SEBRING, Fl — The smell of racing is in the air here at the old bomber airport in central Florida as the 60th annual 12 Hours of Sebring get ready to kick-off with more than 60 cars readying for the drop of the green flag 10:30 am on March 17. The race here will have a new wrinkle this year as it will also kick off the FIA World Endurance Championship, the international endurance series that is the result of the FIA and the ACO putting their heads together.

Leading the entries here is the vaunted Audi team with three of the diesel-powered R18s. Rather then the typical diesel shootout, the R18s will be free to roam the 4.7 mile track at will since the Peugeot pulled out of racing in a bomb-shell announcement in February. Left to contest the fastest class here are a small number of P1 teams. When the series resumes in Belgium at Spa next month, the Toyota Hybrid team will join the series to give the Audis a run. At that time Audi will also bring to the series their newly announced (formally) R18 e-tron hybrid car.

In the mean time the race here appears to be Audi’s to lose with a trio of HPD ARX-03a Hondas, a pair of Toyotas, and a pair of Judd[powered cars to do battle with the Audi team.

In early testing at the track the Audis posted the fastest times of the early periods at the historic track; these early times may reflect overall speed on the track, the real sorting out will be reflected in the work that is to be done on the track today, tomorrow (in qualifying), and Saturday in the race. And know that the teams from Honda, Toyota, and Judd did not make the trip to Sebring just for the sunshine.

The race in the other categories promises to be as competitive as ever, particularly in the GT class where there are a plethora of cars including Corvette, Ferrari, BMW,  and Porsche.

Dr. Ullrich, for the first time an Audi race car is no longer powered exclusively by a combustion engine. Are we standing on the threshold of a new era?

Dr. Ullrich: It’s clear that here at Audi Sport we are dealing with a completely new subject: the electrification of the drive, an issue in which our colleagues from production are also totally absorbed. In this respect a new era has in fact started – and as always Audi is involved as pioneer from day one and, as a result, is trendsetter. 
 
Audi last appeared at Le Mans with two different concepts in 1999. At that time it was primarily a question of the bodywork, today the drive. Why the decision to bring two types of car to the grid in 2012?

Dr. Ullrich: Quite simply, the TDI engine invented by Audi is still the most efficient drive in the world. We’ve also proved this at Le Mans since 2006. It’s not a coincidence that turbo diesel engines are unbeaten there for six years now, even though the diesel cars were repeatedly limited. We are convinced that the TDI has even more potential. This is why Audi not only supports the hybrid in motorsport and production, but in parallel also the further development of the conventional drive. The combination of TDI and hybrid is, however, without doubt particularly interesting and very promising. This is exactly what the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro stands for. 
 
The R18 e-tron quattro is only at the beginning of its development. In your view how much potential is combined with the energy recuperation?

Dr. Ullrich:The potential is certainly very big, since the entire subject of hybrid is still in its infancy. There are many obstacles, the weight of an energy storage system suitable for mass production for example. At the moment we still benefit enormously from the groundwork done by our colleagues in the production advance development, who have been studying the subject for a little longer. However, in this case I also think that motorsport can accelerate development of a new technology. Over the last few months many good ideas have already emerged, which we want to implement in the future. 
 
Motor sport was never a means to an end for Audi, but rather always served the technical development of its product range. What contribution will the R18 e-tron quattro be able to make?

Dr. Ullrich: That is correct. Audi has always consciously selected championships and categories in racing that have a close relationship to production and therefore have technical relevance for Audi customers. quattro, TFSI and TDI are three excellent examples of how motor sport has stimulated production development. A similar tendency is apparent with the e-tron quattro: we test a completely new technology on the race track before it’s introduced to the Audi production line. Efficiency and lightweight design and construction are particularly important in motor sport. It’s exactly this aspect of a hybrid vehicle that provides so much development potential, where one or the other point could possibly be exploited a tic faster due to our Le Mans involvement.

Dr. Ullrich: The ACO and FIA are faced with a very difficult task here. The more different technologies there are in the game the more difficult it becomes to correlate them all. The biggest problem is that the Audi and Peugeot diesel cars were in a class of their own over the last few years – and not just because the TDI is the world’s most efficient engine, but also because no other competitor developed an LMP1 car with a gasoline engine to a similar level of detail and know-how. For this reason the diesel was trimmed again for the 2012 season, so that from our point of view the diesel is now at a real disadvantage on paper. We are, however, prepared to face this challenge and are convinced that the ACO and FIA will make the right decisions for the future. As far as the hybrid issue is concerned we can easily assess the pros and cons through our two-pronged approach, since the base of the R18 ultra and R18 e-tron quattro really is identical. The hybrid system alone makes the difference. The ACO and FIA will receive particularly meaningful data from us.