Just as the FIA World Endurance Championship calendar is based around the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, so was Porsche’s 2015 season. There was a distinctive ‘before’ and ‘after’ feel but, as the German team has been unafraid to say on many occasions, Le Mans was always the principal target in its second year back in the top category of endurance racing.
That the marque finished the year with not only a 1-2 at the French classic but also the World Endurance Manufacturers Championship title deserves great credit and warm congratulations to all concerned.
The biggest contribution to the Manufacturers’ title came from the 2015 World Drivers Champions in the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid with four victories, two further podiums and an impressive five pole positions from the eight rounds. The trio of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber combined brilliantly to produce the speed, consistency and experience required to beat some strong competition, although it wasn’t all plain sailing!
The season started well with the Antipodean pairing of Webber and Hartley securing pole position at Silverstone, but the ‘home’ round for Webber ended with disappointment as a gearbox problem forced the No.17 into retirement.
The aerodynamic package selected for the first two rounds of the year was aimed at learning about how the car worked with lower downforce levels which – combined with some bad luck for both Porsche 919s – handed rival Audi an advantage that the former champions struggled to match once the 24-hour event was done and dusted.
The traditional rehearsal for Le Mans, the WEC 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps in early May, also failed to yield a first WEC win for the No.17 crew, engineered this year by Briton Kyle Wilson-Clarke. Following another pole position, the car led the opening stages of the race but had to serve a costly stop-go penalty when Hartley out-braked himself going into the Bus Stop and drove through an escape road to rejoin the track. An issue with the rear suspension set the trio back even further later in the race, but a great push from them in the second half of the race meant they were able to salvage a well-earned podium spot.
And so to Le Mans, and Porsche’s well-documented 17th overall win at La Sarthe. After leading in the early stages, the red-liveried No.17 dropped back after serving a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for a slow-zone infringement. While this dented their chances for overall victory, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber got their heads down and worked hard to make up lost ground, finishing in second place to the sister No.19 car of Le Mans rookies, Hulkenberg, Tandy and Bamber.
The new-for-2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring heralded the start of a four-race winning streak for the championship-winning trio. Sporting a new high downforce aero configuration which translated to around 80% new bodywork, the No.17 put on a dominant display in front of the huge German crowds and the Australian-German-New Zealand line up jubilantly celebrated their maiden win in the WEC.
It is said that the first is always the hardest to attain, and once that victory had been achieved it seemed that the No.17 could do no wrong. Victories followed at COTA in the USA, at the wet/damp/drying Fuji International Speedway in Japan and Shanghai International Circuit in China, with pole position for Bernhard/Webber at Fuji and Hartley/Webber in Shanghai to add to the points tally. This allowed Porsche to celebrate its first World Championship title since 1986 and gave the drivers a 13-point advantage over the No.7 Audi line up going into the final round of the season, the 6 Hours of Bahrain. The Drivers’ Championship was theirs to lose.
The race into the night at Bahrain, however, threatened to bring the champions’ hopes crashing down on their heads! For the first 30 minutes it looked as though the No.17 would sprint off into the distance, but the first of a number of major dramas came about – an engine actuator problem – and Bernhard had to bring the car into the pits at an agonizingly slow pace. After losing four and a half laps in the pits, and some incredible work under pressure by the Porsche Team mechanics, the car rejoined the race and set about making up for lost time.
Impressive performances by Bernard and Hartley brought them up through the field, while the twists and turns of the Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain meant that both Audis also endured problems which took them out of a race-leading position. But, the No.17’s problems weren’t over yet! A reported failure of the energy harvesting system in the front axle meant further unscheduled trips to the pits, and the team decided to run to the finish with only the exhaust recovery hybrid system operating.
It was Mark Webber’s unenviable task to nurse the car home to the chequered flag, and he used every minute of his many years’ experience to do so. With the car starting from pit stops on engine power only, and the engine at least twice cutting out completely on track, nerves were shredded by the end of the race, and not just in the Porsche garage.
The Australian later described the car as “wounded”, and stories have since emerged about the lengths the team went to in order to repair and get the car back on track as quickly as possible. Team members were burnt, battered and bruised, but the final result of 5th on track – behind the race-winning sister No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid – was enough to clinch the championship crown for Bernhard, Hartley and Webber, the first Porsche World Champions since Derek Bell. It was a hard-fought and well-deserved title for not just the drivers but for the whole of the Porsche Team.
Fiona Miller
