It's the quiet ones you have to watch...
The big battle in sports car racing this year is between two teams with the quietest cars on the grid. Audi and Peugeot are competing to see who has the best turbo-diesel – and the main prize is, of course, Le Mans
By Rob Widdows
Might this really be the best sports car battle in years? Four races into the season, and with the Le Mans 24 Hours ahead of us, we can categorically answer that question. The answer is yes.
Finally, after the best part of a decade of dominance, Audi is vulnerable. It’s bad enough for the men from Ingolstadt to find they are beatable in the American Le Mans Series, by a second division prototype no less, built by arch-rival Porsche. But now Audi’s grip on the European scene is slipping, too. Peugeot is gunning for its crown, on equal terms in both cars and drivers. It’s the duel of the diesels, and a battle that will be fought most fiercely at Le Mans this month, then rage on into the summer at the Nürburgring and Silverstone.
Audi R10 TDi versus Peugeot 908 HDi has already delivered on its promise in the 1000km Le Mans Series races held so far. The score so far is Peugeot 3 – Audi 0. Le Mans is next – and it might just be the race of the year.
The Sebring 12 Hours, the opening round of the American Le Mans Series in March, is traditionally the best form guide we have for Le Mans. Twelve hours at the bumpy Florida airfield is considered tougher on machinery than 24 at Le Mans. On this occasion, the single Peugeot was mighty quick, if fragile. But the biggest surprise was that the Audis did not run in their usual clockwork fashion, and the feeling was they lacked pure speed over a single lap. As that 3-0 score suggests, the European-based Le Mans Series races since haven’t exactly gone to plan for Audi either. The German giant is on the back foot heading into the all-important Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans.
At Sebring, the Audis suffered broken front suspension, a failing turbocharger and overheated front brake discs. None of this had ever happened before. The single Peugeot was hobbled by hydraulic leaks in the paddle-shift system, wheelbearing failures and a broken hydraulic pump. Then, at Barcelona, Audi had an alternator belt failure and slow punctures, while Peugeot went on to a convincing win. Monza was blighted by a controversial Audi-Peugeot clash that led to a win for the French, and there was another collision at Spa, too, where Jacques Villeneuve scored his first major race win for 11 years.
But in terms of Le Mans, what have we really learnt? Conclusions for the unique challenge of the 24 Hours are always hard to reach. Here’s an example: back at Sebring, Peugeot experimented with double-stinting its Michelin tyres on the notoriously rough and abrasive circuit. The R10 traditionally does but a single stint on a set of Michelins over this kind of surface. Bad news for Audi? Except that at Le Mans, the R10 can run as many as three consecutive 40-minute stints on a single set, keeping the driver on board, and only stopping for fuel during that two-hour period.
What is not in doubt is the outright speed of the Peugeot. At Sebring the car was consistently quicker than the Audi over a stint and comfortably fastest in qualifying. Speed is no advantage without endurance, but don’t forget that these days sports car races are sprints – from flag to flag – even at La Sarthe. Incredible, yes, but true. They are racing, not enduring.
So perhaps this is the single most important piece of evidence we have ahead of Le Mans. On pure pace, Peugeot has a clear edge.
These two modern giants of sports car racing have both chosen the turbo-diesel route, but their approaches to the sport are more contrasting. Perhaps it comes from the cultural differences: the German team is military in its approach and organisation, while the French squad is more flamboyant, more adventurous in its quest for speed, unmistakably Gallic in atmosphere. Both are totally committed, totally focused in the modern way, but refreshingly different in style. As are their leaders.
In the silver corner is Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, the vastly experienced ringmaster at Audi Sport. Here is a highly qualified engineer, professorial and a much respected man within the team. He has no intention of letting his rivals get any closer than they came in Florida.
“Well, it’s true to say I was very surprised by the problems we had with the cars,” he says. “We know Sebring is tough and if it doesn’t break there, then it’s not going to break. But it did. Never before have we had failures with the front brake discs – they are not designed to be changed during a race, and there will be a full investigation into what caused the problems. Same for the suspension, but this is why we do Sebring – it is a very important preparation for Le Mans, the most important.
“To be confident in motor racing is dangerous and we must never underestimate our opposition. Sure they will be our main competitor at Le Mans, but our development is an ongoing story. There are always new things on the car and we are committed to racing as long as we can continue to bring new and thrilling technologies, which will also benefit our customers in their road cars.
“Audi Sport and Audi road car development is not separated – we share our information and we learn together. What we find on the track we pass on to our road car engineers, simple as that. We are always looking to win the toughest and the most prestigious races, and they are the most exciting, which is why Le Mans is so important for us. And, you know, Audi has passion. If you want to be successful in motor racing and you have no passion, then you will not succeed, end of story.”
