Facts and figures:
– The six-hour race on the Bahrain International Circuit is the ninth and final round of the 2016 FIA WEC and starts on November 19 at 16:00 hrs local time (14:00 hrs in Central Europe).
– The official WEC App can be downloaded free of charge in its basic version and can be extended (not free of charge) by a live stream. Several live features, such as on-board cameras, timing and GPS tracking, are implemented in the Porsche Motorsport App (free of charge) and at porsche.com/fiawec.
– In 2015 Porsche concluded the season in Bahrain by taking the sixth consecutive race win and the drivers’ title. A fifth place finish was enough to make Bernhard/Hartley/Webber world champions. Dumas/Jani/Lieb took their long awaited 2015 maiden race win.
– The race turned into a thriller. Holding a 13-point advantage over the fastest Audi trio, Bernhard/Hartley/Webber started from pole position. But after 30 minutes, the three pitted for lengthy repairs and later the same happened again. The trio made up ground, charging from last to fifth place. One after the other, both barrel levers on the 919’s combustion engine were broken. The mechanics found a solution for provisional repairs: by implementing pliers and cable ties into the engine, they fixed it at full throttle. In this condition, the 1000-HP prototype was operated by outstanding engineering performance and highest driver sensitivity. In the pit lane only electric drive was possible. In this situation the trio had no chance to improve to P4, that was necessary for the title win. It was the sister car with Marc Lieb at the wheel that grabbed the lead from the fast Audi in Bahrain, and thus snatched the decisive championship points.
– Last year’s qualifiers were Bernhard/Hartley and Dumas/Lieb. After dark and in a little cooler conditions, Bernhard set a new lap record for prototypes on the 5.412 km long F1 circuit. That was a lap in 1:39.670 minutes. The average time for him and Hartley was 1:39.736 minutes and put them on pole position. Dumas/Lieb came second on the grid with an average lap time of 1:40.100 minutes.
– In the 2015 season, no other car managed to start from the front row of the grid than the 919.
– The WEC efficiency regulations limit the amount of energy that can be used per lap. In Bahrain the Porsche 919 Hybrid can use 4.92 megajoule of electrical power from energy recovery systems and 1.385 kg/1.896 litres of petrol.
– At normal race speed (no safety car) the Porsche 919 Hybrid is due for refuelling after every 32 laps at the latest.
– Refuelling and changing tyres may only be done sequentially, not at the same time. Only four mechanics may work simultaneously when changing tyres and also may use only one wheel gun at a time. That takes a lot longer than in F1, for example.
– The drivers are normally only changed when new tyres are needed.
– A set of Michelin slick tyres should ideally last two fuel tank fills. However, in order to set the best lap times, it may be sensible to change tyres more often.
– These different types of tyres can be used: three different compounds of slick tyres for dry conditions, a hybrid tyre (no profile either but softer cover) for mixed conditions and wet weather tyres. 6.5 sets of dry weather tyres are available per car for qualifying and the race.
– A lap on the F1 track of the Bahrain International Circuit is 5.412 kilometres. It has eight right-handers and six left-handers. The longest straight is at the start-finish and measures 1.090 kilometres.
– The circuit opened in 2004 and is located about 30 kilometres outside Bahrain’s capital of Manama. Over 30 islands in the Persian Gulf belong to the Kingdom. Its size is around 750 square kilometres and has nearly 1.2 million inhabitants.
