[WEC Race] WEC 2015 Round 1: Silverstone

[J Jay]

Ah so you did. I didn't see that until now, I promise!

Let's not forget that things will "swing away" from Audi to a certain extent, so I fully expect a harder fought race at Spa (if that is believable after that ding-dong we've just seen). It will be interesting to see if they kit all three R18s in LM-spec aero or not.

[Spyderman]

Spa will give us a better indication, but if it rains, I expect Porsche will have a dastardly time. They need to do a lot of work on their wet set-up as well. (see FP3 times at Silverstone). It's quite strange really, as last years car was very good in the rain. Having changed their rear suspension completely seems to have done away with that advantage.....so far.

[Giba]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Ah so you did. I didn't see that until now, I promise!

Let's not forget that things will "swing away" from Audi to a certain extent, so I fully expect a harder fought race at Spa (if that is believable after that ding-dong we've just seen). It will be interesting to see if they kit all three R18s in LM-spec aero or not.

Either only the #9 Audi with have the Le Mans aero or all the cars will. I would be very surprised if the #7 and #8 had different species aero

[cokata]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

Where'd you get the FIA telemetry data from? I want to comb through it!

https://youtu.be/6VibdXK7X7o?t=1h36m26s

Look at the speed at throttle position, the whole way through the straight the car is accelerating as you would expect, shortly after it passes the bridge on the hanger straight though you can hear a strange noise (stranger than the usual gear whine) and the car stop accelerating and get stuck ~267kph, while it's on full throttle.

And here is another conformation of that
https://youtu.be/6VibdXK7X7o?t=2h3m41s

The audis weren't doing this harvesting on the national pit straight and as you can see strangely enough they reach 280kph there, much higher than what they do at the speed trap on the hanger straight. The porsche reaches "just" 289kph, only 9 more than the audi, but look at lowest apex speed through Copse - 202kph for the Porsche, 227 for the Audi. A staggering 25kph advantage, it's almost like the porsche was a GT car, compared to the Audi.

[TF110]

The telemetry on screen is not always accurate. Theres hiccups in it where you see the Porsche accelerating but the stated speed is the same. So it probably has lag in the information which could be an explanation for what you see vs what you hear.

[cokata]

Originally Posted by TF110

The telemetry on screen is not always accurate. Theres hiccups in it where you see the Porsche accelerating but the stated speed is the same. So it probably has lag in the information which could be an explanation for what you see vs what you hear.

the only hiccup was on the porsche just before maggots

[Artur]

Originally Posted by GasperG

Porsche was doing 29-30 laps per stint, that gave them one less pit stop, but lets say that their race pace suffered from this fuel saving strategy and was in the 1:44 region or roughly same as #1 Toyota, how come they didn't double stint their tyres?

IIRC, even Porsche double stinted it at some point, haven't they? and I'm sure Audi and Toyota did it.

Originally Posted by J Jay

It will be interesting to see if they kit all three R18s in LM-spec aero or not.

I think I've read somewhere that they will do as last year, ie, only the 3rd car will feature LM aero package while #7 and #8 will feature the higher downforce one which will be seconds faster on S2

[Artur]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

Correct (and as I have pointed out in the Toyota thread). Until Porsche get their tire wear sorted out, they will have problems with their race pace (on non Le Mans tracks). The main reason they were so successful in Sao Paulo was due to the resurfacing of the track that was so kind to their tires.

The degradation was huge on the F1 race. Pirelli Softs were only used for 7 laps and the Mediums for 20.

LMP1s, on their Michelins, double stinted it, which equals to the full F1 Brazilian GP distance(71 laps).

I can't see how we can put it all to the resurfacing of Interlagos when F1's Pirelli is considered.

Originally Posted by cokata

but look at lowest apex speed through Copse - 202kph for the Porsche, 227 for the Audi. A staggering 25kph advantage, it's almost like the porsche was a GT car, compared to the Audi.

I think Porsche can go faster than 202kmh through there, the problem is that we're seeing the speedmeter on a random race lap and that can vary quite a lot from the max possible. For instance, Audi can corner Copse with 240kmh, as I've seen on another lap and on this part, that you linked, Audi is carrying 210-220kmh through Becketts(T12) and on some other moment it was 200kmh. There is also a part when Audi is doing 170kmh at Stowe and, on another moment, 180kmh.

But, on average, Porsche is around 5-7% slower than Audi on high speed corners. A GT car takes Copse at 160kmh, so an awful lot bigger gap to Porsche's LMP1 than from Porsche's to Audi.

As for my previous post, I've confirmed it with Michelin's PR. Porsche, with Jani, also double stinted:

Neel Jani kept the same tyres when the N°18 919 Hybrid stopped for the sixth time.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Artur

The degradation was huge on the F1 race. Pirelli Softs were only used for 7 laps and the Mediums for 20.

LMP1s, on their Michelins, double stinted it, which equals to the full F1 Brazilian GP distance(71 laps).

I can't see how we can put it all to the resurfacing of Interlagos when F1's Pirelli is considered.:

Perhaps I should have written "one of the main reasons". The point is that their tire-wear issues are not only not enabling them to use the full potential of the car as it is limiting them in their strategies. If you go back and read the driver reports from the race you will see what a huge impression the condition of the track left on them. IIRC one of them went as far as to state that the person responsible for the resurfacing of Sao Paulo should be in charge of resurfacing every other track in the world.
I would say that is quite a big impression

Originally Posted by Artur

As for my previous post, I've confirmed it with Michelin's PR. Porsche, with Jani, also double stinted:

I remember seeing that they changed 2 tires on Neel's car on his sixth stop. Not the full set.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by cokata

https://youtu.be/6VibdXK7X7o?t=1h36m26s

I see. Disappointing. I'm working on analyzing the races to a certain degree automatically based on the available timing data. Having telemetry available would've been the golden data you really, really want to dig through. I saw a bright light for a moment... and it went away. Thanks though.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Artur

As for my previous post, I've confirmed it with Michelin's PR. Porsche, with Jani, also double stinted:

I have just confirmed that they in fact changed the front left tire at the last stop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vib....be&t=1h36m26s