The Race of the Year is approaching. In only eight days, the
starting lights at the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours will switch to
green at 3 p.m. Tom Kristensen will have the chance for his ninth
victory at the world's most important endurance race; while Audi as
a brand could win its tenth victory.
The preparations for the race have been excellent. During the
last tests which followed the R18 TDI's racing debut at the
1,000-kilometer race at Spa-Francorchamps the squad at Monza and Le
Castellet primarily focused on reliability and on performance to be
as consistent as possible. As the acid test for Le Mans, the car
had to cover a distance of 6,000 kilometers - about 600 more than
it did when it clinched last year's record victory. The R18 TDI
mastered this requirement without any problem and while fine-tuning
the car the team achieved another perhaps crucially important final
step.
The Audi R18 TDI has got a compact 3.7-liter V6 TDI engine with a
mono-VTG turbocharger and full LED headlights. Despite the
reduction in power output due to the smaller, highly turbocharged
engines prescribed in 2011 the Audi R18 TDI thanks to efficient
aerodynamics achieves the same top speed at Le Mans as the
predecessor model, the R15 TDI, did. The lap times set on the
13.629-kilometer race track during the test day in early May were
already impressive. According to the projections of Audi Sport's
engineers the new LMP1 sports car should have made even further
steps regarding speed and consistency.
However, Tom Kristensen predicts a close and hard race this
year.
"This time Le Mans will be even more difficult than before for a
number of reasons. On the official test day in April the top five
cars were within one second of each other, on a lap distance of
13.6 kilometers! I think that the pace of Audi and Peugeot in
qualifying and in the race will be very similar. That means that
we've got to handle our pit stops in a sure and absolutely precise
manner and that we need a good race strategy. Lap times are
crucial, but so is the efficient use of fuel and the tires. Since
November we've been completing tests that were focused on lap times
as well as on durability. On the test day at Le Mans we were first
and second and finished our race debut at Spa in third place. We've
finished all preparations and are fully concentrating on the race,"
says Kristensen.