For the eighth and final round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, champions and challengers head to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the 6 Hours of Bahrain at the Sakhir Circuit. Audi Sport Team Joest and Toyota Racing will both be entering two hybrid-powered LMP1s and will benefit from no fewer than seven braking zones.
The Audi R18 e-tron quattro uses a four-wheel drive flywheel system which recovers energy from the front axle during braking. The hybrid system works in tandem with the standard V6 TDI engine providing power to the rear wheels.
Toyota’s TS030 Hybrid benefits from a different system whereby energy, which otherwise would be wasted as heat, is recovered from the drive train under braking. This energy is stored in a super capacitor and released to the rear wheels under acceleration to deliver an acceleration boost in addition to the power of the V8 normally-aspirated engine.
The hybrid energy recuperation technology can be employed only in FIA-designated recovery, or braking, zones and up to 500kj per zone is delivered on the exit of each corner.
Bahrain’s 5.4 km (3.3mile) track was designed by Hermann Tilke and hosted the first ever Middle Eastern Grand Prix in 2004. The FIA World Endurance Championship made its first visit to Bahrain in September last year, and the track provides yet another a great setting to showcase the hybrid performance of the LMP1 prototypes.
There will be seven specified ‘braking zones’ for the 6 Hours of Bahrain in Turns 1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 14. The entry of each zone will be considered as at the 50m board before the curve.
This will be the final time that specified braking zones are going to be used as, in 2014, hybrid prototypes will be free to use their power wherever they wish.
Fiona Miller
Images: Courtesy of Audi Sport (top) and Toyota Racing (bottom)
