What have you changed from last year’s Le Mans car?
“Two major factors have changed. First the engine has made a step and this is valuable at any track, but especially at Le Mans where the engine performance is quite strong. Le Mans is an engine track. It’s a continuous process. Every year we refine – especially where we set our targets – and our engineers are more or less creative. This year they have been very creative and this leads to good targets and very big progress”.
Some years you think you have enough performance up your sleeve and other years – like 2016 – the car wasn’t competitive. How do you view that philosophy?
“In 2015 we were still trying to do cost savings and it wasn’t possible. Now we know we need to develop strongly nearly all over the package. This year has been a development of engine and aero”.
How has that effected reliability?
“It’s always a matter of durability. We have prepared – this year – exactly like last year with a number of thirty hour sessions which went very well like previous years, so like previous years we don’t foresee any reliability issues. But we’ve seen twice quality issues can happen and this is why we came with a third car – to have statistically less chance to be hurt by quality issues”.
Do you feel Porsche have a durability advantage?
“Porsche have never had any durability advantage on us. Last year they were the ones first to fail with a water pump issue. We were just always unlucky to have our one problem on the car which was going to win. So we have never seen a reliability advantage from Porsche. It’s just
circumstances. So we are not telling ourselves that they have an advantage – that’s a fact.”
All nine drivers showed a lot of consistency at Le Mans. Was that a surprise to you?
“This was a very good surprise on the test day. At Spa we had a couple of drivers who were not quick enough. We have been working on that and we saw on the test day we saw that all drivers were showing good pace”.
Do hotter temperatures favour Porsche,
where the grip disappears and they may have more down-force?
“I’d say that we have a better aero efficiency because we are faster in the Porsche Curves and faster at the speed traps. We don’t consider that we have less down-force than Porsche.”
How do you see the future of WEC with two manufacturers?
“We have been working with Porsche, the FIA and the ACO to define a road map for 2020 so definitely we’re looking to the future very carefully. Manufacturers like Toyota and Porsche are racing in this category because of its road-relevance. The road car industry is following some traits and manufacturers want racing that reflects these traits. Unfortunately, road car technology is becoming complex so the racing is becoming complex”.
Can it become simpler?
“As long as there are manufacturers like us who are looking for road-relevance in racing to fuel the research of road cars, that’s where it will go”.
How far will Toyota commit?
“We are never looking long term. Every year the program is decided for the year after, so we have t to looking at the regulations through to 2020”.
So Toyota like the direction in which the regulations are headed?
“Exactly. Toyota have explained clearly what we are looking for in this series and where the regulations are going.”
Last year’s Toyota showed surprisingly good fuel mileage at Le Mans and the team was able to go a lap longer than Porsche and Audi between stops.
“This has nothing to do with fuel economy, because we all have the same quantity of fuel per lap and we all sue it. Last year
were able to use our fuel tank capacity better. When you do fourteen laps you come very close to an empty tank and it’s difficult to extract fuel from an empty tank! But if you stay [under the threshold] you lose a lot of lap time. Mathematically it would be a very bad strategy to save fuel at the expense of lap time just to do one more lap”.
Were you expecting Porsche to close the pace after the first day of the Le Mans weekend.
“The gap to Porsche after the first day wasn’t realistic, so we were expecting a reaction from Porsche. Porsche may know better what they may have done wrong on the test day, so we always considered that Porsche may be closer”.
In which area do you think Porsche have closed the gaps?
“You’ll have to ask them”.
Images: FIA WEC/Adrenal Media