Audi LMP1 Discussion

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by MyNameIsNigel

I do wonder if Porsche are really in such a good shape reliability-wise to win Le Mans. It is not unexpected to see Audi and Toyota being hampered by reliability issues considering that they both run entirely new packages. Porsche "should" have a reliable package and today's race demonstrated that this is not the case. It's quite surprising and unexpected.

I assume Porsche has made more changes than they advertise. The failures where hybrid related, so maybe they made changes on the storage side to improve things such as weight, efficiency and... Reliability!

Richard

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by TF110

That video has a big time difference between the action and the audio. There's no way they were coasting halfway through the pit straight.

It is off a bit. Pay attention to sounds at chicane at end of lap. Audio is slightly ahead of video. They don't up shift and accelerate until after you exit the chicane. But it's not off by a lot.

Richard

[Artur]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

It's from the app.

Thanks Are there more FP/QLF onboard videos like that available on the app?

Btw, have anybody found a good photo showing Audi's front wing flaps? I looked into Spa's album, on audi-mediacenter, but none there are good due to the light on the photos

[ederss7]

Originally Posted by MyNameIsNigel

I do wonder if Porsche are really in such a good shape reliability-wise to win Le Mans. It is not unexpected to see Audi and Toyota being hampered by reliability issues considering that they both run entirely new packages. Porsche "should" have a reliable package and today's race demonstrated that this is not the case. It's quite surprising and unexpected.

It's hard to explain what happens to them on the reliability side. Last year they started the season with a retirement at Silverstone and had some issues in the 6h races, but at Le Mans they were simply perfect. Whether it's luck or not, we'll probably never know. Today's issues could be just bad luck or we don't know what really expect from them.
Question: last year Audi's aero package was impressive at Spa, any expectations about this year's aero for Le Mans?

[chernaudi]

Kinda dissapointed so far in Audi Media Center's WEC photos this season. Not as many in quantity as last year's races, and quality also seems off. But they have tons of DTM photos.

Yet, on Audi Sport's twitter page, over 70% of their fans preferred the WEC over DTM, so maybe Audi Communications should give the fans what they want?

[chernaudi]

Main thing that Audi needed over the past few years was power and hybrid boost. Videos of where the #8 Audi did battle with the #5 Toyota showed how insane their acceleration and hybrid boosting/top speed was. If they can ally that to handling and grip like they had at Silverstone, performance at LM shouldn't be a big problem.

Reliability is a question based on testing so far and Silverstone, but then, no one's been bullet proof this season.

I've read quotes from Audi drivers and Dr. Ullrich that the warm weather played havoc with hitting the sweet spot on the set up. Hopefully testing will sort that out.

[chernaudi]

Best photo of the Audi front "wing" diffuser set up from Spa I've seen so far is this; front diffuser is very similar to Silverstone:

[Artur]

Thanks very much, that's exactly what I was looking for.

That's what it seemed to me from the other photos and now I can confirm it. It's very strange that Audi had so poor downforce at Spa. Only the fenders and suspension covers that are radically different.

The front and rear wings, and their flaps, are not much dissimilar and differs mostly on just the angles of attack. This is so odd, the car had so much downforce at Silverstone.

At least at LM I doubt the rivals will have downforce advantage as they will also have to run the lowest drag aero spec. But, all in all, I think that there are still too many troubles with this car in order for Audi to show up at LM with the top pace.

I wonder how many tests will Audi do from now until LM?

[chernaudi]

Audi's problem wasn't aero, it was mechanical grip/chassis set up. They had a hard time getting their tires to work how they wanted most of the weekend and though extra downforce would've helped, it wouldn't have totally fixed the problem.

I attribute this and the Silverstone debacle on Audi not doing as much performance testing as they would've wanted to by now because of the early reliability issues in testing.

[cokata]

Audi have matched (or almost) the hybrid performance of the other cars, but have lost their engine horsepower advantage, unless a miracle happens i don't see them challenging Porsche, and maybe even Toyota will be out of reach depending on how good their LD kit is.

[chernaudi]

Porsche didn't always have the highest top speed last year, but their advantage was how fast they reached it.

It seems that this advantage might be shifting to Audi this season in spite of gains made by Porsche and Toyota.

[sssssssss]

audi's top speed was insane this weekend at spa. i spotted 329 km/h on the onboard telemetry down the kemmel straight and it was still in 5th gear. last year they hit 309 km/h and still did 354 km/h at le mans. that's great news for le mans.

[ederss7]

For those who watched the race on the app, can you confirm their top speed on the end of the Kemmel straight? From a quick onboard showed on Motors TV they were reaching almost 330km/h? If that's right, then they're going to reach really high speeds at Le Mans.
Edit: lol, I've got my answer above.

