Hartley: Porsche has made progress “in all areas”
Brendon Hartley reflects on Porsche's off-season in Endurance and shares the changes that have occurred as well as his ambitions for 2015.
Driver of the Porsche No. 17, alongside veterans Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber, the New Zealander Brendon Hartley reflected both on the team’s first season after its return and on a brighter future as the World Endurance Championship is set to begin at the end of next week.
« We exceeded expectations by far last year. We really progressed to the point of securing victory in the last race. » Porsche won the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo thanks to car no. 14 driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas, and Marc Lieb. « Leading Le Mans after 22 hours was also unexpected. On a personal level, it was the best moment of my career so far. It would be great to take another step forward this year and finish on the podium. »
Hartley explains to Motorsport.com that certain technical measures were taken by Porsche during the winter: « The whole concept of this year’s car is similar, even though it’s a new monocoque. Porsche’s engineers have worked very hard so that we can race in the 8 megajoules instead of the 6 MJ from last season and we are using a lithium-ion battery – which is kind of an 80 kg mobile phone battery! – and we are currently recovering at the exhaust system level, unlike our competitors. So we have two energy recovery systems, one that recovers during braking and the other under full load. »
LMP1 teams in Endurance racing have the choice between 2, 4, 6, or 8 MJ of energy per lap of the Le Mans circuit (the reference lap, 13.63 km). In the 8 MJ category, cars can consume up to 4.76 liters of fuel per lap, which corresponds to a maximum consumption of 34.3 liters per 100 km given that the tank is 68.5 liters. In comparison, in the 4 MJ category (where Audi is located), cars are allocated 3.84 liters of diesel per lap.
« We have made some progress in all these areas. It’s not drastically different to drive, but it’s already something that makes our competitors groan about our top speed! Looking at the numbers, it indeed seems that Silverstone is going to be a very close race. »
Brendon Hartley concludes: « It’s a long season and, obviously, everyone will have an eye on the crown jewel that is Le Mans as well, but every winner at Silverstone has won the World Championship, so it’s an important race. »
