By Johan Laubscher The seventh new Audi R18 e-tron quattro video from Audi's series of launch videos was released today. Audi has been releasing daily pre-launch Audi R18 e-tron quattro videos since Friday last week. Their final video was published today, following the car's world premiere last night. All of the videos have had a similar theme with glimpses of the car surrounded by formulas. The final video includes parts of the first six pre-launch videos, which were titled as: “Speed”, “Performance”, “Kinetic Energy”, "Power" , “Electric Capacity" and "Illumination." This final video, titled as "Success," has been embedded below:
The works Audi GT driver will be competing at the demanding Mount Panorama endurance event for the first time. Laurens Vanthoor had an impressive 2013 season with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT in both the FIA GT Series and the Blancpain Endurance Series. Vanthoor won the FIA GT Series title with his teammate, Stéphane Ortelli.
Phoenix Racing will be among the big favourites for the overall win Down Under in February. The names of Laurens Vanthoor's Phoenix Racing teammates for Bathurst will be announced later.
Taiwan will be hosting the TSF Asia All Star Challenge at the Penbay International Circuit this coming weekend. A four-car team of Audis will be taking part.
The event will be a big final Asian motorsport meeting and many teams from across Asia have entered the event, including Absolute Racing with a number of Audis.
A total of four Audis will be entered by Absolute Racing under the J-Fly Racing banner, three Audi R8 LMS cars and one Audi R8 LMS ultra. They will be competing in the GT Master Cup races, which includes the GT3 and GTM classes.
The three older R8 LMS cars will be in the GTM class. The first car will be driven by the 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup champion, Adderly Fong. The second car will have Keith Chen and Hiroki Yoshimoto behind the wheel. The final GTM Audi entry will be driven by Carlo Van Dam and Benjamin Lee.
J-Fly Racing’s Audi R8 LMS ultra entry will be competing in the GT3 class. The car has been entered with regular GT Asia driver, Jeffrey Lee. He will be racing alongside Rahel Frey, his teammate and co-driver for the weekend. The factory Audi driver will be a force to be reckoned with alongside Jeffrey Lee, with the pair aiming for overall victory as the strongest Audi entry.
The weekend kicks off with scrutineering on Thursday, followed by two GT Master Cup practice sessions on Friday. Saturday will have a short warm up session and the two qualifying sessions. Sunday will see another short warm up session and then the fifty minute GT Master Cup race. The final race on Sunday will be a ten lap sprint race called the "2013 Asia GT Master."
We wish the best of luck to J-Fly Racing (Absolute Racing) and their drivers. Hopefully Absolute Racing can add even more success to their already very successful 2013 motorsport season.
The Audi Sport Finale was held at Audi Forum Ingolstadt on Wednesday. It was a very exciting yearend function for Audi Sport, which saw a number of presentations, including recognising the Audi Sport customer racing teams and drivers who celebrated success during 2013.
Audi Sport’s official twitter feed (@Audi__Sport on twitter) provided excellent real-time coverage of the event for their fans around the world. Below we have included a rundown of the Audi Sport customer racing presentation from the Audi Sport Finale, as per the updates from the official Audi Sport twitter feed. Audi Sport Italia - International and Italian Superstars champions with the Audi RS 5 quattro Driver: Gianni Morbidelli
JB Motorsport - Swedish GT Series champion Driver: Jan Brunstedt
MTM Motorsport - Superstars GT Sprint champion
Driver: Thomas Schöffler
Team Novadriver - Portuguese GT Championship champions
Drivers: César Campanico and Mikko Eskelinen
PK Carsport - Belgian Racing Car Championship Endurance champions
Drivers: Bert Longin, Maarten Makelberge and Anthony Kumpen (not present)
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT - Fia GT Series champions
Drivers: Stéphane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor
Adderly Fong - 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup champion
Edoardo Mortara - Macau GT Cup winner
Alex Job Racing - Daytona 24 Hours winners
Drivers: Filipe Albuquerque, Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara, Dion von Moltke
It was certainly a great year for Audi Sport customer racing and the Audi R8 LMS / ultra and GRAND-AM cars, with multiple titles and race victories. 2014 will be another tremendous year for Audi Sport customer racing.
