Porsche may not have won the penultimate round of the 2017 FIA Word Endurance Championship in Shanghai, China, but second and third on the podium was enough to secure the manufacturers’ title in LMP1. The positions also allowed Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard to secure drivers’ world championship titles.
The race took place in cool, dry conditions and began with a hitch for the Porsches, when the Jani/Lotterer/Tandy car had some problems early on and lost time in the pits. The rival Toyotas held first and second until lap 174, when the second Toyota was involved in a crash. That car was forced to pit for repairs and Porsche moved into the podium places, eventually claiming enough points to get the job done.
Quotes from the world champion Porsche Works Drivers
“I was second in the car and stayed there for 76 laps,” said incoming F1 Scuderia Toro Rosso driver, Brendon Hartley. “We lost a lot of downforce in the beginning, so the first stint was hard work. At the stop, we changed the nose which improved this issue. We also had one set of tyres less than all the other cars after we lost one in qualifying, so this was a kind of game over for us. But we definitely have had an incredibly year. Taking the World Championship title after winning Le Mans – it might take a while until it all sinks in. I’ve had a busy few weeks but, sharing this moment with Earl and Timo? I will not forget for the rest of my life.”
“World Champion! It just sounds amazing!” said a delighted Earl Bamber. “The team was fighting hard for it all year and now we’ve grabbed the manufacturers’ and drivers’ world championships. I did a double stint at the start of the race. It was okay but it didn’t look like we were on the right tyre. I just tried to manage the tyre as best as I could for the double stint. The tyres held on well, but we didn’t have a chance against the Toyota. The task was to bring it home in third position which ultimately became second. This weekend is super special. I can hardly believe that I won my first championship with Porsche back in 2013, only four years ago.”
Timo Bernhard echoed the thoughts of his team mates. “The second world championship title: this is kind of crazy and difficult to put in words. It is an honour to drive for the Porsche LMP Team and I am relieved that we have secured both titles here. Now we can face Bahrain a little more relaxed. My stint was good, but of course we knew that a third place finish would be enough. I could have pushed harder but it just wasn’t necessary. Instead we slowed the car down a bit for safety. Toyota was not really within reach today, but the car was reliable and the crew did another sensational job. This is what endurance racing is about. Many, many thanks to everyone and of course to Brendon and Earl.”
With both titles secure, I was sort of expecting Porsche to stay home from Bahrain as it has nothing left to accomplish, but it sounds like the 919 will take to the racetrack for one final event in front of the management board. That will be a fitting send-off for this technical tour de force as Porsche shuts down its LMP1 squad to allegedly focus on a secret F1 programme.
This weekend’s 6 Hours of Shanghai is the penultimate race for the successful Porsche 919 LMP1 hybrids. It will be Porsche’s second-last race in the premier league of endurance racing.
Current championship leaders, Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley have scored 172 championship points while second-placed Toyota drivers, Nakajima and Buemi, are on 133. Should the Toyota (Nak/Buemi and our hero, Ant Davidson) take maximum points in China and score 26 points, the Porsche trio need to finish the race in at least third position for them to clinch the drivers’ world championship title.
In theory, this should not be difficult. There are only four LMP1 cars taking part, so even if the leaders are running last and Toyota is running first and second, Porsche could apply team orders and move the 919 in front of the sister car. But that assumes they reach the finish, and as we all know, nothing is certain in racing.
Brendon Hartley odds-on for F1 drive
Well, that may not be quite true, as it seems Brendon Hartley is 99% certain to clinch the Toro Rosso drive in 2018. Team boss Franz Tost has been open about Gasly and Hartley as his top picks for next year in press conferences so it’s likely to happen. This is great news for Brendon and a well deserved drive in F1. A final WEC championship title would keep him warm while he battles with the Scuderia’s incoming Honda power unit next year, so we’re all wishing him well with that.
How Hartley might jump from a Toro Rosso drive into the full Red Bull team will also be interesting. Red Bull has Ricciardo and Sainz under contract for the next year or two, and Max is signed up for another three years, so Hartley’s path is not clear cut. Who cares for now: as long as he’s racing in decent cars and on my TV that is all I’m really bothered about. It is clear that Porsche was not getting the sort of spectator engagement in WEC that teams get in F1, so I am still putting money on an F1 entry after the new engine rules are announced.
Porsche wants third WEC crown
“After three consecutive Le Mans overall wins, we also want to get both world championship titles for the third time,” said Fritz Enzinger, Porsche’s LMP chief. “This would be the crown of our LMP1 programme and this is what we are aiming for. At the most recent six-hour race in Japan, we had our first match point but we didn’t succeed. Instead we lost ground to our competitor Toyota. In Shanghai we’ve got our next chance, so staying fully focussed remains our priority.”