In the red-white-and-blue corner is Serge Saulnier, ruling the roost at Peugeot Sport. Urbane, charming and very much an ambassador, he nonetheless has a steely will to take Peugeot back to the rostrum again at Le Mans following the two Group C wins in 1992 and ’93, but this time with diesel power.
“Last year was a training year,” he says, “everything was new and very challenging with the diesel engine, you know? But this is a year to prove ourselves. We expect a great battle with Audi and we expect to beat them, not every time, but most importantly at Le Mans. We have learnt many things testing at Paul Ricard but a simulation is not a race, so it’s important for us to race before Le Mans.
“You can simulate as much as you want, but we have needed to test the car against the Audi, to find reliability, to prepare for the 24 Hours, even though the car will be in a different specification in June. We needed to know, for example, about the effects of the high temperatures on the engine, the gearbox on all our new developments. We have big improvements in the gearbox, the steering and the paddle-shift. As we have proved in the Le Mans Series in Europe last year, and this year too, we can win over 1000 kilometres but we do not yet know if we have both speed and reliability over 24 hours, and that is the important bit for us. To win at Le Mans, at home in France, that’s our priority.”
This really is a battle of the giants, two prize fighters dancing around each other, waiting to see who will land the killer punch in the département de la Sarthe. Neither is yet on the ropes, but equally neither has a clear advantage. Audi’s recent record at Le Mans is perfect and impressive, but Peugeot is looming large in its silver mirrors. Nobody is more acutely aware of this than the drivers, all of whom know better than to count their chickens. Interestingly, there is not a lone superstar among them, save perhaps for Jacques Villeneuve’s much vaunted second appearance with the French squad. From tyre fitter to team manager this is, above all else, a team effort.
In the red and silver suits we have the likes of Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen. In the blue and white suits are Stéphane Sarrazin, Nicolas Minassian, Pedro Lamy and Villeneuve.
“We have a real fight on our hands, no question,” grins the ever-enthusiastic McNish, who shares with Capello. “We have seen that the Peugeot is very fast over a lap but the critical thing is do they have 24-hour reliability? It is quite agile in traffic, they can move the car around well, and they seem to have some new tricks in the downshifting into the corners. So, yes, it will be close, very close. When you follow them, you can see these things, but I think it’s a more nervous car and that may tell over 24 hours. We are working hard on improving the R10 – we are good on strategy, good on pitstops, so I am confident.
“I’m not actually worried about the problems we had at Sebring – these have been investigated in very typical Audi fashion. They go away, they digest it, they examine it in absolutely minute detail and then they come up with a solution – a cast-iron 100 per cent solution.
So I’m always confident that any problems will be solved in time for Le Mans. There’s a lot more to winning Le Mans than just sheer pace over one lap and our race pace there has always been good. Peugeot do seem to have a little more top end speed than us but that’s probably more a matter of aerodynamics than engine power. We are very close on how many laps we do on a tank of fuel – if anything, I think we can eke out a little more than them. We have better low-speed grip and traction and I’m sure we’ll have reliability.
“But their driver line-up does not suggest they’re going to Le Mans for a run around – they’ve learnt a lot since 2007, and they’ll be there in June with an all-out attack. But so will we. It’s going to be a major, major fight, and the three races in Europe have just ramped up the rivalry.
“Peugeot will have huge support on their home soil, and quite right too, but hopefully there’ll be a few Brits out there supporting us. Sports car racing is on a real high right now, with more major manufacturers coming in, and the big teams are right up there on the level of Formula 1, no question.”
Minassian, consistently one of the quickest men in the Peugeot suits, is also optimistic.
“Yes, the car feels good, like a real racing car,” he says. “It’s great to drive – you can really throw it around and you can be very accurate with it. We have the speed, but that’s not enough to win at Le Mans. We have the closed car, of course, and maybe that is a tiny advantage in outright straightline speed, but we use our tyres well too, and that helps. We have had our learning year and now we can fight the Audi, this I know. I can’t tell you about all the steps we have taken [the engineers from Velizy are quick to throw a large red cover over the back of the car every time it stops], but we still have to prove our reliability.”
The only Peugeot driver not to have tasted the highs of Grand Prix racing, Minassian is more than happy to be in the new vanguard of sports car racing. “I love these cars and the racing is very competitive now. Also, it is more relaxed, I think, than Formula 1 – the fans are closer to us and there is a happy atmosphere. The team is good too, you know – we work well together and to win at Le Mans, for France, for Peugeot, would just be so fantastic. This is our goal, this is what we were preparing for at Sebring and what we worked towards in the following three races in Europe.”
