2008 Le Mans Series

[henk4]

Maybe they aren't ready yet?

They are more than ready....

[Ferrer]

They are more than ready....

Then why isn't Peugeot in the Paul Ricard test?

[Kitdy]

Then why isn't Peugeot in the Paul Ricard test?

I was talking about Paul Ricard.

If they are ready, then why are they going to Sebring?

[henk4]

If they are ready, then why are they going to Sebring?

For outright victory...They tested all during the winter, assisted not only by their regular driver line-up, but also by Villeneuve, who has greatly contributed in providing simple solutions for seemingly complicated problems. All problems with the suspension and the gearbox have been ironed out. They are now in a position to for broke over a 24 hour period....(last year before LM they had not been able to continue race pace for longer than 18 hours) Testing at Sebring earlier this year showed the car was faster than the Audi and some Audi drivers mentioned that indeed they could not keep up with them.....

[Wouter Melissen]

If they are ready, then why are they going to Sebring?

I'm sorry but can you explain this question? The Sebring 12 Hours is the second most important endurance race (for ACO spec cars) in the world and possibly even more difficult on man and machine. They need to be ready to go to Sebring.

[Kitdy]

I'm sorry but can you explain this question? The Sebring 12 Hours is the second most important endurance race (for ACO spec cars) in the world and possibly even more difficult on man and machine. They need to be ready to go to Sebring.

I thought they were going to Sebring as for two reasons, to win, and to test for an extended period of time in racing conditions for Le Mans.

If they were gonna treat Sebring to some extent as a test, then I thought that they could benefit from more testing at Paul Ricard.

[Kitdy]

For outright victory...They tested all during the winter, assisted not only by their regular driver line-up, but also by Villeneuve, who has greatly contributed in providing simple solutions for seemingly complicated problems. All problems with the suspension and the gearbox have been ironed out. They are now in a position to for broke over a 24 hour period....(last year before LM they had not been able to continue race pace for longer than 18 hours) Testing at Sebring earlier this year showed the car was faster than the Audi and some Audi drivers mentioned that indeed they could not keep up with them.....

Yes, that was quite astounding - did the not set a lap record?

EDIT: For LMP cars.

[RacingManiac]

yeah they got down to 1:42s.....last year's pole was in 1:44s....

Note that they were only faster than Audi on one of the 3 or 4 days though....

I still think Audi will have them over a race distance....12 or 24 hours....

[Wouter Melissen]

yeah they got down to 1:42s.....last year's pole was in 1:44s....

Note that they were only faster than Audi on one of the 3 or 4 days though....

I still think Audi will have them over a race distance....12 or 24 hours....

Well they got into the 42s very early in the test on a track that the team has never been to. Remember that Audi has almost a decade of experience at Sebring, two of them with the R10 already.

[RacingManiac]

Don't forget though they use the same tire as R10, which Michelin developed for the Audi along with Audi's experience at Sebring, the improvement from year to year can be deemed just as much as the improvement on the tire, in effect that halved the work for Peugeot....with teams running at Audi/Peugeot's level of expertise and budget they should be expected to arrive at the track with setup thats within 5-10% of what the car is capable of just from their simulations alone.....