Few things are more important to me than motorsport. While my first love has always been Porsche rally cars, the absolute top line of motorsport in my eyes will always be Formula 1, so I am super excited that 2015 WEC Champion and current WEC series leader, Porsche’s Brendon Hartley, is racing at the US Grand Prix in Austin this weekend in one of James Key’s beautiful Toro Rosso F1 cars.
To me, Hartley is one of the top five drivers in the world and easily capable of winning in F1. A former Red Bull driver and Toro Rosso reserve driver, who was dropped from the Red Bull programme eight years ago for whatever reason, Brendon has been typically candid in his own assessment of how things were back then and insists he is now far more prepared for the psychological challenges of this weekend’s opportunity.
“It’s a dream,” Brendon told Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz in his first interview at Circuit of the Americas. “I have dreamt about this moment all my life and support back home has been crazy. Honestly, I am trying to take the pressure off myself and tell myself “it’s just another race, it’s just another car”. In reality, I know that’s not quite true: it’s not just any other race and it’s not just any other car, but I’m trying to separate myself from that.
“Obviously, the support back home has been incredible. It’s been quite a while since we saw a Kiwi in Formula 1 and we’re very proud people. There’s a few of us in the motorsport world doing a good job, raising the flag at a very high level, but it’s been a long time since one of us was in Formula 1, so I’m well aware of what that means.”
Kravitz asked Brendon’s former Porsche team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, whether he was pleased for his former colleague. “Yeah, it’s fun and quite cool,” said Nico, “I didn’t see that coming. “No,” agreed Ted. “They needed a Red Bull person with a superlicence, so that narrowed it down to [Sebastien] Buemi or him. So I guess it’s him. Would you expect him to pick up this F1 lark pretty easily?”
“Probably a little bit more challenging for him than for Carlos [Sainz, who is switching teams to Renault from this weekend], because he hasn’t sat in an F1 car for quite some time now, but the WEC cars also produce a lot of downforce and he has raced here quite recently, so that should help him, but it will be interesting to see how he feels these cars and how he gets on.”
“I guess it’s a bit of an advantage for me coming here recently,” notes Brendon, “but I think that the biggest ask is driving a modern Formula 1 car and that’s going to be the bigger learning curve. In some ways I feel prepared for this: a lot more prepared than in 2009-2010 when I was a reserve driver. I wasn’t ready at that time.
“I know Max [Verstappen] came in at a very young age, but at that age I wasn’t ready. I’ve learned a lot since then. Being with Porsche in the LMP1 taught me a lot: high pressure scenario, representing Porsche, working with guys like Mark Webber and Timo [Bernhard] and you learn a lot off each other in that environment when you actually work together. So from that side, I feel very prepared and mentally strong.
“Unfortunately, in terms of driving a modern Formula 1 car I’m completely underprepared – i.e. not prepared at all – but I think I’ll know a lot more after Free Practice 1 tomorrow. I’m looking forward to stop talking about what I’m expecting. Just get that first session under way, see how I feel in the car, see where I’m at and then figure out what I’ve got to work on to get towards Sunday afternoon, which is the big debut.”
What’s interesting about the debut is that Hartley himself set the wheels in motion, calling Red Bull’s Helmut Marko when Porsche canned its LMP1 programme earlier this year and offering his services should a spare seat materialise. As the twisted handshakes of the McLaren/Toro Rosso Honda/Renault engine swap deal unwound, it turned out that Toro Rosso had been left without a driver for Austin.
A good performance in Texas could potentially lead to more F1 activity, but Brendon insists that no one has spoken of this as yet and no performance targets have been set. It is hard to imagine that Brendon’s considerable talent won’t find some pace in the car, so that will make all three practice sessions unmissable viewing. Hartley will be off to IndyCar if this doesn’t lead on to better things and F1 will be poorer because of it. Fingers crossed for a great weekend!
Porsche has decided to shut down its LMP1 programme from the end of 2017 and switch to Formula E from 2019. The 911 RSR GT programme continues and Weissach will focus on bringing the 911 back to the head of the field.
It is not a huge surprise that Porsche has canned its hugely expensive LMP1 programme after two back-to-back titles. The promotion value of the effort has already begun to tail off and, with France and the UK already planning to ban new sales of petrol engined cars from 2040, the motor industry focus is clearly on electric cars now. The next twenty years will see a revolution in motoring with autonomous cars, electric vehicles and further downsizing as more households run just one car, or no car at all.
