The six-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps on 3 May is only the second event for the new Porsche Team with the highly complex Porsche 919 Hybrid. But, at the same time, it is the last race before the season’s highlight at Le Mans on 14 – 15 June.
The challenging Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes has several things in common with the Circuit de 24 Heures in Le Mans: a relatively long lap (7.004 kilometres) and impressive full throttle sections. However, the differences in elevation are significantly bigger than in Le Mans. Long uphill sections require the utmost power from the efficient hybrid cars. Every race driver has respect for the daunting Eau Rouge corner. When braking for the chicane after the high speed Blanchimont section, the G forces press the drivers back in their seats. Furthermore, to talk about the weather in Spa often means touching on a serious topic.
According to the new regulations of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the Porsche 919 Hybrid drive systems are allowed to produce (recuperate) 4.78 Mega-Joules of electrical energy per lap in Spa, store it and use it to power the electrical engine on the front axle; 4.78 Mega-Joules correlate to 1.33 kilowatt hours (kWh), which is the common unit of measurement for normal household electricity consumption. Calculating that the six-hour race will be run over 170 laps, each of the Porsche 919 Hybrid cars can produce 226.1 kWh. This is almost the amount of electrical energy a standard household in Germany uses during an entire month in summer. This gives a compelling indication of the new technology’s huge potential for future hybrid driven road cars.
The Spa 6 Hours will be green flagged on Saturday, 3 May, at 14:30 CET and finishes at 20:30 CET. The final two hours of the race will be shown live on television by Eurosport, as well as earlier highlights.
At the World Championship opening round in Silverstone the trio of drivers in car no. 20, Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia), finished third. The no. 14 sister car of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) failed to score points because of drivetrain problems.
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “We can build on our Silverstone performance. Even with difficult weather conditions, the new Porsche Team has managed to have a very solid debut. Our drivers were outstanding, and in the pits we made the right calls. But we have to keep our feet on the ground, as there are countless more situations ahead during which we will find ourselves first timers. The second Championship round is the dress rehearsal for Le Mans. Our main target for Spa is clearly to finish the race with both Porsche 919 Hybrids.”
Timo Bernhard (#20): “Spa is going to be nice. It is a great track, a drivers’ circuit and it has a long sports car tradition. I expect lots of fans there. Not only from Belgium, as it is also easy to get there for the Germans, the Brits, the French and the Dutch. For me, it’s only 200 kilometres from home, which means my family will come along. The podium finish in Silverstone gave us an extra momentum to learn even quicker. Plus it gave us Championship points. It’s a long time since I have raced for points, as in 2011 we didn’t have a drivers’ Championship, so only Manufacturers could score.”
Brendon Hartley (#20): “I think every driver loves Spa and I do as well. It is one of the best tracks in the world. I have driven all sorts of cars there. In 2012 I made my debut in endurance racing there and finished on the podium. Spa should suit our car more than the Silverstone circuit did. The straights are not quite as long as in Le Mans, but we will see very impressive speeds there. The famous Eau Rouge corner requires a lot of respect and we will see whether we can take it at full throttle or not.“
Mark Webber (#20): “We were all so excited and keen to get the first race out of the way and pull off a clean weekend with qualifying and the race, which went better than we expected. So now going to Spa shortly after the first race is good for us to try and continue the momentum. The dialogue in the team between all the drivers, the engineers and the Porsche Motorsport HQ in Weissach has been phenomenal when looking for areas where we can keep improving, which is a no-brainer as we’ve only done one race. There is a bit of excitement in the camp, but we have our feet on the ground. We haven’t had two cars finish yet, so we’d like to do that and get both the no. 14 and no. 20 home.”
Statistics after 1 of 8 World Championship rounds:
#14 Romain Dumas/Neel Jani/Marc Lieb
Championship points: –
Championship position: –
Qualifying Silverstone: 3rd
Race Silverstone: DNF
#20 Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber
Championship points: 15
Championship position: 3rd
Qualifying Silverstone: 6th
Race Silverstone: 3rd
Porsche Team
Championship points: 15
Championship position: 2nd
The Porsche 919 Hybrid
With two different energy recovery systems the Porsche 919 Hybrid is the most complex race car the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer has ever built, and serves as the fastest mobile research laboratory for future road cars. The lightweight prototype is trimmed for extreme performance and efficiency. Besides the kinetic energy recovery system (MGU-K) under braking, the 919 Hybrid recuperates thermal exhaust energy (MGU-H) when accelerating. The combination of these two systems means a step into unknown territory for Porsche and a unique feature in the entire WEC. When the driver recalls the stored energy from the liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery packs, an electric motor drives the two front wheels. This power adds to the combustion engine (downsizing 2.0 litres V4-cylinder, turbocharged with direct injection) and this way the two systems result in temporary all-wheel drive.