Le Mans Milestones

Audi’s performance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is nothing short of spectacular. To claim 13 victories at this, the toughest endurance race in the world, is a feat in itself. To have achieved that in just 17 years, is incredible.

Audi has finished on the podium in every race since its debut with the R8 in 1999 – 13 of those in first. This makes Audi the second most successful manufacturer in the great race behind sister brand Porsche, which has 17 victories – but these have been achieved since 1970.

This year, not only will the competition be tougher than ever before, but so too are the regulations governing vehicle design, power output and fuel consumption. 

Throughout its years in the competition though, Audi has continually set not only the pace, but the standard in vehicle design and construction, to become the innovative leader at Circuit de la Sarthe.

Not only has Audi won 13 of its 17 starts, it has quite literally rewritten the book on motorsport along the way with a unique set of firsts.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars being campaigned by Audi this year are the most powerful and fuel-efficient the brand has ever produced, its TDI engine is more efficient than ever before and part of a highly complex diesel-hybrid powertrain. Yet a decade ago, the very idea of diesel power being used in a race car still raised eyebrows and smirks from many quarters. That all changed of course when Audi debuted the R10 TDI quattro in 2006 and changed international motorsport forever. The R10 TDI quattro win on debut silenced the critics, but it was not only the critics who were noticeably quiet. The car too was like a silent assassin, speeding around the 13.629km circuit  with nary a sound from its 5.5-litre V12 TDI engine.

“At high speed, even the wind noise was louder than that of the engine,” recalls Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen of the silent revolution that has gone on to set the standard in world motorsport. Audi has gone on to clinch eight victories with the TDI since then, the R15 TDI setting a new distance record in 2010 (5410.713km) that remains unbroken to this day.

A year later, the Audi R18 TDI debuted. It, too, was instantly a winner showcasing new aerodynamic design that made up for regulation changes reducing the car’s power output. “This closed-wheel race car marked the beginning of a new era at Le Mans for Audi,” says Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport. “The regulations required us to reduce the cubic capacity of the engine from 5.5 to 3.7 litres. Therefore, the aerodynamic efficiency of the closed race car, considering all the factors combined, became even more important.” 

The optimised aerodynamics helped improve lap times although the race car had less power output than its predecessor and consumed significantly less fuel. Audi was victorious once again.

Then in 2012, Audi stunned the automotive world anew, debuting a hybrid sports car, the R18 e-tron quattro. This revolutionary car won the great race on debut and, in 2013, won again with a significantly updated version of this model. 

The most radical change to the regulations to date followed only a year later in 2014 when each of the LMP1 race cars was restricted to a limited amount of fuel and hybrid energy per lap. To combat the changes, Audi developed a new, even more efficient R18 e-tron quattro. It won the race in 2014, was faster than its predecessor, but used 22 percent less fuel.

In the 2016 season, the regulations have further reduced energy consumption. Audi has developed the V6 TDI engine to a new level once more. 

“We’re now using the engine concept for the sixth consecutive year. This shows how good the basic idea still is,” says Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport. “Due to efficiency increases, we’re compensating for the lower amount of fuel to some extent.” 

The current V6 TDI engine consumes 32.4 percent less fuel than the first generation from 2011. The progress made in comparison to 2006 is even more substantial. Today, Audi’s LMP1 race car with the current powertrain uses 46.4 percent less fuel at Le Mans than it did ten years earlier. In spite of this, it achieves lap times that are ten to 15 seconds better than those a decade ago. All this is possible thanks to the individual strides that have been made across a range of areas. Advanced lighting systems to allow perfect vision at speeds up to 330km/h in the dead of night. Aerodynamics, lightweight design and of course powertrain development have all benefited from the cauldron of motorsport competition that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans.