porsche to p1

[Nordic]

Porsche have announced that they will build a new P1 car for the 2014 Le Mans.
Nothing like planning ahead!

[Steve Pyro]

Good news good news - as long as it isn't an oil burner.

[Nordic]

Worse, electric!

Tbh I would expect a hybrid of some sort.

P1 is starting to look up. Toyota are also testing a new P1 as well.

But will the porsche come at the expense of Audi? The R18 will be at the end of its run by then.

Audi were also one of the driving forces behind the 1.6 turbo F1 engines, due to come in now 2014. They did backtrack and have said F1 does not interest them, but you never know!

[Boorish Grobian]

Was watching Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain last night on Speed TV, he interviewed Roger Penske live, and Roger admitted that his organization has been in negotiation with Porsche, and it sounds very likely that Penske will be the team spearheading Porsche's P1 assault on Le Mans.  It makes sense considering the years of association the two companies have had, and following the highly successful RS Spyder programme.
Fax

[Nordic]

I would be surprised if Penske was chosen above Joest to run a LM Program. I have assumed that the Porsche program would come at the end of the Audi program. Maybe thats not the case and Joest wont be available.

Are Penske the force they used to be, still it would be great for penske to have a crack, bit of unfinished buisness there I think.

[Boorish Grobian]

Penske's still very much a force on this side of the pond, the Indycar team has had a successful, if somewhat bumpy season, mostly due to mistake's by their drivers, and some on track run-ins with other teams (yesterday Power got taken out by Franchitti fighting for the lead in Toronto) and his NASCAR teams had have a great deal of success this year.  He mentioned that he see Le Mans as unfinished business, having only competed there once, in '71 with a Ferrari 512M driven by Mark Donohue and David Hobbs.
The recent success of the Spyder program could tip things in favor of Penske, but as you say, it may depend on what Audi does, and if Joest is available.
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