Whilst it’s been a month since the Le Mans 24 Hours, several of the FIA WEC teams have been far from idle, with those that saw success in particular, involved in a quick-fire series of publicity tours and opportunities – as well as some vital testing.
The winning Porsche team visited Weissach, bringing the trophy to the factory for the staff to see.
“It was an amazing reception,” Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard told DSC. “We had a small event for the team when the trophy came back, with all the team, it was amazing to see. You see a lot people who were very touched. We started from zero when we started this project, and to have all these trophies now winning Le Mans three times in a row is amazing.”
Porsche was also heavily involved with a highly encouraging event supporting the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. It saw a number of Le Mans legends take to the track, five of which were Porsches.
The 2017 Le Mans winner was there, driven by Brendon Hartley, and his ex-teammate Mark Webber. The 2016 World Champion, Neel Jani meanwhile, drove the 1981 Porsche 936, the Swiss giving Formula One chief Chase Carey, a rare passenger ride with an in-car camera showing both men enjoying the ride despite a lack of crash helmets.
Helmut Marko, 1971 Le Mans winner, drove the 1970 Porsche 917 K, his own Martini-liveried car exhibited in the Formula One fan zone (not currently in operable condition).
Finally, also Hans Stuck displayed the 1986 Porsche 962C.
Other marques were also well represented. Jean Alesi drove a Ferrari 512S from 1969, Guy Smith steered his 2003 Bentley Speed 8 and BMW was represented by the 1999 race-winning BMW V12 LMR, with had Gerhard Berger behind the wheel. Austrian legend Dieter Quester drove the 1973 BMW 3.0 CSL.
Mr Le Mans Tom Kristensen himself was present too, and drove the 2016 Audi R18.
The Porsche LMP1 team and Timo Bernhard also hosted ESA soon-to-become astronaut, Dr Matthias Maurer, who despite his day job, incorporating cutting-edge space technology, was astounded at the technology involved in the 2017 Le Mans-winning Porsche.
The two compared notes with their own “rocket ships”, the very 2017 Porsche compared very favourably indeed with the very much 1960s Soyuz-style capsule that to this day services the International Space Station.
Climbing into the #919hybrid cockpit was a reminder to limited comfort of the #Soyuz and the 2 men found out to have a lot more in common pic.twitter.com/v5c8zdF187
— Porsche LMP1 Team (@Porsche_Team) July 13, 2017
In addition to that, Porsche made a unique trip to the home of their season-rivals Toyota, in Cologne, for a press conference last week, to promote the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, almost certainly the first time that a Porsche 919 has visited the Toyota factory.
Aston Martin meanwhile, outside of its very visible marketing campaign celebrating its GTE Pro victory, entered the Red Bull Soap Box Derby last week. A team assembled from Aston Martin Lagonda designed and built the winning Vantage in soap box form, and eventually finished second in the event!
Alex Summers, Aston Martin Prototype Engineer and driver of the mini V8 Vantage GTE said, “Everything about the day was incredible and the run itself was a memorable experience.
“As the driver, the best thing about not being in the performance at the start was that I was able to see everything happen around me. It was a truly chaotic pit stop but the crowd really seemed to enjoy it!
“After scoring a maximum score in the performance of 40 points, it was down to Alex who took to the hill achieving the top speed seen in testing of 29mph and grabbing extensive air time on each of the four obstacles.
“Once I’d seen that we’d received a good score from the judges for our performance, my nerves at the thought of driving in front of over 20,000 people completely disappeared and I was able to really enjoy the atmosphere.”
The GTE Pro winners trophy and Vantage also made the trip to Gaydon for a small celebration.
“We’ve got a bigger celebration planned soon too, as despite us having to celebrate after Le Mans, it’s been flat out preparing for this race at the ‘Ring and the fly-aways,” AMR Team Principal Paul Howarth told DSC.
With the overall win at Le Mans in doubt until the final hour, Jackie Chan DC Racing almost won the race but instead filled the other two steps on the podium, winning LMP2 in the process. Because of this the team found itself in much demand as a result of its achievement, the squad was invited to bring both its ORECAs to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and take them up the hill.
The drivers also headed out to the Shanghai film festival to surprise Jackie Chan with the trophies.
The Jackie Chan DC Orecas weren’t the only sports cars to head up the Goodwood Hill. There was plenty of machinery, past and present which pleased the fans, including this year’s winning Porsche, the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, the Le Mans winning 2014 Audi R18 and a Toyota TS040.
There was misfortune though for the new owner of the 2016 GTE AM title winning AF Corse Ferrari 458 GTE who had a substantial ‘bump’ on his way up the hill! The driver was fine, Ferrari will need some refettling, at the rear!
And finally, Jackie Chan DC Racing, en route to the Nürburgring from its UK base, joined by fellow class-winners from Aston Martin Racing with a visit to Dunlop Sport GMBH’s manufacturing base at Hannau, to the East of Frankfurt.
Now, onto the rest of the season!