These trends are still in their infancies, but as momentum grows behind renewables of all sorts and the exploding global population requires an ever-cleaner world in order to survive, manufacturers will not wish to be seen as irrelevant in the clean air/electric car landscape. While the racing in Formula E is nothing to get really excited about right now, the series offers a reasonable option for brand positioning (many Porsche competitors are already there), not to mention the cross-R&D advantages to those who need to train a bunch of engineers and maximise the development curve of renewable drivetrains.
Porsche says that the shift from FIA WEC to Formula E is “derived from the direction set out for the company in Porsche Strategy 2025, which will see Porsche develop a combination of pure GT vehicles and fully electric sports cars, such as the first fully battery-powered Mission E road car”.
“Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E,” says Michael Steiner, head of Research and Development at Porsche AG. “The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us. Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts. For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability”.
The 2017 Porsche Supercup season kicked off in style during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. Although experienced Supercup racer, Michael Ammermüller, took the win in both races, it was perhaps Norwegian Porsche Junior, Dennis Olsen, who set out the most exciting challenge for Supercup honours in the opening round of the championship.
Barcelona has a long downhill run from the grid to turn 1, so race starts here are always exciting. Olsen’s fellow Porsche junior, Matt Campbell, had seized pole position, but wrong-footed the start and almost stalled the engine when the lights went out. Ammermüller had no such issues and made a blistering getaway, with the track to himself on arrival in the braking zone.
Had the German time to study his mirrors, he would have enjoyed a chaotic scene, as cars took to the grass and well into the pitlane exit to avoid tripping over each other. None of the lawnmowers seemed to lose too much time, and many had literally made progress ‘through the field’ by the end of lap one. Lap two brought the safety car out when Berton got beached in the gravel. While the stricken car was removed, Ammermüller worked his 911 hard to keep heat in the tyres.
The aggressive manoeuvring paid off: Ammermüller got the jump on his rival at the restart. As the leader focused on stretching the advantage, a queue of cars formed behind Cammish, with Olsen at the front. The 21 year-old calmly held position for five or six laps but, once the race passed half-distance, he began to distract with his car in that irritating way that only a precocious youngster with a factory drive seems capable of.
Watching Dennis race was a joyous experience. A phenomenal kart driver, he started karting at six years old and has claimed titles including several Norwegian kart crowns, the prestigious German KF3 and KF1 titles and the World SuperKart Cup Final KF2 title. From 191 kart race starts, Dennis has claimed 90 wins. He has uncanny control, particularly over the front of his car, being able to place it with absolute precision. It was this skill that ultimately got him in front.
After harrying Cammish for lap after lap, darting around at the end of the straight and with a few cheeky nudges to boot, he stuck to the left and forced Cammish into braking super-late to defend. As Cammish locked up and ran slightly wide, Olsen bolted right, picked up the inside and shot into P2 on three wheels. It was pure karting brilliance. They held this order to the finish.
Round 2 was held on Sunday. I haven’t yet seen the race, but Ammermüller again finished first with Olsen in hot pursuit and much closer at the chequered flag. Campbell and Cammish came home third and fourth with Dylan Pereira in fifth (above: another young talent with kart pedigree). This puts Ammermüller ahead in the championship, but Olsen is going to have a very interesting season. I look forward to watching him racing at Monaco and trying some kart lines there too.
I’ve been eagerly anticipating Olsen’s first Supercup season since the thrilling reports of his debut Carrera Cup Germany season last year. The young Scandi has also started this year’s Deutschland season in style, winning both races at the recent Hockenheim double header. Watching Olsen race a Cup Car is reminiscent of Kevin Estre’s finest moments: no doubt that a successful sports car career lies ahead if Olsen sticks with good management.
Here’s a video of the full race without commentary. These things normally disappear within a few days, so it lasts as long as it lasts!
Three Tuthill Porsche 911 rally cars are taking part in the Baltic Classic Rally at the end of this month. All three are special 911s but, as I had this one to hand last week for a few pics and it was the cleanest it’s been for several years, I thought it would be cool to share a few details.
It used to be that when a 911 got too tired or scruffy for road use, it was broken for parts or sold to a motorsport firm and converted into some sort of race or rally car. These days, the story is different. Few people turn up to rallies in air-cooled Porsche 911s nowadays, as the cars are just so expensive. When someone does decide to compete in a Porsche 911, the cars have generally been built pretty carefully.
Tuthill Safari cars are a good example of this. Built to a tried-and-tested recipe, the first step with a bare metal shell is to fix any rust and add all of the strengthening carefully detailed in Tuthill’s in-house manual. This used to be a closely guarded secret, and some details are still kept under wraps, but the team is often happy to share information and help with other engineering, as it did with Jeff Gamroth’s Rothsport Racing 964s which recently took part in the Baja 1000 event.
