The new Audi R15. At Sebring. But not.
Did you happen to watch the Sebring 12 Hours yesterday? How shockingly dull was that? So boring in fact, it defied the caffeine coursing through my veins and threatened to send me to sleep on a couple of occasions.
The Sebring 12 Hours is the curtain-raising event on the sportscar racing calendar, and is easily American Le Mans Series’ biggest event. A challenging 3.7 mile circuit, Sebring draws a massive following and has an ambience second to that of the blue riband Le Mans 24 Hours race.
Yet there was one crucial ingredient missing this weekend: Audi.
The German marque missed out on Sebring this year as they were unable to make the necessary changes to their R15’s aerodynamics to comply with ACO’s 2010 rules. Yet, it became perfectly clear that they were actually at Sebring, lurking in the background with a fully compliant R15, just not participating. Instead, the car is probably at this very moment in time, pounding the tarmac at Sebring in a 24 hour test, the day after the race.
Has the ALMS become so irrelevant for Audi that they don’t see the benefits of winning the race again? I’ll let you decide that one…
So no Peugeot/Audi showdown this year, and from the moment it became clear that Audi would not be participating, a Peugeot win was a foregone conclusion. And what do you know? The only diesel in the field clinched a straightforward one-two, having led the way from the start of unofficial testing.
There were flashes of brilliance, with Emanuele Pirro in the Drayson-Lola managing to get between the two Peugeots through a frankly amazing manoeuvre within the first 30 minutes of racing. But from there on in, things quickly turned processional.
The number of very early mechanical issues experienced by key teams really crippled the competition within just about every class. Well before the six hour mark it was abundantly clear that only luck, rather than racecraft and strategy would decide the outcome of the race. There was no suspense, no excitement and it certainly wasn’t a vintage edition of the race.
Unlike last year.
Now there was a classic Sebring 12 Hours that had thrills aplenty. There was little to choose between the two turbodiesel marques that fought one-another right down to the wire. Audi-versus-Peugeot. Just like it should be.
A thrilling game of cat and mouse as the two Audis and two Peugeots ran more or less together, only separated by 30 seconds at most at any one time, and reduced to nothing when either of the teams forewent new rubber upon their pitstop.
It also produced some great wheel-to-wheel racing, most notably a head to head between Allan McNish and Franck Montagny at the midway point. Shame we weren’t treated to anything approaching this level of excitement this year:
Yeah. It wasn’t great. Last year the live thread on Sidepodcast was buzzing with comments – this year everyone got bored and just switched over to some Red Bull hybrid sport called ‘Crashed Ice’ – I’ll admit that as a diehard sportscar fan I had an eye on it also.
Audi’s excuse that they had no car ready in time sounded plausible and gave them the high ground until they launched their car this week and announced they were testing at Sebring after the race. Many have said that if they can do this then the car is pretty much finished, so they appear petulant and childish for not wanting to face off against Peugeot. My money is on either (a) because they can’t stand to lose to them after losing Le Mans and Petit Le Mans or (b) they are getting back at Peugeot for protesting their car at Le Mans last year (effectively forcing the redesign of the R15).
In any state, it will be Audi that looks bad if they lose at Le Mans again and cite lack of development as a reason – they should have learned from last year that testing does not replace race time when developing the car.
I am a big Audi fan because of Kristensen and McNish, but I feel really disappointed by all of this. They spoiled what could have been an excellent race. The ACO need to stop favouring Peugeot by allowing the disparity between petrol and diesel to continue also, as it would have made for a better race if Aston, Acura and Drayson would have been able to keep it in the mix.
I think Sportscars may be at a crossroads this year if someone doesn’t man up and sort it out.
Excellent comment Gavin!
Despite attempts by the ACO to achieve equivalency between the diesel and petrol-powered cars, Peugeot and Audi will always win in a straight fight. Their line ups and resources put them in a league of their own that none of the other LMPs can properly match.
My understanding is that diesel provides approximately 10% more ‘oomph’ than petrol does, and E85, which Drayson Racing run on, has 30% less energy per volume. This year in ALMS, the performance break they were given for running the biofuel has now been removed. Tough times ahead for Lord Drayson!