Porsche just completed the first official test on the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet for the upcoming World Endurance Challenge season. Porsche’s # 91 911 RSR set the fastest time of the weekend in the GTE-Pro class, while the 919 Hybrid completed more than 3,556 kilometers including a shared test with the entire WEC field. On the 5.791 kilometer long track the difference between the overall fastest lap of the LMP1 car (1:41.289 minutes, Porsche 919 Hybrid, Brendon Hartley) and the slowest GT car was around 20 seconds. Not only did the test provide a lot of great data for Porsche, it gave us the video below. Of particular interest to us was the video of night testing when we get to see the cockpit all lit up for the first time. Looks like the ride of a life time.
In total both driver line-ups – Romain Dumas/Neel Jani/Marc Lieb (car no. 14) and Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber (car no. 20) – completed 614 laps on Friday and Saturday. They practiced countless driver changes and worked together with the Porsche team’s engineers to further improve the car’s set-up.
Off The Track Another Important Point Has Been Clarified.
The Porsche 919 Hybrid has finally been homologated for the six megajoule class. This classification defines the amount of recuperated electrical power which can be boosted per lap. At the same time, the megajoule class defines the amount of fuel which can be used per lap.
Alexander Hitzinger, Technical Director LMP1: “To decide on the best megajoule class requires a complex calculation. To put it simply, you can say we have designed our energy recovery systems as big and heavy as the overall car concept allowed. With the amount of energy we can recuperate this way, we fit well into the six megajoule class.“
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