Minus the incidents and mechanical issues that stunted the defending drivers’ champions, the #1 squad is back on top and allowing Porsche to inch closer to the manufacturers’ crown.
Motorsport is a funny thing. There are times when fortunes change so quickly in it that one can hardly keep track of how or why it happened. That is especially true in a series where spending money is of little consequence to the competitors due to their massive budgets. Such has been the case in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) where not only has form changed drastically from one season to another.
Think back to when Toyota clinched the drivers and manufacturers crowns in 2014 only to be left for dead by Porsche and Audi due to the heavy development they put in for 2015. Not to mention how Porsche’s budget and technical expertise saw them leapfrog Audi and snatch Le Mans away from them while also winning both titles. For this season, some teams have peaked at Le Mans while hanging back in the remaining rounds and there has been wild cases of luck too.
STUNTED POTENTIAL
Most noticeably one has seen the defending drivers champions in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid have to watch helplessly from the sidelines after on-track incidents and mechanical issues left them with just one points scoring finishes until the third round of the WEC season at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Since then, however, they have been on a roll. It was as if coming back from the extended break after Le Mans refocused them to do the job they did so well last year; leave nothing but morsels for the rest.
The driver pairing of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard has won both races since the post-Le Mans break at the 6 Hours of Nurburgring and 6 Hours of Mexico. In their wake has been Audi – the #8 and #7 teams took turns to take second place – followed by the #6 Toyota team being the next best consistent performer.
This has left the #2 Porsche team of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb in the shade as they seem to be content with just nursing their sizeable lead in the points standing by taking a fourth place finish in both races.
LADY LUCK SMILES
The #2 squad could arguably lay claim to being the luckiest among the LMP1-Hybrid class of machines as it benefitted from retirements to score a first and second place finish in the season’s first two races at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. Not to mention how lucky they were was brought home at Le Mans when they reaped the benefit of the #5 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima being forced to retire from the lead of sportscar racing’s ultimate crown. With just three minutes left to run!
Much has been written and said about that heart-wrenching race but one can’t help but react with shock even when mentioning it in passing.
So far the charge of the #1 Porsche has been good for the #2 team as rivals that could have closed up on them even more have been kept away from the top spot of the podium. Not to mention it gives Porsche a sizeable cushion with which to defend its manufacturers crown too.
But it seems as if the #2 team will have to step up its own game in order to try and be masters of their own destiny this year. While form is hard to predict due to the massive factory budgets of the top class of WEC, a pattern seems to be forming. And it could lead to a very tight finish by the time we get to the Bahrain in November.
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