If the first eleven months of Nick Tandy’s 2015 were the best of his life, December is swinging the pendulum back. Following a disgraceful lack of recognition in this year’s Autosport awards, further disappointment arrived at the annual Porsche Night of Champions in Stuttgart, where the 2016 Porsche LMP1 programme was confirmed as a two-car push for all nine WEC rounds, including Le Mans, with the regular driver squads running unchanged.
Porsche cuts 2016 LMP1 Le Mans Squad
Despite Porsche’s best-ever year selling cars with more than 200,000 Porsches delivered in the first eleven months of 2015, both Porsche and Audi have agreed to cut their Le Mans teams to just two LMP1 cars a piece for “maximum cost efficiency”. The decision means no LMP1 for the 2015 Le Mans winners, despite their superior pace in the 2015 event: Bamber’s debut race at Le Mans.
Porsche axes 2016 WEC GTE-Pro Team
Maximum cost efficiency has also led Weissach to axe its factory GTE-Pro campaign for the full WEC season. Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen will instead defend their 2015 GTE-Pro titles in a 911 (991) RSR run by Proton Dempsey Racing. While Proton runs the old 911, Porsche will develop a new RSR for the regulation changes effective next season, which allow GTE-Pro cars to run 20 more horsepower and 10 fewer kilos. Though the old RSR might find the new regs tough going, anything can happen in racing. No doubt Lietz & Christensen will apply all of their talents as reigning World Champions.
Extra RSRs planned for Le Mans
They’ve lost their LMP1 seats, but it’s hoped that Tandy and Bamber will drive at Le Mans. Their participation has yet to be confirmed, but Porsche hopes to receive two more GTE-Pro entries for the 24 Hours. Fun-loving Pilet and Tandy with newest works driver, Kévin Estre, would take one 911, while Bamber, Fred Mako and Jörg Bergmeister would get the other. Porsche would also have cars in GTE-Am, so its promo machine should take maximum value from being the only manufacturer to have entered three of the four Le Mans categories.
2016 Le Mans versus Formula 1
The 2016 Le Mans 24-Hours takes place on the weekend of 18/19 June, and coincides with an F1 race for the very first time. The FIA says that the start of the Baku Grand Prix will be scheduled so as not to clash with the end of the 24 Hours.
ACO’s plans to extend the Le Mans pit lane to sixty garages – four more than are currently available – would allow a few more cars in the race, so it’s hard to imagine Le Mans saying no to the reigning champions. It is therefore quite likely that we will see Tandy and Bamber on the grid in France, although I suspect that if a competitive LMP2 drive turns up for either, they will do their best to be in it. Let’s wait for the entry list.
Porsche has won the World Endurance Championship constructors’ title. Winning the Shanghai WEC race gave the team 308 points, putting Porsche beyond reach of Audi (238 points) and Toyota (137 points) with one WEC round remaining.
The win is Porsche’s 13th World Championship title as a constructor in endurance racing, and the first since 1986. Between 1964 and 1986 Porsche took twelve constructors’ titles in the Sports Car World Championship. Here’s Porsche’s race summary.
Porsche at WEC Shanghai
The seventh of eight rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) was held as a six-hour race at the Formula One circuit of Shanghai. The winning drivers who shared the Porsche prototype were Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and former Formula One driver Mark Webber from Australia. The sister Porsche 919 Hybrid of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) crossed the finish line just behind them and made it the fourth one-two victory this season for Le Mans record winners Porsche.
Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid wins WEC title
This year’s double victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 14 and the world championship title came a lot earlier than expected. Porsche only returned to top-level motorsports in 2014, when it was the only German car manufacturer and the only sports car manufacturer worldwide who had three premium plug-in-hybrid cars on the market (918 Spyder, Cayenne, Panamera). Porsche was attracted by the WEC’s revolutionary efficiency regulations, which requires high performance hybrid technology from the manufacturers’ prototypes and strictly limits their energy consumption. Within a very short period of time, an entirely new infrastructure at Porsche’s R&D centre in Weissach was set up and a team of 230 experts employed.
