61st Annual 12 Hours of Sebring

Audi's participation looked iffy at best last week until
this week's announcement by Dr. Ullrich that they
would come with at least one R18 TDI e-tron quattro.

Audi is ringing in its return to US racing. In the United States,
the brand with the four rings is recording stronger growth than
the US market as a whole, particularly in the prestigious
large-premium-car segment. The racing activities in the
United States are intended to support this trend over the
long run.

Therefore, an entry of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the
12-hour race at Sebring (Florida), which Audi has won on
ten occasions, on March 16 is in planning as well. "It looks
like this may be the last opportunity to compete with an
LMP1 car at Sebring," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr.
Wolfgang Ullrich. "We’d really like to use this chance and say
goodbye to the fans with a nice showing after our fantastic
success story in recent years."

BHW
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Good to see that Audi will be there. It will be interesting to see what happens next year with the merger.

 

will Toyota be there too?

looking forward to it, a bit bummed that it's not an official WEC event but hopefully a lot of WEC teams still use it as a LeMans warm-up.

 

A week ago today, Audi and Toyota's entries at
Sebring looked pretty bleak.

My contacts in ALMS said they had no knowledge
if either of them were coming or not and European
media contacts insisted "absolutely not".

The difference is, Audi have made Sebring a tradition
back to the debut if the R8Rs in 1999 and have gone
on to re-write the record books where Toyota GMBH
hasn't ever set foot there.

Let's assume that there was a fair bit of arm twisting
going on between Atherton and Dr. Ullrich. Since Sebring
is outside the WEC, the FIA isn't putting up the travel
expenses and Panoz has closed his wallet, this was no
small accomplishment.

It would be surprising if Toyota came too but stranger
things have happened.

BHW

 

Great to see Audi are coming back again. It really is a shame that Sebring or Daytona are not on the WEC schedule. I bet that changes in a few years after a certain racetrack runs out of money.

 

I think there is a possibility that AUdi will be back in 2014 with a DP entry.

I also think it's possible that 4 DP's will be invited to LeMans in 2014.

 

Are we certain that the prototypes from
2014 and forward are going to be called
"DP"?

I don't doubt this is the direction they're moving
in and we'll find out officially Janurary 4 but
man, taking a formula which is designed and
implemented by NASCAR and dumbing them
down to the lowest common denominator seems
rather counter productive.

If they're heading in this direction, they should
just scrap the prototype classes altogether and
revert to a Supercar formula like the FIA GT of
the mid and late 90s.

BHW

 

The new Corvette DP is a lot nicer looking and they are allowing changes that will make it easier to make nicer looking ones.

The costs to race a DP are MUCH less than an LMP1 or LMP2 and as all 12 2014 races will have live television coverage in the US more more interesting to sponsors.

Manufactures are becoming interested and we're talking to two of them for 2014 (one DP and one GT).
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Audi to DP? why would they do that?

if they just want the marketing buzz in the US I think they'll focus on the R8 in GT, maybe with a factory effort.

I agree, high likelihood we'll see DP's at LeMans soon. which is fine with me, I'd like to see Alex Gurney run that race a few times, and some of those DP teams are very good.

 

Because DP's will be the one's finishing 1 OA and finishing 1 OA at Daytona and or Sebring is a lot more promotable than finishing 1 in GT.

As an aside a DP costs less than a Grand Am Ferrari GT for example and is faster.

 

Audi will NEVER build a DP as the rules stand now. DP's are nothing but tube framed GT cars with prototype style bodywork. It would be a major step backward for a manufacturer like Audi to participate in this class. I am sure there will be a LMP class above this for monocoque cars.

 

Audi is considering building a DP for 2014.

DP's will be the top class of Grand Am/ALMS.

Grand Am who is in charge has no interest in LMP1 the costs of which are silly.

If Audi wanted to save money they could drop LMP1 and enter F1.

 

You're joking, surely?

What's your (educated?) guess on their annual budget? Can't be more than a serious F1 effort, surely?

Fingers crossed on your negotiations! Good luck - Hopefully live TV coverage is a big win.

Cheers,
Ian

 

My educated guess is that Audi spends 200MM euro's a year on LMP1.

As an aside we can build and race a DP in 12 races for about 4mm USD.

Thanks!

 

let me know who's spending $4mm a year on a GAGT Ferrari, I got a bridge to sell them.

and everything I've heard from people in the know, DP and ALMS P2 are basically the same budget; so you get a slower car for the same $$ with a DP

I'd be we'll and truly shocked if Audi went DP racing.

I do agree with your guess on their LMP1 budget.

 

The speed is all BOP so as GA makes the rules in 2014 DP's will be faster.

If Audi wants to win Daytona and Sebring 1 OA in 2014 they're going to be building an Audi DP.

A Ferrari GAGT is easily 1mm with spares. Engine rebuilds are a lot more than DP rebuilds/ leases. Sending a full crew to 12 races/transporter/tires/fuel/Drivers/etc and I bet Top Ferrari GTGA Teams easily spend 3MM all in. With the merge I doubt a GAGT Ferrari is going to be very competitive in 2014 vs a 458 GTE.

Bigger teams have relative savings and if we run 2 DP's and 2 GT's in 2014 our budget will still be a lot less than running the WEC.

I think GA DP's are the least expensive route to overall victory at a Major Sportscar Race.

