New lap record Nürburgring Porsche 919 Hybrid (video)

[Stokdgs]

Not to derail the conversation about jumping to hyperspace in a 919, but I missed the F1 race yesterday. I was watching the 6-hour IMSA Weathertech race at Watkins Glen.

F1 lost me a couple years ago when it was a lop-sided Mercedes show except for the couple of times their drivers punted each other off the track. I need to start watching again as the updates I read show it`s a much more interesting season.

Desertnate --

It is much better for McLaren/Mercedes now that Nico Rosburg is gone..
Hamilton and Bottas are a strong team !! And they are user-friendly..

If they had the old gang with David Hobbs, etc., to announce the race as in years past, this would be an outstanding season..
Instead, some guys bought the rights and they are not all that good at this yet..
Hopefully, it will evolve better..
Shoot, sorry I missed that IMSA race !
Dan F

[TheMeanGreen]

The car is highly modified and doesn`t even look like it did while campaining in the WEC. Right now Porsche is taking it to famous tracks all over on this "Tribute Tour" and destroying records whereever they go. When they ran it around Spa in Belgium, it destroyed the lap time the same car set in WEC-approved spec by 12 seconds, and actually beat Louis Hamilton`s record setting F-1 time by .8 seconds.

We are seeing the swan song for LMP1 cars and it`s a little sad. The performance put down by the Porsche, Audi, and Toyota cars was mind blowing and I don`t think we`ll see likes of them again...kind of like the Group B rally cars of the 70`s.

Whilst all this is true, the package that the Porsche boys have developed is more of a "one size fits all" approach to destroying lap records, which is very respectable as displayed by two records broken, but it is plausible that there is more room left on the table considering the few number of days that they have had, at each venue, to tune the chassis and powertrain for each specific track, like they would in a regular season. If the team had even an entire week (Porsche only spent three days at Spa), seven full driving days to set up the car for each track, I am sure that the car could run faster.

[Desertnate]

Whilst all this is true, the package that the Porsche boys have developed is more of a "one size fits all" approach to destroying lap records, which is very respectable as displayed by two records broken, but it is plausible that there is more room left on the table considering the few number of days that they have had, at each venue, to tune the chassis and powertrain for each specific track, like they would in a regular season. If the team had even an entire week (Porsche only spent three days at Spa), seven full driving days to set up the car for each track, I am sure that the car could run faster.

I loved the LMP1 hybrid cars and was a huge fan of Porsche team their last few seasons, but this tribute tour leaves me a bit cold. While I think the car is cool from a science experiment standpoint, i.e. they purposely tune it to destroy track records, I`m disapointed it is not close to WEC spec and therefore you can`t compare the lap records to any other car, of any class or race series, which must conform to their respective sacntioning bodies. It`s not like you`re running a GT or LMP1 car to see if it can bet an F1 record, they are simply letting a wild unicorn off the leash to chase the lightning. If a race seriese had an "unrestricted" class like the Pikes Peak Hill Climb does which ran on these legendary European tracks, that would make for an interesting comparison for this unique 919.