[h=2]Porsche playing cautious with LM24 expectations[/h] Wednesday, 14 June 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Images by Ehrhardt/LAT, Porsche Motorsport

Porsche 919 hybrid team principal Andreas Seidl says the German squad is ready to handle the changes that await the two-car program in Le Mans.


Its family rival from Audi is gone, and its remaining challenger, the highly motivated factory Toyota team, has added a third TS050 Hybrid for the sole purpose of stopping Porsche's winning streak. The subtraction of one competitor and amplification of another, according to Seidl, has not influenced how the back-to-back Le Mans winners will go about their business in France.

"For sure it is a shame that Audi is not there anymore, but in the end, that's history," he told RACER. "We have to look for the future and in terms of the approach for us as a team, it didn't change really anything. Our task is to build a race-winning car, and now the competition is Toyota.

"For sure, with them bringing three cars, based on the statistics, their chances are good. But on the other hand, our decision was clear that we stay on two cars and it is just extra motivation for us to do good."
Porsche's 919 Hybrid was a rocket on its introduction to Le Mans in 2014, and has received non-stop chassis, engine, hybrid system and aerodynamic developments throughout its lifespan. Although everything about the car has been replaced by new ideas and componentry, the same basic layout, using a 2.0-liter turbocharged V4 with dual energy recovery systems has been maintained.
Making giant leaps with the 919 Hybrid has, in Seidl's estimation, become a greater challenge with each return to Le Mans, but Porsche Motorsport managed to find more speed and power entering the 24 Hour.
"The revelations and the steps you make year by year are getting smaller," he said. "But at the same time, looking at the improvements we made on our side, over the winter there were still surprisingly breaks. We made a huge step on the combustion engine for this year, and we also found again improvements on the same old areas of the car – basics like aerodynamics, suspensions and so on.
Just as Porsche's engineers and designers have kept pushing to make technological breakthroughs with its LMP1s, Toyota has also been busy with its newer TS050 Hybrids. The best 919 Hybrid was a full 3.3 seconds behind the fastest TS050 Hybrid at the official Le Mans test earlier this month, which could position Porsche as an underdog for the first time since its return to the class.

"So, again looking at our car, we made a big step over the winter, but unfortunately, we have a competitor that might also beat that," Seidl said. "Looking at the tests, it's aggressive what Toyota did, but it was only the pretest so far and it's a long race week. Starting Wednesday, it's another long race, so we have to see how that turns out."
It would be impolite to suggest the Porsche team ran at anything less than 100 percent of the 919 Hybrid's maximum capabilities at the test. It would also be foolish to think the 3.3-second gap to Toyota will stand once the first round of qualifying arrives Wednesday night.
"We were focusing fully on the race preparation in the pretest, not going for any qualifying," he said. "For sure will go quicker again. We go through all the data we collected in the pretest and for sure we are still working on further improvements of the car. [It's] the same as well as for Toyota, so again it is difficult to judge it at the moment."
Changes on the driver side have also take place within the Porsche team since it won Le Mans 12 months ago. Reigning WEC LMP1 champion and Le Mans winner Neel Jani welcomes ex-Audi driver and Le Mans winner André Lotterer and Porsche's 2015 Le Mans winner Nick Tandy into the No. 1 919 Hybrid after Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb were transitioned out of the program.

After WEC LMP1 world champion Mark Webber retired, Porsche brought 2015 Le Mans winner Earl Bamber back into the prototype fold to join Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley in the No. 2 919 Hybrid, and from Seidl's viewpoint, the 50 percent turnover since 2016 won't be an issue.
"I definitely think one of our strong points would be this year that we have a very, very strong driver line-up," he said. "Performance of each these guys is quite equal and at the top level, and obviously that's something which is very important and throughout the 24 hours. In terms of the new guys coming in, obviously it's very interesting if you get a guy like Andre on board, with all this experience he has especially at Le Mans and his record that he has under his belt already, three times winner of this race. Plus, he has a lot of experience with another top competitor over many, many years.
"It took him some time to get used to our car, which is a bit of a different beast compared to the Audi he was used to, but we have seen now he's fully familiar with the car, with team. I think we can expect a lot from him also and together with Nick Tandy, who has shown in 2015 what he is able to do, and another strong guy came in, Earl, who has also shown this in 2015, they will be one of the key factors regarding our success this year."
Porsche's quest for three straight Le Mans wins is set with a solid car, star drivers and a stellar team ready to work around the clock on pit lane. The same can be said of the Toyota team, which makes this fight – a simplified one-on-one battle – worth following.
"It is a long race, 24 hours and everything can happen, and this is how we approach it," Seidl said. "We will try hard again, and everyone wants to win it three times in a row. We will give it all again, but we know also we will have a very, very strong competitor, who is desperate to win it finally."