Development Board Member Dr. Hackenberg: “Motorsport accelerates our developments”
Ingolstadt, December 18, 2013 – At the world premiere of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro, Audi unveiled another technical highlight of its new LMP1 sports car in Ingolstadt on Wednesday night. In 2014, the brand with the four rings will be running with laser light for the first time in the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“By using this new lighting technology Audi is setting yet another milestone at Le Mans,” said Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Management Board for Technical Development of AUDI AG, at the official presentation of the new R18 e-tron quattro that took place as part of the ‘Audi Sport Finale.’ Laser light will also open up completely new possibilities for our production models in the future. Once more, motorsport at Audi accelerates a new technical development for our customers.”
The innovative laser light, which about 500 guests in attendance at the ‘Audi Sport Finale’ had the chance to experience live for the first time, complements the main LED headlights of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro. A blue laser beam backlights a yellow phosphorus crystal lens through which the light beam is then emitted. This new light source provides even more homogenous lighting of the road.
Laser light just one of numerous innovations of the new R18
“The new laser light is just one of numerous technical innovations featured by our new R18,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who was recognized by Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg on Wednesday night on the occasion of his 20th anniversary at the helm of Audi Sport. “We’re not going to reveal any more than that at this early stage, as in 2014 we’re facing an extremely tough competition and a year full of challenges for Audi Sport.”
As before, the motorsport commitment of AUDI AG in the new season will continue to consist of the three pillars Le Mans prototypes (LMP1), DTM and GT sport. In addition, Audi Sport is preparing for its move into the new Motorsport Competence Center in Neuburg in the summer of 2014. “This is a very important step to ensure that Audi will retain its ability to be successfully active in motorsport at the highest level but, obviously, it also puts an additional strain on our squad,” said Dr. Ullrich. Three Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars in Le Mans 24 Hours
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will see Audi Sport Team Joest compete as the title defender in the 2014 season. In all eight races of the 2014 WEC, the World Champions will be running with two Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars. For the season’s pinnacle event at Le Mans on June 14/15, 2014, the fielding of a third R18 is planned. The driver teams will be announced at a later date.
New version of the Championship-winning Audi RS 5 DTM
In the DTM, Audi will continue the successful long-standing partnership with the Audi Sport Teams Abt Sportsline, Phoenix and Rosberg. For the 2014 season, a new version of the Audi RS 5 DTM that was victorious in the DTM in the past season is in the making at Audi Sport. Mike Rockenfeller, as the title defender, in car number ‘1,’ will definitely be driving one of the eight RS 5 DTM cars to be fielded in total. Assignments for the other cockpits and the distribution to the three teams have not been finalized yet.
In GT sport, Audi Sport customer racing will again be providing particularly intensive support to its customer teams for the 24-hour races at Daytona (USA), the Nürburgring (Germany) and Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium).
GTD version of the Audi R8 LMS for U.S. racing
Following the merger of the GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series into the Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSCC), a new chapter will begin in U.S. racing. Based on the previous race car for the USA, Audi has developed a GTD version of the R8 LMS, with GTD standing for ‘GT Daytona.’ The GTD version now only differs from the GT3 model in few details.
The Audi R8 LMS Cup in its third season is taking the next step in its internationalization effort in the Asian region. In 2014, aside from three races in China – among others, held in conjunction with the WEC at Shanghai and the DTM at Guangzhou – the world’s first one-make cup of AUDI AG will take place in Malaysia, in South Korea and, for the first time, in Japan. Following the fielding of 16 race cars in the inaugural season and 20 last year, Audi China is planning to put up to 24 Audi R8 LMS cars on the grid.
The extensive motorsport commitment of AUDI AG is complemented by the offer of the Audi race experience, which gives customers with sporting ambitions the opportunity to personally drive the Audi R8 LMS ultra. In addition to individual training sessions, the Audi race experience offers racing commitments in the VLN Endurance Championship and in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. The three-time Le Mans winner Marco Werner, the former DTM race driver Rahel Frey and the former 24-hour Nürburgring winner Markus Winkelhock will be passing on their knowledge as instructors.
Münnich Motorsport has completed their final testing outing for 2013. The last test of the year was held at Lohéac in France.
The team is currently busy preparing for the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship. Their first Audi S3/A3 Supercar class rallycross vehicle has been taking part in various test sessions recently. They are also busy building a second primary Audi S3/A3 rallycross car, which will be their competition vehicle next year.
It remains very exciting to see this new rallycross car from Münnich Motorsport continuing its development. We have embedded their latest testing video below.
More information and videos of the car can be seen HERE.
