Audi leads the way after the Le Mans test. Corvette stuns Prodrive.
What’s new Audi fills the top four places at the Le Mans test so are we in for another Audi win at Le Mans for the R8. This would be the 4th OA win and the 5th straight LM P1 victory for the car which would surely mark its place in perpetuity for this superb car but perhaps not be a good result for the race itself. The domination of the Audi has perhaps not been good for maintaining spectator interest at Le Mans and perhaps the true level of achievement has also been reduced by the fact that it has had little real factory opposition. Only Bentley has come close before beating the R8 last year but as both marques come under the same manufacturer umbrella there has always been just the faintest hint of collusion.
So for the race in June is there anything new that might change the status quo? Well amongst the Audi fleet we have three teams each with fiercely competitive driver line-ups all with something to prove. They each have at least one Le Mans winner who would like to add another to the portfolio, They come from Japan, the USA and Britain, The two British cars raced each other hard at Sebring and it is perhaps the Sebring race that should perhaps give the rest some hope. Racing hard increases the chances of an incident, an error or perhaps contact with a slower car, Champion had just such an incident, the damage effectively ended their hopes for victory. The Herbert UK Audi too wilted under the strain, a drive shaft bearing failed. In the past this would have been just a minor inconvenience, a mere two to three minutes to swap the entire rear end, At Sebring because the new regulation ban the changing of major components it had to be repaired. At a stroke its strength became a major weakness, the box is not designed to be repaired trackside, it took over half an hour, but for the fact that most of its off track time was during a full course yellow the car would not have been able to recover its podium position. So for 2004 one of the Audi strengths may have become an Achilles heel. Their strength probably remains as fuel mileage from the direct injection engine. What also should not be overlooked is the Michelin dry tyre but Jan Lammers has already started a rain dance as wet weather should suit his Dunlops and the Goodyears of the smaller private teams.
Amongst the rest we have some new challengers and in the main the restrictions on budget for the smaller teams has meant that they have never had the quick change rear, however they have in an attempt to answer the Audi all made Gearbox related work much quicker. Racing for Holland can change a gearbox cluster in about 6-7 minutes hot and much less cold and I suspect others can come close. The test weekend showed that Jan’s team will be close to the Audis on pace particularly once the new boys in the second car settle in. Old Dome hand Coronel was in the 3.37 on worn race tyres but Wilson and Firman were circulating in 3.41 and 3.43 respectively, They are both talented enough to match the Dutchman’s pace come race week and will be quick enough to push the Audis. Racing for Holland provide the pit crew for the Japanese Kondo Dome and throughout the day this car was amongst the quickest.
Close on the heels of the leading Dome were the Pescarolos, these Courage based cars are now so much Pescarolo that the Courage name has been dropped from the entry and they too may be expected to be much closer the Audi pace than last year. Indeed at the 1000K at Bugatti last November they pushed Audi very hard in the early wet stages of the race and that was the last appearance with the road based Peugeot engine. Now they have a Judd V10 but unlike most of the other Judd V10’s, which are 4 litres, this is the little raced so far 5-litre engine. This is a little slower revving than its smaller cousin but produces more torque and should be an ideal endurance engine. It is 60kg lighter and 80bhp more powerful than the Peugeot engine it has replaced, That 60 kg can now be placed lower as ballast and once the team has adjusted to altered characteristics of this new combination I expect to see a further improvement in times in June. Sebastian Bourdais not known for wild claims will be very disappointed if they are not very close to pole.
There are also two Dallaras, one from Rollcentre and the other from Spinnaker. The latter as its name suggests has a boating connection as another branch of the team are hoping to build a challenger for the next “Americas Cup”. This chassis is the lowest mile 2001 car which started life with the Mopar engine before Oreca converted it to Judd power. Judging from the test weekend the team should probably concentrate on boats. The Rollcentre entry is a much more realistic proposition for June as its performance at Sebring demonstrated. This year their first in a prototype for team and drivers is a huge learning curve, which they are tackling in a methodical and thorough way. They have come and lapped Le Mans and team and drivers left knowing where they can and will improve in the June build-up.
