QUICKER THAN AN F1 CAR
Porsche’s decision to withdraw from the World Endurance Series LMP1 category (including Le Mans) has one silver lining. With time on its race engineers’ hands and a little leftover budget, Porsche allowed them to discard the rule book and modify one of its 919 Hybrid racecars to go as fast as the design would allow. The result? With works driver Neel Jani behind the wheel, the 919 Hybrid Evo lapped Belgium’s Spa-francorchamps in 1:41,770. That’s 0,783 seconds quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s 2017 qualifying time in his Mercedes F1 W07 and a full 12 seconds brisker than the standard WEC 919 machine.
Changes to the powertrain included removing the V4 2,0-litre turbopetrol engine’s fuel restrictor, resulting in a power hike from 373 to 537 kw. Without the limit on kineticenergy recovery from the electric motor (now 328 kw on the front axle) and energy from the exhaust, the total amount of energy recovery per lap increased from 6,37 MJ to 8,49 MJ. The engineers reduced the 919’s mass by 39 kg (to 849 kg) by removing all equipment not needed for a single lap record, including lights and hydraulic jacks. The biggest changes were made to the aerodynamics, with a larger, active front diffuser and rear wing, as well as fixed side skirts resulting in a substantial 53% increase in downforce.
The highest speed achieved during the flying lap was 359 km/h, with an average of 246 km/h around the 7 km circuit. According to Jani, “The 919 Evo is brutally impressive. It is definitely the fastest car I have ever driven. The grip level is at a new dimension for me, I couldn’t imagine this amount beforehand. The speed at which everything happens on a single lap with the 919 Evo is that fast that the demand on reaction speed is very different to what I was used to in the WEC.”
Now imagine a race series without limits. Next target: Stefan Bellof’s Nürburgring lap time, which was attempted right before we went to print.