I haven’t followed all of this year’s WEC as been up to my eyes in building a garage and trying to keep the builders paid, but this is a great win for Porsche and the manufacturer has exciting plans for 2016. I have been following those stories: we’ll talk about them soon.
Following an incredible day of absolutely flat-out racing at the historic Le Mans circuit, Porsche claimed an emphatic win in the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours. Perhaps most incredible of all was that the winning drivers were the three LMP1 rookies: Nico Hülkenberg, Nick Tandy and New Zealand’s Earl Bamber.
Hülkenberg was the man who took the chequered flag for Porsche. As rain descended upon the Circuit de la Sarthe for the final fifteen minutes of racing, hearts were held in mouths as we waited to see if the rain would increase sufficiently to require pitstops for rain tyres.
In the end, the most extreme precipitation came only from the eyes of works drivers, Porsche Racing team personnel and Dr. Wolfgang Porsche himself, who had joined Porsche CEO, Matthias Müller, in the 919 garage. Rounding Arnage with less than a minute remaining, Porsche number 19 slowed to a crawl to prevent another lap at racing speed in the mist, crossing the line in first place after 24 hours and 24 seconds of racing.
The emotions hit home as 919 LMP1 Hybrid number 19 rolled underneath the chequered flag to claim Porsche’s 17th overall win at Le Mans: Hülkenberg breaking into tears of joy over the radio in a moment that obviously resonated deeply for the F1 driver who had stuck his reputation on the line this weekend.
“I am speechless right now to be honest,” said Hülkenberg. “To come here on my first attempt and end up on the top step: I am super super happy and also very happy for Porsche. We are incredibly proud that Porsche is back at Le Mans. We couldn’t expect to come here on our first time and win this: the car was reliable, we made no mistakes and that is what got us the top prize this weekend.”
“I couldn’t think of two guys I would rather share this car with,” said a tearful Nick Tandy in the winners’ arena. “We’ve run here not just for 24 hours but we’ve done the test here, two weeks ago we did the complete practice; we haven’t put a mark on this car, all the guys have not made a single mistake.
“We’re stood here talking to you guys (Eurosport) because we’ve just won the biggest race in the world. I could retire from racing tomorrow and I could look back on today and I’m sure I’d be happy for the rest of my life: I can keep this video for all my family forever. Many people don’t get a chance to race in this event, let alone get a chance to come here and win. I’m very, very happy.” Tandy’s expression started wobbling here and I was starting to go also. What huge emotion and what a mega drive.
Earl Bamber, Nico Hulkenberg and Nick Tandy took their victory exactly 45 years to the day after Porsche’s first win at La Sarthe. This was a 1-2 for Weissach, as Bernhard, Hartley and Webber took second place in the number 17 919. Further behind the LMP1 cars, Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried took second place on the podium in GTE-Am: an extraordinary achievement for the team.
“It’s hard to put into words what this means,” said Pat Dempsey, also welling up before getting on the podium. “What the effort was and the support we got from everybody to make it possible to be here. The team did a great job in all the pitstops, and Patrick and Marco drove beautifully through the whole race and into the night when it was really tough.
“Patrick’s been pushing me and coaching me all year and putting me in every kind of crazy car I could get into. It makes a big difference to be here and now, to be up there (eyes podium) is definitely a dream come true. This is what we were focusing on all year.”
This is all just sinking in at the minute: no doubt more details will emerge when the drivers get a chance to tell their stories. Can’t wait to hear from our heroes but until then, well done to the entire Porsche Racing team! This is a dream come true for us all. Here’s a Porsche video from the start of the race: who would have thought that the rookies could do it?!