So far so good for Minassian, with wins at Barcelona and Spa, and the Audis hobbled by failures and slow punctures. But one swallow, not even a brace, does not make a summer, especially not in northern France. No, there’s a long way to go before the winning car crosses the line at La Sarthe at three o’clock (it’s an hour earlier these days) on the afternoon of Sunday June 15.
“Of course, we remain confident,” says Dr Ullrich, “but we are very focused, working flat out to solve each and every problem. We are being chased harder by our friends from France but we know how to win and we study every detail. This is our way.”
And it is very much the way of top engineering boffin Ulrich Baretzky, the architect of Audi’s hitherto superior performance in the duel of the diesels. Baretzky’s V12 TDi is a masterpiece of modern diesel engineering, the benchmark in its field.
“The build-up to Le Mans is a crucial time for us,” he says, always happy to talk about his beloved engines. “We are gathering data all the time, at every test and race. There’s a long way to go before the finish of the 24-hour race and our programme is not about setting fastest laps, but about reliability – that is of far more importance. We take nothing for granted. Racing and track testing are vital to our preparation – you simply cannot simulate everything on a dynamometer, or in the factory. The earlier in the year that we find our weak points, and they are few, then the earlier we can find the solutions. We are not looking for a trouble-free run in testing, we are looking for a trouble-free run in the races, especially at Le Mans, and we are always breaking new ground, discovering new things, developing new performance advantages.
“Diesel power for racing cars is a very exciting area and in future there will be other alternative fuels and technologies which will benefit our road cars in the way that the TDi has done. I see no reason for racing to be noisy, to be deafening on the ears, and the new generation of fans will come to this way of thinking. Our engines are clean, they are quiet, and they produce tremendous torque at low revs. Racing drivers, who are accustomed to very high-revving petrol engines, find this difficult at first – but they come to love the low-down power and flexibility of the turbocharged diesel technology. Motor racing is changing, and it has to change with the times. This year we have competition and this can only be good for our development.”
Roll on Le Mans, then, and after that the Nürburgring and Silverstone. The consensus of opinion suggests a vintage battle at La Sarthe. It is always easier to hunt than be hunted, but only a fool would underestimate Audi. Its strength and experience counts for so much.
Enjoy le grand weekend en France, and happy camping, mes amis. May the best team win. Which reminds me – good luck to Aston Martin, too. But that’s another story.
Class: GT1
It’s seconds out, round four in the no-holds-barred Aston Martin versus Chevrolet slugfest. The Prodrive-run Aston DBR9 (above) finally notched up a maiden GT1 win at Le Mans last year, a race which witnessed the first retirement at La Sarthe for a factory Chevy Corvette. The American team, run by Pratt & Miller, is out for revenge in a class that has a habit of providing the best racing in the place. And the fact that the Astons carry the famous blue-and-orange of Gulf Oil can only add to the spectacle.
Chevrolet returns with an unchanged roster of drivers, which boasts talents such as Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen. Aston has four changes to its line-up, yet all the newcomers are experienced DBR9 racers with one exception. And he happens to be a certain Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
Aston had the narrowest of performance advantages last year and led most of the way, though Chevrolet was always waiting a lap behind to pick up the pieces. The chase of the two DBR9s was led by the Corvette of Magnussen, Johnny O’Connell and Ron Fellows, which is not always the fastest of the two C6.Rs. One contention is that the sister car driven by Gavin, Beretta and Max Papis, which went out early with a propshaft failure, might have been able to put the winning Aston of David Brabham, Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell under greater pressure.
Gavin believes so. “We would have been there or thereabouts; we felt comfortable,” he says. “We’re confident going into this year’s race and have a few things up our sleeves.”
There are six other GT1 cars in the field. The Team Modena Aston and the best of the two Luc Alphand Aventures Corvettes should lead the chase of the factory cars, while the Larbre Saleen S7R has the potential to challenge in qualifying in the hands of GT star Christophe Bouchut. A podium for any of the above would be a big result, but that will only happen if there are problems at Prodrive and Pratt & Miller.
That’s something you can never discount at Le Mans. Don’t forget Aston driver Johnny Herbert threw away a potential win last year with a splitter-damaging off.
”You can make bold statements about what is going to happen at Le Mans,” says Gavin, “but any plans you make usually go out of the window the moment the race starts.” GW
Class: GT2
Porsche versus Ferrari is one of the most emotive battles in sports car racing. This time it is taking place down the grid, but that doesn’t make it any less intense.