By Johan Laubscher The sixth and final Audi R18 e-tron quattro pre-launch video was released today. Audi has released daily videos previewing the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro. They started with the first video on Friday, followed by one video a day since then until today, 18 December, the day of the car's world premiere. Each video had a similar look with brief glimpses of the car surrounded with formulas and a unique title. The sixth and final video was released today, ahead of the world premiere tonight. This latest video, titled as "Illumination", follows on from the first five videos: “Speed”, “Performance”, “Kinetic Energy”, "Power" and “Electric Capacity."
The new video has been embedded below. The Audi Sport Finale, the year end function, will be taking place tonight, along with the world premiere of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro. The Audi Sport Finale will begin at 19:00 CET and the presentation of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro will begin at about 20:30 CET.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship saw the return of PK Carsport in 2013. PK's weapon of choice was the Audi R8 LMS and their drivers went on to win the 2013 BRCC Endurance title.
The season review has been compiled from the 2013 Audi Motorsport Blog Weekend Round Up posts. Each round has been added as was seen in the individual Weekend Round Up posts during 2013, which can be accessed via the links throughout the review below:
Test Day: Zolder
The Belgian BRCC held an official test day at Zolder on Friday. Two Audi R8 LMS cars took part. The PK Carsport R8 LMS is a full season BRCC competitor, whereas the Belgian Racing Team (MOMO-Megatron-dF1) R8 LMS used the test day to prepare for the upcoming ELMS season.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC) was a support event at Zolder this weekend. The PK Carsport Audi R8 LMS debuted at the event. The team performed well and won the ninety minute endurance race on Sunday.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC) held round two in France this weekend. One Audi team was entered for the event at Dijon, that of PK Carsport. The team was victorious in the endurance event at Zolder, round one of the championship. The team performed very well this weekend and finished the race in fourth place, third in class.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC) also held its third round at Spa this weekend. The PK Carsport Audi R8 LMS qualified on the front row and did very well during the race, finishing in third place.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC) was at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. They hosted round four of the series as a support event for the Spa 24 Hours. PK Carsport was there and achieved very good results. The team achieved pole position for the BRCC race at Spa, which was held on Friday afternoon, before the Spa 24 Hours Superpole. They were over a second ahead of the field during the wet qualifying session. The hour-long race itself saw the PK Carsport squad converting pole into a solid finish. Third place overall and yet another podium finish and good points for the season.
The Belgian Racing Car Championship headed to Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, for the 600 km of Spa, round five of the season. PK Carsport was entered with their #7 Audi R8 LMS, with drivers Anthony Kumpen, Bert Longin and Maarten Makelberge. They qualified in third place and finished the endurance event on the podium in third as well.
The finale of the Belgian Racing Car Championship was held at Zolder this weekend. PK Carsport arrived with their drivers leading the championship. PK Carsport has been an all-season competitor in the BRCC, fielding their #7 Audi R8 LMS driven Anthony Kumpen, Bert Longin and Maarten Makelberge. The trio had retaken the lead in the BRCC endurance championship standings following the last round at the 600 km of Spa in September. They arrived at Zolder with a mere five point lead in the driver’s standings. PK Carsport was also in the hunt for the team’s title, as they were in third place, just three points behind the leaders. They qualified third on the gird for the race at Zolder, taking position three behind the two GPR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 cars. The finale arrived on Sunday with high drama during the morning. News of possible sabotage emerged from the PK Carsport pits. This came after the PK Carsport engineers discovered that sticker seals, placed on the car the night before, had been broken. This raised the suspicion that the car might have been tampered with during the night, and with the title fight hanging in the balance, the PK Carsport team worked hard on Sunday morning to thoroughly check the car and replace many components. After the morning's drama the race got underway on Sunday afternoon. PK Carsport finished the season by taking second place overall by the end of the race, finishing behind the #100 GPR Aston Martin. This result was enough to crown the PK Carsport driving trio as the 2013 BRCC Endurance champions.
The FIA GT Series is about to live an exceptional closing to the 2013 season, as teams and drivers head to make history at the Baku World Challenge.
This will be the first-ever round of a FIA Championship to take place in Azerbaijan, one of the booming nations in the Caucasus, and the Azeri hosts are preparing a stellar event to be remembered. There is great excitement and anxiety among the FIA GT Series community to discover the urban track in the streets of the “City of Lights”, on the shore of the Caspian Sea. For the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, the event promises to be even more memorable, as this year’s Driver title can’t escape one of the Team WRT pilots and the squad is only 6 points away from mathematically securing the Teams’ crown. Needless to say, a street circuit unknown to everybody, and the presence of many additional participants of top level that will join for this special event, are key factors to be taken into consideration. To mark this special occasion, the team is entering and additional car, entrusted to Filipe Albuquerque and Grégoire Demoustier.
