In response to Ferrari’s call for stricter controls on tire temperatures at Le Mans, Porsche executives and drivers have spoken out
In the person of Antonio Coletta, Ferrari is calling for stricter controls of tire temperatures on the hypercar class cars immediately at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With his statement that it had already been seen in past races that “someone was very good at warming up their tires”
Now Porsche reacts. They don’t want to know about any manipulation of the tires before fitting them. Urs Kuratle, who heads the LMDh program at the Stuttgart-based manufacturer, “This has been going on for some time. Logically, we also have colleagues from the management committees with us. There are no tire heating blankets. We don’t do anything that the others don’t do.”
“Probably,” says Kuratle, “they [at Porsche] do a better job of warming up the tires. That may well be the case. But that has nothing to do with cheating. It’s relatively easy to check and it is checked.”
“These are not additional machinations or anything like that,” assures the head of the LMDh program at Porsche and explains: “There are cars with which you can get the tires up to temperature faster. And there are also cars that handle the sealing on a stint differently.”
“I think it’s exactly the same. I think we’re just on the good side. We’ve done a lot of testing and put a lot of work into it. And that is now paying off. That’s all it is,” says Kuratle.
The drivers see it the same way. “How can you manipulate that?” asks Mathieu Jaminet, one of the three drivers of the Porsche 963 also entered by the works team at Le Mans. This third works Porsche (starting number 4) is manned by drivers from the IMSA sports car series in North America. Alongside Jaminet are Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy.
And Jaminet also alludes to the topic of IMSA when it comes to tire temperature, saying at Le Mans: “We didn’t even have sunshine here, if that’s what they mean. At 17 degrees without sunshine, I don’t see how we can manipulate it. Maybe our IMSA experience will help us. ”
Porsche Head of Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach says: “On the WEC tracks, it seems to be the case that we get the tire into the window a little faster. That might be an advantage for half a lap or so. Our competitors at Ferrari are very professional. They see that and they’re not happy about it.”
Laudenbach continued, “I was surprised that the Ferrari people said it was dangerous.” Just like Jaminet, the Porsche Motorsport boss also refers to the IMSA series, saying, “In the USA, we race with the same tires. That has worked for years without any problems.”
“And,” adds Laudenbach with a view to the WEC, “last year we even decided that there would be no tire warmers.”