[WEC] Porsche Prototype Discussion

[Coach Ep]

One would think the blistering hot weather we're all hoping for this year might be slightly of a factor too...

[GasperG]

LeMans is different, remember that, I was suprised by the rather slow race pace of the Porsche last year, like they tuned the car down to be more reliable, where Audi and Toyota were practiacaly beating qualy times in the race. Wonder if this will also be the case this year.

[gustavobamba]

Will we see the LM spec before the test day?????

[Gil Abobeleira]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

If we take an average from say between laps 49 to 68 (way before anyone was double stinting) we get the following averages:

18 Romain DUMAS 02:00.1

17 Mark WEBBER 02:00.2

7 André LOTTERER 02:00.2


So as you can see, there are others that can keep up with him.

So Lotterrer maintained a pretty consistent pace during a double stint, while spending 25/30 seconds less time in the pits than the Porsches. There goes why the Audi #7 was able to go to the lead of the race.

BTW it seemed to me that the Audis and Porsches were doing the same laps stints before refuelling. Was this true?

[cokata]

Originally Posted by Gil Abobeleira

So Lotterrer maintained a pretty consistent pace during a double stint, while spending 25/30 seconds less time in the pits than the Porsches. There goes why the Audi #7 was able to go to the lead of the race.

BTW it seemed to me that the Audis and Porsches were doing the same laps stints before refuelling. Was this true?

This puzzled me too, i'm not sure what was the reason for that.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by GasperG

LeMans is different, remember that, I was suprised by the rather slow race pace of the Porsche last year, like they tuned the car down to be more reliable, where Audi and Toyota were practiacaly beating qualy times in the race. Wonder if this will also be the case this year.

Unlikely. Puegeot did the same thing in their debut to ensure they would make it to the end of the race. Remember at this point last year Porsche was concerned about both the V4 reliability and hybrid system reliability. And rightly so.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by GasperG

LeMans is different, remember that, I was suprised by the rather slow race pace of the Porsche last year, like they tuned the car down to be more reliable, where Audi and Toyota were practiacaly beating qualy times in the race. Wonder if this will also be the case this year.

Last year's Le Mans was the 3rd race of a brand new car. A car that by all accounts, finished the 2014 season as a very different car (in terms of development) to the one that ran at Le Mans.
I suspect that most of the data that we are privy to from last year's Le Mans referent to the 919, is virtually irrelevant to the 2015 car.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

Will we see the LM spec before the test day?????

Only if we get pictures from testing in Aragon.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Gil Abobeleira

BTW it seemed to me that the Audis and Porsches were doing the same laps stints before refuelling. Was this true?

Yes, Porsche , Audi and Toyota were doing 24 lap stints with some variations due to unforeseen circumstances. The #19 Porsche managed a 25 lap stint (once)

[Articus]

Spa is a deceptively long track. I would imagine the Porsche's are getting better mileage but just not quite enough to do an entire extra lap and you know the saying. It's a long way to limp back to pit road.

But then again so is Le Mans and Porsche were making the coveted extra lap. Weird.

[Spyderman]

New D/F package for Porsche after Le Mans.

Current aero-package is almost the same as the Le Mans package.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report...e=snsanalytics

[Spyderman]

From a discussion I had on a Porsche blog, it seems that Porsche' s tire-wear issues are mainly front tires and are due to the e-power delivery.

[Spyderman]

Andrew BensonVerified account‏@andrewbensonf115h15 hours ago
Non F1-wise, I heard today that the Porsche world endurance championship car has a frankly staggering 1,350bhp this year
68 retweets 80 favorites

[Artur]

The person who told Benson that probably just added the 750HP from the electric motors, that's only available for 15 seconds at Le Mans(10s at Spa) to the roughly 600HP of ICE(maybe that might be closer to 550HP, tbh)

[hcl123]

And i don't know if that Porsche front electric motor is capable or if reliable to withstand it more than a couple of tries... but if they released it in 5 sec or so... it would be numbers well into the 2000hp.

So its all relative, but a lot of folks still think is the engine alone or the engine principally, when is exactly the opposite for those 'instantaneous top hp numbers'

[Spyderman]

#17 & #18 at Le Mans

[porman]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

#17 & #18 at Le Mans

What are those? Were they successful?

I think it's safe to assume the Le Mans-spec aero will be a bit slipperier than what he have seen thus far. Really hoping the engineers have made some strides in relation to tire degradation.

The second major aero package really has me wondering as to what overall direction they will focus on. I would think they would be aiming for more downforce?

Here's to a much overdo seventeenth win.

[carbon_titanium]

little OT just today I found out that is possible to cut spa bus chicane in the same way and same path used by hartley also in gtr2

[seanyb505]

Quality detective work!

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by hcl123

And i don't know if that Porsche front electric motor is capable or if reliable to withstand it more than a couple of tries... but if they released it in 5 sec or so... it would be numbers well into the 2000hp.

So its all relative, but a lot of folks still think is the engine alone or the engine principally, when is exactly the opposite for those 'instantaneous top hp numbers'

With their 600 bhp ICE they will have 2000 bhp for 5,39 seconds

[YorkshireLad]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

New D/F package for Porsche after Le Mans.

Current aero-package is almost the same as the Le Mans package.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report...e=snsanalytics

"He explained that Porsche had undertaken the opening rounds of the WEC at Silverstone and Spa with an aero package that will not be easily distinguishable from the as-yet-unseen Le Mans-spec bodywork to be used in next month's 24 Hours."

Doesn't this mean the LM package will be different to the one from Silverstone and Spa??

[Spyderman]

No. What it means is that the current one is not that different to the Le Mans package.

[porman]

Originally Posted by YorkshireLad

"He explained that Porsche had undertaken the opening rounds of the WEC at Silverstone and Spa with an aero package that will not be easily distinguishable from the as-yet-unseen Le Mans-spec bodywork to be used in next month's 24 Hours."

Doesn't this mean the LM package will be different to the one from Silverstone and Spa??

Yes, the Le Mans aero will be different to what has been used in the opening two rounds of the championship. It does however seem that post Le Mans we will be able to distinguish more of an aero difference. My hunch is that Porsche are willing to sacrifice some downforce for top-end at circuit La Sarthe.

[Spyderman]

If you read on in the article, Hitzinger explains that he wanted to race the first two races with a package that is not far from the Le Mans package in order to test its structure (among other things). The closer it is to the Le Mans package the better.

[porman]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

No. What it means is that the current one is not that different to the Le Mans package.

Yes. The differences will probably be minute to the untrained eye. Perhaps some clarification was provided with the aim of quelling the grumbling from us loyal fans due to Audi's much more visible changes. Purely speculative on my part.

It makes perfect sense to establish a baseline that you feel will prove reliabie in performance and longevity, hence the decision to make small alterations with the hopes of a somewhat known outcome. Very Germanic approach.