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Originally Posted by chernaudi
It's stuff like this why I suggest that there's a lot more to come out of this car.
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Well, Treluyer is very optimistic about it:
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...we didn’t really know how we’d stack up against Porsche – we thought they’d be a bit quicker....
“We didn’t do great in wet conditions during practice and we hadn’t specifically set up the car for this kind of weather. So in qualifying we just went for it, and Andre and Marcel claimed pole ahead of the sister #8 Audi R18 of Duval, Di Grassi and Jarvis!”
“Andre pulled away as soon as Sunday’s race got underway,” “We then slipped back behind but that was only due to differences in tyre strategy and a slightly lengthy first pit stop. After taking over from Andre my stints were pretty solid and the tyre changes got better and better as the race unfolded. The mechanics just keep progressing; a lot of the guys are still young but their work is first class, so hats off to them! “I hadn’t driven that much before my first spell behind the wheel, so I needed to mark my on-track reference points. I made a slight mistake by entering a corner too fast. I spun and lost a bit of time there as a result, but I managed to get going again and climbed back through the order. Then came the full course yellow after the #1 Porsche’s accident.
“Tyre pressures dropped quite a lot at that point, so once the race resumed I really had to push to take the lead and try to open a gap to the #2 Porsche.”
...I’m also confident that the season is going to be great; we were quick right off the bat, with a brand new car that we’re not 100% familiar with yet, and which still has a lot of room for improvement. What’s more, we’ve worried people at Porsche. They knew we would be competitive at some point during the season, but perhaps they didn’t expect it to happen so soon! And it was such a pleasure to drive a car with plenty of mechanical grip and much improved aerodynamics. And let’s not forget our hybrid system, which already works very well. In short, when everything is at 100% our Audi R18 will be pretty mighty!”
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source : http://www.motorsport.com/wec/news/b...red-up-690269/
Quote:
Originally Posted by chernaudi
...unique aspects of Silverstone (mostly fast corners, very few slow corners, and short straights compared to most other WEC tracks)...
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Actually, Silverstone has only 4 non-flatout high speed corners(Copse, Beckets, Chapel and Stowe) while 4 corners there are 100kmh or slower.
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Originally Posted by GasperG
The way things stand the last 3 years is THE BEST possible way to mix different technologies...
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It puts Audi in disadvantage. The rules equalise the total energy, per lap, for the 8MJ Petrols and 6MJ Diesels but, because the Petrol engine is lighter, it allows Toyota and Porsche to have more room for ballast(essential for setup, handling, enhanced cornering etc....) as well as more flexibility with managing more efficiently their energy as they have 2MJ, of ERS, extra to be deployed with no restrictions(bar LM), unlike Audi's extra 2MJ, on the ICE, which are controled by fuel flow. Porsche & Toyota can deploy their 2MJ on low speed rather than spread it over the lap, as Audi is forced to.
Another disadvantage for Diesel/Audi is that, due to the heavier engine, they have more trouble putting secondary devices to harvest energy and end up not even getting their equivalent 6MJ, outside of LM.
All in all, I think the R18 has been a much more sophisticated and aerodynamically advanced car in the last couple of years(and now). The EoT(sticking with Diesel) is just holding them back, IMHO.