'10 LMS Round 1 • Castellet • April 9-11

[911targa]

Originally Posted by NightStalk3r

Rudi Penders says the Prospeed car has all the 2010 upgrades.

maybe i was wrong.i just notice the front lip of#75 looks like it's made up of 2 pieces,the#77 is in succession.
the#88 tested a 2009 endurance-spec,so even Patrick Long handle the car,they are still slow.
http://endurance-info.com/version2/g...Jeudi_J_09.jpg

[NightStalk3r]

Hindy is up for FP2

[NightStalk3r]

God RLm have put that effects mike in a great position!

[Trussers]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

By the way, mr. Truswell, are you commentating this weekend or are JH and Graham Goodwin doing the whole weekend by themselves in the booth?

Nope, the Truswells are off to the Algarve for a family holiday tomorrow morning, but I'm sure John and Graham will keep you all entertained (and informed).

[Victor_RO]

They're certainly doing a good job of it now, it's been a "race" for times between Sarrazin and Capello for the last few minutes!

[gwyllion]

McNish just did 1:42.801! Oreca Peugeot 1:43.152.

[old man]

GT2 is going to be very interesting, factory Porsche, factory Ferrari and factory Aston all covered by 3 tenths, that will be Michelin, Pirelli and Dunlop then I suppose?

Then we have some ex F1 guys not up to the pace yet.

Sad that I am not there

[Dario911]

Lieb, Lietz and Felbermayr Porsche have set a great lap time. Felbermayr Porsche is a 2010 spec version, and this means the cars has improved very much. I think the challenge will be hard, this year, in GT2. For all. But I'm confident: the car runs very well, and drivers are very, very competitive.
Ok, these are just free practice laps, but Porsche has proven to be very quick on the single lap. I'm curios to see how much they will be faster in the qualifying, tomorrow. It will be a race in the race.

[Dario911]

Audi has set a very impressive lap time. The car has been evolved in the right way, in the right direction. I suppose this race will give us some interesting indications about the future behaviour of the new R15 Plus on Le Mans track: Paul Ricard and la Sarthe track are very similar. Both are characterized by long straights, and very fast turns. If R15 will prove to be fast here, I think there will be no significant differences in Le Mans, in june.
Ok, we have to consider we have not a works Peugeot, in Le Castellet. But I'm sure Audi has a large margin on the lap, and Joest and Ullrich are not going to show how much fast is Audi, yet.
The real potential will be shown in Le Mans.
IMHO, I think R15 is more competitive than 908, this year. Peugeot has not been evolved in a significant way, from 2009, while Audi R15 is really different from the previous version.
Peugeot has sent Sarrazin in Le Castellet, to understand the real difference between Audi and Peugeot, with a works driver at the wheels. This may mean 908 are quite similar in both customer and works spec...
In this case, Sarrazin may be a very good termometer.

[Holt]

Originally Posted by Dario911

But I'm sure Audi has a large margin on the lap, and Joest and Ullrich are not going to show how much fast is Audi, yet.
The real potential will be shown in Le Mans.

They said the same thing last year after Sebring.

McNish is very good at putting down a fast lap, his lap at LeMans last year stood for quite some time and it took Sarrazin all he could do to beat it.

.3 faster then a non works car, even if Sarrazin is driving is not something great IMO. IMO in order for Audi to show they can win Le Mans McNish will have to be at least a full second clear of the Oreca 908, because its been proven time and time again the other Audi drivers are nowhere near close to the super team. Audi simply cannot rely on the superteam to beat 4 Peugeots, they need a car fast enough where the other Audi drivers can at least attempt to run 2nd and or 3rd.

Also alot of the R15's problems last year were driveablity, the youngsters had some problem keeping it on track. Whether or not the car is more user friendly is yet to be seen. Is the car reliable? The 908s are bullet proof now.

Anyways until race time we really won't know the true difference in speed. And as I said this is the best Audi has, I need to see at least a 1 second gap over the ORECA 908 to give them a chance at LeMans

[MihokS5]

Originally Posted by Holt

They said the same thing last year after Sebring.