“We are all delighted and very excited to go to Baku”, reckons Team WRT Principal Vincent Vosse, “To end the season with such a great new event is fantastic and can only bring a lot to the Championship. I have been following the preparations and I am confident that the organizers, which include a lot of Belgians thanks to Jean-François Chaumont and his team, will put together a great event. It will certainly be an atypical weekend, which means some extra pressure but also some extra pleasure, and we really would like to add such a prestigious race to our collection of wins. It won’t be easy because the Balance of Performance is what it is and there will be many additional good contenders. Although they will be ‘transparent’, in that they will not score nor block points, I hope they will not interfere negatively in the fight for the title. Given the nature of the track, we can certainly anticipate very tactical races, and an active role of the Safety-car! The first objective, for us, will be to secure the Teams’ title and have a nice family fight among our drivers for the Drivers’ crown. I have absolutely no preference: all our drivers have done a great job, they are all great guys, and whoever wins will make me happy!”
Sporting Director Pierre Dieudonné seems not worried about the many unusual variables of this race. “It’s a new track, unknown to everyone”, he admits, “but that is true for everybody. There are no data on the circuit, we have just seen the topography of it but all the rest will have to be discovered on site, especially the surface. But we do know our car, so I am confident that we will be able to find quickly the best set-ups. Regarding the fight for the Drivers’ title, we have decided to leave our drivers free to defend their chances and not have team orders whatsoever. The starting point being that they are all intelligent and grown-up boys, they will be free to fight, the only boundaries being not to hurt the team’s interest and to respect each other and the cars. I think being as clear as possible is always the best way to handle this kind of situations.”
The championship standings say that Laurens Vanthoor and Stéphane Ortelli lead with 101 points. The young Belgian driver seems quite cool at the eve of a weekend that could bring him a first international GT title. “I have spent the last few days in Germany with my girlfriend and fine-tuning my physical preparation with my trainer”, says Laurens, “I also have been devoting some time to my latest hobby, photography, something that has always fascinated me. I wanted to take some distance from motorsports and avoid thinking too much about this decisive race. I’m not worried about urban tracks, I like them and did well at Macau and Norisring in the past. I’ve seen the Baku circuit on a simulator but just to check the basics, it is clear that we won’t have any serious information until we are there. The last race wasn’t too good for us, so we are in a less comfortable position in the championship but still leading. I think Stéphane and I have a little advantage in terms of performance, therefore our strategy will be quite straight-forward: avoid mistakes and stay ahead of our team mates. At WRT we are used to always work together, sharing all data and information, it will be interesting to see how we do things in the context of a family title fight.”
Only five points behind are Edward Sandström and Frank Stippler, who closed the gap at the last race in Navarra. The German driver is certainly happy to go to Baku: “I really look forward to this new experience”, says Frank “and I think Baku can become the equivalent of Monaco or Macau in other championship. I simply hope that the additional contenders that are coming attracted by the event and the prize money will show respect for those fighting for a title and not do crazy things. To have a family fight for the title is good news when you are in a team like WRT: you know your team mates and you know the fight is going to be fair. Whatever the result, it is going to be very good for the team, after a successful season of hard work!”
The third in contention, and a ‘lone runner’, is Niki Mayr-Melnhof, who will have a tougher job, as he has a 26-point disadvantage, but “you never know, especially on a street circuit. Sometimes, the outsider is the lucky one”, as says with a relaxed tone the Austrian driver, who will be again associated with his usual partner, René Rast.
On the fourth car, Grégoire Demoustier, the young French who is already an established driver in the GT élite, will make his debut with Team WRT. He will be partnered by Portuguese star Filipe Albuquerque, a man well-known in the team and who has been driving with Yves Weerts one of the Team WRT’s Audis R8 LMS ultra at the International GT Open’s finale in Barcelona two weeks ago. “I’m always very happy to race with WRT”, says the Audi driver, “we know each other well and I really look forward to this opportunity. A new circuit means that everybody will be on the same foot, and an urban track means that the driver will make the difference. The driver’s feeling and confidence really are the key factors on a track like this. Grip will be an issue because the surface is new, but it will improve throughout the sessions, and it will be crucial to evolve along the track, going fast but keeping cool to avoid contact with the walls. I hope we can be able to fight for a podium position.”
