by John Glynn | Jan 24, 2015 | Race and Rally
Much-loved Porsche maniac, French rally legend François Delecour, is currently leading the R-GT category of the 2015 Monte Carlo Rally. The event reached its mid-way point this evening, at which point Delecour’s 3.8-litre ex-GT3 Cup car was two and a half minutes ahead of compatriot and Porsche works driver, Romain Dumas in a GT3 RS 4.0.
Romain is doing a superb job in the 4-litre, matching Delecour’s pace to the second in some split sections on his first-ever Monte and setting faster times in a couple of stages. But Delecour is driving like a man possessed, because he is a man possessed: by a passion for this course. His previous Monte Carlo rallies don’t count for a great deal of pace, as the stages are brand new for everyone. It’s a very careful game of power versus know-how.
The rally kicked off last night (Thursday), with two long stages over a deadly ice-into-snow-into-dry-tarmac-into-ice surface. Everyone was running studded tyres: the only option in these freezing conditions, high in the mountains around the ski resort of Gap. Making his return to the WRC was fellow Porsche fancier and nine-time world champion, Sebastien Loeb, driving a one-off event for Citröen.
Reigning world champion, Volkswagen’s Sebastien Ogier, went first into the snow, setting a quick time right from the off. The WRC Live service streamed perfect TV pictures of the unfolding stage from Ogier’s front bumper, which were studied very closely. I was texting info back to the Tuthill service tent and maybe Loeb (below) was watching too, as he went out and set a time half a minute quicker than Ogier on the thirteen-mile section. The online rally world went nuts – such a great start to the Monte.
Three R-GT cars are running in this year’s Monte Carlo Rally: all of them Porsches. Delecour and Dumas are racing against Belgium’s Marc Duez in a 996 GT3 built to R-GT rules. Duez set an opening time of 20:38.0 over the stage. Dumas went 20:24.6: roughly 14 seconds quicker than Duez. Delecour went out with the bit between his teeth, setting a time of 19:01.2 – a full minute and 23 seconds faster than the 4-litre.
Stage 2 was another 20 kms. Delecour 16:56. Dumas 17:06, so another ten seconds chipped. Stage three took place early this morning (Friday) in thick fog and sheet ice. Delecour was eight seconds slower than Dumas, but went 17 seconds faster on the following stage.
On it went until the day’s final trial. This stage was a killer, with three top guys (Meeke, Loeb and Kubica) coming off heavily and ripping huge chunks off their cars. Delecour took it steady, finishing ten seconds slower then Romain, but with a lead now stretched to 2m30s. He was joyous on WRC Radio.
“It’s fantastic to drive a Porsche in Monte Carlo: it’s a dream,” he enthused. “When I was a little boy, I watched Waldegård and Nicolas, winning Monte Carlo in 911s, so today it is a dream for me to drive this car on this rally.
“Things now are more complicated than in the past, because we have to run these large tread tyres, which makes it very difficult to keep the car on the road in tricky conditions. But for now we are happy and will keep pushing hard.”
Pushing hard included losing his rear window and a brake line on Stage 5 (above), where he still went thirty-five seconds quicker over the course, with much-diminished rear brakes. The team changed the brake line and the rear discs and pads, and sent their young charger on his way.
“Our aim for this rally was a strong start to our R-GT Cup campaign,” says team boss, Richard Tuthill. “Everyone in the Tuthill Porsche workshop has worked tirelessly since the car’s last WRC outing on Rallye de France-Alsace, making changes required by the FIA and a few more based on driver feedback.
“François has also worked hard. His commercial efforts brought in a major new sponsor, and he’s maintained a high level of personal fitness through the winter. What we’ve seen in the last two days of rallying is a product of all that commitment.”
The 2015 Monte Carlo continues with four tricky stages on Saturday – including the two longest stages in the rally at 51 km and 36 km respectively – before finishing in the mountains above Monaco on Sunday afternoon. Follow the latest news and stage times on www.wrc.com or via @Tuthill_Porsche on Twitter.
Featured Photo Credit: Colin McMaster for McKlein Image Database
by John Glynn | Jan 16, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Pictures have just been released of the 2015 Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid, three of which will be raced at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours on June 13-14, with drivers including Formula 1’s Nico Hülkenberg.
Weissach rolled the car out onto the test track for various systems checks in December last year, but serious testing of Stuttgart’s WEC challenger kicks off in Abu Dhabi on January 18. More testing is scheduled before the opening round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship on April 12 at Silverstone.
Porsche’s 2015 LMP1 car is said to be “a comprehensive evolution of the successful car that made its debut in 2014. It features the same innovative drivetrain concept consisting of a 2-litre V4 turbocharged petrol engine, an electric motor powering the front wheels, and two energy recovery systems.”
