Porsche has launched the car it will defend its Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship crowns with in 2016 – the new 919 Hybrid LMP1 racer.
Porsche won the 2015 manufacturer’s title in the second year of its comeback to the top line of endurance racing, with Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber taking the drivers’ title.
The German manufacturer revealed the updated 919 Hybrid and its new livery on Wednesday, ahead of this weekend’s WEC prologue test at Paul Ricard.
As champions, Bernhard, Hartley and Webber will race with the #1 on their car, while the sister entry of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb will carry the #2.
Porsche says it will “fully exploit the WEC regulations by deploying three different aerodynamic packages to make the car best suit to the respective race tracks” in 2016.
“Until now, Porsche settled on a compromise for the season-opening round of the WEC and campaigned the 919 with lower downforce than would have been ideal for the Silverstone circuit,” said the team.
“This compromise was for the sake of the season highlight at Le Mans.”
The German manufacturer says the 919 will now start the season running a high downforce package, moving to an extremely low downforce configuration for the Le Mans showpiece event, then running another high downforce package for the following six WEC races.
The regulations prohibit more than three aerodynamic configurations per year.
Porsche added that the basis of the 919 chassis structure and the hybrid drive concept is unchanged from its successful 2015 predecessor, but the weight of the turbo engine, its fuel consumption and the efficiency of the hybrid system have all been improved.
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