Motorsport: Neel Jani starts to defend title
SPORTWAGEN Instead of hunting for Easter eggs at home, several Swiss sports car drivers will be on the hunt for points in the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on Sunday. World champion Neel Jani does not see himself as the favorite at the start of the season with the Porsche aerodynamically tuned for Le Mans. The race will be broadcast in phases on Sport1 on free TV on Sunday. After the withdrawal [...]
Following Audi's withdrawal, the title fight in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is shaping up to be a duel between Porsche and Toyota. Or, from a Swiss perspective, between Neel Jani and Sébastien Buemi. Both manufacturers have heavily modified their chassis from last year, but will be competing with different aerodynamic configurations at the WEC opener in England. For cost reasons, both LMP1 constructors are only allowed to use two variants instead of the previous three.
In the first half of the season, Porsche is betting its chips entirely on the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 17/18. Jani's Porsche 919 Hybrid therefore has a body shape with little downforce for high speeds, such as those achieved on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe (lap average 2016 over 240 km/h). Only after the season highlight, where Porsche and Neel Jani will line up as defending champions, will the Stuttgart-based team bring out the second permitted aerodynamic version with more downforce. This development is still ongoing.
Toyota, on the other hand, has already developed both aero variants for the TS050 Hybrid to racing maturity. "I therefore see them at an advantage," believes Jani, "because Silverstone and Spa require more downforce with their fast corners. Nevertheless, a top result in England is possible for us. The important thing is that we take home as many championship points as possible."
While the line-up in Sébastien Buemi's car remains unchanged with Anthony Davidson (GB) and Kazuki Nakajima (J), Neel Jani has two new team-mates for the number 1 car: André Lotterer (D), who came from Audi, and Briton Nick Tandy (GB), who was victorious in the third Porsche at Le Mans in 2015.
Swiss fans will miss Marcel Fässler, who has been part of the WEC since the beginning in 2012 and was also world champion that year, at the start. Nevertheless, our small nation is still strongly represented, including in the LMP2 class. These somewhat smaller sports prototypes without a hybrid are only slightly slower than the LMP1 cars thanks to the introduction of 600 hp 4.2-liter V8 unit engines (from Gibson in England).
The Vaillante Rebellion team from England, which competes under the Swiss flag, is fielding two Oreca Coupés, with Geneva-born Mathias Beche the only Swiss-born driver in the car with the number 13, which the team has claimed for years. Instead, Manor Racing will field two: Simon Trummer in one and Jonathan Hirschi in the other Oreca-Gibson.
Both will also have former GP drivers as team-mates. The Bernese driver has Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, while the Neuchâtel driver has Russian Vitaly Petrov, who failed in the DTM two years ago. After three years in GP2 (with only one podium finish) and two with the German LMP1 private team ByKolles, Trummer is delighted to be able to compete for a world championship title for the first time with a former Formula 1 team in a competitive car.
Live broadcast on Sport1
Fortunately, all WEC races can be watched on free TV, just like Formula 1. Sport1 will broadcast the qualifying of all four classes live on Holy Saturday from 1.30 pm to 3 pm. On Easter Sunday, the start phase will be broadcast live from 14:30 to 14:55 and the final third of the 6 Hours of Silverstone from 16:45 to 19:00.