Rally Car Shell Preparation
The bodyshell preparation is perhaps the most important part of the process. Having seen many cars built elsewhere eventually turning up at Tuthills to be sorted, the big problem is usually rust. So many 911 competition cars are not stripped properly or rustproofed to a very high level after restoration, so they have started (or continued) to rust before they are even finished being built. By the time they turn up for fettling, the rot has really taken hold and the major expense of rust repair is inevitable. This renders all other work done on top of the rusty shell as useless. So sorting the rust is the most important thing to start with.
The car seen here has been around Tuthills since I started going there in 2003. As with most Tuthill rally builds, it was originally imported from the west coast of America, so there was little or no rust to worry about. I’ve driven it a few times over the years and it has clocked up thousands of miles of rallying since being built, including wins on the Costa Brava and Isle of Man historic events. It has also taken part in both Morocco Historic and Safari Classic rallies, as well as a few runs on Below Zero Ice Driving.
Porsche legend, Björn Waldegård, drove this car on the first Colin McRae Memorial Rally and I think Colin’s dad (and former British rally champion), Jimmy, used it on the same event the following year. Now the car has passed to new owner and experienced competitor, David Danglard, a fresh book begins in its history. The first chapter of that is the Baltic Classic Rally, which starts on May 28th and runs all around Northern Europe, loosely following the Baltic Sea coastline.
FIA HTP Homologation Requirements
FIA rally homologations set out most of the specs for a competition rally car carrying an Historic Technical Passport (HTP): essential to rally on international events. If it wasn’t on the original homologation back in the day, then you can’t use it now. Some exceptions include fuel tanks and modern damper systems, which are often exempt from regulations or waivered on the grounds of reliability. But it all starts with the original FIA paperwork.
This car was built for FIA and later upgraded to run on Safari, but the process of creation is basically the same. With the shell mods and a full roll cage in place, the chassis was fitted with a mix of homologated parts and other equipment developed for rally use. Dampers are key to performance, and historic compliant EXE-TC dampers without remote reservoirs are used on most Tuthill Porsche 911s. For a proper Safari effort, the team brings damper technicians to the event to strip and rebuild dampers in accordance with service plans, but these high-end dampers can take a number of historic endurance events like the Baltic before needing rebuild.
Brake calipers may be free on some events, but FIA cars use standard Porsche brakes, which are good enough for historic endurance when running proper pads and discs. Tuthill’s dash-controlled twin-master cylinder pedal box is fitted to all 911 rally builds. Some events do not permit adjustable brake bias, so the system is disabled for those. Small details include a spare throttle cable run from engine to pedal, so if a throttle cable breaks on event, you simply clip in the new one front and rear.
Oil lines are usually run in the car for obvious reasons, wrapped in tight-fitting heat wrap. A central oil tank is fitted to the rear firewall, with a level check tube easily viewed and keeping things simple. The oil system on a proper 911 rally car is a joy to behold, as is the fuel setup with twin Messerschmitt fuel pumps up front on proper Safari cars: again double-headed for reliability. Some rally cars use twin tanks in case of poor fuel, but the Tuthill spec is usually one large – 100l or more – foam-filled fuel tank, sited high up between the front towers and a reworked floor in the front compartment, which then allows two spare wheels to be carried (de-rigeur on historic endurance).
Electrics are kept to a minimum, though many competitors ask for additional spurs to power cameras, GPS systems and so on. The entire wiring system is replaced with a modern competition loom, designed to run fire extinguisher systems, bonnet lamps, Halda rally timers and the like. Bull bars front and rear are there to help recovery and allow towing as much as prevent damage from wildlife or other contact and they are very handy things! They do not add a great deal of weight to the chassis and also allow the bumpers to be lightweight GRP.
Substantial body guards are fitted under the car, to help the 911 survive high-speed running on rough terrain and also survive impacts from hard landings. These are aluminium, but still weigh a fair bit. The good thing about the guards is that all the weight is carried low down. Even with Safari-spec ground clearance, the cars handle beautifully on road (with road tyres).
My last solo drive of a Tuthill Safari car was a return loop from HQ in Wardington to Derry in Northern Ireland using Gilberto Sandretto’s Safari 911 (above). The car was supremely comfortable to drive and that 3-litre engine did not miss a beat. I am sure the new owners of this storied 911 rally car will enjoy their debut event with it and hope to share some road trip photos upon their return.
Ferdinand blogs my freelance adventure with Porsche at the centre. To support the blog or engage with me in other ways, you can:
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