Miscellaneous Features
2009 24 Hours of Le Mans Preview: Audi Perspective
By by: George Achorn, artwork: Andy Blackmore (www.SpotterGuides.com), photo: Audi Sport
Jun 11, 2009, 16:29

Say what you want about the global economy being in decline, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is stronger now than perhaps almost any year since Audi first raced here ten years ago with its R8R and R8C prototypes. When the field of sports cars roars down the front straight of the fabled circuit this Saturday at 3:00 pm, an expected 21 of those cars will be in the premier LMP1 prototype class – with three factory backed efforts from Audi, Aston Martin and Peugeot, and a large collection of privateers including privateer backup for each of the factory teams. Other classes such as GT1 may be in full decline, but there’s no denying that 2009 will be a banner year for prototypes.

All in the Numbers
In so many ways, 2009 is all about the numbers and not just those on balance sheets. This is Audi’s tenth straight year at Le Mans. After that first trial year with the R8R, the now-legendary R8 and R10 have contributed to a full eight wins in nine consecutive starts, only losing once during that time to sister brand Bentley which could trace is chassis and engine design back to the Audi R8 program. Eight wins in nine years is certainly a bragging right. But nine wins in ten years sounds better.

2009 is also a special year for Ferrari. It’s been 60 years since the brand’s first win here – an accomplishment they’d achieve a total of nine times (1949, 1954, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965). Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari and Fiat Group President, will give the honorary starting signal on Saturday afternoon. And, while no less than ten Ferrari F430 GTs will chase the Audi R15s and R10s across the starting line, they have no practical chance of contesting the overall win with Ingolstadt.

Should Audi win this year, it will tie Ferrari for all-out wins here in Le Mans, leaving them second only to Porsche with its almost insurmountable 16 wins (1970, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998).
Behind Audi and Ferrari, the next closest brands are epic badges in their own right: Jaguar (8), Bentley (6), Alfa Romeo (4), Ford (4).

Driver records are also impressive. Tom Kristensen didn’t arrive at his nickname “Mr. Le Mans” lightly, having won here eight times (six in a row from 2000-2005 and six total with Audi). Of the eight drivers who’ve won four or more times at Le Mans, three are Audi factory pilots (Biela and Pirro have each won five times).

In the vein of anniversaries, it’s also been 50 years since Aston Martin’s first and only win here with none other than Carroll Shelby as one of the winning drivers. It’s no surprise then that Aston is coming on strong, with a full factory effort in LMP1, their eyes set on an all-out win.

The last number worth mentioning here is the first. One. Only one tire changer will be allowed to work at a time on cars as they pit, which will force teams to extend stints of tires and put more pressure on pit crews. This will make for an interesting new factor in overall pace that will affect every team on the grid in one way or another.

