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Thousands of fans turn out for Technical Scrutineering at Le Mans Audi drivers surrounded by spectators Rainy weather predicted for practice days Audi Sport Team Joest has successfully taken the first formal hurdle at the 78th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours: all three Audi R15 TDI cars passed the Technical Scrutineering at the Place des Jacobins in the center of the Western French city in front of thousands of spectators without any problems. “It’s great that so many fans turned out for the Technical Scrutineering on a normal workday,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “This shows the enormous enthusiasm for the race at Le Mans.” Audi has been contesting the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1999 and uses the world’s most important endurance race to test technological innovations. With a track record of eight victories, the brand with the four rings is the most successful automobile manufacturer in recent Le Mans history. This year Audi aims to equalize its ranking in the race’s honor roll with Ferrari and to celebrate its ninth victory. Only Porsche’s track record reflects more exploits. “We’ve done everything that’s necessary to come well prepared to Le Mans,” says Dr. Ullrich. “The squad is motivated and, unlike last year, well rested too. And we’ve got three strong driver teams all of whom are capable of clinching victory.” On Monday, Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish were yet again the drivers to grant most of the wishes for autographs at the Place des Jacobins. In 2008, they had secured Audi’s last victory at Le Mans to date in the Audi R10 TDI. But Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Mike Rockenfeller and Benoît Treluyer, as well, were surrounded by fans and media representatives. The three Audi R15 TDI cars will have their first outing on the track in free practice on Wednesday starting at 4 p.m. The first qualifying session will be on the agenda afterwards.

ILMC season opener in Florida (USA) Final race for Audi R15 TDI Alpinestars and Castrol new partners in sports car program Audi starts the 2011 sports car season in the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 19. Making its final appearance is the Audi R15 TDI, which had to be modified to comply with the new regulations and which carries the project name “R15 plus plus” internally. Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Mike Rockenfeller (D/F/D), last year’s Le Mans winners, as well as Dindo Capello/Allan McNish/Tom Kristensen (I/GB/DK), Le-Mans winners from 2008, drive the two diesel race sports cars. A long sports car season starts for Audi Sport Team Joest in March: On the agenda up to November are seven races, the Le Mans test weekend and numerous tests with the Audi R15 TDI and the new Audi R18, which does not, however, race at Sebring. So as not to interrupt preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 11/12 the test and development program with the R18 continues to run in parallel to the opening round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 2011 (ILMC) season. As a result one car in particular bids farewell at the 12 Hours of Sebring, a car that made its debut here two years ago: the Audi R15 TDI. It celebrated its 2009 premiere with a victory – the ninth for Audi in this traditional event in US state of Florida since 2000. For the second appearance at Sebring the diesel racing sports car competes under completely new conditions. New technical regulations from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) are valid in 2011, for which Audi has developed the “closed cockpit” R18. Older models like the R15 TDI may only compete in heavily modified form with greatly restricted engine power. Just how these cars will fare against the new models remains to be seen. Drastic cuts in technology The new LMP1 prototype regulations limit engine displacement for new models such as the Audi R18, which will contest its first race in May, to 3.7 liters.

First Audi racing commitment in China since the 2004 season Two Audi R15 TDI cars for Capello/Dumas and Kristensen/McNish Three private Audi R8 LMS cars in the GTC class Six years after its last motorsport commitment in China with the DTM, Audi returns to the “Middle Kingdom.” Audi Sport Team Joest will field two Audi R15 TDI cars at the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) finale at Zhuhai on November 7. The two diesel race sports cars will be driven by Dindo Capello/Romain Dumas and Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish. For the first time ever, China will host an important endurance race for sports prototypes. The permanent race track of the city of Zhuhai in the province of Guangdong that was inaugurated in 1996 will be the venue of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC). The event will be a good opportunity for Audi to demonstrate the brand’s competence in motorsport and in a country in which Audi has already assumed a leading position: in October, the one millionth vehicle was delivered to a Chinese customer – no other automobile manufacturer in the premium segment has achieved this to date. Major logistical effort Audi will contest the 1000-kilometer race at Zhuhai with two of the Audi R15 TDI cars that were successful at Le Mans. Before the event, Audi Sport Team Joest had to perform a major feat in logistics. “As early as September, after the race at Silverstone, we dispatched a sea container,” explains Ralf Jüttner, Technical Director of Audi Sport Team Joest. “We shipped all the garage equipment parts and refueling rigs that we didn’t need for the race at Road Atlanta as we had separate equipment for that event.” All the other equipment was sent on its way by air from Germany on October 25. Five single loading units with a total of 27.5 tons of material including the two race cars departed from Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The customs declarations were particularly complex. “We had to capture and document the contents of each individual drawer,” says Jüttner.

