Despite failing to score a point for pole position, Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi succeeded in extending their and Toyota’s lead in the World Endurance Championships for drivers and manufacturers respectively last Sunday afternoon at the Shanghai International Circuit in China. It was an emphatic win, with Davidson and Buemi repeatedly setting fastest laps through the course of the race in the no. 8 car. Their run was interrupted only by the need to make an additional stop to refuel after a glitch on the refuelling tower during the first stop (at which tyres were changed) during the first Safety Car Period.

During the “Audi Post Race Tech” discussion on RadioLeMans.com, someone posed a question about whether (and if so why) one Toyota was “consistently quicker” than the other, and at the time I wasn’t really in a position to back up any answer I gave with the facts. So now that the dust has settled, and I’ve had the opportunity to analyse the data, here is the evidence from the two Far East races, in Fuji and Shanghai.

Shanghai Stint no. Driver no. 7 Stint average lap time Driver no. 8 Stint average lap time 1 Alex Wurz 1m 51.058s Anthony Davidson 1m 50.616s 2 Stéphane Sarrazin 1m 51.118s Anthony Davidson 1m 50.503s 3 Stéphane Sarrazin 1m 51.218s Sébastien Buemi 1m 50.334s 4 Kazuki Nakajima 1m 50.661s Sébastien Buemi 1m 50.474s 5 Kazuki Nakajima 1m 50.028s Anthony Davidson 1m 50.213s

Fuji Stint no. Driver no. 7 Stint average lap time Driver no. 8 Stint average lap time 1 Kazuki Nakajima 1m 29.604s Sébastien Buemi 1m 29.559s 2 Stéphane Sarrazin 1m 29.193s Anthony Davidson 1m 29.054s 3 Alex Wurz 1m 29.875s Sébastien Buemi 1m 29.311s 4 Kazuki Nakajima 1m 28.882s Sébastien Buemi 1m 29.132s 5 Kazuki Nakajima 1m 28.982s Anthony Davidson 1m 28.948s 6 Stéphane Sarrazin 1m 29.231s Anthony Davidson 1m 28.543s

For the purpose of these tables, I have taken the average lap time as being the time taken to get from the pit exit on the ‘out’ lap at the start of the stint, until the pit entry on the ‘in’ lap at the end, divided by the number of laps completed in the stint. In order to simplify matters, I have also ignored the third stint in Fuji – which was affected by the Full Course Yellow – and the first stint(s) in Shanghai – when the safety car was deployed.

Thus the stints shown are fully green, and are comparable, each with its equivalent from the other car. While it may seem that the no. 8 is generally quicker than the no. 7, it could also be argued that the chief difference is in the drivers. Kazuki Nakajima, in particular, seems to be able to consistently match (or better) the times of his team-mates in the no. 8 car, whereas Sarrazin and Wurz don’t.

One of the things that has become clear over the course of the 2014 season is that the current breed of hybrid LMP1 cars, with very specific regulations regarding the amount of fuel that can be used, require a very specific driving technique. This includes the ability to monitor energy usage and harvesting at the same time as driving the car, and being able to ‘fuel-save’ at various points. Obviously a quick driver is always a quick driver; but these days the ability to be quick is not enough: a driver has to be able to perform other ‘tricks’ as well.

Paul Truswell