LM P1

Unlike in America where Audi had to run virtually solo for years in the premier class of sportscar racing, the P1 category is more popular in Europe. Much of this is due to top-shelf privateer efforts such as that of Pescarolo and Oreca, but this year is extra special. No less than 20 LM P1s are expected to start the race come Saturday, with a major clash expected between Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin. AUDI Ingolstadt returns to Le Mans this year the hard-fought victor. 2008 was perhaps Audi’s toughest win ever, one immortalized in the documentary film ‘Truth in 24’. This year, Audi returns with the new V10 TDI-powered R15. The new car was victorious in Sebring, but competition was fierce. It will be interesting to see how the R15 fares on the much faster course at Le Mans. Peugeot and Aston have both complained about the R15’s new design with aerodynamic aids seemingly built into the car’s bodywork – a design Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich attributes to aero experience gained in DTM. And, Audi points out the ambiguousness of the rules. Using the rules to your fullest advantage is one of racing’s oldest traditions and the R15 was homologated at the beginning of the season without complaint. For the first time in several years, there’s a privateer Audi squad on the grid as well. The German Kolles team that fields Audis in the DTM series bought two R10s and has been campaigning them in the European Le Mans series. Thus far, they’ve not beat either Aston or Peugeot, though they’ve had their share of bad luck. They just might be up to the task, and the R10 did win here last year after all. The R10 TDIs fielded by Kolles have been updated to meet ACO rules. Namely, the rear spoiler has been swapped for a design like that of the R15. This means less downforce – a change that was made to bring lap times and speeds in check after last year’s blistering pace. #1 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST AUDI R15 TDI Engine: V10 Twin Turbo TDI / 5499cc Transmission: 5-speed X-Trac Drivers: Capello, Rinaldo (Italy) - 10 Participations, 3 Victories Kristensen, Tom (Denmark)- 13 Participations, 8 Wins McNish, Allan (United Kingdom) - 9 Participations, 2 Wins If there’s a favorite to win this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, this would be the team. The grouping of Kristensen, McNish and Capello has proven time and again as Audi Sport’s most seasoned and effective team. Fast, reliable and able to work traffic in ways other drivers don’t attempt, this three-man lineup paired with the new R15 TDI won Sebring and remain the returning victors having won the race last year with the R10. #2 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST AUDI R15 TDI Engine: V10 Twin Turbo TDI / 5499cc Transmission: 5-speed X-Trac Drivers: Luhr, Lucas (Germany) - 5 Participations Rockenfeller, Mike (Germany) - 4 Participations Werner, Marco (Germany) - 7 Participations, 3 Victories A bit of a shuffling has created an all-German team that is also a force with which to be reckoned. Seasoned Marco Werner joins Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr, the latter two hungry for their first win here at Le Mans. Luhr and Werner have been paired together in the American Le Mans Series and met success there. Werner also has the second best record at Le Mans behind Tom Kristensen, while Rockenfeller and Luhr have shown themselves to be quite fast. #3 AUDI SPORT NORTH AMERICA AUDI R15 TDI Engine: V10 Twin Turbo TDI / 5499cc Transmission: 5-speed X-Trac Drivers: Bernhard, Timo (Germany) - 3 Participations Dumas, Romain (France) - 8 Participations Premat, Alexandre (France)- 2 Participations With Pirro and Biela now in retirement and racing in the R8 LMS (GT3) program, Audi has paired French-born Alexandre Premat with two very fast factory drivers from Porsche: fellow-Frenchman Romain Dumas and German-born Timo Bernhard. Each of the two Porsche drivers proved himself incredibly effective in Roger Penske’s RS Spyder program, and they’re expected to do quite well at the wheel of the Audi R15. Premat also showed himself to be incredibly fast last season, so this grouping of drivers may also prove one of the strongest on the grid. #14 KOLLES AUDI R10 TDI Engine: V12 Twin Turbo TDI/ 5499cc Transmission: 5-speed X-Trac Drivers: Karthikeyan, Narain (India) - ROOKIE Lotterer, Andre (Germany) - ROOKIE Charles Zwolsman (Holland) - ROOKIE The official printed spotter guide from the ACO features Andy Merick, but the Briton who has been contesting the LMS will not race for Kolles at Le Mans. Merick’s seat has been filled by Andre Lotterer, who joins Kolles LMS driver Charles Zwolsman (Holland) and Narain Karthikeyan, the first Indian driver to contest Le Mans in an Audi. Zwolsman has the most competition experience of the three in the R10 and Lotterer has some 24-hour experience having done the 24 Hours of Spa, but none of them has experience at Le Mans. #15 KOLLES AUDI R10 TDI Engine: V12 Twin Turbo TDI/ 5499cc Transmission: 5-speed X-Trac Drivers: Albers, Christijan (Holland) - ROOKIE Bakkerud, Christian (Denmark) - ROOKIE Giorgio Mondini (Switzerland / Italy) - ROOKIE The second Kolles car seems to be the more seasoned driving team. The three-man group is headlined by Christijan Albers. The Dutch driver drove an Audi A4 in the DTM series last year for Kolles, paired with Pirro at the ALMS Laguna Seca race and has been leading the R10 team in the LMS this year. Albers joins with his LMS co-drivers, 24-year old Dane Christian Bakkerud and 28-year-old Italian Giorgio Mondini. While this is the Kolles team most experienced with the R10, all three are La Mans rookies. ASTON MARTIN At the end of the race in 2007, with fans either rushing the front straight to catch a glimpse of the podium or making a quick exit from the circuit, Prodrive’s Richard Burns was amidst a post-race interview with Radio Le Mans. RLM asked the Prodrive boss about Aston Martin’s just-won first GT1 victory and he replied that he really wouldn’t be happy until Aston secured another all-out win here. Could they do it this year? To accomplish that, the seasoned Aston Martin crew would have to drop its rivalry with the factory Corvette squad and focus on beating the engineering juggernauts of Audi and Peugeot. Last year a single LM P1 featuring the DBR9’s 6.0-liter V12 mounted in a Lola chassis was run by a privateer as a bit of a feeler. For 2009, the flame’s been turned up just a bit and the chassis evolved, with three Gulf Oil-liveried factory prototypes and a fourth to be fielded by Speedy Racing Team Sabah. Last year’s Charouz team, who finished a respectable ninth overall in the car’s maiden voyage, will field one of the factory Aston Martins under the name AMR Eastern Europe. With 2009 being the 50th Anniversary of Aston Martin’s first and only overall win here in La Sarthe, Aston Martin is most hopeful of another win. Recent ACO rule changes have favored gasoline-powered cars like the Aston Martin LMP, something that’s given them an edge in the Le Mans Series, and something Newport Pagnell is hoping will pay off in the race. Astons will also contest both GT1 and GT2 classes with privateer efforts in a DBR9 and the V8 Vantage. PEUGEOT Audi’s modern rival Peugeot is back and the roles are reversed. This time Audi’s got the newer car and the 908 HDi FAP is in the last year of its racing cycle. Don’t count it out though, the Peugeot has shown it’s every bit as fast as Audi around Le Mans. A critical factor in the loss of the more dominant Peugeot in 2008 was time lost in the pits. The French team had a hard time matching Audi’s seasoned strategy, but one more year of experience in racing and no doubt watching Truth in 24 (the Cliff Notes for winning Le Mans), have paid off. Peugeot Sport showed much better judgment and performance in Sebring and made Audi fight very hard for the R15’s first win. There’s been a bit of a driver change at Peugeot as well. Essentially, French Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is out and he’s been replaced with David Brabham. The Australian-born Brabham has proven himself an incredibly competitive driver in the American Le Mans Series with Acura, though the move is interesting as he’s a long-time Aston Martin factory team member here at Le Mans. Our guess is that it will be the #8 Peugeot that will post the biggest challenge to Audi. The driver lineup of Franck Mongagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Bourdais are the same trio that gave Audi such a run in Sebring. Each of the three has proven himself blisteringly fast, and being an all-French team doesn’t hurt in the eyes of the fans when you’re racing across the French countryside in a French car. As with Audi and Aston Martin, there will be a privateer Peugeot as well. The car is apparently one of last year’s chassis and may not be on the pace of the works Peugeots, but this rogue lion is being fielded by the veteran Pescarolo team. It might be the best-looking Peugeot of the bunch with Pescarolo’s traditional PlayStation sponsorship and French Blue hue. Also, Pescarolo has shown in the past that they’re very much up to the task of giving Audi a challenge. This car and its team of drivers with plenty of Le Mans experience will definitely be one to watch. Pescarolo will also be fielding its own Judd in LMP1 as well.