What has been dropped? We don’t know. Details will emerge as the season progresses: it will also be interesting to see what pace the car runs when it gets to Silverstone, how hard it is on its tyres and whether Porsche applies any changes in approach to quali and race strategy.
2014 was a mixed bag for Porsche in the WEC, with some teething troubles on track and a serious crash for Mark Webber at Interlagos. The team did manage a win with the 919 – Dumas/Jani/Lieb (above) coming home first in Brazil – but only after Toyota had clinched the World Championship, following a virtually flawless season by Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Buemi. Here’s to better results for the car and our heroes in 2015.
edit: Daily Sportscar has done a quick analysis of 2014 919 vs 2015 model, also making the point that Porsche has gone to an 8mJ Hybrid system which requires more cooling. The initial changes are aerodynamic – at least Porsche has its own wind tunnel this year.
by John Glynn | Jan 14, 2015 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
The Paris-Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition of 1894 was one of the very first motorsport events, and gave rise to many more inter-city races over low-grade public roads. In 1911, the inaugural Monte Carlo Rally took early motorsport events to a whole new level as competitors started at points all over Europe, racing south to Monte Carlo. The world’s first proper rally would demonstrate automotive development, manufacturer reliability and the resilience of its participants.
Fast-forward just over a century, and Tuthill Porsche is on the verge of its first ever Monte Carlo Rally. Racing in this first part of the five-round 2015 R-GT Cup, it faces competition from two worthy adversaries, both highly talented and equally as passionate about motorsport.
Romain Dumas: 2015 Monte Carlo Rally
Romain Dumas is a former Le Mans winner, and winner of the 24 Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Nurburgring. A regular rally competitor in 911s, Romain is a Porsche works driver and pilots a 4-litre Porsche R-GT rally car for Monte Carlo. No change has been made to the 4-litre engine specification to bring it closer to the 3.8-litre cars.
Marc Duez
Marc Duez is a Belgian driver, highly regarded in European rallying. A former WRC driver in BMW M3, Toyota Celica GT4 and no end of Porsche 911s, Duez has claimed a number of top ten Monte Carlo finishes and is sure to be on form.
François Delecour
In the Tuthill Porsche camp is François Delecour: heart-sleeved legend of rally fans everywhere. A four-time winner in WRC, François has a “win it or bin it” reputation, which may not be entirely accurate but, whatever the story, he is adored. Tuthill has one word for Delecour: angry.
“François is an angry man,” said Richard Tuthill when interviewed at last week’s Autosport Show. He means it as a compliment. “Sleeves rolled up, let’s get to business, angry, angry man and a total legend.” With François to keep Tuthill Porsche firing along, Monte Carlo can’t come quick enough. Alongside François is Dominique Savignoni, with whom Delecour has won the last three Romanian rally championships.
Romania is a 50% sponsor of the Tuthill Porsche R-GT attack in 2015, with Richard Tuthill currently footing the bill for the other half. I don’t know many people who would be as brave with their money: Tuthill does not have an endless supply of cash and is well into this project already. Some might have left the car parked up for Monte Carlo and spent some money on classic Porsches instead, but that is not the Tuthill way. These are adventurous spirits, looking for the next thing in epicness and taking Porsche to the forefront of whatever that is.
In a fairytale world, François would have a small issue on the first day of the rally – maybe an off-piste in snow – find himself well down on Duez and Dumas and climb back up through the ranks before taking the win by four seconds on the final day. But there are no fairy tales in the WRC.
The politics of getting a quick GT car onto a rally stage alongside manufacturers who have invested millions of marketing Euros into making their hatchbacks look good are insane. Tuthill has a long way to go before its gravel spec R-GT is approved for stage use: an approval that has little to do with engineering. Anyone thinking the speed of the cars is down to the teams needs to wake up a bit: WRC status quo is not up for discussion.
Rallye Monte Carlo kicks off on January 19th and runs to the 25th. Some stages are up towards Grenoble, well north of Monaco, with weather ranging from -15 degrees with heavy snow to 9 degrees C and some sunshine. François Delecour will need all his wits about him if he wants to kiss a princess at the finish.
As for the gravel spec R-GT car, Chris Harris tested the car on gravel in Wales at the end of 2014. Chris is no rally driver, but he’s a capable racer who knows 911s and has driven every brand of hypercar for his popular videos. “This is the most exciting car I have driven all year,” he said. Watch this:
by John Glynn | Dec 21, 2014 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche has announced a series of changes to its motorsport programme for 2015. Next year’s schedule was set out at the annual Night of Champions, where Jaap van Lagen was awarded the Porsche Cup as the most successful private driver competing in a Porsche during 2014.