There are two Lolas from Taurus but these are both very different beasts. One B2K/10 Chassis has the 4litre Judd V10 and has shown competitive speed last year, the other has a V10 also but this is related to the VW Toureg and is a turbocharged diesel. Early testing of the diesel had been trouble free but as is often the case that promise was dashed at the test with a very early fuel pump seal failure. Although the engine ran after the repair it was apparent that the engine had suffered some damage and performance was severely restricted (enough though for the huge torque to catch Lockie out twice with cold tyre spins) and they completed only 17 laps. Lockie (9) and Andrews (
failed to complete the required 10 laps but it is to be hoped that the ACO admit the car to the race in June. This is a longer-term program so we should not expect miracles in June and Le Mans is not a good circuit for the high down force Lola.
The lone Lister damaged its engine late in the morning at which stage it was well in the top 15. The last minute deal with John Nielsen and his two Danish team mates meant that none of the drivers had driven the car before the Saturday night when they did some familiarisation runs on the local airfield. First priority was for Moller to complete his 10 laps, which was satisfactorily completed. Elgaard did not get a run so it is fortunate he is one of the prequalified drivers. Nielsen was impressed after his first laps.
The Nasamax is the only car meeting the new 2004 LM P1 regulations. The car is based around the old Reynard 01Q survival cell but is otherwise very heavily modified including a larger fuel tank to more fairly equate it to its petrol and diesel powered rivals. Nasamax of course uses bio ethanol. The Judd 5 litre V10 was trouble free and they probably covered more Le Mans laps than the whole of last year. They were halted in the afternoon by a non-engine related new car problem but left contented that the project was at last up and running.
The last big engined car is the Panoz GTP, a Labre run car with not the strongest driver line-up and very unlikely to feature in June but it is good to have this crowd favourite back.
The LMP1 class is completed by the cars that last year ran in LMP675 class, The little Lola with turbo “MG” power has challenged at the front particularly when works MG supported. The similar RML turbo car was close to the sharp end but even Ray Mallock has his doubts over the engines ability to run for 24 hours a task the unit has yet to achieve. After 5 turbo engine failures last year in June John Field abandoned the turbo for a Judd V8, which has shown more reliability if not quite the pace of the turbo four. Last year in FIA sportscar races the DBA has shown the ability to beat the best and so it was no surprise to see the now upgraded Zytek towards the top of the field in 5th place. Brabham and Wallace are likely to be joined by a driver of similar ability in June and for LMES races when Brabham is otherwise engaged but it was thought that perhaps Le Mans with its long straights would be the car’s weakest showing, apparently the car was awesome through the Porsche curves. The old Reynard Lehmann is overweight and underpowered but we have seen great reliability so a top 10 is not out of the question.
LMP2 saw a Courage domination of the time sheets, the WR team achieves miracles on miniscule resources and the SR2 based aluminium chassis of the Intersport Lola is dated in design and construction when compared to the carbon tubs of the Courage. The Lola may come to the fore in June as the chassis though dated is strong and the Judd V8 is more proven than the French V6 engines.
GTS and GT test Review
After Sebring the Corvette team were noticeably confident about their Le Mans prospects. This confidence was not misplaced as they were a massive 10 seconds faster than last year and last years dominant Prodrive Ferrari 550 was left struggling behind. The Change to Michelin a difficult political decision has been a huge performance gain not just in speed but consistency and longer wear and the car has been improved aerodynamically and mechanically. Max Papis set a stunning 3.49.924 second lap the first sub 3.50 lap by a GTS car at Le Mans, The second Corvette was very close with the Prodrive Ferraris four seconds adrift a huge deficit to make up in the six weeks to June. The team still learning are Barron Connor with factory supported Ferrari 575 and this very well funded three year project could be the next challenger to the Corvette but 2005 is more realistic than 2004. The lone Pagani was much improved from last year but failed to last the full day.
GT was in the main the expected suspects Porsche V Ferrari 360. However the British fans of Morgan and TVR should not be too downhearted. Both came to test, Morgan had a frustrating day with little problems and then an off that prevented the third driver Keith Ahlers qualifying. TVR completed a huge number of mainly trouble free laps, 70 in the morning alone! The TVR plan was to gather data particularly on heat related matters. The cars had been late back from Sebring and ran all morning on tyres and brakes from Sebring. The data gathered will probably see some changes at Monza but expect more for Le Mans in June.
