstone is less than a lap at Le Mans, so fuel economy may not be the deciding factor this year. Time spent in the pits could be though: time spent sitting stationary in the pit lane while fuel is going in or the tyres are changed can take a lot of effort to get back on the track.

The table below shows the fastest fuel only (full stint) and driver / tyre change stop for each of the LMP1-H teams. As always, this is the time spent in the pit-lane, rather than just the time spent at rest.

Car	Fuel only	Full service
Audi R18 e-tron quattro	1m 01.222s	1m 21.794s
Toyota TS040 Hybrid	1m 03.574s	1m 24.139s
Porsche 919 Hybrid	1m 10.196s	1m 28.186s

No real surprises here, I suppose, other than the size of the differences. Certainly, there seems no need for Audi to complain about the rule change; and for Porsche, there seems to be some room for improvement still.

Prospects for Spa? For sure, we can expect a good race. I admit that the limited analysis I have presented here does not make it clear whether we can expect Toyota or Audi to have the upper hand in the Ardennes. There will likely be a third car from Audi (in Le Mans trim, perhaps?). It may well come down to the abilities of the individual drivers to get the best from their steeds. Although changeable weather conditions can throw up unexpected results, a dry, uninterrupted race will make it easier to predict what might happen at Le Mans. On the other hand, Le Mans is seldom predictable and always thrilling.

Finally, hats off to all concerned that the opening round was free of controversy. Long may it remain so!