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While Porsche is actively preparing for a return to the top prototype class LM P1, planned for 2014, Audi's sports programme has confirmed its presence in competition this year. The duel of the titans we hoped for will therefore take place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a year and a half!

Boss of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich had already leaked this information at the podium press conference podium of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012. In anticipation of 2014, here is a brief history of the two most successful manufacturers in Le Mans history.

Victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Porsche: 16 between 1970 and 1998
Audi: 11 between 2000 and 2012
Although Porsche holds the record for victories, it took twenty-one years for the Stuttgart manufacturer to win the 24 hours for the first time, While Audi succeeded at their second attempt. But looking at the impressive success ratio (eleven wins in fourteen participations) for Audi, we must also take into consideration the fact that Porsche prototypes were absent during this period.

Porsche and Audi "go the distance".
Since 1971, both companies have held the record for distance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 5 335 km (222 km/h average) by the Porsche 917 of Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko in 1971 was beaten in 2010 by the Audi R15 TDI "Plus" of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller, with 5,405 kilometers (225 km/h average).

Major technological firsts
1976: With the 936 of Jacky Ickx and Gijs van Lennep, Porsche was the first to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a turbocharged engine.
2006: First victory for a diesel engine in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Audi R10 TDI of Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner.
2012: The Audi e-tron quattro R18 is the first hybrid prototype to win the 24 Hours.
Know-how and the dynamics of success are another common feature between Porsche and Audi, the 936, the R10 TDI and the R18 e-tron quattro have each scored victory at their first Le Mans.

Winning drivers.
In 1986 and 1987, Derek Bell, Al Holbert and Hans-Joachim Stuck (Porsche 962 C) were the first crew of three drivers to score two wins in a row at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They would be joined by three Audi trios: Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner (2006 and 2007) and Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer (2011 and 2012) ... not to mention Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro, Tom Kristensen who had three consecutive victories at Le Mans (2000-2001-2002), with the Audi R8.

These dizzy statistics show the extent of the confrontation ahead, not forgetting the presence of Toyota that could upset the balance. We look forward to an outsanding confrontation in 2014.

Jean-Philippe Doret

Photo: CIRCUIT OF 24 HOURS (LE MANS, SARTHE) 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, RACE, June 16, 2012. By 2014, another common point between the Audi R18 e-tron quattro of 2012 winners Fässler—Tréluyer-Lotterer, and the future Porsche prototype is that it may also use hybrid technology.