The winningest manufacturer in the race of all races returns to defend record.
The fight for the 24 Hours of Le Mans podium has created its fair share of rivalries both personal—like the one between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari—and between manufacturers. Lately, an unlikely fight for the overall win has involved Audi and Peugeot, and with diesel engines, no less. But someone, it seems, is tired of watching from the sidelines (or at least from the slower GT class): Porsche, the constructor with the most Le Mans victories in history.
Of course, Porsche isn’t merely concerned with having a presence in the front-running LMP1 class. It wants to add to its record total of 16 overall wins. Audi has won 10 of the last 12 races, which means that by the time Porsche returns for the 2014 running, its VW Group sibling could trail the Stuttgart powerhouse by just four victories. This year, Audi broke its two-way tie for second with Ferrari (read a recap of this year’s wild race here), and the company doesn’t seem interested in quitting there. To add a little intrigue to what’s shaping up to be the best sibling rivalry in motorsports history, consider that Audi has done much of its winning with two of Porsche’s champion drivers (Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish) and Porsche’s old LMP1 racing partner, Team Joest.
What will power Porsche’s LMP1 car, which we seriously hope won’t share a platform with the Audi? Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport, is nice enough to speculate for us: “After the conclusion of our works-supported sports prototype program in the American Le Mans Series we have kept up with the latest technological advances. Now we will begin with detailed research in order to evaluate the various concept alternatives for our new car. These obviously depend on how the regulations for the year 2014 look in detail. In principle, these regulations are interesting for us because the integration of our hybrid technology in the vehicle concept is one possible option.”
A diesel Audi battling a hybrid Porsche to win the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans? Hank the Deuce and il Commendatore might finally be able to agree on something—that’s completely insane. Consider us intrigued and very excited to see how it all plays out.
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