McNish is very good at putting down a fast lap, his lap at LeMans last year stood for quite some time and it took Sarrazin all he could do to beat it.

.3 faster then a non works car, even if Sarrazin is driving is not something great IMO. IMO in order for Audi to show they can win Le Mans McNish will have to be at least a full second clear of the Oreca 908, because its been proven time and time again the other Audi drivers are nowhere near close to the super team. Audi simply cannot rely on the superteam to beat 4 Peugeots, they need a car fast enough where the other Audi drivers can at least attempt to run 2nd and or 3rd.

Also alot of the R15's problems last year were driveablity, the youngsters had some problem keeping it on track. Whether or not the car is more user friendly is yet to be seen. Is the car reliable? The 908s are bullet proof now.

Anyways until race time we really won't know the true difference in speed. And as I said this is the best Audi has, I need to see at least a 1 second gap over the ORECA 908 to give them a chance at LeMans

Very well put and I agree with you. Audi can not always rely on this trio of drivers to deliver. These cars need to have a performance advantage PERIOD.

[Victor_RO]

We'll get a much clearer picture at Spa, because we'll get all six(seven) factory cars together there (Oreca's effort can be declared "works", TBH) with the Le Mans line-ups (at least that's my understanding of the situation).

[sssssssss]

Well, the R15 doesn't look as good as I personally expected, performance-wise. Their best drivers managed to set the fastest lap of the day, but looking at the detalied data on lap times and sector times, the Peugeot - which, let's not forget, isn't even a works Peugeot - was faster on all three sectors of the track in different laps, with an ideal lap time of half a second less than Audi's ideal lap:

Oreca Peugeot best sectors:
1- 0:28.568 2- 0:26.269 3- 0:47.329 => ideal Lap- 1:42.166

Audi R15 TDI Plus best sectors:
1- 0:28.875 2- 0:26.363 3- 0:47.458 => ideal Lap- 1:42.696

[arakis]

dario tomorow is only a day away and only then will we know who is the fastest in both gt2 and LMP1, remember this is a 8h race and being fast over one lap doesen't mean anything, avarage laptimes over one stint is the name of the game!!!

P.S. qualifying wont be that much of a big deal since the race will last for 8h

[Dario911]

Originally Posted by Holt

They said the same thing last year after Sebring.

McNish is very good at putting down a fast lap, his lap at LeMans last year stood for quite some time and it took Sarrazin all he could do to beat it.

.3 faster then a non works car, even if Sarrazin is driving is not something great IMO. IMO in order for Audi to show they can win Le Mans McNish will have to be at least a full second clear of the Oreca 908, because its been proven time and time again the other Audi drivers are nowhere near close to the super team. Audi simply cannot rely on the superteam to beat 4 Peugeots, they need a car fast enough where the other Audi drivers can at least attempt to run 2nd and or 3rd.

Also alot of the R15's problems last year were driveablity, the youngsters had some problem keeping it on track. Whether or not the car is more user friendly is yet to be seen. Is the car reliable? The 908s are bullet proof now.

Anyways until race time we really won't know the true difference in speed. And as I said this is the best Audi has, I need to see at least a 1 second gap over the ORECA 908 to give them a chance at LeMans

You must consider not only the car, but the crew and the team, too.
Audi is more efficient than Pug, and Joest is a real magician. From the strategic point of view, I think Audi and Joest have a great advantage. R15 is more user friendly if you consider wet and dry conditions. With a wet tarmac, Pug is slower than my car...
908 is a great car, no doubts.
But Audi is no less competitive, amd with all the improvements of the R15 Plus, it will be a very hard opponent for the french team, to preserve the title.
This is just the first race of the R15, for the first time on this track. R15 Plus has not been tested so much, so I think it's normal they have to improve the car before of the race.

[arakis]

Originally Posted by Dario911

You must consider not only the car, but the crew and the team, too.
Audi is more efficient than Pug, and Joest is a real magician. From the strategic point of view, I think Audi and Joest have a great advantage. R15 is more user friendly if you consider wet and dry conditions. With a wet tarmac, Pug is slower than my car...
908 is a great car, no doubts.
But Audi is no less competitive, amd with all the improvements of the R15 Plus, it will be a very hard opponent for the french team, to preserve the title.

like i said it's way to early to tell anything, AUDI has a huge down side also, they will be basicly running a brand new car at Le Mans, while peugaut will drive basicly the same car as last year!

