Le Mans 2013: Audi vs. Toyota Analysis part II

The first part of my analysis showed a different speed of the #3 Audi. My suggestion and some rumours came to the result, that Howden „H“ Haynes had a different idea for his car. Probably no blown diffuser? Or not using the special engine mapping. So I took a closer look at the qualifying times, which show a very similar result: Good topspeed, but a Toyota like performance in the Porsche Curves, the highspeed handling part of the track.

In 2012 the first time hybrid cars took part at the Le Mans 24 hour race. Both manufacturers, Toyota and Audi, use evolutions of last years model, so I think it is worth to have a look at them, too.

Laptime:

Audi_1 Audi_2 Audi_3 Toyota_7 Toyota_8
2013 Race 03:22,746 03:23,269 03:24,293 03:25,718 03:25,151
2013 Qualifying 03:23,696 03:22,349 03:24,341 03:26,676 03:26,654
2012 Race 03:25,706 03:24,276 03:27,088 03:27,101
2012 Qualifying 03:23,787 03:25,433 03:25,488 03:24,842

Topspeed:

Audi_1 Audi_2 Audi_3 Toyota_7 Toyota_8
2013 Race 330,8 325,8 326,8 324,9 325,8
2013 Qualifying 326,8 324,9 323,9 322,9 325,8
2012 Race 326,1 326,1 329,1 330,1
2012 Qualifying 324,2 320,4 324,2 329,1

Porsche Curves:

Audi_1 Audi_2 Audi_3 Toyota_7 Toyota_8
2013 Race 00:15,081 00:15,075 00:15,609 00:15,654 00:15,691
2013 Qualifying 00:15,017 00:15,178 00:15,629 00:15,756 00:15,593
2012 Race 00:15,487 00:15,574 00:16,213 00:16,378
2012 Qualifying 00:15,463 00:15,825 00:15,819 00:15,915

You should know, that the times of the #7 and #8 Toyota were incomplete and may not show the maximum.

Compared to last year, #1 and #2 machines show a much faster performance as expected, while the #3 car could be a copy of the 2012 machine regarding lap- and sector times.  Toyota clearly didn’t show their performance during this years qualifying which still let me believe in the economic strategy. But a kind of riddle to me is the Toyota strategy in total. Different air intakes, slower performance than 2012 and the #8 quicker than the #7 car, which I believe has the faster crew.

LM2013_Race_Qualifying_PorscheCurvesLM2013_Race_Qualifying_Topspeed