In his capacity as an engineer, Andreas Seidl is in charge of the technical decisions for cars destined for races. As the Head of Competition, he manages the organization, and it’s precisely on that role we will focus. What is a “constructor” racing team? How many people are involved? These are some of the questions we had when we appealed to the legendary German manufacturer and its team manager. "There are about 90 people at Le Mans for two cars. Gearbox, engine, aerodynamics, hybrid system, etc., different departments for the various areas of the car. The distribution is 35 to 40 engineers for approximately 50 mechanics handling two cars."

Within the German team, like all outfits of this caliber, there is a head engineer managing all other engineers as well one track engineer per car. The latter communicates the most often directly with the drivers and is responsible for the car. The team manager is his/her supervisor, overseeing the whole. The team manager has the final say, but always after consulting with the head engineers. Trust must be absolute, and communication flawless.

Andreas Seidl also handles race strategy for Porsche: "A challenge for a team is communication because a lot goes on in a garage. We have an effective feedback system that goes from the guys working directly on the car to the track engineer to the head engineer. That's why briefings after a day of testing are so important. We have one before and one after the sessions, with the drivers and the head engineers. There are also unscheduled meetings as needed to tackle any unique circumstances or special problems."

In an average LMP2 team, the number of people involved plummets from 90 to 25, distributed as such: four mechanics, one tire manager, one gearbox manager, one radio manager, one strategist, one track engineer, one data engineer and one technical director overseeing it all. As pit stops are limited to three people for refueling (one for the pump, one for the extinguisher and the "dead man" to turn on the valve) and four for tire changes (one per tire gun), how can the difference be explained?

By the fact that in a small team, the data engineer handles all info related to temperatures, pressure, etc., whereas larger outfits have an engineer for every aspect. Porsche has a GPS attendant for car positions on the track, one for the Safety Car, one for the weather, etc. In the back of the garage and in the workshop trucks there is an army of 20 or more working behind the scenes at two computers each, the second in case the first fails to function. That's what winning costs! To this technical staff of about 100 individuals must be added the media and marketing personnel obviously attached to factory teams like Porsche and Toyota. There is also a medical pool made up of doctors to take care of the drivers and team members, and one physical therapist per car. At that level as well, nothing is left to chance…

PHOTO: Who's the team behind this car?