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#18 Porsche Team Porsche 919 - Hybrid driven
by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb |
The classic expression
“Race on Sunday,
sell cars on Monday” must still be true. Looking at the investment the big
hitters have made this year, you have to believe they are not here for the benefit of their health. Take Porsche for instance, they have three race cars here in their current attempt at winning this classic race. It would be their first overall victory here at Le
Mans since 1998 (Aiello, McNish and Ortelli driving the Porsche GT1). Their first win was in 1970 with the Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood driving a 917. The ACO records show that there have been a total of 770 Porsche entries at Le Mans which is a record in its own right, 382 of those have finished in
the points. Their best year was 1971 when Porsches occupied 33 places on the 49
car grid.
This year, in addition to the three race cars, they have
brought along a spare chassis, six engines, six gearboxes, six ‘rear’ gearboxes,
nine front wings, nine rear wings, 80 wheels, 120 radios and headsets, 120 team
members (engineers, mechanics, and team management. This does not include Porsche communications
people, marketing staff, sponsorship support and of course driver support. Almost every building in La Sarthe seems to carry Porsche
branding somewhere. Even their VIP Shuttle cars are Porsche Cayennes. They will also be thinking about the world TV coverage of
millions and maybe even the 263,300 spectators that came to watch in 2014. We think they might be taking this seriously.
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#9 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro driven
by Filipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and René Rast |
So what about Audi? The Audi Group delivered around 1,741,100 cars in 2014. This
generated a revenue of €53.8 billion. Way back in 1980 Audi burst onto the
rally scene with the incredibly technically advanced Audi Quattro and its huge
success in motorsport did Audi’s image no harm at all and boosted their road
cars sales massively. Audi have always used Le Mans as a technological showcase
for their amazing diesel and hybrid developments. In 2006 they were the first
manufacturer to win with a diesel fuelled car, then by 2012 they were the first
manufacturer to win with hybrid technology. They tell us that in 2015 none of
the other manufacturers will consume as little fuel as Audi.
Their e-tron technology can now be found on the Audi A3, A4
and A8. Dr Wolfgang Ulrich says “This efficiency perfectly matches the ‘More
from less’ formula’ which is Audi ultra’s take-home message’" Audi plan to
invest around €24 billion between 2017-2019 primarily in new products and
sustainable technologies. Their long term goal is CO₂ ‘neutral’ mobility. So, like Porsche, they clearly see massive value in their
ongoing Le Mans involvement and successes. Audi Sport Team Joest is being run
by the legend that is Reinhold Joest who has been responsible for 15 overall
victories here at Le Mans. They are committed
to come back next year, after that who knows.
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#2 Toyota Racing Toyota TS 040 - Hybrid driven by
Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway |
Have Toyota lost the plot? Over the last 30 years Toyota have raced at Le Mans 17
times. Up until last year 40 separate cars have raced here. They visited the podium in 1992, 1994, 1999
and 2013. They picked some star drivers over the years like Alan Jones, Eddie
Irvine and of course three-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish. However they have
never won the race outright. This year they have Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima in the #1
car and Wurz, Sarrazin and Conway in the #2 car. There is a nice connection that it was Nakajima’s father, Satoru, who drove the car back in 1985. Toyota have always been committed to motor sport to develop
their technical and sales image. They were successful in International Rallying
for several years. They have of course
led the way with hybrids like the Prius which can claim to be the first ‘mass
market’ hybrid. So this links in well with their current race ambitions. So far this season has not gone to plan and the cars still
seem to be off the pace despite their best efforts to close the gap on Audi and
Porsche. But as the pundits often remind us
‘24 hours is a very long time to race’.. Imagine 12 F1 GP’s run back
to back flat out. So while they don’t maybe have the sheer pace of the other
big hitters they may well be back on the podium if the Audis and Porsches
suffer from reliability problems . But they can’t make any mistakes at all !
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#23 Nissan Motorsports Nissan GT-R Lm Nismo driven
by Olivier Pla, Jann Mardenborough and Max Chilton |
Finally where are Nissan heading with their GT-R LM Nismo? This is really is a highly innovative bit of machinery but to
be honest it may be here at Le Mans a year too soon. It is a remarkable bit of
kit that should have arrived as a hybrid and with four wheel drive, but it
has arrived here with a hybrid system that isn't working and only two wheel
drive, which is not ideal. The car really is ground breaking when you think back to the last front wheel
drive car to race at Le Mans, the Mini Marcos which finished 15
th
in 1966. Some cynics suggest that Nissan will do well to get
their cars to the finish and match the result recorded by the little Marcos. It definitely has the top speed in a straight line that can
match any of the big three.. it is the corners that present them with a bit of
a problem.
Manufacturers are here to sell cars, get exposure for their brand
and to explore future technologies. It is a very expensive way of doing things
but it is a well-trodden path over the entire history of the 24 hours since 1923.
