Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. But not in 2015. This year it was Porsche's time to shine, after a wait of almost 20 years.
When you've won that race 13 times over the past 15 years, suddenly not winning it in the 16th year feels like a slap in the face. More so if you also fail to win the World Endurance Championship for the second time in as many tries. And it gets worse for Audi. In 2015, Porsche won both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles in the WEC.
Maybe you're not that good anymore. Or maybe you're telling yourself that it's not you, it's them. Your competitors have gotten better. Regardless of the reason why you're not king of the hill anymore, the fact remains that you need to do something. Step forward, 2016 R18, "the most powerful and efficient race car Audi has ever built." Their words, not ours.
After the launch, at the end of November, the first footage of the R18 testing at Sebring has surfaced. While the video itself doesn't reveal anything spectacular and the driver is obviously not pushing the car to its limits, there is one important thing to notice: the sound.
Audi has, of course, kept the diesel engine, but it's not about what you can hear when the car goes by. It's about what you don't hear. The 2016 R18 has ditched the mechanical flywheel which was powering the front axle, in favor of lithium-ion batteries. Without the whine of the KERS, next year's LMP1 racer sounds a bit more... conventional.
The car is being tested at Sebring over a four-day period, with Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler among the drivers. Changes in Volkswagen AG's fortunes, brought about by Dieselgate, have taken their toll on the endurance racing teams. Audi and Porsche have made an agreement not to field three cars each in the WEC in 2016.
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