by John Glynn | Jul 6, 2014 | Race and Rally
Michelin has sent through another great “We Are Racers” video, featuring the Porsche Le Mans highlights from 2014. “We Are Racers” documents Michelin at Le Mans 2014 through a series of motorsports visions, shot with French flair and exploring the drama of race life in the pits, as a team.
Watching the video gave me pangs of withdrawal, and I’m just a Porsche enthusiast writer. Imagine what it’s like for a winning mechanic, a driver or car designer. What must their weeks without Le Mans be like?
I recently watched a great documentary on Gordon Murray: the South African-born racing designer, famous for Brabhams and winning McLarens. For all of his F1 wins (more than 50 in total), Murray maintains that Le Mans is many times more difficult than Formula One when you consider what the car has to go through: an entire F1 season in 24 hours. An old school F1 season, that is.
After 20 years in F1 engineering, Murray retired from the sport to seek out new challenges. Keen to keep Murray’s ability away from the competition, Ron Dennis agreed to Murray establishing the McLaren F1 road car programme. Based around drawings from Murray’s early career, the 1100-kilo, 630 bhp F1 was the ultimate supercar: a zero-compromise driving machine, embodying the design philosophy of individual.
“I said from day one that we should never consider the F1 as a racing car because that would compromise it,” Murray noted. “Inevitably, there were customers who wanted to change that, and the GTR was the result. On its first visit to Le Mans in 1995 it won a historic victory.”
I’ve been up close and personal with a number of McLaren F1s, and they are a very special motor cars. Murray tells how only one day was allowed in the wind tunnel to develop the aerodynamics for the Le Mans McLaren F1. An aero-kitted road car, he gives his only regret as not having driven the winning machine to Le Mans and back.
Years after winning Le Mans with a car of his design, Murray’s passion for La Sarthe remains highly intense. But that winning car never bore his own name. So imagine Ferdinand Porsche in 1970, winning with a car that did have his name. Imagine having a hand in that car’s success: success that would be followed by many more Porsche winners. This is the spirit of “We Are Racers”. Perhaps our next win will come in 2015 – Michelin’s video sets us up for that dream.
by John Glynn | Jun 15, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche was denied a win at the 2014 24 Hours of Mans today, when the leading number 20 919 LMP1 Hybrid retired in the last two hours of the race.
Mark Webber had just taken over the 919 from Timo Bernhard, who was thirty seconds in front of a charging number 2 Audi. TV cameras picked up Webber as the 919 slowed dramatically, stuck at 60 km/h. The former F1 star showed his class in remaining calm under the extreme pressure of the moment, running through a series of checks, but it was obvious this was a serious issue.
“Misfire, misfire, high oil temperature,” was Mark’s message over the radio as he headed for the pit lane. The car came home and was duly dismantled, but slumped shoulders a few minutes later said it all. Webber slapped his crew chief on the back and that was it: number 20 was out of the race. Partners Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley could only ponder what might have been.
Number 14 was still running, now in P4 in the LMP1 class. Marc Lieb was putting useful laps together when suddenly he reported gearbox problems. The car came back into pit lane and the engine cover was removed but again the lack of activity suggested something close to terminal. As mechanics polished the number 14, Lieb stood by with his helmet on, clearly hoping to get back on track for a final classification.
The 14 did get back out for photo opportunities with the chequered flag and appears on the final lap timings, but Eurosport claims it was not officially classified, so we wait to confirm that. Audi had the finish line all to themselves, with a 1-2 finish for cars 2 and 1 in that order. The number 92 Porsche 911 RSR of Fred Makowiecki took third place in the GTE-Pro category, behind Bruni’s Ferrari and Garcia’s Corvette.
Le Mans is disappointing for all fans of Porsche, but of course this is only round 3 of the 2014 World Endurance Championship. We now have almost three months to the 6 Hours of Austin at Circuit of the Americas on September 20th, so plenty of time to consider the data, develop the car further and go for the series title.
No one will hold this disappointment against the Porsche team. They gave the race everything, and 2014 was a great race for motorsport fans. Kudos to Weissach and on to the next one.
by John Glynn | Jun 15, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Headlines this hour in the Ferdinand Magazine live blog from Le Mans: Porsche retakes lead at Le Mans with the 919 LMP1 Hybrid and is lapping well with Timo Bernhard at the wheel.
When Tom Kristensen’s number 1 Audi stopped on track for a full electrical reset, a misfire appeared which brought the leader back into the pit box. The car is still in the garage, with mechanics rushing to put it back together.
Porsche number 20 slipped into the lead with Audi number 2 really charging hard. There are some interesting radio messages coming off the Audi pit wall – will the car stay reliable?
