In many ways, Porsche can thank Audi for their stunning 1-2 finish in the 2015 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Why? Because the team spearheaded by the wonderfully-composed Dr Wolfgang Ulrich is probably responsible for dragging the rest of the LMP1 field up to the same level.
Audi have been so good for so long, displaying a level of professionalism above and beyond what had ever been seen in LMP1 before their arrival. They are the consummate professionals, doing everything well, planning for every eventuality, and to beat such a team, the rest of the field, the Porsche’s and Nissan’s of the world, have been forced to seek a similar level of performance and accountability.
It’s not an over exaggeration to say that Audi had driven this golden era of sports car racing to the very prominent stage it’s on now. The likes of Alan McNish, Dindo Capello and Mr Le Mans Tom Kristensen carried the Four Rings to so many titles – Kristensen won nine overall, and a large proportion with Audi – and lured other teams and manufacturers to Le Mans, giving them a benchmark to meet, a challenge to accept.
On Sunday afternoon at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Porsche, who had met the challenge all through a stunning reliable race, conquered the mountain that beating Audi at Le Mans has become. It’s the Mount Everest of motorsports, the toughest assignment there is, harder, even, than beating Mercedes Benz in Formula One or Jimmie Johnson in NASCAR at the moment.
Audi has been the model team as far as winning – and winning the right way, with humility and grace – goes, and doing it with a seemingly-bulletproof car that simply outlasted the rest of it’s competition, who might’ve had faster cars, but couldn’t match the longevity that Audi boasted.
There was irony in the fate of the Audi fleet late in the race, all three cars being cruelled at various times by niggling problems – the #7 Audi, for example, had engine cover bodywork issues that put an end to their chances of going back-to-back – that, in previous years, have happened to Peugeots and Audis and BMWs, allowing Audi to race to the front, and command much of the final twelve hours of the gruelling event.
In 2015, it was those little issues and problems that delayed Audi rather than their competition, meaning that Porsche could record a memorable one-two finish, with the #19 919 Hybrid of Brit Nick Tandy, German Formula One star Nico Hulkenberg and New Zealander Earl Bamber leading home Australia’s hope, the sister #17 919 hybrid driven by our own Mark Webber, along with another Kiwi, Brendon Hartley, and Germany’s Timo Bernhard.
Most remarkable was that the winning car was viewed as the ‘third car’, one entered only for Spa and Le Mans, driven by two rising GT stars and a Formula One driver who circulates at or near the back at most Grand Prix’s. This was a car with less development and what was perceived to be the weakest of the three driver line-ups, though no trio in the LMP1 class can really be called weak.
The race-winners drove an exemplary race. They did everything right, made no mistakes, and, as often is the case in endurance events like Le Mans, rode the combination of a fast, reliable car and three level-headed drivers to a famous victory, beating a lot of very good cars and drivers across the line.
Porsche’s return to endurance sports car racing can now be deemed a success in only it’s second year, and there is the business of a World Endurance Championship crown to busy them for the rest of the year. The Webber/Hartley/Bernhard combination, who were ahead of the eventual race winners before a mildly-controversial stop-and-go penalty brought them to pit lane, will benefit from the double haul of points they received for finishing second. Hopefully their turn will come in twelve months’ time.
Sadly, the race-winning trio will now go their separate ways, not going on to race at any further World Endurance Championship events. Hulkenberg will return to the Formula One paddock with the ‘off-week’ story to beat them all, whilst Tandy will return to the LMP2 ranks with KCMG’s Oreca Nissan, and Bamber will melt back into the Porsche GT ranks. But they will never forget the second weekend in June of 2015, and nor will anyone else who witnessed, on track or on television, Porsche out-Audi’ing the Audis.
A magnificent victory – and all those (your correspondent included) who doubted Porsche had the long-term reliability to stay with Audi are enjoying our large slices of humble pie at the moment.
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