Van Lagen is in rarified company, as only the second Dutch driver in the trophy’s long history to win this prestigious award. The other Dutch champ was the great Gijs van Lennep, who claimed the first Porsche Cup from Ferry himself back in 1970. Jaap’s prize: a brand new 911 Carrera S. Well done that man!
This was a week with much to celebrate. Weissach enjoyed a successful roll-out of the 2015 Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid with Marc Lieb piloting. The first test is scheduled for January 18-22 in Abu Dhabi: hopefully will coincide with a trip I am taking there also.
Porsche Motorsport 2015
Great to see Earl Bamber get a works drive for 2015: another richly deserved step towards a very bright future. Bamber’s awesome performances in Supercup and as a works stand-in did the trick.
A pair of works RSRs will race in America, from the Daytona 24 season opener. Bamber will partner Fred Makowiecki and Jörg Bergmeister in car 911, while Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Marc Lieb share the sister 912. No mention yet of what super-quick Marco Holzer will be up to next year, but he was happy to tweet this pic of the boys decompressing with slot cars:
Taking Earl’s slot in Supercup is highly talented Italian teenager, Matteo Cairoli. I’m excited to see what Matteo can do in Supercup against the 2015 Porsche Juniors, Sven Müller and Connor de Phillippi. Also new to Supercup is incoming championship manager, thirty-three year-old Oliver Schwab. The former motorsport chief at Porsche China takes over from Jonas Krauss, who is leaving the company.
Every year, new names join the Porsche works squad and every year I expect to see someone lose out. While it has dropped two Juniors this year – farewell to Klaus Bachler and Alex Riberas – Porsche still maintains the biggest works driver lineup that I can remember, and more names will join for Le Mans, when Nico Hülkenberg (below) slides into the Porsche LMP1. We’re all keen to see who will partner the German, and how he will fare at La Sarthe. No one is keener than Porsche CEO, Matthias Müller.
“Motorsport is the soul and principle of this company,” said Herr Müller. “The best and most innovative technologies in our roadgoing sports cars come directly from motorsport.” A sentiment echoed by Wolfgang Hatz. “For Porsche, racing is more than an end in itself. On race tracks around the world, we test and develop technologies that are relevant for our sports car customers on the street.”
For all the chat about racing to develop road car technology, some of us go racing for one reason only: beating the rest. If we’re not winning, we’re losing, and we don’t like to lose! I’m not that bothered about how many cars Porsche sells, as long as each of these boys races their nuts off, and hopefully brings us to victory. The 2015 team looks like a potential winner to me, as it must be to beat the awesome Toyota squad. Roll on 2015!
by John Glynn | Nov 30, 2014 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
Congratulations to Carlos Sainz Junior for securing a Formula 1 drive next year with Scuderia Toro Rosso. The well-deserved drive comes following a championship-winning season in World Series by Renault, and a few days sliding the Tuthill Porsche Below Zero Ice Driving cars, which Junior’s dad and two-time World Rally Champion, Carlos Senior, decided would boost his son’s speed in tricky conditions.
“Carlos Jr. is fully focused on his racing career, so of course we are here mostly for fun,” said Carlos Sr. (below) at the Below Zero Ice Driving campus, “but the experience should still help him understand the feel of a car a bit when grip is reduced, such as when it is raining.”
Carlos Sainz Jr Porsche Ice Driving
Arriving straight from Rally Sweden, the Sainz family enjoyed Tuthill’s Below Zero Ice Driving on the frozen lakes around Åre, one of Scandinavia’s premier winter sports resorts. Carlos and his brother Antonio are popular faces in the Tuthill Porsche camp. Antonio runs rally Porsches in Spain which Carlos employs to great effect, and the cars feature many Tuthill Porsche rally parts.
While discussing the impending engine rebuild on my 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 with Tuthill’s engine guru last Friday, another engine arrived from Spain with Antonio’s name on it. A great relationship exists between the rally families, and Tuthills are also gearing up for some WRC R-GT filming with Carlos Junior’s Red Bull sponsors this winter. Hopefully we’ll see some of that before Rallye Monte Carlo, where the 997 R-GT will be back to rallying action.
Following the warmer temperatures Sweden has experienced in the last few winters, Below Zero has a shortened season on the frozen lakes next year. The team has set just six weeks aside for ice driving in 2015, from the 14th of January to the start of March.
Almost 150 car days have already sold out, so the team is looking forward to its most successful season yet. Those interested in joining an increasingly prestigious list of participants (including Mr Adrian Newey!) should email Belo Zero. Tell them we sent you, of course.
