Le Mans Test - Team By Team - Part One LMP1 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Racing brought both the #007 and #009 AMR-Ones to the Test Day but bluntly probably wish now that they hadn’t bothered! The day was over for the #009 car before a flying lap had been completed, the engine broken. No lappery whatsoever then for Messrs Fernandez and Meyrick and a mightily depressing single circuit for Harold Primat. #007 meanwhile had an early turbo issue but did make it out during the first 4 hour session, climbing up the order to post at least a sub 4 minute lap. It too though fell victim to the same failure, a cylinder coating failure which would only have re-occurred with the spares the team had with them. It took a classy performance with blunt honesty from David Richards to salvage positives here – The team rushing back to Banbury to carry on the immensely hard work that has become daily life for the heroic AMR crew. News today that the decision has been made to miss the Spa 1000kms to allow more test and development time will be a disappointment to Aston fans but a blessed relief to the hard pressed team. Audi Sport Three Audi R18s were present (#1,2,and 3) but unless you were lucky enough to see them pushed to and from scrutineering they were nowhere to be seen on Saturday morning, the shutters very firmly down on the garages – There was a minor hiccup during tech inspection (a matter of 2mm needing to be shaved from one front end surface) but thereafter it was a good weekend for the defending Champions. A total of 240 laps were completed in the eight hours, much of it at a very impressive pace indeed. A total of 40 Audi laps (across all three cars) were under 3:31 against just 10 for Peugeot (with the #7 908 never breaking that mark). Perhaps significantly the R18s straight line speed was substantially less than the 908s, but the positions were reversed through the Porsche Curves where the Audi’s speed was much the superior of their arch rivals! Tom Kristensen’s post test comments that he was surprised they went under 3:30 contrasted sharply with the view of Romain Dumas who told Radio Le Mans that he thought 3:26 should be possible! As far as we know Audi never went for a low fuel, new tyres banzai run, and that must be a cause for concern at Peugeot because the Audis, all of them, were consistently quicker than their main rivals. The flip side is that the Peugeots seemed to be able to go longer on fuel – 12 laps stints seemed the norm for the 908s (13 under the safety car) to the R18s regular 11. All 10 drivers present – including new reserve driver Marco Bonanomi saw track action, the young Italian completing his rookie laps. There was trouble though for the #2 car in the first session, Marcel Fassler spinning a high speed as the car reached the braking zone into Mulsanne Corner – He missed the barriers but there was some damage to the underside of the car which took time to fix – That’s another aspect that any team needs to take out of a test programme, how fast can the car be turned around after a problem – The answer in this case was – not very. They’ll no doubt be practising hard for that and any other feasible scenario between now and June! Tom Kristensen turned in the fastest lap of the day a 3:27.687 giving the younger Audi men something to think about but Benoit Treluyer had been impressive in the first session too and Romain Dumas finished the morning session fastest – These look to be well matched crews once again, and that gives Audi the opportunity to get clever with strategy – And they’re very good indeed at that! Hope Racing The #5 Oreca Lehmann Hybrid had a poor start to the test, late delivery of its 2 litre turbo Lehmann 4 pot meaning that we didn’t see the car out for its sorely needed morning track time. This came on the back of a failure to meet the 400m distance on hybrid power only set by the ACO, the Bugatti track on which the test was attempted not proving to provide the car with sufficient opportunity to ‘charge’ the system. The car did make it out though for the last half of the afternoon session and began a steady if unspectacular rise through the order up to a best lap of 3:48.954, the team opting to go for a conservative run and running with the Flybrid flywheel based mechanical hybrid system operating at just 20% of its capacity. Steve Zacchia did most of the 22 laps with Paul Ricard FLM class winner Nicolas Marroc, a recent signing for the team, also getting a couple of laps under his belt after completing his rookie laps aboard the team’s FLM Oreca. There’s plenty of work to do here before the Spa 1000kms! Kronos Racing The #22 Lola Aston Martin is hoping to be elevated into the full entry list from its current first LMP reserve position but did only a dozen or so laps to qualify Maxime Martin with none in the morning session after a leaking fuel cell was discovered and replaced. The car rather rudely bettered (by a distance) the time set by the #007 factory Aston but in truth this was a very low key effort with plenty of Belgian fingers crossed. MIK Corse It was a frustrating day for the MIK Corse squad, this car too not a race entry this year (and courtesy of a change of entrant not on the reserve list either!)