so, do you think porsche can win LMP1 at le mans the first year?

[cockerpunk]

lots of interenet chatter, and the porsche channel on youtube is really hyping there LMP1 effort for le mans this year.

do you really think they can beat audi at there own game? do you think VAG higher ups are going to purposely sabotage or limit the audi effort to get porsche winning again? will toyota get a more competitive car this year, with toyota re-committing to motorsport?

[porsche4life]

Will be a very interesting race to watch this year! Porsche looks to have put up a good effort, but Audi is so hard to beat!

[Rikao4]

team directive..
or a shunt...
the directive is not going to happen...
Audi has spent to much $ and effort to hype their diesel tech.
to let Porsche win right out of the gate is foolish..
as folks would say...
Audi only win's because Porsche isn't playing..

it will take a few races for Porsche to get up and running..

Rika

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Will be a very interesting race to watch this year! Porsche looks to have put up a good effort, but Audi is so hard to beat!

its old dynasty vs new dynasty certainly!

i have a hard time believing there isn't politics here at some point, both companies being VAG ...

i think mcnish retiring is not coincidence.

[porsche4life]

Mcnish is good, but until the dane retires, Audi still has the top driver in LeMans history...

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Mcnish is good, but until the dane retires, Audi still has the top driver in LeMans history...

i think it shows a fracturing of the audi effort moreso. be interesting to see what the turnover has been in engineering/technical staff since last year.

[livi]

Originally Posted by Rikao4

team directive..
or a shunt...
the directive is not going to happen...
Audi has spent to much $ and effort to hype their diesel tech.
to let Porsche win right out of the gate is foolish..
as folks would say...
Audi only win's because Porsche isn't playing..

it will take a few races for Porsche to get up and running..

Rika

Sounds pretty reasonable.

[BReif61]

I think it would be a big surprise to win it all the first year out. I just hope the car is competitive and then they can come back in 2015 and dominate like years past.

[cockerpunk]

they have a pretty good driver lineup

Brendon Hartley (24) and long-standing Porsche works driver Marc Lieb (33) from Germany have been confirmed as regular drivers in the LMP1 race car, officially called the “Porsche 919 hybrid”. Already signed on for the LMP1 project are the drivers Timo Bernhard (DE, 32), Romain Dumas (FR, 36), Neel Jani (CH, 30) and the Australian Mark Webber (37).

all experienced and winning drivers

[Baz]

Porsche will win. Hands down.

Mark my words.

[herr_oberst]

Did anyone believe the 956 could sweep the podium in it's 1982 LeMans debut?

[Schumi]

If they win, they will just add to the legend. It will be intense. People will be blown away.


If they don't win, I don't think anyone is going to fault them, really.

So, they have no reason not to be going for it.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

If they win it will not be by race pace but by attrition as the Audi race team have 14yrs of continuous refinement through LMP1 racing, where Porsche have none. Audi have won 12 out of the last 14 races.

Porsche have to believe they can win out right or they shouldn't be taking part but the team will be going through disruptive, performance sapping growing pains as their LMP project is a very young race programme.

No real meaningful comparisons can be made when looking at the similarities between an LMP1 race car and a converted road car such as the GT3RSR. One is t-ball and the other is world series baseball.

Porsche will have a vertical learning curve before they can hope to start trying to play catch. This will take years, not one new car project and half a race season. That is assuming they have the right people doing the right jobs, enough budget, quick enough development updates that add performance rather than confuse or remove performance, a slickly run organization and no top level board interference.

No matter how many bright, clever, young people Porsche have to internally recruit from none will be bright enough to out smart a person with 14yrs of LMP1 race experience. Trust me whan I say 14 yrs of LMP1 racing finding out and seeing different ways your a$$ can be bitten more than makes up for a newbies intelligence and enthusiasm.

I would be the happiest person on here if I proved wrong and desperately hope they can win by being the fastest as it would make a fairy tale start to Porsche new era of endurance racing.

[AFC-911]

^ You seem to forget that it wasn't long ago that they were running the RS Spyder program...

I think they know a thing or two about making a prototype that will last through a long endurance race judging from their results at Sebring and Le Mans.

