Porsche has completed an extensive tire test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi using its 919 Hybrid LMP1 car in preparation for the new FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Following a test carried out earlier this month by Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani, the world champion trio of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard have spent the past five days behind the wheel of the 919 Hybrid in Abu Dhabi.
In all, the Porsche drivers completed over 6,000km of running over eight days, evaluating the three slick tire options in the WEC for 2016.
“We are very pleased with this test. It is a demanding and important task to make the right choices out of the variety of tires, as we will spend the season on them,” Porsche LMP1 team boss Andreas Seidl said.
“Consistent conditions are essential to get reliable results. In Abu Dhabi we didn’t only have dry conditions, but also constant temperatures. We can’t find such conditions in Europe at this time of the year.
“During such comparisons changes to the car are very limited because they would falsify the results. You have to strictly separate tire testing from the car’s development. In the end, of course, both have to be brought together and work well as a package.”
Porsche will next hit the track in Europe, with the first collective WEC test scheduled for March 25-26 at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.