Porsche Hybrid 919 makes track debut

The Porsche Hybrid 919 made its debut on a motorsport track when it went to the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit on January 18th.

This second generation of the Porsche 919 Hybrid Le Mans prototype went on to undergo extensive testing ahead of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile World Endurance Championship.

The endurance race at the Yas Marina Circuit was the start of the Porsche Team’s motorsport season for 2015. This new Porsche 919 Hybrid had already had its first ever roll out when it went to the Weissach test track close to Stuttgart in Germany on December 15th 2014.

For the next step, the car is set to face a number of performance and endurance tests. This comes ahead of the season opener for the World Endurance Championship, which is set to take place on April 12th on the Silverstone track in Northamptonshire.

The new Porsche 919 Hybrid is considered to be a comprehensive evolution of the car from last season, which was very successful. That car saw Porsche return to the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2014.

The last race of the 2014 season was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and here a 919 Porsche Hybrid wearing the number 14 was the winning car. This was driven by the trio of French racer Romain Dumas, Neel Jani of Switzerland and Marc Lieb from Germany.

In the new Porsche 919 Hybrid, there is the same innovative drivetrain concept, which features a two-litre V4 turbocharged petrol engine, which is supplemented by an electric motor that powers the front wheels as well as two energy recovery systems.

The car has an aerodynamic shape that seems to have been influenced heavily by Formula One cars and modelled to produce plenty of downforce. As is typically the case with such racing cars, the driver’s cabin is in the middle.

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