[WEC Race] Sao Paulo 6 Hours 2012

[TF110]

Audi can run simulations to find a way around tire problems. It might not be the best fix (compared to testing), but that's what any professional factory team would do. If Toyota are confident about Bahrain, I don't know what kind of pace will be seen from them in reference to Audi. Seeing as how today Audi looked 'lost' with the tire management, and seemed like they were playing catch up, I hope for them it isn't like this in two weeks.

[chernaudi]

Di Grassi did run the race's fastest lap, but that was on new tires late in the event, and it didn't make much of a difference in the end. The guys from Audi in Dagys' piece at Speed.com admit as much--they simply missed the boat with tire strategy, while Toyota hit it. It seems that Toyota also struggled with getting what they wanted out of their tires early in the weekend, which is why they spent so much time in practice messing around with their set up, which paid big dividends in the race.

The only way that Audi can win Bahrain is if they improve on their tire setups so they can exploit their fuel mileage advantage. That helped out Toyota, in that Audi often had to pit sooner than they wanted to, and that also allowed Toyota to back off, hold a gap, and save fuel.

I do wonder if the track surface threw Audi a curve, since Interlogos is one of the rougher, bumpier and nastier F1-type tracks out there, and that TMG had run F1 races there before gave them a better baseline for the tire situation?

[TF110]

FIA WEC's site says 25,000 were on hand at Sao Paulo.

[gregtummer]

You wouldn't think the problem would be the track surface since Audi has raced and tested at Sebring for so long.

[chernaudi]

Audi never raced an LMP at Interlogos. TMG at least had F1 experience to draw from, and that probably helped with their set up issues that they had in practice.

[rich07]

I fell asleep in front of my laptop sometime in the first hour and Toyota grabs their first win? Shattered I missed it. A massive congratulations to the Toyota guys, they had a fantastic race and did it in style. Hopefully this'll loosen the purse strings held by the board and they are encouraged to put more money and resources into the programme-2nd car at Fuji anyone?

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Audi never raced an LMP at Interlogos.

Not doubting you at all but I find it somewhat hard to believe that is the case. There were several LMS rounds at Interlagos and Peugeot raced there so Im disappointed that Audi have never raced there.

[chernaudi]

There was only one LMS round at Interlogos prior to 2012, and that was back in 2007. Only Audis that have raced there prior to this weekend were a few GT3 cars that run in Brazilian GT3-type championships. To be fair, TMG only ran F1 cars at Interlogos, but an F1 car is much closer in performance to an LMP1 car than a production based GT car.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

There was only one LMS round at Interlogos prior to 2012, and that was back in 2007.

Really? I thought there was two. Your memory is much better then mine

[chernaudi]

I do think that the 1000 mile race for the LMS there was one and done, and it was only held in '07. It as poorly attended (only major LMP teams that showed up were Peugeot and Pescarolo), hence why it was scrapped.

[gregtummer]

2007 Fastest lap - #8 Team Peugeot Total - 1:18.787

Wow. This year's was 1:23 flat. I thought they would be on the pace of the 2007 cars.

The elevation must really be choking the horsepower off of the smaller engines.

[chernaudi]

Also, the current cars are down about 150-200bhp compared to 2007. The Pug had about 700+bhp, while the Audi R18 and Toyota TS030 are making between 550-600.

[gregtummer]

Right. But the Audis and Toyotas were faster this year at Le Mans than the Peugeots and Audis were at Le Mans in 2007.

So it must simply be the altitude completely choking the smaller engines.

[DeathOrGlory]

Originally Posted by gregtummer

Starworks wins again (in P2)

Here's a gameplan for Starworks: Bring 3 cars, use one as a battering ram to the Pruett/ Rojas car.

Le Mans, Sebring, WEC, NAEC, 2nd at Daytona, and Grand-Am! If anything, THIS is the team to beat this year!

