Audi Motorsport Newsletter 13/2016

Audi R8 LMS leads GT Masters standings

In the ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben, Audi customer teams achieved a total of four podium places. In race one, the German Christopher Mies and the American Connor De Phillippi in the Audi R8 LMS of Team Montaplast by Land-Motorsport took second place in front of their teammates, Marc Basseng and Peter Hoevenaars. In the second heat on Sunday, Christopher Mies and Connor De Phillippi again clinched second place, this time beating Florian Stoll and Laurens Vanthoor (kfzteile24 APR Motorsport) to the checkered flag and taking the lead of the ADAC GT Masters standings with an advantage of seven points.

Overall and class success in Taiwan

Audi Sport customer racing team J-Fly Racing celebrated a dominant weekend in the Taiwan Speed Festival at the Penbay International Circuit in Taiwan. Jeffrey Lee clinched pole position with an Audi R8 LMS and proceeded to win both of the races. Absolute Racing also fielded two previous generation Audi R8 LMS cars and finished 1-2 in Class B with drivers Mark Chung and Yoon Sanghwi in the second race.

Class podium on Spanish hillside

For the first time, an Audi R8 LMS ultra finished on the class podium in the Spanish Hillclimb Championship. Audi privateer José Antonio López Fombona achieved third in his class during the second round of the championship at the Ubrique-Benaocaz Hillclimb in Andalusia.

Podium and lead for EKS

Mattias Ekström’s privateer Team EKS on delivering a strong performance in the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Montalegre (Portugal) secured the lead of the teams’ standings. New signing Toomas Heikkinen from Finland in his first race in the Audi S1 EKS RX quattro instantly scored a podium result, in third place. Mattias Ekström, though, was struck by major misfortune. After the DTM star had been dominating qualifying, he was touched by a rival during the semi-final in turn one and, as a result, missed the opportunity of making it into the finale of the top six. Round two of the World Rallycross Championship will be held as part of the DTM season opener at Hockenheim from May 6 to 8.

New environment for Audi driver trio

At Silverstone, Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer started their seventh joint season with Audi. The trio has contested 38 races to date, 33 of them in the FIA WEC. Since 2011, the driver combination has celebrated twelve overall victories, one world championship title and three vice world championships. At the Silverstone season opener, a new face complemented the team. Erik Schuivens is being inducted into his new tasks, as he will be assuming the role of race engineer following the race at Le Mans. At that time, Audi Sport will be assigning a new responsibility to Stefan Dreyer as well. The previous Head of Operations LMP Engines will become new Head of LMP.

A word from ... Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich

The Head of Audi Motorsport following the WEC victory at Silverstone

Audi’s factory-backed motorsport program started with a victory in the FIA WEC. How do you rate this success?

I’m happy for the entire team. In Neuburg, Neckarsulm and at Audi Sport Team Joest, a lot of hard work has been done for this season. Since 2014, we’ve been developing the current generation of our race car. It entails a lot of innovations – such as the new hybrid system, as well as radically new aerodynamics, a new monocoque, plus many other technical details. Everyone can be proud of this success.

What strengths of the team and the drivers did you see during the season opener?

The pressure by our rivals can be felt clearly. All the fans of endurance racing can look forward to a season that will arguably be even closer and more thrilling than last year. This weekend, we had to master a number of challenges, such as the snow on Saturday morning and the subsequent qualifying session without a lot of experience on a wet track, or the battle with Porsche for race victory. Every one of the three manufacturers suffered some setbacks, had to make tactical moves, and keep a cool head. Our drivers as well as the team managed to do that. ‘Thank you’ also for the great team spirit. By pulling together, the mechanics of both cars worked toward a single aim and assisted each other.

What work remains to be done before Le Mans?

We’ve still got a lot on our plate. It’s clear that we need to quickly find out what caused the retirement of our number ‘8’ and to eliminate the root cause once and for all. It’s also no secret that, at Le Mans, covering four times the distance of the other WEC rounds is a major feat. Plus, there are special solutions for Le Mans. It’s common knowledge that we’ve been developing separate aerodynamics for this high-speed track for many years. In addition, a limitation of the MGU’s output will apply there for the first time this year. The success at Silverstone is sweet, but our program will be no less intensive – quite the opposite is true.

Coming up next week

22–24/04 Birmingham (USA), Pirelli World Challenge, races 6 and 7
23–24/04 Monza (I), Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, round 1
22–23/04 Hockenheim (D), DMV GTC, races 3 and 4
23–24/04 Estoril (P), GT Open, races 1 and 2
23–24/04 Le Mans (F), V de V Endurance Series, round 2
23–24/04 Donington (GB), GT Cup Championship, round 1