Audi LMP1 Discussion

[henk4]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

FYI Audi is ready for the race of the year

Wow, I thought you would put up a link saying: "Audi has just learned that the Le Mans 24 Hours will be held during the coming weekend....."

[henk4]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

There are only a few tracks in the world that would require an LM-spec bodywork for these cars:

Le Mans (obviously)
Paul Ricard (LMS only)
Monza (not on the schedule)
Fuji (non on schedule)

So back to my original question, why would Audi test sprint race body work at Monza of all places???????????

[chernaudi]

Originally Posted by henk4

So back to my original question, why would Audi test sprint race body work at Monza of all places???????????

Ask Mike, but even he was baffled by that one. But then again, you have to remember where Audi tested the sprint spec R15 last year--EuroSpeedway's infield road course, which is ideal for DTM and club racing, but not for an LMP car.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Ask Mike, but even he was baffled by that one. But then again, you have to remember where Audi tested the sprint spec R15 last year--EuroSpeedway's infield road course, which is ideal for DTM and club racing, but not for an LMP car.

Well, as far as I remember, the R15 was developed primarily for ALMS, which contains a number of tracks that are not suitable for an LMP(1) car....

[MulsanneMike]

Originally Posted by henk4

So back to my original question, why would Audi test sprint race body work at Monza of all places???????????

Yeah, no idea. Logic would say the items were for Le Mans. Where the hell are the shots from scrutineering? That will answer the question...

[chernaudi]

I agree with your assessment that the parts seem to be for the non-LM/non-low downforce tracks. But I'm also with you on why test at Monza? I know that it has fast corners and slow corners to test for HD aero, but it's Monza, def. not a downforce track by any real means--only maybe Le Mans may have less of a HD requirment.

I sort of doubt that Audi will run the what seems to be "sprint" spec stuff at LM, especially the diveplanes and such, but who knows, but their Sebring test stuff was their LM package according to them.

Edit: Videos from scrutineering show the R18s in the same spec as at the test day.

[Try Hard]

Originally Posted by MulsanneMike

R18 doesn't run any AC and it's pretty clear the ducts originate in the cockpit and plumb rearwards given the off branches that cool items along the way.

hehe... they scotches my thought, about using the AC to aid the cooling... I am with you mike as to where the flow comes from, as the ducts seem to suggest it comes out the back of the (closed) cockpit! Unless theres some form of ducting from the sidepod through and out(which seems like a way too torturous route), dictated by the frontal area. But even then, the duct seems to high up for that... guess it'll come out in the wash soon enough!

[Try Hard]

Originally Posted by MulsanneMike

Nothing to do with cockpit cooling and all to do with cooling the carbon bellhousing. Sam's straightened me out; hybrid would need prominent stickers on it to warn crews/marshals.

But is that only for a battery only install (a la F1 style KERS)... what about a Flybrid type device? As there's no electrical storage solution, which I guess is where the warnings come in, to speak of?

(Completely unsubstantiated rumour alert) Maybe someone at Audi has been paying attention to the Porsche GT3 Hybrid.....

On the testing front, wouldn't it be just to give a baseline to reference for the "sprint" bodywork? If you have two cars at the test, wouldn't be a stretch to have a few runs in the "sprint" spec to check it is performing right. Was there any confirmation of how many runs they did with the "sprint" parts? Maybe the ILMC really is that important...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by MulsanneMike

Yeah, no idea. Logic would say the items were for Le Mans. Where the hell are the shots from scrutineering? That will answer the question...

I shot the cars after scrutineering, they look very similar to what I have seen been before. (can't upload any of them here)
Logic then would say that Audi has been trying to fool some bystanders by issuing funny statements Do we actually know the source within Audi who mentioned what they were doing at Monza?

[chernaudi]

Where do you think that all the Audi/Peugeot/AMR testing videos from Monza have been coming from? Hard to keep things a secret when you're testing at a track that's in the middle of a public park! Hence, Pieter, no source from Audi (McNish in his Q&A at Fourtitude admitted that he didn't know what was going on, and that he couldn't say anything if he did), but photos and video from people who attended the tests (Monza even lists most teams private test sessions on their website!).

That's how this guy got all of these photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allmoto...7626757453288/

It's pretty easy to sneak into Monza (or at least close enough to the track) as it's part of a park near the city of Monza that's open to the public most of the year--the photos and videos were taken by people who seemed to have been able to sneak into the track.

Either Monza's circuit is part of the park and all but the racing surface is open to the public most of the year, or they have some rather lax security.

[henk4]

I have been to Monza...so we can only conclude that they were testing for the most important race of the season: Imola. (BTW, somebody close to Audi told me that Monza is very suitable for any sort of testing).

[Lppiesaudi]

Does anyone know what the length of Audi’s long runs were during practice? The Peugeot’s apparently achieved 12 lap stints and the Audi’s only 11 lap stints...is this true?

[gwyllion]

You can count the length yourself in http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/...ce_results.pdf if you don't believe me.

I calculated the average lap time of the long runs (excluding out lap and in lap).

#1 Audi did 11 laps with average lap time of 3:32.017.
#7 Peugeot did 12 laps with average lap time of 3:32.757.
#8 Peugeot did 12 laps with average lap time of 3:35.722.
#9 Peugeot did 12 laps with average lap time of 3:33.245.
#10 Oreca Peugeot did 11 laps with average lap time of 3:33.919.

The other Audis only did shorter runs.

[Lppiesaudi]

It will be interesting to see the fuel consumptions during the race, Audi will have an uphill struggle if the 12 laps vs 11 laps are the figures for the race. Will be interesting, still early days though.

[gwyllion]

Some interesting comments from Baretzky about the Audi V6 TDI engine: http://ing.dk/artikel/119858-le-mans...ar-engineering

“We thought about the package with two turbos, but we found it extremely compromising in terms of the exhaust and the arrangement,” says Ulrich Baretzky, Audi’s head of engine development. “You cannot do it in parallel, and we didn’t like that idea. Next to the fact that we have a closed car, we have the intake on the roof, so there is a straight line to the turbocharger, much easier with one than two. If you have a close look at the Peugeot, the air comes in and is distributed into two, and there are an awful lot of losses. We know that from our Bentley years that this cannot be done well.”

[ger80]

Audi did 12laps today

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by ger80

Audi did 12laps today

According to who? The link to the qualifying 2 pdf is broken: http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/..._2_results.pdf

Paul Truswell mentioned that Audi did 11 lap stints today? He did say that the average lap time was a lot quicker than Peugeot.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

According to who? The link to the qualifying 2 pdf is broken: http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/..._2_results.pdf

Paul Truswell mentioned that Audi did 11 lap stints today? He did say that the average lap time was a lot quicker than Peugeot.

Capello did a 12 lap stint today.

[Holt]

Audis lack of straightline speed due to more downforce?

Is that hurting their fuel mileage?

6 kph slower on the mulsane is significant

[MihokS5]

Congrats to Audi on grabbing pole at LM this year!

[gwyllion]

First pole for Audi since 2006. Of course Peugeot has shown repeatedly that pole is meaningless.

[henk4]

the six top cars within one second....

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by henk4

the six top cars within one second....

0.534 seconds to be precise...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by Acid09

0.534 seconds to be precise...

that is also within one second

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by henk4

that is also within one second

The exact number is a tad more spectacular though