GT1

Unlike LMP1, the premier GT class continues to contract, probably due to economic pressures worldwide. Considering that, it may be ironic then that the favorites to win the class are the factory Corvettes. Bankrupt GM will again field two cars, as will Luc Alphand Adventures. Jet Alliance Racing will campaign the sole Aston Martin in class. These five cars with factory development will contest GT1 with the sole privateer-developed Lamborghini fielded again this year by the Japanese Lamborghini Owners’ Club (JLOC). With just six cars on the grid, the podium may be determined by attrition as well as performance. Corvettes and Astons are all reliable cars, but if just three are unable to complete the race or suffer catastrophic delays during the race, JLOC could net a podium finish for Lamborghini if they can simply finish as InterProgressbank did in 2008. #68 JLOC LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO R-GT Engine: V12 / 5990cc Transmission: 6-speed Hollinger Drivers: Apicella, Apicella (Italy) - 4 Participations Yamanashi, Koji (Japan) - 2 Participations Yogo, Atsushi (Japan) - 5 Participations After an extremely disappointing run in 2007, JLOC took a break in 2008. The last year JLOC ran a Murcielago here, driver Marco Apicella suffered a serious accident during the Wednesday practice session that year. Apicella’s two Japanese co-drivers admirably decided to soldier on without the Italian after the ACO made an exception for the team, allowing it to borrow a Murcielago from the DAMS team headquartered in Paris and scramble to get it built and through a late scrutineering session. The hastily built black Lambo started the race, though its engine died only eight minutes in, forcing the JLOC team to retire not long after the Lamborghini came to rest at the Ford Chicane without having finished a single lap, the JLOC crew rolled down their garage door. Last year the Lamborghini flag was flown not by JLOC, but by the Russian-based InterProgressbank team. This year JLOC is back with its black Murci, and the same team of Apicella, Atsushi Yogo and Koji Yamanishi.

GT2

In America, the GT 2 class is exploding in size. While not quite to the extent of the ALMS 2009 standards, the second-tier GT class is quite healthy. As usual, the class is dominated somewhat by Porsche but particularly Ferrari. Five 911s will start on Saturday, alongside a surprising ten Ferrari F430 GTs. Among the Ferrari drivers, actor Patrick Dempsey has gained a lot of attention with his rookie run at Le Mans in the #81 Ferrari. Amidst rows of Porsches and Ferraris are a lone Aston Martin V8 Vantage and a lone Spyker C8 Laviolette with Audi V8 power. #85 SNORAS SPYKER SQUADRON SPYKER C8 LAVIOLETTE Engine: V8 (Audi) / 3782cc Transmission: 6-speed Hewland NLT Drivers: Bleekemolen, Jerden (Holland) - 3 Participations Coronel, Tom (Holland) - 8 Participations Janis, Jarek (Czech Republic) - 1 Participation Spyker returns to Le Mans again this year, but fielding just one car where they traditionally field two. The Audi-powered car has shown respectably this year given the Spyker factory doesn’t have the resources of Porsche or Ferrari. This year’s driver lineup is also quite good, with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Jarek Janis and Tom Coronel. Janis is the only returning driver, but each of the three has experience at Le Mans. With such a strong and deep field, it is unlikely that the Spyker will net a podium finish, but this small Dutch car manufacturer’s perseverance here should be noted.

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