Webber on Porsche 919

Aussie’s favourite F1 son, Mark Webber, has moved to a new phase of his career – spearheading Porsche’s return to the World Endurance Championship and its marquee event, the Le Mans 24 Hour.

Motoring.com.au caught up with Webber at last week’s Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit launch of the all-new Porsche 911 Turbo. And even managed to cadge a hot lap with the multi-F1 GP winner...

But between stints on the track, the subject of discussion was not the new Turbo, rather an even higher performance Porsche, the 919 Hybrid racer Webber will campaign in this year’s WEC.

Simplifying the comparison, Webber reckons the 919 sits somewhere between an F1 car and the Turbo S he punted with abandon at the Island.

“Somewhere in the middle [but] it’s closer to a Formula One car than it is to a road car. Its performance, obviously, with the combustion engine and the hybrid side together, is pretty impressive,” Webber explained.

“It’s four-wheel drive -- which is a nice feeling for the driver. I’ve never raced a four-wheel drive car… To a degree, that’s something to get used to.

“It’s [also] a bit heavier than a Formula One car so [during a] change of direction, those type of things, you feel the [extra] 200 kilos. [It is] Still very, very light in the scheme of things.

“It’s quick on the straights. The sensation of speed’s still very, very good,” Webber enthused.

“But it’s the most advanced Porsche they’ve done, as I’ve said. It’s such a curve, learning-wise, at the moment -- even driving technique.”

According to Webber, the technology within the 919’s requires significant input from the driver. Strategies regarding when to harvest brake energy and when to use the electric motive force derived are still in their infancy, he suggests.

“The driver’s in the loop in terms of technology, in terms of how we’re using the technology. How we get the [energy] recovery off the car, in terms of all the battery technology, and how we use the hybrid [power output] in certain parts of the lap.

“We’re absolutely trailblazing at the moment and it’s early days,” he said

Webber says the 919 is a more complex car to drive than the F1 car from 2013 but is probably on a par with the new-generation F1 turbo cars that debuted at the Australian F1 Grand Prix last weekend.

“You know last year’s Formula One cars didn’t really have a hybrid side to speak of… Now Formula One, they have a massive hybrid component. We also have a massive hybrid component.”

Competitive lap times aside, he says that managing fuel usage in races like the Le Mans 24 Hour will be a key part of his job on the track.

“It’s [WEC] an efficiency category, obviously, so there’s going to be a lot of communication [in races] with [regard to] fuel on the radio about that. The [energy] harvesting side’s important: how you use that harvesting; where you lose it on a lap; how you go about that.  

“We’ve done that on our own [in testing], but how’s that going to be when we go racing with other categories on the track [is still a question],” Webber admits with a shrug.

But the end result of the 919 program, and the moves in WEC’s premier LMP1 category, he says, will be faster, more efficient sports cars for the road.

“A lot of this stuff [hybrid technology] is going to end up in these things [Porsche road cars], you know.

“That’s what they [Porsche] are really impressing upon the factory drivers. At our level in the LMP1 car, they’re excited by that as well… That eventually it [the technology] will get into the road cars,” he explains.

“We’re just on the bottom of this curve. [But] there’s no better way to learn about this stuff than in a competitive environment,” Webber contends.

“You can do what you want in your R&D [department]…with all your road cars, but then when you start to throw it [hybrid technology] in the competitive arena, the acceleration [of technological advancements] gets a lot quicker.  

“You look at 918, which is a phenomenal bit of kit and there’s a lot of technology [in common] with the 919. That’s pretty cool.”

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