[WEC] Porsche Prototype Discussion

[Spyderman]

Interesting article about Porsche's driver line-up at Le Mans:
http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/24...746_25079.html

[Spyderman]

Problem-free Le Mans out of the question in LMP1, claims Dumas
http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/new...-dumas-742643/

[GT6]

i think we can all agree on that but then that is why le mans is what it is and why they lavish huge sums of money trying to win, will be there watching it and expecting a great race

[Artur]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

Problem-free Le Mans out of the question in LMP1, claims Dumas
http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/new...-dumas-742643/

I take that with a pinch of salt. I remember in F1 pre season of 2014 when they were all speculating that nobody would finish the race and we had very few DNFs in Australia....

I think Porsche will be bullet proof as they have a known car, so the problems are far more straightforward to fix.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Artur

I think Porsche will be bullet proof as they have a known car, so the problems are far more straightforward to fix.

May those words go directly from your lips (hand) to God's ear.

[sssssssss]

i am pretty confident too that porsche will have a very reliable car this year at le mans. they are surely the best prepared of the 3 big teams and as far as i'm concerned, they are clearly the favorites. they are the team to beat. even if they have problems, i think the year-old car brings the advantage of theoretically being the quickest to identify the problem and get repaired.

[Spyderman]

Follow Neel Jani's pole lap at Le Mans 2015 :https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/moto...lap-12581.html

[Artur]

Wow, awesome stuff! That's exactly the kind of stuff that I wish the teams did more. Very fan friendly of Porsche

[Spyderman]

Scrutineering this morning

[cokata]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

Follow Neel Jani's pole lap at Le Mans 2015 :https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/moto...lap-12581.html

Wow never thought we would see it. Well done Porsche, but please use a better video player, or better yet upload it on youtube.

[TF110]

Did he short-shift after the first chicane?

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by cokata

Wow never thought we would see it. Well done Porsche, but please use a better video player, or better yet upload it on youtube.

I´ve uploaded it, let´s see if it is not a copyright infringement, fingers crossed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23BRkYdAioU

[TF110]

I can see why they said there was still time in the car. There was a little mistake entering the first chicane and he had a little bit of traffic. Not to mention they felt the track conditions weren't their best.

[cokata]

Originally Posted by TF110

I can see why they said there was still time in the car. There was a little mistake entering the first chicane and he had a little bit of traffic. Not to mention they felt the track conditions weren't their best.

That car could have easily done a sub 3:16 lap. There was plenty of traffic, and it was far from the "perfect" lap.

[gustavobamba]

There were some rumors talking "in perfect condition´s" in something like 3:15

[Spyderman]

Ok. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. I don't think traffic was that much of an issue on that lap, and whilst there is a small mistake at the first chicane, I don't think that there is more than a couple of tenths left in that lap. I would say that perhaps a 3:16.5XX would have been possible.
2. I suspect that Porsche has lost the advantage that it had in straight line speed...on long straights. I think that they still have/had an advantage on the shorter straights due to their excellent hybrid system, but that has been somewhat neutralized (thank you ACO) and the fuel restrictions don't help.
3. I agree with Roman's comments , and I suspect that that we may see a very different strategy for the race as compared to the 2015 one.
4. I'm not convinced Porsche will go for pole this year and it wouldn't surprise me if they opt for a more conservative strategy , relying more on reliability rather than just speed.
5. It wont be the first time they do this...although it will be the first time with the 919.

[GasperG]

Many of those points will also affect competition, there is no need to worry, pole is on the side of Porsche. I just hope they won't live every one behind at too big gap in race pace, for entertainment sake.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by GasperG

Many of those points will also affect competition, there is no need to worry, pole is on the side of Porsche. I just hope they won't live every one behind at too big gap in race pace, for entertainment sake.

Opposition don't have tiny 4 cylinder engines.

[TF110]

Toyota's engine aint much bigger! I think pole will be between Toyota and Porsche but Audi will be close. With optimization and track conditions they should be close to the record this year again, maybe slightly faster.

[GasperG]

With a turbo, engine displacement is no factor and with fuel flow cut the power and stress to the engine was reduced compared to last year.

