Details on the 2016 Audi R18 race car have been released.
For the 2016 race season, Audi has completely redesigned its R18 race car, claiming that almost nothing is in common with its predecessor. As FIA WEC regulations continue to provide automakers with incentives to build increasingly efficient race cars, Audi is achieving new best marks while consuming less fuel than before. According to the German automaker, the TDI and hybrid powertrain is capable of delivering more than 1,000 horsepower while being 10 percent more fuel efficient than its predecessor.
This year, the team is switching to the 6-megajoule class and as a result, the new hybrid system now recovers 50 percent more energy. The 2016 Audi R18 also had all its vehicle systems refined or redesigned, while its aerodynamics concept is fundamentally new. Overall, it consumes less energy than before, is lighter and has more favorable packaging of the component assemblies.
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From 2012 to 2015, Audi used a flywheel energy storage system for energy recuperation, but now the automaker will use a battery to accumulate the energy. Essentially, electrokinetic technology is being replaced by an electrochemical storage system. Compared to the 2014 season, engineers have managed to triple the amount of recuperated energy.
“The result is a race car that manages energy even more effectively than before. This is an objective we’re pursuing for our road-going automobiles as well,” said head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “This type of motorsport continues to set an example for automotive engineering. For Audi, production relevance has been a core topic of all racing programs for 35 years.”
