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Old 10 Feb 2012, 12:27 (Ref:3024068)   #2576
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It will be a tough for Ullrich to choose between Treluyer and Fassler.

In the interview Treluyer gives some personal comments on the TS030. He stresses that the main cause of visibility problems is not the shape of the cockpit but the big front wheels.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 15:17 (Ref:3024131)   #2577
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In the interview Treluyer gives some personal comments on the TS030. He stresses that the main cause of visibility problems is not the shape of the cockpit but the big front wheels.
In that case, how come the 908 (with the same size of front wheels) only had one crash in traffic during 2011 as far as I'm aware, while the R18 had at least five? The size of the front wheels is a factor, but it's not the only thing.

Just sounds like PR and trying to contain the situation caused by someone possibly making a mistake during the car's design phase.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 15:24 (Ref:3024133)   #2578
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Wouldn't the redesigned windshield and the other parts bear witness to that. Basically a mea culpa by Audi without saying so in my view.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 15:26 (Ref:3024134)   #2579
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In that case, how come the 908 (with the same size of front wheels) only had one crash in traffic during 2011 as far as I'm aware, while the R18 had at least five? The size of the front wheels is a factor, but it's not the only thing.

Just sounds like PR and trying to contain the situation caused by someone possibly making a mistake during the car's design phase.
Your forgetting the fact that even though they both run the same size wheels, the R18 has much larger front fenders. I think thats what Benoit was trying to say-

I was in their pits during PLM and was constantly watching the onboard camera for the number 2 car. The visibility looking forward and to the left did not seem that bad, but looking to the right was horrible
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 16:02 (Ref:3024143)   #2580
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Wouldn't the redesigned windshield and the other parts bear witness to that. Basically a mea culpa by Audi without saying so in my view.
Yet still Treluyer believes that front tyres are bit contributing factor. So visibility probably has not improved that much with the new windshield.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 16:06 (Ref:3024145)   #2581
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Yet still Treluyer believes that front tyres are bit contributing factor. So visibility probably has not improved that much with the new windshield.
how much of a difference is the new windshield? I couldn't really notice that much of a change in the pictures-
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 19:36 (Ref:3024224)   #2582
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I am cheering for Audi now when I used to hate them. The R18 is the reason for this. I never have liked open topped cars, but when Audi went to the Coupe, I was very happy and the R18 is pretty good looking machine I think.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 21:35 (Ref:3024300)   #2583
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I don't see how he could comment on the visibility of the Toyota if he hasn't driven it. How far back the drivers sit looks like it'll solve the issue, also they're LHD instead of being on the right. That'll surely help since most tracks are clockwise.
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Old 10 Feb 2012, 23:54 (Ref:3024355)   #2584
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The point I was trying to make, is that the revised R18 will probably still have poor visibility because of the big front tyres and the driver position.
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 07:37 (Ref:3024454)   #2585
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How would LHD and RHD mean anything since the drivers sit just immediately opposite the center-line of the car? I don't see much difference there.

I've seen the Toyota onboards, and I don't know if it's the camera or not, but it does seem that the windsheild has some areas of distortion on it, though it can be the camera distorting the image because I don't think that the cockpit air intake hoses are supposed to be wavy/distorted in some areas.

The Toyota, like the Audi, run the wider front tires, but like the 908, lacks the extreme fender bulges that the R18 runs.

But we have to remember that guys like Ben, Andre, and Marcel are all over 6'0", while Allan and Tom are the shortest guys on the Audi squad now as far as regular drivers. I don't think it's a coincidence that they had the most incidents last year until finally at Zhuhai Audi made changes to the cockpit arrangements of the R18 (per TK's comments following PLM where he admitted that there were issues with visibility and that Audi were trying something).

Maybe Toyota got a coup when they got Alex Wurz, probably the tallest driver in sportscar racing today. But Audi's big issue with Allan and Tom seemed to be that the R18 favored taller drivers who had a much easier time looking over the front fenders.

