Stuttgart/Le Mans (France) – On Saturday 14 June 2014 at 3.00 pm, Porsche started in the top category of the toughest motor race in the world for the first time in 16 years. Porsche took to the track of the 24-hour race in Le Mans with the most innovative prototype in the LMP1 class - the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
The two Porsche 919 Hybrid cars with start numbers 14 and 20 were piloted by the trios of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland), Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg, Germany) and Timo Bernhard (Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia). The six world-class drivers have taken part in a total of 37 Le Mans races. Although Porsche holds the record for the most Le Mans victories (16), the sports car manufacturer cannot draw on any experience this year. In the first year of involvement in the LMP1 class, the main objective was to bring at least one of the two Porsche 919 Hybrid cars past the finishing line during the marathon race by the Sarthe.
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Facts and figures:
• Porsche holds the record for the most Le Mans victories (16).
• The first overall Porsche victory was in 1970 (Hans Herrmann/Richard Attwood in a 917 KH Coupé), while the most recent one was on 7 June 1998 (Laurent Aiello/Allan McNish/Stéphane Ortelli in a Porsche GT1).
• According to official archives, a total of 812 Porsche vehicles have participated in the Le Mans race, which is also a record.
• Hans-Joachim Stuck set the fastest qualifying lap in 1985 in a Porsche 962 C (averaging 251.815 km/h). This record will never be beaten because chicanes were introduced along the Hunaudières straight in 1990.
• Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Mike Rockenfeller travelled the furthest distance in 2010 when Audi won overall: 5,410.713 km (397 laps, averaging 225.45 km/h).
• The start numbers 20 and 14 of the two new Porsche 919 Hybrid cars represent the comeback year.
• Each driver must drive a minimum of five laps in darkness during qualifying (Wednesday and Thursday until midnight). While the average time of the fastest two laps set by two drivers (i.e. the average of four lap times) counts in the WEC, the qualifying time of the car that drives the fastest lap applies in Le Mans.
• The night of the Le Mans race is one of the shortest of the year: the sun sets on Saturday at 21.55 p.m. and rises again on Sunday at 5.53 a.m.
• During normal racing (without the safety car), the Porsche 919 Hybrid has to refuel every 13 to 14 laps.
• The vehicle must be refuelled and the tyres changed during the same pit stop. During tyre changes, only two mechanics can work on the vehicle simultaneously. The whole process therefore takes much longer than in Formula 1, for example.
• Usually the driver changes when the tyres are changed.
• Two tank refuels and one set of Michelin tyres are the absolute minimum, three refuels should be standard Sometimes the tank can be refuelled four times – an open question and a formidable challenge for the drivers.
• During the race, a driver may not drive for more than four hours within a six-hour period. Drivers must not spend a total of more than 14 out of 24 hours at the wheel.
• There are three safety cars due to the length of the Le Mans track.
• Some of the on-site technical equipment includes two racing cars, a replacement chassis, six combustion engines, five front axle transmissions, five rear axle transmissions, six front and six rear wings, 80 wheel rims and more than 100 radio sets and headphones.
• The extra quantity of electrical energy (also know as boost energy) that the driver can use during each lap of Le Mans is limited. The Porsche 919 Hybrid may only consume exactly 1.67 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy during each 13.629 kilometre lap.
• The 2013 winner of Le Mans completed 348 laps. The energy recovery systems on the 919 Hybrid would generate 581.2 kilowatt hours (kWh) over this distance – enough electrical energy to power a 60 watt bulb for 9,687 hours. In other words: this amount of energy would be sufficient to power the new Volkswagen e-Golf, currently the most efficient electric car in the compact class, over a distance of 4,576 kilometres – the same as travelling across the USA from New York to Los Angeles.
• Ultimately there is more at stake than fame and glory for the winners of Le Mans: they win twice as many points as the remaining seven races in the WEC Sportscar World Championship calendar, which are contested over six hours.
• After two out of eight races in the WEC, the Porsche team is currently on 36 points, behind Toyota (84) and ahead of Audi (28).
• The Porsche 919 Hybrid was designed and constructed at the Porsche AG Development Centre in Weissach, Germany, where 230 team members are currently working.
• The Porsche core trackside team for LMP1 at Le Mans consists of 86 employees (engineers, mechanics, team managers) as well as employees from the Communication and Marketing, Sponsoring and Driver Support departments.
• This means that more than 1,000 team shirts and other items of clothing must be provided for the week at Le Mans.
• The shopping list for catering in the team and media hospitality area includes the following items: 50 crates of salad, 50 kilograms of strawberries, 300 melons, 1.2 tonnes of meat, 500 kilograms of fish, 600 kilograms of pasta, 2000 eggs and 1100 baguettes.
• During the night, while most team members try to get some sleep wherever and whenever they can, the drivers sleep in beds located in shipping containers behind the pit stop area. Sleeping in peace is impossible, sleeping from exhaustion is more likely.
• The organisers Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) expect more than 250,000 spectators to attend the race.
