For Jeffrey Lee (Taiwan), the winner of the amateur classification in the 2012 Audi R8 LMS Cup, the GT Cup in Macau was also about scoring important points in GT Asia. Although at the season finale of the sports car series the Audi driver in 20th place did not achieve his aims he did finish the GT Asia season in fourth position.
Award for Audi engineer: Ulrich Baretzky was recognized as the best motorsport technologist of the year. The Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport received the accolade at the 2012 Professional MotorSport World Expo Awards in Cologne on Tuesday.
Race driver in attendance: Audi Spain presented the sporty model ranges TT RS, S4, S5, S5 Sportback, S5 Cabrio, S6, S6 Avant, S7 Sportback, S8 to the country’s media on Tuesday. Audi factory driver Miguel Molina was in high demand as an interview partner by the group of 52 members of the media during the event held at the Jarama circuit.
Invitation to the fans: The British Audi customer team United Autosports is inviting fans to participate in a design competition. In the next season, the team will compete with an Audi R8 LMS ultra in the British GT Championship. The fans are given the opportunity to develop proposals for graphics by January and have the chance to win a visit with the team and to the race track. All details available at: competition@unitedautosports.com
One-two win for Audi: For the fourth consecutive time, Frank Biela won the Hamburg 24 Hours - an endurance race for slot cars. The five-time Le Mans winner piloted an Audi R8 LMS ultra sporting Schaeffler graphics. A small sensation was caused by Markus Winkelhock: On his slot car debut, he took the Audi R8 of Team Auto Bild Motorsport to an unexpected second place overall. With that, Audi celebrated its first one-two victory at the pinnacle event of the season in the rallye racing Carrera Cup that has been held since 1991.
A word from ... Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport
Congratulations on winning the Professional MotorSport World Expo Award. What are the major strides Audi has made in engine design after eleven Le Mans victories?
On its victory in June, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro consumed 30 percent less fuel than our sports cars did when the project was launched. And it did so although the lap times have significantly improved since then despite numerous limitations. This is a step ahead that customers directly benefit from. Particularly in engine design a large number of technologies have been making their way into production vehicles.
The challenges, though, will not diminish in the very near future.
We’re facing a dramatic change from 2014 on. The usable energy, in other words the consumption expressed in grams per kilowatt hour of output, will become the basis of assessment. Simply put: The specific consumption is the yardstick for the most efficient and thus most successful powertrain.
But hasn’t the objective always been to achieve a highly efficient powertrain?
For decades, the main focus in motorsport was placed on the delivery of sheer power output, which was rarely put in relation to fuel economy. Now it’s about specific consumption, and a large number of new solutions are being conceived for this. From 2014 on, the regulations for factory-fielded sports prototypes such as the Audi R18 will prescribe at least one system for energy recovery. In addition, a second system will be permitted. Basically, there is a large number of physical possibilities available for this purpose but the solutions that also have the highest relevance for production vehicles will be those to prevail.
In what other areas are you seeing potential?
We want to further the development of second-generation bio fuels. This is about the intelligent utilization of renewable raw materials that do not compete with foodstuffs.
In terms of technology, a Le Mans sports car is far away from a production vehicle. Does it hold a key to tomorrow’s technology anyway?
Motorsport helps provide answers to four very concrete current questions. What will the fuels of the future look like? How can you design a powertrain that is as efficient as possible? How can reduced consumption be achieved without sacrifice (comfort, safety and driving pleasure on the production side of the house and good lap times in racing)? How can new technologies be developed under high competitive and time pressures?
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