The Porsche LMP1 works team has completed systematic development of its 919 hybrid racers ahead of the World Endurance Championship resuming in Texas from September 18-20.
Porsche covered 2031km with Mark Webber, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas charged with test duties at the three-day test at Germany’s Eurospeedway at Lausitz near Dresden.
The test comes after Timo Bernhard, Kiwi Brendon Hartley and Marc Lieb clocked an aggregate of 2167km at the Paul Ricard circuit in France last month.
Porsche made a statement at the Le Mans 24 Hour in June, the previous WEC round, with the #20 919 at the hands of Webber leading deep into the marathon before retiring with a powertrain failure.
Similar problems thwarted another strong run from the sister #14 car which ultimately finished 11th outright but 31 laps down on the winning Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.
A new aero update was evaluated at the recent test among a raft of other changes in a crucial evolutionary outing.
“The target is to systematically improve the 919 Hybrid’s performance,” team principal Andreas Seidl said.
“That wasn’t possible before the Le Mans 24 Hours as we had to focus on reliability and had to freeze the car specification.
“We have successfully tested here with improvements in all areas of the car. The introduction of our new aero update was important.
“It provides a higher downforce level and should help to improve the 919 Hybrid’s race performance for the remaining rounds of the championship.”
The Texas round at the Circuit of the Americas is the fourth of eight rounds of the WEC which all feature six-hour races with the exception of the La Sarthe twice around the clock signature race.
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