[Gingers4Justice]

Here's a thought - if the R15 plus hits any kind of trouble, that's Audi's race gone, considering they've entered just the one car.

I know Audi are describing this race as a "test under racing conditions", but if they finish behind a Rebellion Lola or a Beachdeen/Mansell Zytek, it will be highly embarassing, and ultimately, a failure for Joest.

If the Oreca Pug does indeed take the victory on Sunday evening, it will give Peugeot a huge psychological advantage for the big race in June - and I don't think it will knock Oreca's confidence too much either .

[Tom908V12]

I'm still confident the "ORECA 908" can beat the R15+ sunday(and at tomorrow's qualifying practice)

[Victor_RO]

^ It will beat the R15+ tomorrow, that's a definite. After all, it's got a Stephane Sarrazin behind the wheel. For the race... extremely hard to tell.

[Dario911]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

^ It will beat the R15+ tomorrow, that's a definite.

We have a proverb, here in Italy: don't sell the skin of the bear, before you have killed it.
I think it should be more intelligent to follow this suggestion.

[arakis]

Originally Posted by Dario911

We have a proverb, here in Italy: don't sell the skin of the bear, before you have killed it.
I think it should be more intelligent to follow this suggestion.

or for the english speaking world,

Don't count your chickens before they've hatched

[Holt]

One thing that is upsetting to me is that Aston Martin, or the nearest gasoline car is 2 seconds behind the diesels. 2 second gap at Paul Ricard means maybe 5 second gap at Le Mans?

I really wanted a 3 horse race between Aston Martin, Audi and Peugeot this year at Le Mans, and we could have another '99 classic on our hands.

Hopefully more performance adjustments are made in favor of the gasoline cars if Aston Martin isn't sandbagging.

Dario911 is right, I think it's too early to tell either way. The R15+ appears to have the slight edge in speed, but with McNish driving that's usually the case. But the sector bests/ideal lap belongs to Peugeot. Thats a tribute to McNish's driving skills and his ability to get everything out of the R15.

I think qualifying will be a close battle, I can't imagine the gap being more then 5 tenths either way. What I'm really interested in is race pace.

Originally Posted by Dario911

You must consider not only the car, but the crew and the team, too.
Audi is more efficient than Pug, and Joest is a real magician. From the strategic point of view, I think Audi and Joest have a great advantage. R15 is more user friendly if you consider wet and dry conditions. With a wet tarmac, Pug is slower than my car...
908 is a great car, no doubts.
But Audi is no less competitive, amd with all the improvements of the R15 Plus, it will be a very hard opponent for the french team, to preserve the title.
This is just the first race of the R15, for the first time on this track. R15 Plus has not been tested so much, so I think it's normal they have to improve the car before of the race.

Peugeot's crew and drivers have made tremendous strides since '07. Audi is still superior crew and strategy wise, but I believe Peugeot's driver lineup is stronger overall.

It'll be interesting to see how much they improve the car between now and Spa when they face the Factory Peugeots.

[Acid09]

Regarding the BMW, looks like the new rear-end has not yet been discussed - It differs quite a bit from the ALMS and VLN versions.

http://www.endurance-info.com/versio...Jeudi_J_13.jpg

The car running at Ricard this weekend is the first M3 to be build to the LMS rules and the seventh M3 chassis in total, the LMS test was done with one of the VLN cars.

[Birddog07]

Nice to see the BMW, and the Audi staying with and even beating Matmut-Pug in both FP2 on their own track. I think both cars were going flat out for times, because Matmut almost posted the best FP2 time, but it was beat by a fast lap from McNish during the fianal seconds. I think a good race and result with Audi sticking close, if not, beating Matmut will be a realmorale booster for Spa, which has all the ingredients to be an epic race.

[Martin90]

Radio Le Mans is on for free practice session #3