Audi LMP1 Discussion

[Artur]

Finally the car hinted to the dominant pace I've been expecting all year

Obviously, nobody will be very confident on the reliability front.....

[ederss7]

The issue was that the shock absorber jammed in such way that they needed to change other parts too. That's why it took that long.

[chernaudi]

In the morning session they did a lot of minor but time consuming tweaking on the #8 as well, mostly with brake ducting and suspension settings I heard. #8 still did a ton of laps in the morning, though.

[TWRv12]

Originally Posted by Artur

Finally the car hinted to the dominant pace I've been expecting all year

Obviously, nobody will be very confident on the reliability front.....

Was there a damper or FRIC failure that caused the plank problems at Silverstone?

[chernaudi]

Couple of minor changes on the R18 from Spa to now.

There seems to be an added "bubble" vent on the trailing edge of the left side window/door to let more air out. I'm unsure if Audi are running a similar item on the drivers' door.

Also, the wing flap on the front diffuser is notched in the middle (has a portion of that section either removed or laid flat) while the outer diffuser sections are about as heavily cambered as the sprint versions used at Silverstone and Spa.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Also, the wing flap on the front diffuser is notched in the middle (has a portion of that section either removed or laid flat) while the outer diffuser sections are about as heavily cambered as the sprint versions used at Silverstone and Spa.

I didn't see yet a clear shot of it but that's my impression too and I'm happy about it because otherwise it would block too much the airflow and generate far too much drag for LM.

We don't know the extent of sandbagging by each team but it's, nevertheless, encouraging to see Audi already fast on La Sarthe unlike it happened at Spa. It kind of indicates that the aero works, which is a big sigh as Spa kind of worried me a lot about this aero spec

[tomazy]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Couple of minor changes on the R18 from Spa to now.

There seems to be an added "bubble" vent on the trailing edge of the left side window/door to let more air out. I'm unsure if Audi are running a similar item on the drivers' door.

Also, the wing flap on the front diffuser is notched in the middle (has a portion of that section either removed or laid flat) while the outer diffuser sections are about as heavily cambered as the sprint versions used at Silverstone and Spa.

Do you have a picture of those modifications? In this picture the flap seems normal to me.

[chernaudi]

Audi Media Center will probably be your best bet, or maybe Mulsanne's Corner's facebook page. If you have a high quality/HD monitor, it'd also help.

[sssssssss]

really happy to see audi back at the top of the time sheets, their new car is, as i suspected for quite some time, really powerful in terms of speed at le mans and, as i was saying before, when people insisted toyota have a le mans-oriented car, audi also have a very le mans-oriented car. the times and speeds so far confirm that, but i'm not yet sure the almost 2s gap to toyota and almost 1s gap to porsche will be maintained during the le mans week. although we've seen bigger pace gaps than that not being enough for winning le mans in many years, i actually think the difference this year is even smaller than that. but nonetheless, if audi weren't confident they have a very fast car, i don't think they would have gone for topping the time sheets.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by tomazy

Do you have a picture of those modifications? In this picture the flap seems normal to me.

http://cdn-3.motorsport.com/images/m...-fassler-a.jpg
http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/m...-fassler-a.jpg
http://cdn-3.motorsport.com/images/m...t-audi-r18.jpg

In all these photos, the central section is still there. In this other one, however, it seems to be "cut off" in the middle but the light is not good:
http://cdn-8.motorsport.com/images/m...-quattro-l.jpg

[tomazy]

Originally Posted by Artur

http://cdn-3.motorsport.com/images/m...-fassler-a.jpg
http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/images/m...-fassler-a.jpg
http://cdn-3.motorsport.com/images/m...t-audi-r18.jpg

In all these photos, the central section is still there. In this other one, however, it seems to be "cut off" in the middle but the light is not good:
http://cdn-8.motorsport.com/images/m...-quattro-l.jpg

I see it now, it does apear to be a diffirent flap on #8, thanks.

[Artur]

another one from the private test on Bugatti and they used the one with the central section once more:
http://cdn-7.motorsport.com/images/m...-fassler-a.jpg

The central flap is not so high as on the flanks but still I'm quite surprised Audi has such poor drag with such car.

[sssssssss]

what do you mean by poor drag?

[Artur]

low drag

[chernaudi]

I found on Twitter that Audi Owners' Club has video reportedly of the 2016 R18 testing at the Nurburgring GP circuit. I can't confirm if that's true or not (this year's car vs an older R18 variant) yet because their link is to a Facebook page and FB is blocked at work on their internet connection by their IT guys.

Also, I can also say that it seems that the LM R18's front flap has a cut out or lowering between the two diffuser sections compared to the sprint and Spa versions.

[MyNameIsNigel]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

I found on Twitter that Audi Owners' Club has video reportedly of the 2016 R18 testing at the Nurburgring GP circuit. I can't confirm if that's true or not (this year's car vs an older R18 variant) yet because their link is to a Facebook page and FB is blocked at work on their internet connection by their IT guys.

Also, I can also say that it seems that the LM R18's front flap has a cut out or lowering between the two diffuser sections compared to the sprint and Spa versions.

The video is actually the roll-out video filmed at Audi Sport's facilities in Neuburg.

[chernaudi]

Great, something I've already seen a hundred times. At least tech inspection isn't too far off. And I hope that it's not downpouring when Audi are there.

[MyNameIsNigel]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Great, something I've already seen a hundred times. At least tech inspection isn't too far off. And I hope that it's not downpouring when Audi are there.

I hope so. I am supposed to be at the Place de la République at that time to enjoy a few beers with friends and hopefully be in a position to take a few pics.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by MyNameIsNigel

I hope so. I am supposed to be at the Place de la République at that time to enjoy a few beers with friends and hopefully be in a position to take a few pics.

well, it's up to you, then, to take a conclusive shot of the R18's front wing flaps

[chernaudi]

I think that this photo shows that the flap on the R18 is notched out/lowered central section:

[Artur]

Yes but there were other shots(almost all, actually) displaying the "sprint" one. I think we'll have to wait for the QLFs to see what version they will really use. On the test day it's good that they ran both in order to evaluate the difference in perfomance and I must say that I expect the centrally notched one to be the selected option.

What has been catching my attention in the past couple of weeks, though, is knowing whether Audi would live stream their onboards again(which they've been doing since 2011) and finally there is confirmation of it:
http://www.audi-motorsport.com/de/en...s_preview.html

It's far less advertized than on previous years but they'll do it.

[chernaudi]

Some photos on Michelin Le Mans Live's Flickr page, especially of the #8 Audi, does show the modified flap that I'm talking about. It seems that Audi ran both versions during the test day to see which is better or which each team preferred.

#7 Audi vs #8 Audi, the differences are clear once you look at the central flap section. #7's is the normal flap, #8's is the modified flap.

[TF110]

Yeah, the #8 has a u-shaped dip that's more pronounced.

[chernaudi]

And of course both cars (since Silverstone at least) have some illustration/design on that center area that looks like a crude dive bombing sight hastily applied to a World War II fighter or ground attack aircraft.

[J Jay]

From RCE's LM preview - Audi say that they "probably haven't exceeded" 300kW from their hybrid system, despite a theoretical maximum of 350kW. Based on a comment describing the difference between 280kW and 320kW as "negligible," it seems that Audi have run at/around 280kW at most.