As you may have already heard, Porsche is fielding a third 919 Hybrid in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Formula One’s Nico Hülkenberg as one of its pilots. The 27 year-old driver is no newbie, but there are (obviously) differences between driving in Formula One, and in the World Endurance Championship.
According to Motorsport.com, Hülkenberg just had the chance to get more intimately acquainted with the car on the track, at Aragon in Northern Spain. He drove Tuesday through Thursday — alongside two seasoned LMP1 drivers, and three Porsche Works GT drivers — to get a feel for the advanced hybrid drivetrain and the chassis.
“Except for some strong winds at times, the conditions in Aragon were fine,” said Porsche Team Principal Andreas Seidl. “It was important to give Nico the chance to drive the 919 this early on. He familiarised himself very quickly and delivered what we had expected from him.” And familiarize himself he did, covering 155 laps between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, as well as getting in some invaluable nighttime driving.
All-in, Hülkenberg and his compatriots logged an astounding 1,697 miles at the Aragon track — not a bad amount of pre-season prep by any means. Of course, at much less than half the length, Aragon is not the Circuit de la Sarthe. But then, a sizable portion of that is straightaway anyway; we’re confident that Nico will be able to figure out what to do there.
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