[TF110]

Originally Posted by gregtummer

2007 Fastest lap - #8 Team Peugeot Total - 1:18.787

Wow. This year's was 1:23 flat. I thought they would be on the pace of the 2007 cars.

The elevation must really be choking the horsepower off of the smaller engines.

That was qualifying time. Race record lap time by those Peugeot's were in the 1:21's. I wonder if they'll be faster next year. I bet they will, and I think in 2014 they'll be faster still.

[gregtummer]

I think you are right.

Fastest race lap I can see during the race was 1:21.043 by the Peugeots.

Still, I would have thought the 2012 cars would have been faster.

The altitude must really choke the smaller engines.

[TF110]

The Peugeot was a turbo too wasn't it?

[gregtummer]

Twin-Turbo

[FIRE]

Toyota

[vincegail]

And I happily stand corrected! Roll on June!

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

CONGRATULATIONS TOYOTA!

That is an incredible achievement just 3 races into their programme. I am absolutely thrilled to bits!!!!

Just woke up ..... missed the last 2 hours of it ..... couldnt put it better meself Mr.B !!!

What a fantastic result ...... thrilled to bits !!!

[Speed-King]

Also makes you wonder where Audi would be in a field with 3 or 4 manufacturers... getting beaten by an upstart on a tight budget after only three races isn't all that impressive...

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Also makes you wonder where Audi would be in a field with 3 or 4 manufacturers... getting beaten by an upstart on a tight budget after only three races isn't all that impressive...

Well, it's no big surprise, isn't it? Outside of Le Mans, even Peugeot had them pretty much covered right from the start, even though their efforts where downright chaotic in the early years.. gifting Audi the 2008 LMS championship etc.

Audi is not very good when getting pressured, they tend to make mistakes and lose their temper, both the drivers and the team as a whole. The only exception seems to be Le Mans, their experience and record seems to give them extra confidence there.

But on other tracks, Audi just isn't that good. They`re also in a pretty tough spot regarding drivers. They have the new #1 crew which is set but other than that, most other drivers are just on loan or dropping off.

McNish and Kristensen have gotten awfully error-prone the last 12-16 months, I think time is starting to run out for these guys as well.

[picchiofan]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Also makes you wonder where Audi would be in a field with 3 or 4 manufacturers... getting beaten by an upstart on a tight budget after only three races isn't all that impressive...

Look at their non-lemans performances against Peugeot, they got beaten pretty badly for a few years there, heck, look at the waning years of the ALMS participation where the R10 was getting smoked by the LMP2 cars of Porsche and Acura.

Audi's "reputation" has been built on racing no one. The R8 was a dominant car that never really had to race. The R10 wasn't nearly the piece the R8 was, and the R15 and 18 haven't been that great, they simply haven't had to race anything.

[The Badger]

Got this from Felbermayr facebook : google translation from German .


Score correction - Sao Paulo # 1 for # 88 - Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti was the end of the race found in the post-implementation review on winning Chevrolet a technical irregularity, the Corvette was therefore taken out of the ranking. The Felbermayr-Proton Porsche moved to second place in the first

The result is provisional after objections from the Larbre team. team boss Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti pick thus with the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to victory in the GTE Am class, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in third place in the GTE Pro Rating .

And the original in German :

Platz 1 für #88 - Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda und Paolo Ruberti

Nach Rennende wurde bei der Nachüberprüfung am siegreichen Chevrolet eine technische Unregelmäßigkeit festgestellt, die Corvette wurde deshalb aus der Wertung genommen. Der Felbermayr-Proton Porsche rückte dadurch auf Platz 1 vor.


Das Ergebnis ist nach einem Einspruch des Larbre-Teams vorläufig.

Teamchef Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda und Paolo Ruberti holen somit mit dem Porsche 911 GT3 RSR den Sieg in der Klasse GTE Am, Marc Lieb und Richard Lietz auf Platz drei in der GTE Pro Wertung.

[FIRE]

Like at WEC Silverstone.