Porsche’s Le Mans-winning 919 Hybrid has just outgunned the best in F1.
In a moment of pointless, brilliant engineering exultation, Porsche’s Le Mans winning 919 Hybrid has just lapped the famous circuit of Spa-Francorchamps faster than a Formula 1 car.
The 919 Hybrid, driven by Neel Jani and utilising various enhancements due for the abandoned 2018 season, lapped the 4.5 mile Belgian GP circuit in 1:41.770 minutes, beating the previous record set by Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes F1 car last August by an impressive 0.783 seconds. Jani achieved a top speed in excess of 223 mph and an average speed of 152mph on his record lap.
This is the first Porsche has publically displayed the 919’s extraordinary abilities without any of the restrictions imposed upon it by the WEC. And there’s more in the tank, as Chief Race Engineer Stephen Mitas explains: “It was kind of an engineer’s dream come true for us. Having developed, improved and raced the car for four years, the guys had a very close relationship to it. We all knew, no matter how successful the 919 Hybrid was, it could never show its full abilities. Actually, even the Evo version doesn’t fully exploit the technical potential. This time we were not limited by regulations but resources. It is a very satisfying feeling that what we’ve done to the car was enough to crack the Formula One record.”
Stephen’s team were allowed to remove restrictors on fuel delivery and boost, increasing ICE output from 500 to 720hp and harvesting over 2.1 extra megajoules from the energy recovery system.
They also dispensed with FIA regulations on aerodynamics, introducing a bigger front diffuser and larger rear wing, both with actively controlled drag reduction systems. Underneath, meanwhile, the turning vanes and floor were optimised with fixed height side skirts to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. All in, these changes increased downforce by 53 percent and overall efficiency by 66 percent compared last year’s car in qualifying trim.
This was bolstered by a newly developed tyre compound from Michelin and the removal of anything that wasn’t needed for a hot lap, including air-con, windscreen wiper, various sensors, mandatory electronic components, lights systems and the pneumatic jack system. The dry weight plunged by 39 kg to a frankly ridiculous 849 kg.
Neel Jani was suitably in awe of what he had just been a part of: “The 919 Evo is brutally impressive. It is definitely the fastest car I ever drove. The grip level is at a fully new dimension for me, I couldn’t imagine this amount beforehand. The speed on 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. We are not only faster than the F1 pole from 2017. Today’s lap was twelve seconds faster compared to our WEC pole position from last year! We have had three very intense days at Spa. Today I knew on the very first lap in the morning that the car’s performance was super. The race engineers did a great job setting up the car and the Michelin tyres are sensational. A big thank you to Porsche for this experience.”
This flying visit to Spa was the first appearance of a newly planned ‘919 Tribute Tour.’ The car can next be seen on a demo lap of the Nordschleife ahead of the Nürburgring 24-Hours on May 12 and, closer to home, it will drive at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Festival of Porsche in Brands Hatch. Its final outing will be at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion in Laguna Seca, California at the end of September.