During the entire 1000-kilometer race Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish and Dindo Capello/Romain Dumas at the wheel of the two Audi R15 TDI cars fought a fascinating duel with the two Peugeot 908 cars. One hour before the end, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish were clearly leading the race when the only safety car period caused their advantage to shrink from over 30 to 13.5 seconds. Afterwards the spectators witnessed a sprint race in which every tenth of a second counted. Accordingly, Tom Kristensen was very surprised when immediately before the last refueling stop of his direct rival in the Peugeot, Stéphane Sarrazin, he was slowed by Sarrazin’s team-mate Sébastien Bourdais, who was running as much as three laps behind. This allowed Sarrazin to come back out after his last refueling stop with a one-second advantage over Kristensen and to ultimately win the race with a 4.8-second lead. The controversial “teamwork” deprived the Chinese fans of a true final shoot-out. Nonetheless, they witnessed the performance capability and reliability of the two Audi R15 TDI cars that were equal and at times superior to the competition in the race that took place in warm humid weather and temperatures of 26 degrees in the shade. The strategy of changing the tires at each pit stop after the second hour of the race proved to be right. The Audi drivers were able to take advantage of the fresher tires again and again and made up the time lost in the pits after each change. In the crucial phase of the race Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen managed to distance themselves from their immediate rivals before the deployment of the safety car one hour before the end of the race thwarted their plans and forced them to settle for second place by a narrow margin. Dindo Capello and Romain Dumas occupied third place. The finale of the Intercontinental Cup was the last race of the Audi R15 TDI in its current technical configuration.

New Audi wins 12 Hours of Sebring (USA) Fastest Sebring race ever Audi also wins efficiency award The Audi R15 TDI has defeated its competition in its debut race: Dindo Capello (Italy), Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Allan McNish (Scotland) achieved a historic victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring (US state of Florida) with the new diesel-powered sports car of AUDI AG. The Audi drivers completed 383 laps – beating the previous distance record by an impressive 13 laps. In the fastest ever Sebring race, Audi Sport Team Joest’s pair of Audi R15 TDI prototypes ran the entire distance without technical problems despite the innovative Le Mans prototype having only completed its maiden run in December. Bad weather had hampered Audi Sport’s test program and temperatures never exceeded 15 degrees during the tests in Europe. At Sebring, the Audi crew faced ambient temperatures almost double that and worked day and night to learn more about the new diesel sports car and to adapt it to the extremely bumpy race track in the center of Florida. They were able to solve all minor teething troubles which arose just in time for race day. In the race the new Audi R15 TDI proved fast from the very beginning: Allan McNish outpaced the pole sitting Acura/Honda at the start completing the first lap with more than five seconds advantage. Later, however, it was not the Acura/Hondas which were the cars to beat but the two Peugeot 908s. The lead swapped no fewer than 22 times among the diesel-powered prototypes from Audi and Peugeot. Over long periods of the race, the four leading prototypes were covered by just a few tenths of a second. In the exciting final stages of the race Allan McNish was able to fully exploit the optimized weight distribution and the sophisticated aerodynamics of the new R15 TDI compared to its predecessor, the R10 TDI. He was able to open such a big lead that he was able to stop for a ‘splash-and-dash’ just before the end of the race without losing the lead.