It's not the same as a P1 programme, but it's not as big a leap as you're making it out to be.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by AFC-911

^ You seem to forget that it wasn't long ago that they were running the RS Spyder program...

I think they know a thing or two about making a prototype that will last through a long endurance race judging from their results at Sebring and Le Mans.

It's not the same as a P1 programme, but it's not as big a leap as you're making it out to be.

Yes totally forgot about the RS Spyder so scratch my GT3RSR point, completely irrelevant.

I don't remember them having any real strong competition when running the RS and 5yrs of LMP1 development with a few years of hybrid power unit development will be a long way down the road from where they were when the RS Spyder programme ended.

Didn't mean to sound negative just trying to add some realistic expectations of the type of challenges Porsche will need to overcome to win.

[gtc]

I would hope they share expertise to get the Porsche team up to speed if necessary, but let the best car and team win.

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

do you really think they can beat audi at there own game? do you think VAG higher ups are going to purposely sabotage or limit the audi effort to get porsche winning again?

[javadog]

I think they will find that the LMP1 category is not as easy as it looks. It will certainly be a much bigger challenge than their LMP2 program was. Racecar technology has moved on down the road a long ways. While I hope they will be competetive, I suspect they may not be, at least in outright speed. I'm old enough to remember some things they did in the past, where they clearly misjudged the current state of the art. We'll see.

From what I have seen of their car, it looks quite simple compared to the Audi. To me, that is not a good sign. Then there's the equivalency factor... the Audi, Toyota and Porsche will all be running different configurations and who knows which one of those will be the optimum one.

Then there's the luck factor. I wonder which one will get taken out this year by an amateur idiot in a Ferrari?

JR

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

If they win it will not be by race pace but by attrition as the Audi race team have 14yrs of continuous refinement through LMP1 racing, where Porsche have none. Audi have won 12 out of the last 14 races.

Porsche have to believe they can win out right or they shouldn't be taking part but the team will be going through disruptive, performance sapping growing pains as their LMP project is a very young race programme.

No real meaningful comparisons can be made when looking at the similarities between an LMP1 race car and a converted road car such as the GT3RSR. One is t-ball and the other is world series baseball.

Porsche will have a vertical learning curve before they can hope to start trying to play catch. This will take years, not one new car project and half a race season. That is assuming they have the right people doing the right jobs, enough budget, quick enough development updates that add performance rather than confuse or remove performance, a slickly run organization and no top level board interference.

No matter how many bright, clever, young people Porsche have to internally recruit from none will be bright enough to out smart a person with 14yrs of LMP1 race experience. Trust me whan I say 14 yrs of LMP1 racing finding out and seeing different ways your a$$ can be bitten more than makes up for a newbies intelligence and enthusiasm.

I would be the happiest person on here if I proved wrong and desperately hope they can win by being the fastest as it would make a fairy tale start to Porsche new era of endurance racing.

well with all racing its a talent race as much as a car race.

audi might have had a monopoly on talent for the last 5+ years, but i think there are plenty of smart LMP race engineers from Peugeot, toyota, and audi who have come over to the porsche side.

its not like they recruited a bunch of off fresh of the boxster design team into LMP1 race engineering. im sure they have been heavily recruiting LMP experimented engineers.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

well with all racing its a talent race as much as a car race.

audi might have had a monopoly on talent for the last 5+ years, but i think there are plenty of smart LMP race engineers from Peugeot, toyota, and audi who have come over to the porsche side.

its not like they recruited a bunch of off fresh of the boxster design team into LMP1 race engineering. im sure they have been heavily recruiting LMP experimented engineers.

You have a good point, getting the right mix of people quickly up to speed and working together well will be the teams toughest job.

To many experienced LMP guys from other teams could create factions that don't work well together, too many senior Porsche guys with no LMP1 experience would create lack of technical direction/focus and too many young Porsche engineers will create complete confusion.

In LMP1 I would be suprised if there would be enough good experienced designers/engineers who are contractually free to leave there exisiting job, would be prepared to move house/family and want the challenge of proving themselves in a new company full of people they don't know. For many it would be too big a risk.

[Baz]