Audi today revealed its 2014 LMP1 challenger for the FIA World Endurance Championship in spectacular fashion – with ‘Mr Le Mans’ Tom Kristensen driving the R18 e-tron quattro amid urban traffic from the centre of Le Mans to the Circuit des 24 Heures.
The diesel-engined hybrid was tracked on its 10 kilometre journey by TV cameras and photographers, cheered on by a huge number of fans from Le Mans, and on arrival at the track completed a lap of the Circuit Bugatti.
“I’ve been competing at Le Mans since 1997 but this was absolutely new for me, too, and very exciting,” said Tom Kristensen, who in 2006 had driven the revolutionary Audi R10 TDI on its world premiere – in Paris – in public traffic as well.
The temporary black livery seen in recent months during pre-season testing has been replaced by a striking white, silver, red and black scheme which will be carried by both the Audi Sport Team Joest entries for the remainder of the 2014 season.
Also revealed today by Audi was key technical data about the R18’s powertrain. The cubic capacity of the V6 TDI power plant has been increased from 3.7 to four litres in order to further optimise the already-efficient engine. After testing various energy recovery systems, Audi has decided to use up to two megajoules of recuperation energy at Le Mans. The energy exclusively flows through a motor generator unit (MGU) at the front axle and is stored in a flywheel energy storage system (see previous story here).
“We opted for this concept following extensive testing,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “In our opinion, it provides the optimum balance between efficient energy use, size, weight, energy conversion efficiency, responsiveness, drivability and a favourable operating strategy – combined with durability, which is the basic prerequisite for success, especially at Le Mans.”
Fiona Miller (quotes from Audi Sport)
Photos: 1) Audi R18 e-tron quattro, the LMP1-H which will challenge for the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship; 2) Tom Kristensen driving the Audi through the streets of Le Mans en route to the Circuit des 24 Heures.
