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Originally Posted by henk4
So it is not that the R18s have already raced on those tracks, but once more it is your interpretation/speculation. What if Peugeot adds some more downforce, which according to some, they did at Spa, and with great success? Even Peugeot may have learned one or two things this weekend.
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For the last time, Audi had their LM stuff at Spa, while Peugeot had to run more downforce at Spa to fix their handing problems.
Audi ran more downforce at LM, and when the cars are in the same spec (LM bodywork), the R18 has more downforce for similar drag numbers, as the R18's weren't that much slower down the straights than the 908s--Fassler drafted Davidson and got right up on his tail when Fassler forced Ant into that mistake at the first Chicane.
Straightline speed, oddly, doesn't seem to mean as much under the new regs as it did up through last year. There were three things that Audi had this year that they didn't last year: The R18 is a closed car, they don't seem to have the horsepower gap to Peugeot that they had the last several years, and the R18 was designed like the R8, to be a car that can be raced anywhere with fairly minor changes and isn't the compormised car that the R15 was in both of it's major versions.
And all of Peugeot's attempts to reduce drag--including basically mounting their second wing element upside down on their cars--didn't gain them much, only about 3-4 mph down the straights, but it cost them big with tire wear and handling, as they lost a lot of time in traffic and even if they could go 12 laps vs 11, the speed differential was too great.
In fact, things could've been worse for Peugeot, as Audi revealed that the #2 Audi had a fuel pick up issue that kept them from using a full tank, which probably--if true--goes some way to explaining the 1 lap gap on stints. After all, on one of his stint on the damp track, Lotterer ran 12 laps, and the Pugs, with the reduced pace, could only muster and equal 12 laps. So Audi probably wasn't that far off from doing 12 lap stints, but they'd have to have slowed down to Peugeot pace to do them.
It perplexes me that with the reduced power that everyone would be taking drag off their cars (which is logical), but it seems that the gains by doing so, even at Le Mans, were of minimal effect, and may've done more harm than good in the end.