The 2016 World Endurance Championship has officially kicked off with the recent two-day ‘Prologue’ warm-up event at Paul Ricard. Porsche brought both 2016 919 LMP1 Hybrids to the circuit, covering a total of 2,197 kilometres.
Drivers Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb ran their car on day one, with reigning World Champions, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber taking their turn on day two. Each session finished with a Porsche 919 Hybrid leading the time sheets. The overall fastest lap was set by Brendon Hartley.
“It was trouble-free running for both our new cars,” said Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1, “and we have received positive feedback from our drivers. Therefore we are confident for the opening round at Silverstone on April 17. Only there it will be possible to judge the overall competition.”
“Running two cars was a good dress rehearsal for the team before the first race,” said Team Principal, Andreas Seidl (above). “The drivers have done a lot of testing during recent weeks but at the Prologue they were facing on-track traffic for the first time since last year’s finale. By the end of the two days, we had achieved the targets we had set ourselves in terms of season preparation.”
2016 FIA WEC Calendar
The 2016 WEC season starts at Silverstone later this month, kicking off nine races in total: Le Mans at 24 hours and eight more six-hour events. Mexico is a new race for 2016, with the rest of the calendar mirroring last year. “We are proud to have maintained the level of stability in the four years of the WEC,” said Pierre Fillon, President of ACO. “The time is right to expand the WEC, and the nine-race calendar allows us to continue to build the tradition of six-hour events. Of course, the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans is the race that everyone knows about and wants to compete in, but the legend is now being extended to the six-hour races as well and moving into countries with strong historic links to endurance, such as Mexico City.”
The 2016 FIA WEC calendar is as follows:
17 April: 6 Hours of Silverstone, UK
07 May: WEC 6 Hours of Spa, Belgium
18/19 June: 24 Hours of Le Mans, France
24 July: 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Germany
04 September: 6 Hours of Mexico City, Mexico
17 September: 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, USA
With less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season, Porsche’s LMP1 Technical Director, Alexander Hitzinger, has left the team. News reports claim that Hitzinger has handed in his notice to focus on projects outside motorsport.
To be honest, I find the idea of Hitzinger working on projects outside of motorsport pretty ridiculous. Previously employed as Head of Advanced Technologies for Red Bull Racing (2006-2011), with a year also spent as Technical Director for Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One Racing, Hitzinger lives and breathes motorsport.
Alex Hitzinger: Motorsport Fanatic
Fascinated by motor racing since his earliest days, Alex Hitzinger studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Landshut, Bavaria before gaining an MBA from the University of Warwick. His first automotive job was as a development engineer with Toyota Motorsport in 1997. There he met Carlos Sainz, who he followed to Ford in 2000, where he was made Head of Ford-Cosworth World Rally Championship Development and later overall head of the Cosworth-Ford WRC programme, which was based in Northampton.
From Head of WRC, in 2003 Hitzinger became Head of Cosworth-Ford F1 Development, leading the team that built the Cosworth CA 2.4-litre V8, which became famous for peak revs of 20,000 rpm. In 2006, he was poached by Red Bull, where he stayed until 2011 and the move to Porsche.
Alex Hitzinger: Future Directions
In 2014, Hitzinger was voted the Rising Star for Engineering in the prestigious Automotive News Europe Rising Star awards. An interview for the awards PR asked Alex what job he really wanted to have in the future. “I am very happy with what I am doing right now,” he said. “This is what I always wanted: to have a challenging leadership role in a very demanding project in top-level motorsports. But I could also imagine changing directions at some point in the future, to broaden my horizons. I am entrepreneurial in everything I do, always seeking a challenge.”
Perhaps Alex Hitzinger has changed direction to find a new challenge. But to do it within weeks of the WEC season start and just days after pre-season F1 testing finishes? That is a heavy coincidence for one of the people best placed to bring real success to a struggling F1 hybrid programme. We could see a non-compete contract clause playing out before he pops back up in an F1 paddock. Whatever happens, his departure is a blow to the Porsche LMP1 team. The team has no immediate plan for Hitzinger’s replacement.