We’re a long way from the chequered flag, but what a turn around for Stuttgart. On board footage from the 919 shows notable vibration, and the last few corners before the 20 car’s most recent pit stop seemed to suggest a misfire, so who knows what the next three hours have in store.
Podium for the 919 would be an awesome result. Outright win for the 919: can you imagine it?!
by John Glynn | Jun 14, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Almost seven hours into the 2014 Le Mans 24-Hour and night’s drawing in over Circuit de la Sarthe. Following a crazy first quarter, Porsches have run at the front of each category they are competing in, but are now slightly further down the order.
“We struggled at the beginning in the high ambient temperatures,” said 919 pilot, Neel Jani, who was mesmerising through his opening stint in pursuit of the Audis, dicing for position at 200 mph. “We a small problem with a 20p screw coming loose in the fuel pump, which dropped fuel pressure and took us a while to sort out, but now we are back up to speed and trying to get places back.”
Rain played a big part in this afternoon’s racing. Two huge rainstorms brought the safety cars out and Porsche pulled places back by playing it smart. Dempsey Racing in GTE-Am took the lead by staying on slicks. The team now runs down in fourth position, but its best lap is 3:58.4 versus 3:55.7 for the P2 Aston. Beating that ultimate pace could be a big ask.
The RSRs have been battling hard, with Holzer v Bergmeister very close at one stage. Were they holding each other up? Bruno Senna seemed to think so, as he threw the 97 Aston in between them before making quick work of Marco and shooting off into second place, in pursuit of the leading Ferrari. Then again, Senna isn’t carrying a 25-kilo ballast penalty or a smaller intake restrictor.
Porsche 919 Hybrid goes off at Le Mans
As I started to write this, Brendon Hartley’s 919 went off at Arnage. Looked like a lock up, but then he struggled to find reverse in the car. Pushed back on track, he came in the pits for service and driver change to Mark Webber, with quite a lot of animation in the garage.
“I locked up the front,” said Brendon afterwards. “I felt we had a puncture in the stint before, so we changed tyres and got back on it. We had a bit of a balance shift half way through that stint, which we need to look into, but it all seems to be running fine. I feel like I’ve done a good job for my first stint with Porsche on its return to Le Mans.” Having watched the race for six hours solid, I would not disagree.
Still such a long, long way to go. Porsche is P4 and P6 in LMP1 with Webber and Dumas going well. Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy run P5 and P6 in GTE-Pro, but their bast lap times are down on the leading Corvette. Corvette looks like a winner, but another safety car has killed their lead gap. The GTE battle is not a long gap – they will be driving these cars flat out to the finish.
by John Glynn | Jun 11, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
The Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid cars finished first qualifying for the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour at the top of the timesheets. Who would have predicted that?!
This was the second of today’s track sessions, both of which were interrupted by red flags due to accidents on track. Today’s free practice was interesting for the 919s, which spent quite a bit of time testing cooling setups. Starting at 16:00hrs in high-20s ambient temperatures, Marc Lieb was first out in the number 14 car, with Webber taking the early laps in the number 20. Tandy took the number 91 911 RSR to start, with Marco Holzer running number 92.
As Toyota topped the times in their super quick TS040s, Audis followed on and Porsches brought up the rear of the LMP1 hybrid class. The Weissach prototypes were in and out of the garage, engine covers on and off and noses being swapped. Holzer’s 911 slung a driveshaft after less than half a lap, and was soon back in the pits. Quick Nick “Mr T” Tandy seemed to have no trouble, going second fastest in class as the session progressed.
The big news from practice was a huge accident for the number 1 Audi of Loic Duval. Eurosport’s pictures briefly showed the wreckage at the start of the Porsche Curves: it looked properly destroyed from the angle we saw. Spectators reported the car flying through the air and hitting the armco roof-first: yet to be confirmed. Audi has just confirmed that Loic has grazed his leg but is otherwise said to be OK, and the number 1 Audi should be rebuilt by tomorrow. Amazing!
At the halfway point in tonight’s two-hour qualifying session, the course was closed yet again by red flag, as Stéphane Sarrazin’s number 7 Toyota – third quickest overall – stopped early on a lap straight out of the pits. Stephane was refusing to get out of the car, but the tractors have now lifted it off the track, so I presume they crowbar’d him out of it.
While this was going on, Fernando Rees’ Aston had a big smash – again in the Porsche Curves – which completely destroyed one side of his car and damaged the barriers too heavily for the session to continue. Qualifying was cut short, and the Porsches finished on top.
The quickest Toyota has clocked a 3:25.313 in this night time session, but the Porsches are flying. Number 20 (Webber/Hartley/Bernhard) tops the times on a 3:23.1 (woohoo – great job by Brendon who is bloody amazing) with the 14 car up its chuff, eight tenths behind. Tomorrow is another day, but what a perfect start!
