GTP Manufacturers Concerned Over High Voltage Failures

Photo: Porsche

Multiple GTP manufacturers have voiced concerns over the number of high-voltage related issues that have occurred in the buildup to this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, with Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle admitting that he ‘hopes it doesn’t turn into a pandemic’ in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

Both Porsche Penske Motorsport and BMW M Team RLL have been forced to change multiple units of the spec LMDh hybrid powertrains since the start of the Roar Before the Rolex 24, with one source indicating that as many as ten batteries in the 12-car GTP field have been affected or replaced at Daytona International Speedway altogether.

The first apparent failure came during the opening day of the Roar when the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr ground to a halt on the backstretch and was forced to jump out of the car per IMSA’s HV safety protocols.

The No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, which stopped on track in the early stages of qualifying on Thursday, was also diagnosed as a HV-related issue.

Multiple other GTP cars are understood to have also suffered HV-related issues to varying degrees, including both customer Porsche 963s during the Roar.

“I don’t hope it’s a pandemic,” Kuratle told selected reporters on Friday afternoon.

“We just came from a meeting discussing high-voltage issues. I don’t know the total number of changed batteries but it’s definitely too many, that’s for sure.

“We had a meeting today, including [with] the governance bodies, and Bosch and [Fortescue Zero] and all the involved parties. We hope the situation is under control.”

Kuratle noted that the issues with the hybrid powertrain, which is not linked to gearbox provider Xtrac, have all been different forms of problems.

Bosch Motorsport supplies the spec MGU, while Fortescue Zero, formerly WAE Technologies, is charged with the single-supply battery system for the hybrid prototypes.

“It makes the case even more complex,” Kuratle said of the different types of failures.

“It’s nothing we can really do. It’s a matter of checking the chances that things are not happening with existing parts which are here.

“But I can ensure that everybody involved, again, [Fortescue Zero] and everybody involved, they have a big push here at the track and at their home bases back in Europe as well.

“They’re doing a great job but it is fair to say that from the reliability point of view, it looks like we did a step backwards compared to last year on this one.

“And that’s something to find out why that is.”

Porsche’s VP of Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach added: “Coming to the third season now, coming to the most important race of the IMSA season, it doesn’t give you the best feeling.

“On the other side, I think everybody in the world is really trying everything to make sure that we will not have any influence for any competitor tomorrow, because that would be the worst case.

“We don’t want to have any incident in the race due to a spec part.

“It’s probably not the best feeling.”

BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos confirmed the issue of the No. 25 BMW in qualifying as “clearly an issue with the high voltage system.”

It’s understood BMW has made at least three battery changes since the start of on-track action last week.

“The cars are now back in a good shape,” said Roos on Friday morning. “But clearly it’s not what you want to have in qualifying that the car stops on track.

When asked by Sportscar365 if there’s any cause for concern, Roos said: “At the end you always feel better when there’s no issue at all happening in practice and testing.

“For sure there’s a bit of a concern but on the other hand we showed now we brought everything together and had a good car in FP3 and that’s how we want to go into the race.”

Porsche Penske managing director Jonathan Diuguid indicated the issues haven’t been yet tracked to a certain batch of parts.

It’s understood there have not been any updates to the components for the third year of the LMDh platform, although Diuguid described it as “some new pieces” in a “production batch.”

Porsche Penske is understood to be changing the batteries again on both of its factory entries tonight, ahead of tomorrow’s race start.

“It is not like they have changed the cells or the suppliers, but there are some small variances that are normal with these kind of things,” Diuguid explained.

“We are doing everything on our side to make sure we understand the problem and what we can control, trying to work with the suppliers to get their input and feedback on what might be causing the issue, trying to tick as many boxes as we can.

“But we are not sitting here with a warm, fuzzy feeling about the race.”

A statement from IMSA, supplied to Sportscar365 on race day morning, read: “IMSA is fully apprised of the issues experienced by some GTP competitors, and we share their concerns.

“Transparent and candid discussions have taken place to understand and resolve the situation.

“All parties remain fully focused on actions that may resolve or mitigate the situation in advance of today’s running of the 24-hour race.”

This article was updated on Sat. Jan 25 at 10:30 a.m. ET with a statement from IMSA 

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John