What F1 teams could learn from Porsche

Porsche's Le Mans 24 Hours win owed much to the diligence and dedication of Stuttgart in designing and developing the 919 Hybrid into a genuine Audi-beater, but perhaps there's another area for which it has not got enough credit.

While plenty has been said about the excellent performances of Nick Tandy, Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber behind the wheel of the winning #19 entry, Porsche itself has had little praise for its choice of crew in the winning car.

Prior to last month's Spa 6 Hours, where the third Porsche made a preparatory pre-Le Mans appearance, not one member of the trio had so much as raced an LMP1 car.

Collectively, they had just two Le Mans starts between them, both courtesy of Tandy in GTE-class Porsches. As for Hulkenberg, before Spa his sole sportscar experience was a couple of outings in the low-profile VdeV series back in 2006.

Porsche, however, recognised genuine ability when it saw it. Bamber had earned a factory contract as a result of his performances in Porsche one-make cars, winning both the Formula 1-supporting Supercup and the Asian Carrera Cup in 2014. He tested well enough in the LMP1 car to be put into the #19.

Tandy brought himself to Porsche's attention with a star turn in the Carrera Cup in 2008 © LAT

It is a similar story for Tandy, who popped up on Porsche's radar back in 2008, when he won on his first appearance in the British Carrera Cup. He continued to do well in the Supercup and the competitive German series, and was signed up ahead of 2013.

Again, he performed well in testing, and that landed him his opportunity.

Hulkenberg was a more leftfield choice, but Porsche recognised how strong he has been in F1 over the years. While his experience of endurance racing was non-existent, Porsche backed ability.

Although the average age of those in the car was 27, it was not specifically conceived as a rising-stars entry. But it worked out that way thanks to Porsche's open-mindedness.

The company is rarely cited as a nurturer of young drivers in the way that Red Bull, Audi or the Nissan GT Academy is, but it deserves to be.

Its junior programme has been running for years and currently fields Connor de Phillippi and Sven Muller in the Supercup.

The reward for that investment is a steady stream of high-quality performers throughout its ranks.

Porsche's newcomers beat the more established line-up © LAT

To have the confidence to promote unproven drivers requires an ability to trade off risk against sound judgement. But the rewards can be great.

It's not inconceivable that an Audi could have beaten the second-placed #17 Porsche of Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard.

Had that happened, the performance of the drivers in #19 would have been the difference between a Porsche win and an Audi victory.

After all, the #19 car actually spent more of the race in the pits than either of the other Porsche 919 Hybrids, albeit with the caveat that a brief visit to the garage came under the safety car so did not equate to any lost time.

But it would have been easy to put together a line-up of solid, proven Le Mans performers. And had they failed, whoever made the decision could have shrugged it off, pointed to the CV of the drivers and not be held accountable.

Had a member of the #19 crew blundered; throwing the car at the scenery or a slower car, then they would be exposed to criticism. That's where the risk element comes in. It takes courage to back your convictions rather than go for the safe option.

None of this means that teams should cast aside experience, far from it. But it acts as a reminder that conservatism has less and less of a place in endurance racing.

There are some outstanding drivers in the lower classes of sportscars, some without vast experience, who are worthy of consideration for manufacturer drives.

Tincknell is another driver given a chance on merit by an LMP1 works team © LAT

Harry Tincknell was deservedly picked up by Nissan after starring for the Jota Sport LMP2 team, while his replacement, 2012 GP3 champion Mitch Evans, did a great job at Le Mans. And Sam Bird excelled in the OAK-run G-Drive entry that finished third in that class. And those are just a couple of names who could have bright LMP1 futures.

Drivers cannot make an average sportscar into a winning force, but they can ensure they extract as close to 100 per cent of the performance that the laws of physics permit.

They are the biological heart that lies at the centre of these engineering masterpieces. This is what makes them so important. Extract only 98 per cent of the performance of a car when a slightly weaker entry manages to get 99 per cent, and you will lose.

Indeed, with the quality of teams, cars and preparation now so high, Endurance racing becomes more and more and more an extended sprint to the point where solid, consistent performers cannot be the norm.

That will put ever-increasing pressure on the LMP1 perennials to justify their places. There are some great drivers among the manufacturer ranks who will always justify their places as long as their performances don't slip, but those half-a-step behind might have cause to worry.

There's also a lesson here for teams in all of motorsport. Formula 1 outfits, for example, are notoriously conservative. When the idea of Romain Grosjean being signed for 2013 was raised by one very senior member of the technical team at McLaren, he was laughed out of town.

Perez got a McLaren drive ahead of Grosjean in 2013 © LAT

Ironically, there was a willingness to go for inexperience in the form of Sauber's Sergio Perez, but while his high points had been superb, he doesn't have the consistent outright pace that Grosjean demonstrated.

But Grosjean is a seriously fast driver and, as we have seen, once the errors were eradicated, he has excelled. Hulkenberg is in a similar boat - you don't get a shot in a top-line car until you've proven yourself in a top-line car. It's a vicious circle.

Red Bull is a clear exception. While its junior programme is famously harsh, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have both climbed to the top and emerged as grand-prix winners. Daniil Kvyat, too, has the ability to do so, even though it has been shrouded by the team's tough season.

Often, people talk about drivers being 'given their chance' in top cars. That's nonsensical - a position that suggests everyone should be given the opportunity to show what they can do.

Instead, what they should do is to have the chance to be taken seriously by those running frontline operations.

Young or unproven drivers are not automatically better than experienced, established names. But by taking a very close look at the performances of drivers both in the junior categories and the midfield and lower reaches of international series, the high-calibre drivers do shine through.

It's just down to the decision makers to back their judgement and recognise the drivers who can genuinely cut it at the top level.

As Porsche has proved, the rewards of doing so properly can be enormous.