used?
The car itself is a DTM car in Japan, but they are using the new engine regulations, which is a two-litre turbocharged engine, which offers in the region of 100-120 horse power more.
Purely, they’re faster than the DTM cars, especially with the tyres used, where there is anything up to a difference of up to three seconds. I would estimate that it is around 4 to 5 seconds quicker than a DTM car, which is huge in terms of racing.
But for me, the difference is first that I’m sharing with a team mate, but second, we are also racing with the GT300 class, which are comparable to a GT3 car. There’s around 45 to 50 cars on the race track, which are normally anywhere between 4 to 6 kilometres long, whereas with DTM, there’s just over twenty cars.
For the main thing that fascinates me, aside from the competition, is the fact that you’re constantly in traffic, overtaking and busy at every corner of every lap. Finishing 13th at the end of the season was a bad reflection on how competitive we were at some races, as we were very unfortunate.
A lot of people can say that. We were competitive, but didn’t get the results. I wouldn’t change it for the world, as I enjoyed my year there and learned a lot as well.
Especially with the quality of the field there, which includes Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli, who won the title with Nissan in GT500 this year, Kaz Nakajima, Oliviera and Makowiecki. Just some of the drivers that race there will also be racing against you in the WEC this year.
Focusing on this year, Nissan has jumped on board, with no one knowing what is going on, what the car is going to look like and who is going to be racing for them.
It’s been very mythical in the way that they
have approached it, as no one knows what is coming out of the box. How are things at Ingolstadt progressing with this year’s car?
This year for Audi, especially in the winter, is a time for us to catch up to the competitors, as Porsche and Toyota were extremely strong, especially towards the end of the year. They definitely had the edge on us, which gives us a lot of work to do to try and close that gap.
We know that they aren’t going to be resting on their laurels and are also going to looking to improve. But I think that from Audi, you’re going to see an evolution, rather than a revolution, as there will be some small minor changes.
Whether that will be enough, only time will tell, but we are going to look at every aspect, no matter how small and just hope that all those small changes make up a big difference.
Especially when you consider that Ulrich Baretsky is probably already working on that V6 TDi engine as we speak.
He’s always in the background tinckering away (laughs.) You’ll very rarely meet someone with as much passion as he does, and a fascinating guy all round to talk to.
I spoke with him at Silverstone, talking about “Truth In 24,” and then we ended up talking about Formula One. And when it came to noise and propulsion, we agreed about how much more you can hear from the cars themselves, nuances like what the tyres, gearbox, hybrid system and powertrain are doing.
You said this weekend that there are thirty to fourty people in the garage using laptops to help work the electrical systems to their optimum.
In 2012 and 2013, you secured third place on the podium at Le Mans, but it was unfortunate for you, Marco and Filipe during the race, when there was the accident with Toyota’s Nicolas LaPierre and AF Corse’s Sam Bird. The car had looked quick all week long.
This year, of all the years, the #3 car had looked the most competitive it had been. I didn’t take part in the pre-test, due to my commitments, but they were quickest then. I arrived at Le Mans and was quickest, and when the crash happened, we were also running as top Audi. I really believe that with out that, we could have gone on to win.
Going back to what you were saying about the hybrids, it has been such a change to the sport since it came in with the LMP1 project. The cars are so technical and there are so much minor details that have such a big effect on the car itself. It has come to the point where we are sitting down and discussing so much about the electronics, rather than purely just on set-up.
Now we can change so much with regards to the hybrid system and the way that the electronics work. It is because of the way that the driver has to understand how the system works, especially with the changes that have come over the past few years.
With regards to qualifying this season, where Porsche got two pole positions at Spa and CoTA and two race wins, it shows their strength, even though they are a sister brand to Audi under the VW Group banner. So one of the nice things that we have is in-house fighting between brands. What is that like from your perspective?
We just focus on the job that we are trying to do, but we are aware that it is a sister brand. There is one rule in racing is that it’s most important that you always want to beat your teammate, but it stems a little bit to this as well.
We also want to beat them, as Porsche have exactly the same opportunities as Audi does. We definitely want to go out there, as well as everybody else, and it is especially rewarding when we go out there and beat Porsche.
The competition is so high now, as you can’t just concentrate on just one manufacturer any more. Toyota have done a superb job, and who knows what Nissan might bring to the table, as you touched on it earlier. I’ve heard lots of rumours, and they seem to be very confident, so it’ll be very interesting to see what they unveil.
And then you have to think about who they may put in their driver line-up. I spoke with Darren Cox back when they announced their return to LMP1 and asked him if we would see a GT Academy graduate in one of the cars. He said he would be disappointed if there wasn’t.
His honest answer is that there WILL be a GT Academy driver in the program.
He’ll make sure of it.
Darren’s having a lot of fun with this. He’s toying with us all, however we’re not worried. He’s enjoying the mythical side of it all.
It’s a bit like “Godzilla,” really, where the GT-R is already known as “Godzilla,” but with the GT-R LM NISMO, it’s case of it being the big brother coming to play at Le Mans.
He’s enjoying all the rumours and just what is happening. You can see him on Twitter and in the press that he is just really adding fuel to the fire. For them, it’s great, as there is so much interest.
This is especially with the fact that it could further help other manufacturers to decide to take the step to LMP1 in the years to come. Formula One has only been using hybrid tech for the last twelve months when it comes to practical application.
When I spoke with Allan, the ACO decided to embrace this new philosophy from the early 2000s, in terms of making the technology relevant to the road. When Audi bring out cars like the A3 e-tron Sportsback that have been developed from the spring racing over 24 hours at Le Mans and elsewhere, it shows that in abundance.
The full WEC championship is not just important to Audi, but also to Toyota, because it is road car relevant, especially with the amount of money that has gone into developing the race cars of today.
If some of that is then fed down to the road car division, it pays for itself, and you only have to look at Audi and what technology has come from the race car and trickled its way down. Numerous things, from engines to turbochargers, have found their way into the road cars, which is why Audi continues to race in sportscars and that it is why the WEC is continuing to attract manufacturers back to it.
Olly, thanks very much for the chat, and I wish you, Loïc and Lucas all the best of luck this year.
Thanks very much.
The fact that the times where Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen were the Le Mans “All-Star Team,” with all three of them complimenting each other nicely in respective ways.
However, as both McNish and Kristensen will be supporting the new generation of future world champions, you can be rest assured that Oliver and everyone at Audi Sport, will be doing their utmost to take back the crown that is rightfully theirs, especially retaining their dominance at Le Mans.
E-Racing would like to thank Olly for his time, as well as Audi Sport UK’s Martyn Pass and RSM for arranging the interview. We wish Olly and his new teammates all the very best of luck for the forthcoming campaign.