The teams face the challenge of Mexico City

It’s at an unprecedented altitude for the World Championship.Endurance in its form introduced in 2012 that the Hermanos Rodriguez route will host the fifth round of the WEC 2016. The 2000 m mark will be one of the key data of the Mexican weekend in WEC, for the return of a major endurance event on the Mexico City complex, which has already been able to count on the return of the F1 and the arrival of the Formula e recently.

If the teams in the premier category, but also in the WRC, are now well aware of the problem of altitude during the Mexican rounds, the WEC teams will face a real unknown this weekend.

“It will be a big challenge with the altitude, admits Romain Dumas, pilot Porsche. It will be different for the engine, cooling and downforce and difficult for the drivers. No one has yet driven an LM P1 at 2000 m above sea level. »

An altitude which is an exception and whose consequences (reduced air density, etc.) will lead to necessary adaptations to the prototypes, whether in terms of aerodynamics or engines.

“A large quantity of support, generated by the air flow, is lost, comments Jan Monchaux, head of aerodynamics at Audi Sport. This is why we installed everything we could on the bodywork to generate maximum downforce. »

The constraints will also be significant on the powertrain side. “The higher compression also increases the charge air temperature, which explains why we run with suitable cooling. » continues Ulrich Baretzky, head of engine development at Audi Sport. Other components such as the brakes will also be closely monitored.