Also, the R18's relative lack of top speed was an issue to, and they had to maximize cornering speeds and cutting though traffic to gain and edge on the 908 last year. But it's still easier to pass down the straights than in corners, so I hope that Audi have improved the R18 from that respect, too.

And I'm curious about Audi running the old R18s at Sebring instead of running the R18H tubs without the hybrid systems on the cars, which will likely happen with the non-hybrid cars at Spa and LM. I know that they'll probably test the newer cars at Sebring after the race, but why not get some more race miles on the new tubs/bodywork/front suspension? I know that as long as Audi keep out of trouble at Sebring that they very well might have it locked up, but with the old R18, that was often the problem.
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 08:35 (Ref:3024475)   #2586
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Is it confirmed they're using the 2011 R18's? I thought they had to change the car's bodywork anyway to conform to the rules with the fender holes? It'd make sense that Audi would run 2012 non-hybrid R18's at Sebring. Unless they can get away with not having holes. But seeing as how the HPD has them, I doubt it.
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 08:46 (Ref:3024477)   #2587
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Is it confirmed they're using the 2011 R18's? I thought they had to change the car's bodywork anyway to conform to the rules with the fender holes? It'd make sense that Audi would run 2012 non-hybrid R18's at Sebring. Unless they can get away with not having holes. But seeing as how the HPD has them, I doubt it.
They'll have to run the 2012-spec bodywork, they're running two non-hybrid cars at Le Mans anyway, so...
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 09:16 (Ref:3024486)   #2588
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The ACO will allow teams to run Sebring without the holes, reportedly with a slight weight penalty due to BoP, but it's only a one race waiver.

The main issue I'm asking about is will the R18's at Sebring be last year's unmodifed cars, '11 R18's fitted with the '12 bodywork, or the '12 R18s using the R18H tubs with the new bodywork/front suspension, but simply lacking the hybrid systems.

And I'd like to know where the rumors of the R18H when hybrid equipped being faster than the old R18. It very well may be, but if the new front suspension guarentees more grip and better handling, that will (at least in theory) automatically make the new car faster, as would an improved aero package. I have no doubt that it will be faster simply though development, but Ben's comments say that he's been happy with the non-hybrid R18s so far in testing (non-hybrid 2012 R18 or the '11 R18 it didn't say in that article), but he does say that if the R18H is faster, he'll go for that. C'mon, he's a racing driver for god's sake--faster is better to these guys!

But we have to remember what drivers said of the 908HY-4 last year--it had different handling characteristics because of weight shift, but it seemed to be faster overall. I wonder if Audi will run whatever they have in a packaging similar to the Toyota, which seems to be a logical way of doing it to keep the weight centered in the car and for ease of maintenance.
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 15:22 (Ref:3024558)   #2589
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Too late to edit my last comment, but Dagys at Speed confirms that both Audi and Pescarolo will run 2011 spec cars. It confirms that there will be a slight weight penalty--15kgs to be exact--due to BoP requirements for not having the 2012 aero bits on the cars.

Audi has also confirmed that three R18s will be entered, with driver lineups to be announced later, probably at the R18H launch later this month. Of course, will Audi run a hybrid LM/sprint bodywork package, or stick with the sprint package? It doesn't make sense to deviate from the sprint bodywork, since it's Sebring, but the LM bodywork or sprint/LM patchwork bodykit might be more like the R18H.
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Old 11 Feb 2012, 18:17 (Ref:3024590)   #2590
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Too late to edit my last comment, but Dagys at Speed confirms that both Audi and Pescarolo will run 2011 spec cars. It confirms that there will be a slight weight penalty--15kgs to be exact--due to BoP requirements for not having the 2012 aero bits on the cars.

