That the racing at the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship would be intense was never in doubt; the ultimate result of the meeting, however, proved more elusive.
At the end of a frenetic and incident-packed six hours on Sunday, it was the No7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer that took the chequered flag, the marque’s first win since the second round at Spa last year. Their celebrations were short-lived, however, after the car was deemed to have broken sporting regulations by the stewards in post-race scrutineering, giving the victory to the second-placed Porsche No2 of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb.
The Audi R18 e-tron quattro, an entirely new car for this year’s championship, was excluded for wear beyond the permitted 5mm on the front skid block. The team offered an explanation to the stewards but it was rejected, with the statement that: “it is the liability of the competitor to respect the technical regulations in any case in order that the car complies with this regulation”. In the early hours of Monday morning Audi announced that they would lodge an appeal against the decision.
Win or lose, and it appears unlikely that, having already put their case to the stewards, the decision will be overturned, the team will remain buoyed by their performance at Silverstone. Last year Porsche dominated the championship from their win at the Le Mans 24 Hours onwards, prompting both Audi and Toyota, their rivals in the top LMP1 prototype class, to build entirely new cars for this season, while Porsche continued with an upgraded iteration of their successful 919 Hybrid.
That Audi at least had closed the gap on their rivals was clear in qualifying on Saturday, with a one-two that ended Porsche’s run of pole positions that had stretched back to the Shanghai race in 2014. The No7 squad had battled the No2 car to the finish, with little to chose between them in pace, but with the gap down to six seconds in Audi’s favour in the last hour, a puncture forced an unscheduled stop for the Porsche compounded by having to take a splash and dash seven laps from the end, giving the Audi the win by 46 seconds.
Immediately after the race and before the result was overturned, Lotterer was cheered by the first competitive run for the new R18: “It is amazing that at this stage of the programme we have been able to win a race,” he said. “We had luck on our side because the No1 Porsche had its accident but that is part of motorsport.”
Indeed it was the sister No1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber, last year’s world champions, that had the advantage and the pace early in the race. Webber had opened with a charging start, taking the lead in the first hour and building a gap at the front. At the opening of the third hour, his team-mate Hartley had a 40-second advantage, when he was involved in a huge crash at Farm.
Hartley was later reprimanded for the collision that occurred when he tried to go round the outside of Michael Wainwright’s GTE Am Porsche and turned in too soon, causing the pair to clash. Hartley’s car was tipped on to its side and only prevented from completely rolling over by the GT car underneath it. Wainwright took a big impact in the tyre wall but both drivers emerged unscathed.
Audi too only managed to finish with one car after the No8 of Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis had to retire on lap 70 after a problem with the energy retrieval system.
Toyota had struggled with set-up for qualifying with their new TS050 but after a slow start to the race brought the No6 of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi up to speed as the running progressed. Their third place became a second after Audi’s disqualification. The sister car of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, suffered a puncture at the halfway mark that caused substantial damage to the bodywork that forced them down the field, although the car did return to finish in 17th. The team know they have more work to do to compete with their rivals but a fastest lap that was just over three-tenths off the best of the race suggests they are not far from making this a real three-way fight.
A fight that will continue on 7 May at Spa in the final race before this year’s Le Mans, which is looking far from being a foregone conclusion for Porsche. Certainly the growing number of fans (with 52,000 at Silverstone over the weekend) appreciate the competitiveness that comes with the open technical regulations the WEC employs. While there has been some closing in the philosophy of designs this year, interpretations remain diverse in a formula that continues to cut fuel consumption, with the total reduced by 7% for 2016.
Porsche’s upgraded 919 has stuck with the the V4, two-litre, turbo petrol engine, allied to a front axle and turbine Kers. Toyota have switched to V6 twin-turbo, petrol engine with twin axle Kers; while Audi have opted for a V6, single-turbo, diesel, partnered with a single front axle Kers. For the moment, Porsche’s tried and tested hybrid has the advantage, and the result, but the evidence from Silverstone is that they will not be allowed to run away with the championship this year.
