Fine details can sometimes be the difference at Le Mans. Not just between winning or losing, but even finishing a race or packing up well before the checkered flag has dropped.
Pit-stop practice, driver changes and part replacement must be administered to metronomic precision.
All three of the main contenders at Le Mans in 2016 have experienced some form of reliability woes and without a third car at their disposal, Porsche, Audi and Toyota won’t have the ability to play hare versus tortoise with the same vigour as in previous years.
Porsche is to revert back to its 2015 battery for Le Mans in just a couple of weeks. This was confirmed by Porsche works driver Neel Jani. Speaking at the test day, he claimed that the team is having issues with its 2016 design, which was somewhat rushed to get it done in time for the Prologue.
“We changed the battery because we had a problem with it. We came back to the 2015 spec to be safe, for reliability is paramount here at Le Mans,” he said.
“At the end of the day, there’s no point being one second faster if the car ends up breaking down. So we came back to that. But you never know.”
Since Spa, Porsche has been in endurance runs of the 919 at Aragon in Spain, and despite it having the fastest car in the WEC, it is reliability which is its big question mark going into Le Mans. The German manufacturer has not revealed how much of a performance cut it will face with the change, although both batteries were built for the 8MJ hybrid subclass.
“This year, everyone can win,” Jani added. “Our tests at Aragon were good. But nothing is guaranteed, especially on this track where you can’t run beforehand.”
Toyota is confident the engine problems that forced its two TS050 HYBRIDs out of the 6 Hours of Spa round will not be an issue at Le Mans.
The failure on the 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 which ultimately scuppered any chance of victory for the number five Toyota TS050 HYBRID at Spa was determined to be caused by the excessive loads and compression through the Eau Rouge corner.
Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon said: “We have done several dyno long runs and several times we went to 10,000 kilometres on track with the engines, and suddenly we had two failures.
“We are nearly certain that it was related to the load cases at Eau Rouge, the torsion and bend.”
Vasselon added that it would be “nearly impossible” to remedy the engine situation between Spa event and Le Mans, but stressed that no remedy was required for Le Mans given engines are not subjected to the same forces on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
“We have not changed anything for Le Mans, because we are far from this load case [on the French track],” he said.
Both Toyotas ran without problems during the Le Mans official test day, however it’s worth remembering that Peugeot looked impervious in 2010 until three of its entries retired with identical cases of connecting rod failure.
A combination of circumstances due to perfect race conditions and a track that lent progressively more grip led to the cars running quicker and putting increased stress on their engines; a factor that was not accounted for during dyno testing prior to the event.
What the TS050 does have on its side is tyre life and it should be able to run consistently longer than its main opposition.
Apart from the suspension and damper issues encountered on the number seven eTron Quattro, Audi appear to be heading in the right direction with two from two wins on the board if you discount their exclusion at Silverstone due to a worn skid-block.
In a season where reliability has been the determining factor, Audi has been far from bullet-proof, but still the best of the LMP1 factory teams. The main question mark, however, is on their usual exceptional pit-work, which has been well and truly caught by Porsche in the last 24 months.
A podium for Audi from Porsche from Rebellion was probably the longest odds imaginable on the eve of the 6 Hours of Spa, but proving the Swiss outfit’s decision to focus on reliability over development was a shrewd one indeed.
It’s a decision that now sees them second in the World Endurance Championship heading into Le Mans.
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