2015 Porsche wins at Le Mans during the peak of LMP1 rules

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Motor Sport

If the 2000s diesel boom ushered in a new age of efficiency at Le Mans, the hybrids that followed brought a new age of power. Many drivers likened the sensation of racing the new turbocharged petrol/diesel-electric monsters to being fired out of a cannon, and with reports of cars producing north of 1300bhp, it’s easy to understand why.

And if you had to pick any Le Mans to win over the last decade, it’s 2015. The hybrid P1 rules lured new brands. Toyota returned in 2012 for the first time since the 1990s, and then Porsche followed for 2014, plus Nissan had a go (more on that later…).

In 2015 Le Mans witnessed the finest manufacturer duel for decades. Having led the race but lagged behind both Audi and Toyota in its first appearance at La Sarthe, Porsche’s 919 Hybrid came good to fend off all comers. But even that was controversial.

There were cynical cries of ‘marketing exercise’ when the wraps came off a third 919 Hybrid with F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg’s name on it, alongside those of Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. At the time flying high with Force India, Hülkenberg brought grand prix attention to endurance racing for a short time, and the crew ended up being the darkest of dark horses, but it wasn’t the German who made the difference.

After a cat-and-mouse first quarter of the race with Audi, a spectacular quadruple stint from British star Tandy through the depths of the night turned the tide. “People thought we were disadvantaged, but they didn’t see the level of preparation that went in away from the races,” says Tandy. “All of the testing we’d done we’d run parallel to the full-season cars, so in terms of mileage we were almost on a par with the full-season cars. At about 23:00hrs, Nico was in the car and it had got cool and it suited us. Suddenly we were the fastest thing out there. I watched the screen for a good 30 minutes knowing I was going in soon and thinking: ‘My God, this is potentially our chance. Right now we have a chance to win this race’. I said to myself there and then, ‘You’re going to get in that car and blow everybody away… you have to run away with this.’ And from that moment on I was so focused. The carrot of the win was there. I took the lead around 01:00hrs and never looked back.”

Tandy, Bamber and Hülkenberg took the win by a lap from the sister car, with the Audis further adrift and the lead Toyota sixth. And what of the Nissan? Well, the front-engined GT-R LM Nismo was beset by issues, mostly related to the hybrid. The car ran without any hybrid assistance, and therefore repeatedly boiled its brakes without the added energy harvesting. Two cars retired and the third wasn’t classified. None ever saw the light of day again.

The rising costs of the development race eventually killed off LMP1. And then the Hypercar era beckoned…RL

2015 Porsche wins at Le Mans during the peak of LMP1 rules

The 2015 Le Mans witnessed a duel among hybrid P1 cars with Porsche's 919 Hybrid winning the race after a quadruple stint by driver Nick Tandy.

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