 

Holey-moley!

I had *no* idea they were spending that kind of money!

By way of comparison, common wisdom is a decent F1 budget today is just North of a $100MM. This is maybe 1/2 - 1/3 what they were spending back when unlimited testing was allowed.

Gotta be honest, I'm really struggling to get my head around those #'s..... Like most people, I think Le Mans is the only race that anyone cares about so they're basically spending that to win that one race.

Obviously, we here also follow Jim at the 'Ring, but that's because he "belongs" to us - No Jim, no real interest from me....

I also remain somewhat "confused" with all the different classes & sanctioning bodies - You guys throw acronyms around for all kinds of stuff!

Cheers,
Ian

 

BOP is Balance of Performance.

LMP1 is Top LeMans Prototype which in 2014 due to the Grand Am/American Le Mans "merge" will leave only Le Mans and other WEC World Endurance Championship races (which get much less exposure than Gramd Am for sponsors) a place where LMP 1's can race in 2014.

P 4/5 CM is now at a level where it could finish 1 OA at The 24 Hours of Nurburgring and the class we're in would allow 918/P1/F70 but until one of those shows up to race I'm moving on to Grand Am DP's (Assuming Sponsors). If a 918/P1/F70 shows up at The Ring in 2014 I'd consider going back.

 

Understood - But aren't there still "many" sanctioning bodies that determine it differently? The FIA? Grand Am? [Previously] ALMS? Then some add weight and/or restrict air etc. As a noob, it's all very confusing!

Isn't GA USA only though? I'm a little surprised that GA [will?] get more coverage than the WEC - That would seem to me to be "the big one" - A true World Endurance Championship that harkens back to the glory days of the 512, 917 et al - Those were *fantastic* cars IMO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Audi left ALMS in what, '08 and never seemed to care much about GA or Rolex24 overall, and given their "truth in engineering" brand I don't see then embracing DP.

I also don't think DP will be the top class of the combined series, I guess we'll find out in about a week...

even at $1mm per car, I still find $4mm for a 458 GAGT to be about $1-1.5 over what I've heard as a full season GT budget.

$4mm in ALMS GT? darn skippy. GAGT? that's a stretch, I think. but as the saying goes, the best way to make a small fortune in racing....

 

Hehe I like how you twist things around to suit your preferences..

WEC and Le Mans are so much ahead of Grand Am that it's not even funny to compare.. Manufacturers don't race there for the sposors they race there for the bragging rights, and the adds they can print out saying they won Le Mans... (multiple examples form AUDI, PEUGEUT, CORVETTE etc...
While GA has tv coverage, the ratings are laughable, and the stands at the racetracks are emty... Le Mans itself has 24h of live TV coverage and in itself gets more views then a whole season of GA..
If your looking for sponsors I sugest racing in Nascar as the level of tech is similar to DP, and the ratings are much better, also it's considered to be the top level of stock cars, while DP is a laughing stock of endurance racing...

statements like these usually require you to actually show that you are anywhere near winning...Hope to see that at the N24h in 2013.

 

Winning the N24 is a bold statement. If anyone has that confidence they should shoot for it. It's still a very popular race and by the look of things who knows how much longer it'll be around.

 

Audi is re-upping it's efforts in GrandAM GT with
their R8 entries.

Even in this case, in order to be eligible to compete
in GT in the R8s though, they have to remove FWD,
many of the electronics and in particular traction control
all commonly used on the road-going versions.

At Sebring, Emanuele Pirro told us that this was a problem
for them as the engines are designed to work in cooperation
with traction control and other sophisticated electronics which
had the effect of lots of wheel spin and eventually overheating
engines.

This contrasts with the R8s that are now regular winners in
other parts of the world where they're allowed to run with
all the bells & whistles and they're winning races and
championships.

As far as Audi running a DP car, I don't see it happening
for a lot of reasons, many outlined already. We'll see what
the official announcement reveals on Janurary 8 and who is
committed to the new rules from 2014 forward.

BHW

 

I didn't say we would win the 24 of Nurburgring I said that based on what we did to P 4/5 C from our last 24 it's possible that we could as we are now 25 seconds a lap faster with our 4.5 liter vs 4 liter engine, double KERS output and 60KG less weight removed from the rear which allows us to shift F/R weight balance back to where we were in 2011 even with KERS which is much better it's possible that we could.

The reality of winning any 24 Hour Race with a one car team vs a multi car factory team is tough and as the other cars in our class P1/918/F70 aren't showing up in 2013 we're going to wait to see if they do in 2014 before deciding if we'll be back at The Ring. The other thing is that I really enjoy driving my cars on the road and as P 4/5 C has been in racing configuration for years that isn't possible and even though I've got to track drive her I want to use her a bit more and also bring her to other events in 2013 as I really enjoyed having her at Villa d'Este in 2011.

Based on exposure Sponsors weren't interested in WEC and interestingly two manufactures are interested in us designing, building and campaigning a Prototype and GT entry in Grand Am and running a Factory Team with the potential to win Daytona and Sebring is intriguing especially for me in light of owning a car that won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967. I really enjoyed driving 0846 in the exhibition race before 2011 the 24 Hours of Daytona.

In 2014 with ALMS cars joining Grand Am I think it will be a great series. DP will be the top class and even though it's unlikely that Ferrari will enter a car in the top class it will be fun to race their GTE's.
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