[sssssssss]

judging by the track data so far, i actually begin to think audi are in quite a good position for le mans right now. the reliability seems to go in the right direction, while the slower times compared to porsche (and very similar to toyota's) at spa could well be due, at least partly, to the non-specific aero setup - in fact, given that what toyota call a HD package seems to be more of an interm package, i suspect audi were the only ones this weekend not to use a spa-oriented aero setup, hence the slightly slower lap times, although, even so, they were quite similar to toyota's. their package seems extremely slippery, with really low downforce. i think extreme top speed and acceleration is good strategy because it's much easier to pass on the straights than it is in the corners and since le mans never really required much downforce, i think this car will by quite a rocketship on the mulsanne and mulsanne-indianapoils straights in june and, just like in 2014, i suspect their lap times at spa hold no relevance for their le mans pace. but they will also have to last the distance. the good part about that is porsche suddenly seem quite far from bullet-proof, as they were last year, and so do toyota. the point is, i think audi really focused on the big one in june this year. they don't care as much about winning wec as they're determined to get the le mans trophy back.

[Adam43]

Judging by these threads every manufacturer is only concentrating on Le Mans!

[Deleted]

I know right, when in reality only 98-99% of the season and resources and attention is devoted to Le Mans! :P

Alex Brundle on RLM was great, amongst other stuff he was basically saying the same about these races just being warmups

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by ederss7

For those who watched the race on the app, can you confirm their top speed on the end of the Kemmel straight? From a quick onboard showed on Motors TV they were reaching almost 330km/h? If that's right, then they're going to reach really high speeds at Le Mans.
Edit: lol, I've got my answer above.

I have the race in motors tv recorded... did you remember the lap when they show the onboard hiting 330 km/h ...PLEASE!!!

[sssssssss]

it's about 35 minutes into the race, with the audi and toyota battling. it's not onboard, it's a telemetry comparison. you can also see the toyota hitting over 315 km/h in the slipstream airhole behind the audi, but really having no chance to get by with the audi going 329 km/h.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I know right, when in reality only 98-99% of the season and resources and attention is devoted to Le Mans! :P

Alex Brundle on RLM was great, amongst other stuff he was basically saying the same about these races just being warmups

What I really meant by my post is that there are claims that each team is in a better place than the others because they have done this more than the others. It'll be great to see how this pans out at LM and the rest of the season.

(I'm sure AB was good and look forward to listening to the podcast of the race. I didn't know he was on, thanks. He was good last time he was on RLM, not boring at all and with no hobby horses).

[CTD]

Originally Posted by sssssssss

audi's top speed was insane this weekend at spa. i spotted 329 km/h on the onboard telemetry down the kemmel straight and it was still in 5th gear. last year they hit 309 km/h and still did 354 km/h at le mans. that's great news for le mans.

Originally Posted by ederss7

For those who watched the race on the app, can you confirm their top speed on the end of the Kemmel straight? From a quick onboard showed on Motors TV they were reaching almost 330km/h? If that's right, then they're going to reach really high speeds at Le Mans.
Edit: lol, I've got my answer above.

Not necessarily a higher top speed for Le Mans.
Remember Audi is in a higher Energy class now, meaning they have more energy to deploy. This could most likely be used to hit their top speed faster, and hold it for longer, instead of increasing the top speed.
It is all about gearing and priorities

[sssssssss]

surely that's part of it. but i wanted to suggest the big top speed might partly also come from the new dramatic aero kit. and that can lead to even higher top end at lm.

[chernaudi]

IMO, I don't really expect Audi to be anywhere near 100%/really shine until LM and the post LM sprint races. Car is still very new, as is clear from the Silverstone debacle with the skid wear penalty and the handling problems they had in sector 2, which might be a bit on aero, but mostly it seems from comments I've read from drivers and team members is due to higher than forseen track temps and questionable chassis set up or maybe tire choice.

Also, Audi haven't done as much performance testing as they probably wanted to by now because of their early testing issues.

[ederss7]

My bet is over 360km/h at Le Mans, based on that 330km/h from Spa.

[Artur]

no way! They might have less drag with this aero package, than last year's LM, but Audi also have 10% less ICE power and that's the only power source at top speed.

Originally Posted by cokata

Audi have matched (or almost) the hybrid performance of the other cars, but have lost their engine horsepower advantage, unless a miracle happens i don't see them challenging Porsche, and maybe even Toyota will be out of reach depending on how good their LD kit is.

Audi still got more ICE power, than the rivals, because they still are 2MJ down on ERS and they already said that LM works better for them, EoT-wise.

I'm not very confident on them after Spa's poor speed but LM shouldn't be this bad for them, at least.

[ederss7]

I don't remember about last year's race, but in 2014 they were reaching 355km/h. I still think 360km/h isn't impossible.