Porsche engine is well tested and will IMO be more reliable than Toyota's.

I wouldn't put much hope in faster lap times, the faster the track the bigger the deficit compared to last year.

[TF110]

Toyota's engine has been running for a long time now, just not in the races. I think everyone will be reliable to a point, but Le Mans has those unforeseen occurrences that may catch them out. I see the hybrid components being the concern for reliability. That seems to be the trend so far at least.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by GasperG

With a turbo, engine displacement is no factor and with fuel flow cut the power and stress to the engine was reduced compared to last year.

I'm no engineer, but shouldn't that read "..engine displacement is not as much of a factor..." Surely the deficit of a smaller engine needs to get compensated through turbo pressure?

Originally Posted by GasperG

Porsche engine is well tested and will IMO be more reliable than Toyota's.

Thus my speculation that Porsche's strategy may be heavier on the reliability side of the equation.

Originally Posted by GasperG

I wouldn't put much hope in faster lap times, the faster the track the bigger the deficit compared to last year.

Here we are in complete agreement.

[cokata]

engine displacement is a factor with a forced induction engine. The difference is that knowing the displacement and the redline won't tell you the amount of air that the engine "breathes" (unlike with N/A one) you also need to know the boost pressure.

Case in point Porsche's engine is 0.4l down in displacement compared to the Toyota, both are in the same hybrid class which means that both have the same fuel allowance, and despite that the Toyota redlines a little higher than Porsche's V4 it seems. That means only 1 thing - Porsche use substantially more boost pressure than the Toyota.

Oh and slightly OT - If it's dry they will beat last years times comfortably IMO.

[sssssssss]

Originally Posted by TF110

I think pole will be between Toyota and Porsche but Audi will be close. With optimization and track conditions they should be close to the record this year again, maybe slightly faster.

i think if audi sorted their grip issues out, they have a very good chance to set the pole this year, their car seems very le mans-oriented to me. however, they will probably again opt to work on their race program, rather than qualify, especially now, when the car didn't prove as reliable as the previous years.

porsche seemed pretty sure, at the beginning of the season, that they (and quite unlikely anybody else either) won't break the qualifying record this year. but given that the audi is so fast and powerful down the straights now with 6 mj added to the crazy aerodynamics, i expect them to be very fast, if they managed to get enough of the theoretical potential of their car for le mans.

i agree with spyderman that there wasn't much more to squeeze out from that lap. the traffic on the mulsanne straight i think actually helped neel, because he got to use some slipstream and hit a higher top end speed at the end of each of the long straights than the car would normally be capable of. i remember the porsche last year hitting 333-334 km/h max with no traffic ahead, but topping at 340 km/h when they used some slipstream at the end of the straight (same with audi, 354 km/h with slipstream vs. 345 km/h with no slipstream). on a circuit that's so much made up of long straights, i think that difference can count for the overall lap time. amazing though how early he accelerated into tetre rouge, aka how incredible the power boost is from the hybrid system.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by TF110

Toyota's engine aint much bigger! I think pole will be between Toyota and Porsche but Audi will be close. With optimization and track conditions they should be close to the record this year again, maybe slightly faster.

Even if Audi show up with the fastest car, I can't see them on pole. Audi simply loves to hide their pace on QLF.

Just look at the last two years, their ideal race lap is exactly the same as Toyota's pole(an ideal QLF lap) and Nakajima went for it so that just shows that Audi could've grabbed the pole in 2014 but didn't choose to.

Last year, their best race lap was just 1s slower than Porsche's pole and quite faster than Audi's own QLF time.

Originally Posted by cokata

Oh and slightly OT - If it's dry they will beat last years times comfortably IMO.

I think you guys are being way too optimistic about it. The -10MJ hurts relatively more on a track like LM because of so many time solely flatout on the ICE. Also, because the lap time is longer, the gaps are too.

My prediction is: at the very best, the cars will be "only" 2s slower, so I expect a pole on the 3.18

Test day might be a good indication and Porsche did a best of 1.21.0 last year, so I think 1.23.0 should be considered a good lap time. Let's wait and see.