WEC: New Porsche aero for post-Le Mans

Porsche will introduce a new high-downforce aero package for its latest 919 Hybrid in time for the second leg of the World Endurance Championship after the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Alex Hitzinger, LMP1 technical director at Porsche, has revealed that revised aerodynamics for the car are under development and due to come on stream for the Nurburgring round at the end of August. He explained that Porsche had undertaken the opening rounds of the WEC at Silverstone and Spa with an aero package that will not be easily distinguishable from the as-yet-unseen Le Mans-spec bodywork to be used in next month's 24 Hours.

Hitzinger suggested that "the change will probably be bigger for the second half of the season" but pointed out that development had yet to be completed.

"It is purely down to time in the wind tunnel," he said. "If I have to finalize something for the first race and use that in the second half of the season, there is a lot less development time.

He explained that the second reason for not bringing Porsche's high-downforce package out for the start of the season was the result of a desire to contest the opening two races in a setup close to its Le Mans specification.

"It is not only about the downforce level, it is also about the structure of the bodywork," he said. "The bodywork needs to be reliable for 24 hours, so you need to develop and sign it off, and if it is not hugely different [from the Le Mans spec], that is a lot easier."

Porsche's strategy is not dissimilar to the one it employed last year: it ran its Le Mans aero at Silverstone and Spa to learn ahead of the 24 Hours and then introduced a second specification for the final five races.

Porsche is due to run its Le Mans aero for the first time at its final endurance simulation before French classic at the Aragon circuit in Spain in the middle of this month.

Originally on Autosport.com