Photo Credit: Nissan Motorsports
Although the continuing battle for FIA World Endurance Championship supremacy in the top LMP-1 division between Audi, Porsche, and Toyota has been a major focus over the past couple of years, unfortunately the most agonizing saga so far during the 2015 campaign, which resumes in two weeks at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany has not necessarily focused on the three-way battle upfront. In reality, it continues to look at the back page of the storybook, or to be more precise the continuing disaster area that is simply Nissan Motorsports’ and its increasing in frustration effort to get its own GT-R LM NISMO Hybrid into a competitive and presentable mold.
After skipping the opening two rounds of the championship at Silverstone, England and Spa-Francochamps in Belgium, the Japanese manufacturer arrived at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June with a three car effort. However, the attack was cut at the knees (or wheel axles to be auto-specific) from the start. Multiple issues with the car’s hybrid system meant Nissan would run their cars without the energy assist system and as a result the FIA WEC’s only front-engined entrant struggled badly for pace against the other factory runners. The humiliation was extended in full during qualifying at Circuit de la Sarthe, when Nissan’s fastest entry clocked the 8.45 mile mix of purpose racing circuit and public roads in three ininutes, 36.985 seconds. Now ten years ago, that would have put the car in the running for pole position, unforutnately times have dropped significantly since then and the hot lap was shockingly a full twenty seconds off the pace of the pole winning Porsche 919 Hybrid, which posted a 3:16.887 in the hands of Neel Jani.
In addition to the mentioned hybrid trouble, the GT-R LM NISMO also suffered from a myriad of handling issues, further slowing their form. Ultimately when the race weekend ended on Sunday afternoon, neither of Nissan’s three entries were classified as finishers. Two of the Nissans retired prior to the checkered flag, while the third entry did not complete enough laps to merit a finishing position per FIA-ACO rules.
After Le Mans, Nissan immediately returned to the test track in an attempt to rectify the hybrid system and find more pace from its challenger. Although reports stated that last month’s test at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas produced noticeable gains, it was not enough to satisfy Nissan to the point of showing a willingness to compete with the entry at the present time. In that sense, Nissan has withdrawn from the next three rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the upcoming Nurburgring event, plus COTA and Fuji Speedway in Japan, essentially Nissan’s home event. With those endurance races off the table, it only leaves two possible showings for the new car before the 2015 season concludes: Shanghai, China and Bahrain, with both events in the month of November.
I think Michael Fuller of MulsannesCorner.com put it best when describing the three-year Cadillac prototype program that was also more show than actual success. “To be successful, a chassis needs to be raced, not simply tested,” wrote Fuller in that article. That was certainly true of that program, and I think Nissan’s challenge is headed much in the same direction. So what if the car is well off the pace, in my mind Nissan still must prove this car is durable enough to last the six-hour race distances featured in the FIA WEC as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. During testing, there are no outside forces that are influencing the action as a race would. No other teams or drivers on the track with you and no set or forced pace. Clearly one cannot simulate those things in a test format, regardless of how much of a war chest and/or technical expertise a program may have.
For a program that started with so much fanfare, that in the form of a commercial during Super Bowl XLIX no less, the word “bust” rather than “boom” is close to becoming the word of choice for Nissan, unless a desire to race this car or something close to it in a FIA WEC event in the near future is added to the planning list.
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