Audi has also confirmed that three R18s will be entered, with driver lineups to be announced later, probably at the R18H launch later this month. Of course, will Audi run a hybrid LM/sprint bodywork package, or stick with the sprint package? It doesn't make sense to deviate from the sprint bodywork, since it's Sebring, but the LM bodywork or sprint/LM patchwork bodykit might be more like the R18H.
Audi ran the LM bodywork last year after the 12H race on the R18 test cars, and it seemed to work well on that cicruit. I bet they'll have the smoother front "sprint" fenders and maybe the LM rear wing?
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Old 12 Feb 2012, 03:30 (Ref:3024705)   #2591
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I'd hope for the LM bodywork with the sprint wing and twin front dive planes, but if Audi didn't do that last year outside of LM practice, I can't really see them doing that now.

This will probably be the last race for the "old" R18, as I'd expect even the non-hybrid R18s from after Sebring to use the new tubs. For that reason, I don't see Audi doing anything radically different with the bodywork unless it's R&D for the new cars, and a while back it was reported by someone at Audi that they sort of dropped the ball with the "sprint" bodywork as it was too draggy for what they were aiming for because of its hurried development after focusing so much on the LM stuff.

So Audi could be doing nothing, or maybe something to make their cars more similar to the newer car's aero, though not exactly the same.
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Old 12 Feb 2012, 10:35 (Ref:3024818)   #2592
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Have they confirmed whether they will be bringing a Hybrid over in the truck to do some back-to-back testing after the race?
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Old 12 Feb 2012, 23:26 (Ref:3025022)   #2593
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Have they confirmed whether they will be bringing a Hybrid over in the truck to do some back-to-back testing after the race?
They haven't, but it's surely inevitable that they will.
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Old 13 Feb 2012, 00:12 (Ref:3025042)   #2594
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According to Dagys' Twitter:

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@AlexEthers No Problem, that's what I'm here for! Rocky not expected to drive R18 this year, focus on DTM.
So that means 3 new drivers to the R18 program plus Jarvis I believe.
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 08:44 (Ref:3026038)   #2595
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@AlexEthers Probably Bonamoni and Loic Duval. Or Maybe Duval to the 3 car. Launch is Feb 28, I believe.
Duval is a Toyota driver in Super GT now. Hence I doubt that Toyota will let Duval race in Le Mans for Audi.
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 10:57 (Ref:3026085)   #2596
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 11:13 (Ref:3026095)   #2597
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John also tweeted:
Duval is a Toyota driver in Super GT now. Hence I doubt that Toyota will let Duval race in Le Mans for Audi.
Depends on what the contract says.
If Duval has made sure that it only involves Super GT races, and that all other dates he will be free to race what he wants (except Super GT rivals) then he would be free to race for Audi at Le Mans.
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 16:55 (Ref:3026211)   #2598
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John also tweeted:
Duval is a Toyota driver in Super GT now. Hence I doubt that Toyota will let Duval race in Le Mans for Audi.
I'm not really aware of the contract specifics but Lotterer drove for Audi last year whilst competing in SGT and Nippon for Toyota, though maybe the fact that Toyota has invested in prototype racing will stop anything like that happening again.
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 18:24 (Ref:3026253)   #2599
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The situation is completely different now that Toyota is competing in LMP1 on its own. It does not make sense to lend a factory driver to your direct competitor. Too many conflicting situations can occur: Duval collides with one of the Toyota cars, Duval is asked by Audi to block a Toyota car, good driving stints from Duval take away a podium position and WEC points from Toyota, ...
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Old 15 Feb 2012, 19:52 (Ref:3026294)   #2600
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The situation is completely different now that Toyota is competing in LMP1 on its own. It does not make sense to lend a factory driver to your direct competitor. Too many conflicting situations can occur: Duval collides with one of the Toyota cars, Duval is asked by Audi to block a Toyota car, good driving stints from Duval take away a podium position and WEC points from Toyota, ...

yeah this is too right. to be honest Lotterer might even be in a Toyota Next season or might be fully released from his Toyota Contract because the same thing might happen this year. I doubt toyota wants to risk something like this so when they bring the third car next year im sure lotterer and Douval might endup at toyota it makes no sense to put them elsewhere
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