Porsche has developed a new version of its 997-shaped 911 GT3-RSR contender for 2008 in an attempt to get back on terms with the Ferrari 430 GT, which had the legs of the 911 on both sides of the Atlantic last year. The Italian manufacturer, meanwhile, is out to take a long overdue first win in the division we now know as GT2.
The 430 appears to have a narrow edge over the Porsche on a normal road course. Yet the Circuit de la Sarthe is no regular track: four long straights should swing the pendulum the other way.
Flying Lizards and Felbermayr-Proton, Porsche’s factory representatives in the ALMS and LMS respectively, will lead the Stuttgart attack. Risi Competizione, GT2 class champions in the ALMS last year, and the British Virgo team, which emulated that feat in the LMS, will do likewise for Ferrari.
Le Mans regular Spyker provides the variety in GT2. It is back with a re-engineered and rebodied version of its Audi-engined GT2 contender. GW
Class: LMP1
The whispering turbo-diesels will again make the headlines at Le Mans, but there will be a roaring battle for the honour of ’best of the rest’ behind the Peugeots and Audis this year. A dramatic step up in the quality among the petrol-powered LMP1 prototypes should make for one of the best battles over the 24 Hours.
Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo’s eponymous team is bidding for a fourth consecutive podium in the big race. It has new funding courtesy of the creation of Group Pescarolo Automobiles, a tweaked version of the successful Judd-powered Pescarolo 01 and, in Emmanuel Collard and Romain Dumas, two of the best sports car drivers in the world. But all that might not be enough to maintain its position as top privateer.
The French ORECA squad will not be satisfied unless it wins the unofficial petrol class. Hugues de Chaunac’s organisation has bought out Le Mans perennial Courage Competition and undertaken a chassis-up redesign of its LC70 chassis. Former Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis and GP2 and A1GP star Nicolas Lapierre head the driver line-up.
The Epsilon-Euskadi, the brainchild of former Benetton team manager Joan Villadelprat, is arguably the best-looking prototype on the grid, but Le Mans might be too early for this sleek Judd-powered coupé.
The same cannot be said of another coupé that has been making waves in the Le Mans Series. The new Aston Martin-engined Lola B08/60 run by Prodrive, Aston’s motor sport partner, takes advantage of a rule designed to encourage production-based engines into LMP1. The car (above), entered under the Charouz Racing System banner, uses the GT1 V12 that powers the Aston DBR9 and with it gets a performance break that its petrol rivals reckon gives the Lola an advantage well in excess of 50bhp.
Throw in the new Dome S102 and the British Creation team’s latest AIM-engined LMP1, and there are up to eight genuine contenders for petrol honours. GW
Class: LMP2
The Porsche RS Spyder finally arrives at Le Mans. Not with a full factory team masterminded by Penske, but just as it was intended: as a privateer contender in the spirit of so many Porsches before it.
The two teams that turn out with RS Spyders start as immediate favourites for LMP2 honours in the 24 Hours. The LMP2 Porsche may be new to La Sarthe but it has gone through a series of long-distance simulations that should make it the car most likely to go the distance in a class renowned for its poor reliability.
Team Essex, put together by 1990 Le Mans winner John Nielsen and the Dutch Verschuur squad, which runs under the Van Merksteijn banner, has quickly got to grips with the Porsche. Each was an LMP2 winner in the Le Mans Series in the run-up to the 24 Hours.
The LMP2 version of the Lola coupé, the B08/80, fielded by the British Sebah team, and the two Zyteks, run out of France by Barazi Epsilon (above) and Trading Performance, have the potential to run the Porsche close over a lap. RML, meanwhile, is bidding for a hat-trick of LMP2 wins with the MG-badged version of the well-proven open-top Lola. GW
*****
Technical insight
The engines are heavy and the drivers can’t hear them. Yes, the switch to diesel power has proved a great challenge for both Audi and Peugeot
By Gordon Kirby
Over the past few years sports car racing in general and the Le Mans 24 Hours in particular have become motor racing’s only serious forums for ‘green’ technology. Audi’s turbo-diesel R10 has set the pace for the sport, winning at Le Mans for the past two years as well as taking the American Le Mans Series championship. The Audi was joined last year by Peugeot’s 908 turbo-diesel and this year an epic battle is expected at
Le Mans between the well-developed Audi and the newer Peugeot.
The Peugeot started from pole on its debut at La Sarthe last year and the French car manufacturer hopes to have gathered enough experience and put sufficient development into its 908s to seriously challenge and defeat the R10s in June.
