Porsche 919 Hybrid 2015

Even though it didn’t manage to end the Audi tyranny at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Porsche 919 Hybrid is still very much on a mission to bring the Stuttgart sports car builder back where it belongs in the LMP1 class in endurance racing. Having been launched in 2014, a second generation of the model, with many improved parts, began testing on the 18th of January at the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit. The improved 919 Hybrid actually had a successful initial roll-out right at the Weissach test track near Porsche’s headquarters, on December 15, 2014, with the test in Abu Dhabi being the first of plenty more to come before the World Endurance Championship (WEC) season opener takes place at Silverstone, on the 12th of April 2015.

Despite having a nearly identical exterior and being powered by the same power unit as the 2014 model, the 2015 919 Hybrid has been improved in a reasonable amount of areas, but for obvious reasons not all the upgrades are currently public. Since in endurance racing the main focus is not necessarily on fast lap times but on efficiency and reliability, most of the improvements are expected to have been made on the turbocharged , hybrid, V-4 engine that power the model.

With that being said, the 919 Hybrid also benefits form an aerodynamic upgrade that changes quite a lot of details on the car’s look, especially at the front. Porsche actually says that the 2015 WEC challenger is an all-new design based on the same concept as the 919 Hybrid that ran during 2014.

Updated : 01/16/2015 Porsche announced that the 2015 Porsche 919 Hybrid began its extensive testing session at the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina Circuit. After that, the car will take several performance and endurance tests before the WEC season opener on April 12 in Silverstone, Great Britain.