Poole Audi - Vorsprung durch Technik

The weekend saw a busy weekend for motorsport, but while many would have been watching the Canadian Grand Prix, or the Isle of Man TT, we were watching the 79^th annual Le Mans 24 Hour.

This exciting endurance race sees drivers complete the equivalent of an entire F1 season in 24 hours. I am pleased to say that an Audi has won the historic event for the tenth time since their first race in 2000. This impressive run provides plenty of reason for celebration. However this is not the only thing that Audi has to be proud about this week.

The race was packed with drama with two of the three Audi R18s having horrific crashes. The first was the British racing driver Allan McNish, who was easily the fastest man on the track, when he moved rapidly up from 5^th place to 2^nd place in between the two other Audi team member’s R18s. Being the competitive man that he is, Allan quickly made a move on his colleague under the famous Dunlop bridge, taking the lead. Still in the first hour of this fast paced 24 hour race, Allan was already lapping several cars when the drama began…

On slipping past the much slower Ferrari 458 of the French racing driver - Anthony Beltoise, the rear of the Audi clipped the Ferrari, sending Allan off the track at approximately 150mph. The rear fin of the car (a new addition for 2011) ensured that the car not only stayed upright, but also remained close to the ground as it skipped across the gravel and into the tyre wall. The sheer impact of this crash completely destroyed the car. The audience was in complete silence as the marshals attempted to right the up-turned wreckage.

Cheers erupted from the crowd as Allan, calmly climbed out of the car, as if nothing had happened. After a precautionary check-over at the hospital, he was given the all-clear and is now preparing for his next race.

At this point, while I watched the coverage online from home, I was already posting on social networks how this was a great testament to the safety of our cars. However, my posts were somewhat premature as while I rested in bed, the race continued with the same pace and the same fate was shared by the #1 Audi driven by Rockenfeller.

In the 11^th hour of the race, our driver sped down the high-speed Mulsanne straight approaching a slight right-hander when for the second time in the race, a slower moving lapped car collided with him, ploughing him head-first into the barriers at approximately 186mph. All cameras were focused on the wreckage, while emergency services were scrambled.

The same silence filled the midnight air, until the marshals backed away from the car to allow the stunned driver to get out of the car himself and again walk away unharmed. In a sport where cars drive through the dark of night with an average speed (including the stationary time at the pits) of 130mph, there are going to be crashes and sadly disasters. However, this year these were overcome by the fantastic engineering and innovation of the safety equipment.

Many of the features of our road cars come directly from our advancements in the Le Mans racing series. TFSI – the technology that allows us to get up to 55mpg combined from a turbo charged petrol engine was born at Le Mans and the sport has allowed us to perfect our TDI engines to deliver up to 74mpg combined. Many safety elements and construction practices also come from the racetrack and I for one feel safer in the knowledge that the Audi spaceframe, the same idea that is applied to several models in the range, has helped to protect a driver in a 186mph collision into a wall.

Naturally the team were overjoyed at both drivers escaping unharmed. Dr Wolfgang Ullrich – head of Audi Sport, who was clearly moved at the sight of McNish getting out of the car, summed it up perfectly when he said, “To see that the cars are so strong is good, but that's not the way we like to demonstrate it”.

 Audi were at this stage left with one remaining car leading the race with 3 determined Peugeot cars right behind and 13 hours of racing ahead. Remarkably, the Audi R18 TDI kept pounding round the circuit, through the night, and into constantly changing weather Sunday morning.

Our Managing Director, David Kelly, who was lucky enough to be at Le Mans added, “Given that the remaining Audi had the youngest and least experienced driver team and the Audi crew were under unbelievable pressure, they remained composed and through some strategic play and excellent team work, they pulled it off”.

In the end, Audi won the race, by 13.42 seconds - after a whole 24 hours of racing, it is believed to be the narrowest win in the Le Mans 88 year history.

No doubt, the Audi Sport team will be enjoying celebrations today, especially Britain’s Leena Gade who became the first female race engineer to win the world famous race.

So an exciting race then? I only wonder how long it is until it is hit with the same strict safety rules of Formula 1. With such a difference in speed between cars (I work it out to be around 18%), the race leaders have to pass slower moving cars on most laps. In F1 cars that are over 7% off the pace are not allowed to compete in the race. Should the same rule be taken to Le Mans? We’d love to know your thoughts, click here to add your comment on our Facebook page.

<< Back to news page