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Just got back from vacation, so a bit late to this discussion.
I was at Rennsport and did spend a good bit of time following the 919evo around while I was there. Watched every session it ran, spoke with the drivers and engineers in between.
It was very strange. Very un-German, and very un-Porsche. It just seemed poorly planned (don't get me wrong, the event itself was incredible, one that every petrolhead must attend! I'm just referring to the 919) and executed.
Thursday, didn't run because they "Didn't have the special fuel for it"-per ECU engineer I spoke with at length. He also told me they were not going for a record. Judging by the way he spoke and his mannerisms I got the feeling they were going for the record, but didn't want to say so incase they couldn't reach it for some reason.
Friday I can't recall which driver was in it, but I was standing at the end of pit lane under the bridge. Watching him come out of turn 11, he was getting sideways each time and looked to really be pushing it. But then got off the gas in the 3-4-5 area. After the session went and spoke with the engineers again and all of a sudden they were mentioning the official and unofficial lap records down to the hundredth of a second.
Saturday watched from the corkscrew and then the top of the hill looking down on the circuit, the car never appeared even close to being driven in anger.
Sunday watched again from pit lane. This session was the most strange as the car kept coming in to change tires or the angle of the rear wing. Bamber was at the wheel this time and did appear to be pushing hard through the gears, but never came that quickly out of turn 11. Spoke with him afterwards and he mentioned the tires and wing not being ideal.
I thought for sure they would go for a lap record, I mean why not? I would guess that the car is capable of it.
One of my friends was taking with a Porsche executive in the VIP area (so this is hearsay). He said that the exec mentioned that the shortcoming has now become the drivers. The car is capable of going much faster and taking turns at a much higher rate of speed, however the drivers are not physically or mentally capable of committing to the cornering speeds. Makes sense I guess.
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