In recent years, of course, Audi has become the king of Le Mans, winning the race five times between 2000-2005 with its conventional turbocharged R8 as well as the past two years with the turbo-diesel R10 (plus once in 2003 with the sister Bentley EXP Speed 8).
Audi racing boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich explains the genesis of his company’s ground-breaking turbo-diesel. “After we had been so successful with the turbocharged engine we were looking for a new technology in sports car racing,” he says. “The rulebook allowed us in 2005 to go with the diesel and as we are the company who invented the direct injection diesel for road cars, it was an interesting and challenging idea for us to go this direction in racing.
“It was not an easy decision because it didn’t look very promising in the beginning and all our technical partners were quite reluctant to go that route. But after working on it, we found a good way to make the car competitive. Our target was to prove that the diesel today is something completely different from what has been in the minds of most people.”
Audi’s impressive 5.5-litre, twin turbo V12 produces more than 650bhp and Dr Ullrich says incorporating the big, heavy engine was no easy task. “The key factor is that the rulebook asks you to go for the biggest displacement and if you do that you should know that there will be some weight in the car because of the bigger engine. And weight is one of the most important factors in racing, so you have to find a solution to cope with that.”
Allan McNish says he knew the first time he drove the R10 two years ago that he had a potent package in his hands. “It was exciting when it started because nobody else had done it and we had to find out whether we were good enough or not,” he says. “I drove the car for the first time when we came to Sebring and my second lap was pretty much on a good R8 time. Right away, I knew we had something that was a developable package.”
But the Scot says Audi is approaching the top of the R10’s development curve: “It’s a constant evolution and we’re still going forward, but we’re now coming up to the boundaries.”
Peugeot, on the other hand, has plenty of room to improve. Team manager Serge Saulnier is a veteran team owner, former driver and mechanic who joined the company two years ago to steer its new Le Mans project. He says very little development was applied to the Peugeot last year because the team was fully occupied simply racing its new turbo-diesel. Now gains are being made.
Peugeot had considered building a lighter, open cockpit car before deciding a heavier coupé version was the best solution. “To build a diesel car is very challenging in terms of weight because of the heavy engine,” says Saulnier. “The fact that we chose a closed car I would say gives you a very good compromise in terms of weight and on the rigidity of the tub. We didn’t have any disadvantage in terms of the aerodynamics. I would say there is even a small aerodynamic advantage with the closed car.”
After considerable debate at Audi, Dr Ullrich continues to believe an open cockpit is the way to go. “This has been an ongoing discussion since we’ve been doing sports cars,” he says. “When we started we did a closed car, then we opted for an open car. The main decision came out of knowing that there’s an aerodynamic disadvantage but we think it should work out because of the combination of the handling during the race, quicker and easier driver changes, the risk of being in trouble in rain conditions and so on.”
McNish says it took a little while for he and his team-mates to get used to the physical nature of racing a car without any exhaust note. “It’s past tense for us now, but when we first started you couldn’t hear the engine,” he says. “At 120mph the airflow over your helmet was noisier than the engine note out of the exhaust system and that meant downshifting was a problem. A lot of time was spent looking at the data display going into the apex of a corner to see if you had actually gone into the gear you wanted.
“But we’ve got used to that now and we’ve also as drivers adapted to how the car brakes, the way the engine brakes, and the way the power delivery comes on. We’ve changed our driving lines a bit, partly due to the weight and the weight distribution of the car, and also due to the power delivery. We’ve given a list of desires to the engine department and they’ve told us what they can do to try and improve it.”
In contrast, Saulnier was surprised that none of Peugeot’s drivers had any trouble adapting to the 908’s lack of an exhaust note. “This year we have four new drivers for Le Mans,” he says. “All of them tested the car at Paul Ricard in January and February during the simulations we did, and we were amazed how they coped with the car. Straight away, they were all able to drive the car hard, without any problem.”
Peugeot had a tough time getting the best from its Michelin tyres at Le Mans last year, but Saulnier expects no such trouble this time. “We work very well with Michelin,” he says. “We are all French and that is very good for the communication. In 2007 the tyres we used on the car had been developed by Audi the previous year. This year the tyres have been developed by Audi, but also by us. Maybe it’s more of a compromise because Michelin is not going to give an advantage to one or another. I’m sure the tyres will be more suitable for both the Peugeot and the Audi than they were last year.”
McNish has no doubts that Peugeot is ready for the job. “They had pole at Le Mans last year but they had a fluctuating pace through the race, and we didn’t. But I’m pretty sure they’ve learned a lesson from that. I think we’re going to have a big, hard fight.”