“On behalf of Porsche I want to thank Alexander Hitzinger very much for his huge contribution to the outstanding successes of the Porsche 919 Hybrid,” said Fritz Enzinger, Porsche’s VP of LMP1. “Alexander was one of the first people to come on board at the end of 2011. I appreciate his desire for a new challenge.”
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.
It’s now one week since I returned from my first trip to Africa, following the East African Safari Classic Rally with Tuthill Porsche as their photographer/media person. It was a brilliant experience: the team won the rally with Blomqvist, but even better stuff happened en route.
Pre-trip advice from friends who had visited Africa many times before was not positive. Guaranteed to be robbed, suffer food poisoning or worse, heatstroke or worse, malaria or worse, Ebola or worse: bring your own doctor and touch nothing would be a fair summary of their shared insights. Well, we did bring our own doctor (take a bow, paramedic and all-round good bloke, John Jones) but I didn’t require his attention. It was all smooth sailing once we found our rhythm.
I followed the doc’s advice and drank at least two litres of water a day, then added some simple precautions – no salads, kept my mouth closed while showering and brushed my teeth with bottled water, used antiseptic wipes to clean my hands and mouth a few times daily, brought some magic Avon mosquito repellent – and, while some of the guys I was travelling with had problems, I survived mostly intact. I wouldn’t do anything differently next time regarding keeping things clean, but I would look to sleep more, and spend more time talking with locals where possible. The best times in East Africa came from the people.
My ten bits of African travel advice (Kenya & Tanzania) for a first-timer virgin like me are as follows:
It will take you at least three days to get used to the heat, especially in humid parts like Mombasa
You will never get used to the heat, just endure it for longer. More altitude means you burn faster
Sleep is your very best friend. Get sleep and all will be well
Pack half the clothes you think you need, then get rid of half of them and bring a tube of travelwash
Come home with less than you brought (give shoes & clothes away at the end)
Pack plenty of earplugs, a decent sunhat and spare sunglasses
All shorts must have a front zip pocket for your passport: do not let it out of your sight. Be aware of who is around and keep cameras etc on your person
Neutrogena factor 60 sunblock is rubbish. Nivea 50 worked well for this blue-skinned European
Malaria is real. Take the drugs
Make sure your mobile/cellphone can roam in the countries you plan to travel to, and any country on their borders
Say hello to everyone – you will get the biggest smile back
There are eleven bits of advice there. Another tip from Africa is limits are for Westerners. There are mostly no rules: do whatever fits the bill and talk/smile your way out of trouble with officials. If you’re struggling with red tape, directions, airport check-in or whatnot, let a local help you. Even if they are no help (sometimes happens), chances are they will bore whatever officialdom is delaying your progress into returning your paperwork and sending you on your way. But mostly they are helpful, as long as you’re not in a rush. So don’t be in a rush. Also don’t be afraid to gatecrash VIP queues: it usually works.
Everything you carry is currency, be it local money, clothing, US dollars or just a bottle of water, even if it is empty. You will get by quite nicely if you’re ready to spend some time and play the game of “hey boss, take my picture and give me five dollars”. Obviously you’re not giving anyone five dollars to take their picture, but ask for permission to take a pic if that’s what you want. Then ask what people are doing, find out what happens in town, talk to people and soak up the experience. They soon understand there is no money coming and the people I met didn’t mind. That said, I have read a few horror stories so be prepared to make excuses and leave: “let me get you some lunch from my friends over there” or “I’ll just go and talk to my boss and get you something”.
Good advice from Richard was don’t give kids money, or anything else. Giving a kid money just means a bigger kid will beat them up and take it, then someone bigger than him will take it. Donate to community organisations if you feel so inclined – your accomodation manager knows who to talk to. In hotels or lodges, tip the luggage guys a few hundred shillings, buy a drink for the barman (chances are they will drink it and chat for a while), give your hotel chef a t-shirt, do all that stuff. But remember rules are for Westerners, so don’t follow my rules.
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.
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