The weekend will have a compact format, with free practice and qualifying on Saturday and the two races on Sunday. Given the time difference (Baku is three hours ahead with respect to Central Europe), races will be quite early for most European fans, with the Qualifying one starting at 6:15 and the Main one kicking off at 10:00.
The Audi teams performed very well again in day 2 of the official TUDOR United SportsCar Championship tests. The Audi R8 LMS cars were among the fastest cars within the GT Daytona class. Two test sessions were held yesterday with only GT cars on track from both GT Le Mans and GT Daytona classes. Following some tire issues and two major crashes for two Daytona Prototypes, IMSA (International Motor Sport Association) stopped all tests for the Prototype cars (DP, LMP2 and LMPC).
In the first session the best ranked Audi R8 LMS car finished second in a very demanding and close GTD class. The #45 entry from Flying Lizard Motorsports with a best time of 1:48.760 right behind the leading factory Ferrari 458 from Ferrari Corse Clienti. The #46 Audi R8 LMS from Fall-Line Motorsports was fifth. The #48 Audi R8 LMS from Paul Miller Racing was ninth. The works #24 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport customer racing was eleventh and the #35 car from Flying Lizard Motorsports was thirteenth.
Later in the second session the Audi teams again showed great pace with very close lap times between the different teams and brands. The factory run #24 car from Audi Sport customer racing was sixth in class with a best time of 1:49.687. The two cars from Flying Lizard Motorsports were respectively seventh with the #45 Audi car and eighth with the #35 R8 LMS. The #48 Audi from Paul Miller Racing was twelfth and the #46 entry from Fall-Line Motorsports was fourteenth.
The first session results can be seen here. The second session results can be seen here.
Yesterday's tests concluded the official TUDOR United SportsCar Championship pre-season tests in Florida. At both Sebring and Daytona, the Audi R8 LMS was clearly among the best cars in the field. And looking at each session lap times it is clear that the GT Daytona class next year in TUSC will be one of closest and most exciting to follow with various brands very well represented. Next stop for the Audi teams will be again at Daytona, the traditional Roar Before The Rolex 24 in January.
Flying Lizard Motorsports recently joined the Audi squad. The Californian team will field a pair of Audi R8 LMS cars for the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship within the GT Daytona (GTD) class. The team is at Daytona these days preparing for the upcoming Rolex 24 and the TUSC season with full grey liveries for their R8 LMS cars.
Waiting for the official design, here is a very nice fictional livery from our friends at Berzerkdesign. The Audi R8 LMS looks great carrying the famous Lizards red and grey colors.
The Macau Grand Prix was held over the past two weekends. Mr Macau Edoardo Mortara was victorious in the Audi R8 LMS Cup and Macau GT Cup events, behind the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS and R8 LMS ultra. Amongst all of the Macau Grand Prix happenings there was a brief glimpse of the next big Asian Audi R8 LMS event as well. The 2013 Race of Champions will be taking place at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok from 14-15 December. Audi R8 LMS cars will once again be part of the vehicle line-up.
Absolute Racing was responsible for the preparation and running of the cars at the 2012 Race of Champions and they will once again be fielding the cars alongside quattro GmbH.
As was the case in 2012, the Race of Champions R8 LMS vehicles come from the fleet of cars that take part in the Audi R8 LMS Cup. The finale of the 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup season was held at Macau, taking place during the first weekend of the Macau Grand Prix, 9-10 November.
The second weekend of the Macau Grand Prix was the big weekend for the Audi teams taking part in the prestigious Macau GT Cup. During this time the three R8 LMS cars destined for the Race of Champions, from the Audi R8 LMS Cup fleet, were prepared and had their liveries applied.
Three cars will be heading to the Race of Champions. Three different coloured liveries have been chosen for the event: white, silver and red. It will certainly be very exciting to see the R8 LMS cars taking part in the 2013 Race of Champions, which will also see the participation of Audi factory drivers: Mattias Ekström and Tom Kristensen. We have included a selection of photos featuring the cars being wrapped in the Macau garage area. The photos are from Motorsport Playground's Facebook page, the company responsible for applying the liveries on the Absolute Racing and Audi R8 LMS Cup cars.