In its tenth and last race, the Audi R15 TDI has to run with significantly reduced engine power due to the new technical regulations. Nevertheless, Frenchman Romain Dumas, in his first-ever qualifying session for Audi, was able to split the two new Peugeot 908 prototypes and to conquer an unexpected place on the front row of the grid for Audi Sport Team Joest with the “old” R15 TDI. During the 15-minute qualifying session, Tom Kristensen was on a similarly fast lap as his team-mate, before losing time in the final corner behind a slower car. Thus the second Audi R15 TDI will start the race from grid position four on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. local time (3:30 p.m in Germany). Due to the high temperatures and an extremely large starting field of 56 cars from a total of six classes, the Audi team during the four practice days exclusively focused on race preparations of the two Audi R15 TDI cars making them as comfortable as possible for the drivers. Reliability will also play a decisive role over the 12-hour distance on the extremely tough track. Historically, this has been a major strength of the record winning car of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Quotes after qualifying Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “It is certainly a good base for a 12-hour race if you are on the first two rows with both your cars. Especially when you know that it will be a very difficult race with so many cars and certainly a lot of caution periods. Tomorrow it will be important to make no strategic mistakes and that everybody stays calm, even if the things might get hot on the track from time to time.” Timo Bernhard (Audi R15 TDI #1): “We had a good, productive week so far. Also qualifying was really good. Romain (Dumas) put our car on the front row. This is a good starting position. The race will not be easy, because with over 50 cars it gets pretty close on a 6-kilometre track. In some corners you even cannot drive side by side. In addition there is the sand.

In each of these three events Audi Sport Team Joest will field two Audi R15 TDI cars, the vehicle that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2010. “Audi has been involved in sports prototype racing since 1999 and has had the vision of a worldwide racing series for these types of vehicles ever since,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “We’re delighted that the ACO is now translating this vision into reality. The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup gives us the opportunity to compete with our sports prototypes in very important markets.” Audi deliberately opted for the sports prototype category which enables automobile manufacturers to test new technologies and drive concepts for production vehicles. In 2001 Audi successfully combined turbocharging and direct injection (TFSI). In 2006 the brand with the four rings caused a worldwide sensation by clinching the first victory of a diesel-powered race sports car at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The current Audi R15 TDI cars use turbochargers with variable turbine geometry (VTG). In addition, numerous other details such as LED lights for daytime driving or a lithium-ion battery with increased system voltage have been tested in the Le Mans prototypes. Highly efficient vehicles required “In view of the new ACO regulations that will come into effect in 2011 light-weight design combined with high strength and durability, energy recovery and fuel-efficient engines will become even more important than they’ve been in the past,” says Dr. Ullrich. “All of these are topics which our colleagues on the production side at Audi are deeply involved in as well. Audi is known for its highly efficient vehicles and can demonstrate this in sports prototype racing events on the track as well.” Aerodynamics with more downforce For 2011 Audi Sport is developing a new LMP1 sports car which bears the internal project name “R18.”

Not only the technology of the Audi R15 TDI is being subjected to further development. The drivers’ line-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans (France) has been extended as well. For the world’s most famous endurance race, Audi has signed three new drivers, the Swiss Marcel Fässler (33), German André Lotterer (28) and Frenchman Benoît Treluyer (33), who will be sharing the cockpit of one of three Audi R15 TDI cars on June 12/13, 2010. “In view of our strong competitors, we want to – and have to – be perfectly positioned in terms of drivers too,” explained Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “Therefore, we decided to extend our driver line-up. Marcel, Andre and Benoît attracted our attention during the past two years in a particularly positive way. They are used to handling fast prototypes and know each other extremely well. The three of them, and we too, are convinced that they are a very good combination for Le Mans.” The new Audi drivers already have experience at the wheel of diesel racing sports cars. Marcel Fässler successfully contested two races in the American Le Mans Series for Audi in 2008. André Lotterer impressed at Le Mans last year at the wheel of an Audi R10 TDI of the private Audi customer team Kolles. Benoît Treluyer competed in the 24-hour classic in a Peugeot in 2009. Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer have already visited Audi Sport in Ingolstadt for seat-fittings and will soon be testing the Audi R15 TDI. The first racing commitment for the new Audi driver trio is planned for May 9, in the 1000-kilometer race at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), which will serve as a dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Audi Sport Team Joest. “For the time being, plans for Marcel, Andre and Benoît are fully focused on Le Mans 2010,” says Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “But all three of them are still relatively young, and therefore, may also become part of our sports car project over the long term.”