| The car did at least earn the laurels of the first current hybrid to run at Le Mans since the old Panoz Q9 (Sparky), another Zytek project, failed to qualify back in 1997 That appearance on track came after a marginal failure to complete the mandatory (to race) 400 m ‘all electric’ run on the Bugatti circuit on Saturday evening. Giaccomo Piccini was at the wheel as the car finally got on track but a clutch failure ended his day rather prematurely, the team looking glumly at the gearbox for much of the second session. Oak Racing Jacques Nicolet’s team brought both of their Gulf liveried LMP1 Pescarolo Judd V8 LMP1s for the test and kept their surprise under wraps until the cars hit the track on Sunday. That surprise was a most unusual rear wing, designed to keep the car stable in the fastest corners, a development that Guillaume Moreau expects to make a substantial difference for Spa next month. Certainly the straight line speed of the Pescarolos was good but the team were likely disappointed though with their pace relative to the other petrol driven cars. They’ll certainly have been disappointed that the #24 car ended the morning session on a flat bed, Richard Hein having a substantial ‘off’ at Mulsanne Corner, perhaps unsighted by Marcel Fassler’s Audi which was in the process of being recovered after his spin at the same point. There was enough damage to prevent the #24 car from re-emerging for the remainder of the day so valuable track time was lost there. Oreca Team Matmut It was a relatively low key run for the Sebring winning team, the #10 car popping up as fastest Peugeot in early running both with Duval and Lapierre at the wheel (Olivier Panis wasn’t present for the test). For much of the day it seemed that the Oreca car was shadowing one or other of the factory cars – comparative testing perhaps? Certainly it seemed that every time the DSC Ed looked out as the car was passing, it was on the tail of a factory 908! The Oreca car certainly looks well capable of fulfilling a rear gunner role for the factory team – after all a Peugeot win is a Peugeot win! The #10 car was putting in 11 lap stints in the afternoon session, similar to the Audis, one less than the best of the factory Peugeots. Despite the grandfathering measures though the 908 HDI FAP was substantially quicker than any of the petrol fuelled posse – and that surely is the biggest clue so far that the ACO’s much vaunted balancing is nowhere close to providing a more level playing field just yet! Pescarolo Team A trouble free run from the #16 Pescarolo on Henri’s return to his old stamping ground was what was required and, that’s exactly what was delivered. Manu Collard was the fastest petrol pilote all day but again that’s a marker that the ACO’s promises on balancing haven’t been delivered. The blunt fact is that the #16 car is a grandfathered 2009 spec car – and according to the public statements of the ACO it should be slower than the new spec petrol cars – It isn’t, and in fact it is a chunk quicker – That will be a source of much irritation amongst those that have invested heavily in the new spec machinery – and with the big V10 now less stressed too the fabled Pesca reliability will surely play a part too in June. We’re not calling for anyone to reel in the car – but perhaps the ACO might look hard at both this gap and the bigger one to even the grandfathered 908 in determining what to dole out to the Rebellions and Oak Racings et al! Peugeot Sport Having made the decision not to run the Quad 4 hybrid it became clear very quickly that this was, almost exclusively, being used by Peugeot as an 8 hour endurance test. There was good news and bad news in that regard. The good news is that the new 908s look quite quick (though not as quick as their main rivals!) and they look economical too – 12 laps the norm despite a smaller 65 litre tank this year (down from 81 in 2010!). All ten drivers were present, with the driver line ups shuffled to accommodate a plan to get Anthony Davidson more seat time - All ten – including their rookie reserve driver Jean Karl Vernay – got valuable track time through the day, Vernay completed his required 10 laps to stand ready if required. When DSC published some reported straight line speeds from Ricard testing there were some who doubted their accuracy – but the speed traps at the test showed the 908s going even faster here, the #7 and #9 cars registering a maximum of 338.6 km/h, a couple of km/h faster than the best of the Audis. Just how powerful can you make a relatively small V8 Turbo diesel? The bad news for Peugeot came with a precautionary engine change post morning session for the #9 car – not good news either in terms of reliability or track time. The car did get back out later in the afternoon session but there will be a post mortem meeting or several at Velizy for sure about that issue! In terms of outright speed the Peugeots were capable of getting into the 3:30s and 3:29s but did it rather less often than the Audis – 10 laps between the #8 and #9 car under 3:30 – None for the #7. Peugeot certainly did attempt to grab the headlines for the day right at the end, Sarrazin despatched on a qualifying simulation might even have made it too, a slow third sector though left him third fastest overall, albeit just a couple of tenths shy of the fastest Audi. That’s encouraging and impressive but the Peugeot had to be pushed hard to achieve it – The Audis seemed to be able to push hard at will. Rebellion Racing The biggest story immediately before the Test Day was the impressive looking new aero package developed by Lola for Rebellion Toyotas. – A new nose, larger front tyres, longer wheelbase and heavily revised rear wing assembly promised a more slippery profile and hopes were high for the #12 and #13 cars. Early running though was stymied as the team found that the new aero was causing the cars to bottom out – That lost them a chunk of time in the morning session but both cars eventually made it out on track and immediately were finding time. Not quite enough to overhaul the best efforts of the #16 Pescarolo though (let alone the diesels) and that must now be a source of pretty intense irritation to the team, the grandfathered car with its restricted V10 just seemingly too quick for the Lolas with their 2011 spec TMG V8s to handle! If the ACO’s wish is for the performance span of leading entrants to not exceed 2% then the difference should be around 4-5 seconds per lap – The difference between the best an R18 could muster and the best of the Lola Toyotas was nearer 10! The cars had a couple of problems during the test, Andrea Belicchi suffering a broken right rear toe link as he exited the Ford Chicane and Guy Smith pitched into the gravel by a broken front toe link. It's fair to say that the team (and others!) are very much less than impressed with the state of play as regards the ‘balance’ both between petrol and diesel and between the grandfathered and non-grandfathered cars – Watch this space!! | 
