FLORIDA—Audi has started preparations for the 2012 World Endurance Championship season with a weekend test at Sebring International Raceway.
Audi brought two diesel-powered R18Hs and half-a-dozen of its best drivers: 2011 Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, and 2008 24-Hour winners Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish.
According to SPEED.com’s John Dagys, the new versions feature revised cockpits for increased outward vision, and possibly hybrid power systems — something for which the R18 was originally designed, but not necessarily tested at Sebring.
Audi’s chief rival Peugeot has already tested a hybrid-powered 908, and Toyota is planning a hybrid LMP1 for several the 2012 WEC events. Porsche’s projected 2014-season LMP1 is also expected to be a hybrid, probably based on flywheel technology rather than batteries.
The nose of the new version appears to be narrower and more tapered, and the windscreen is more bulbous.
The cockpit modifications stem from a series of accidents in 2011 which many attribute to the R18’s front fenders blocking drivers’ lines of sight.
This test comes after much private testing of the new systems, according to Audi, which suggests that modifications, whatever they may be, already work well enough that Audi is not afraid the new parts will fail in a public setting.
For the past two seasons, Audi has not brought its latest design to Sebring, instead running older models while debuting its current design at the Spa Six Hours. After a miserable 2011 season which saw the factory win only one race, Audi seems to be intent on better preparation and better results in 2012.
An Audi press release states only that “Audi Sport is intensively preparing for the 2012 sports prototype season” and that “Audi will not announce the details of the 2012 racing program, the driver line-up and the technical state of the development until a later date.”
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