Le Mans Series

Michelin Tyre Test at Estoril – news and views

With the American Le Mans Series and Le Mans Series seasons over it is time to switch the focus on the 2009 season. Michelin did so by organizing a tyre test at the Circuito do Estoril in Portugal. The French tyre manufacturer took six manufacturers with them to the Portuguese track and on all four days Audi, Peugeot, Pescarolo, ORECA and Aston Martin had their cars racing around the track

The first day of testing took place in extreme wet conditions. With the rain pouring down the cars went out and it quickly became clear that Peugeot and ORECA were already testing the new 2009-spec (smaller) rear wings, whereas Audi, Pescarolo and Porsche were still running the older, wider wings. Apart from the Le Mans Prototypes there were also GT cars in action. Aston Martin Racing had taken its DBR9, still in Gulf livery, for the test while Porsche brought an all-black Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. The GT2 Porsche, driven by Marc Lieb, not only tested Michelin tyres but also some new parts for the car.

The weather improved for the Friday test session but with Michelin keen on more wet weather testing the complete circuit was sprayed by the Michelin team. As the cars went out again they quickly went onto the wet part of the track and completed their laps on this wet line. Interesting to see was the difference between the two Pescarolo cars. While the #17 seemed to be in the exact same spec it was during the 2008 Le Mans Series season, its sister car the #16 was clearly modified as it had only one air-restrictor instead of the usual two.

On the final two days the weather was perfect and the track was kept dry. All the teams at the circuit tested the dry weather tyres as well as new parts on their cars, Team ORECA changed back to the 2008-style rear wing.

The drivers at the track were: Lucas Luhr/Allan McNish (Audi) Marc Gené/Stéphane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny (Peugeot), Olivier Panis/Nicolas Lapierre (Team ORECA), Jean-Christophe Boullion/Christophe Tinseau/Pierre Ragues (Pescarolo Sport). Emmanuel Collard/Patrick Long/Timo Bernhard/Marc Lieb/Patrick Pilet tested the Porsche cars, while Tomas Enge/Darren Turner/Antonio Garcia were in action for Aston Martin.

All pictures from the Michelin Test Days at the Estoril Circuit taken by Nuno Pereira can be found here at Estoril Race Photos. We’d like to thank Nuno for the pictures! Some previews…of the new wings on the LMP1s and of the new Porsche front.