Twelve hours into the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, Porsche holds the overall lead thanks to Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. Good job too, as the Porsche team had begun to look ragged following a fire and retirement for the 92 911 RSR, retirement of the 88 911 and a stop-and-go penalty for the leading 919.
As night fell at Le Mans, Hülkenberg was first to hit the front with stunning lap after stunning lap. Tandy retook the lead after his pit stop and stuck seconds per lap on Audi’s, Andre Lotterer. The cooler temperatures of the evening seemed to suit the number 19 car, as Tandy began to set laptimes within a tenth of a second of his qualifying pace, in marked contrast to the car’s early pace.
Number 19 had started third on the grid but, as the race found its feet, the car was passed by not one but two Audis, much to the delight of the Audi team. Keeping in touch with the pack, the team eventually modified 19’s strategy to fit with a series of safety cars. At the nine-hour stage, the LMP rookies in number 19 were fourth overall.
Big Red, the number 17 919 LMP1 of Bernhard/Hartley/Webber ran out front from the start, but eventually picked up a one-minute stop/go penalty for passing under yellows. The other 919 had a rather disastrous first half of the race due to a problem with braking: Romain Dumas getting quite agitated with his engineers over team radio.
The call came for Romain to brake later in corners to heat up the front brakes after he went straight on through a run-off section at the end of the front straight. As the braking seemed to get progressively less effective, Dumas eventually flew off the track, clouting a wall at Mulsanne. The car was pushed back out on track, only to run off the track at Arnage later on, needing recovery by a hydraulic loader.
At time of writing, it is Porsche-Audi-Audi-Porsche-Audi-Porsche. Fastest race lap so far is a 3:17.647 from the number 9 Audi. Fastest Porsche time is a 3:18.674 from the Tandy 919, so one second slower than the Audi. There is still a long way to go and these cars are racing flat out, putting huge stress on the mechanicals. It’s hard to believe that the Audis can be beaten, but stranger things have happened. No doubt this is already a classic Le Mans.
The Porsche Racing team has claimed pole position in LMP1 in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans: the first works Porsche pole position since Hans Stuck in 1988. Across the three two-hour qualifying sessions for this year’s race, all three 919 LMP1 Hybrids set blistering times that could not be matched by the competition.
Neel Jani laid the gauntlet down early, with a new record lap of the current Le Mans course in the first fifteen minutes of Q1: a 3:16.887. The Jani/Dumas/Lieb number 18 car will start from pole on Saturday, leading team mates Bernhard/Hartley/Webber in number 17.
This evening, Nick Tandy in the number 19 car set a time roughly half a second quicker than his best lap of yesterday, coming good on his promise to go faster today after some holdups in Q1, but third place was where he would finish, driving with Bamber and Hulkenberg.
Bamber was amongst those who had notes home from the stewards on exceeding track limits, but it made little difference to laptimes. All this was huge relief for Jani (below, centre with Dumas and Lieb), who confirmed to reporters at the end of qualifying that he had been expecting to fight his teammates for pole on day two.
“We thought today that we would have to go back out and defend our pole, but it was a good thing that we didn’t have to. I think it would have been a large fight at the end, but I’m happy with that lap record: we’ll take that.”
Porsche’s 1-2-3 quali times, well ahead of arch-rivals Audi, allowed the 919s to focus on race setup through the second day’s sessions. Tyre tests of day and night compounds obviously went well given Tandy’s improvements in pace, but the big question for the 24 Hours is reliability. After that comes tyres and fuel consumption.
“We have speed, but that’s not everything,” said Romain Dumas. “We are better than Audi on fuel: they are better than us on tyres.” “The Porsches are too fast,” said Audi’s Andre Lotterer. “There is no point chasing them in qualifying: we must think about racing twenty-four hours.”
No one seemed too downbeat at Audi when qualifying came to an end. The team has claimed Porsche scalps twice already this year: no reason to believe that La Sarthe cannot be the same. It’s going to be an exciting day’s racing, and that’s not including what happens behind LMP1.
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