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Audi's brand-new Le Mans Prototype breaks with the company's long-standing open-cockpit tradition and switches to a coupe design as it gears up to defend its crown at the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. The R18 TDI follows a line of successful open-top LMP prototypes: R8, R10, R15. It is the first closed-top Audi racing proto-type since the unsuccessful R8C that raced at Le Mans in 1999. Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich explained that two rule changes "forced Audi to build this car," despite his "love of open cars." The rule that only two mechanics can change wheels and tires at one time, announced for 2009 when the R15's design was almost finished, means that "the driver change [easier in an open car] is no longer the dominant factor in the time of the pit stop," Ullrich said. This removed an advantage of the open top. Reduction in engine capacity, and thus power, for 2011 was the second factor dictating the coupe design. "It is getting more and more important to have maximum aerodynamic efficiency," Ullrich said. "A closed car has clear advantages in this respect." Audi retained the turbodiesel for the R18 because "we believe that TDI engines are the most efficient," he said. It chose a V6 for the 3.7-liter engine formula because it believes the architecture offers more scope for development than a V8, the likely choice of archrival Peugeot. Audi is also working on an R18 energy-recovery system. But Ullrich said the car will only race as a hybrid if it is "more efficient than a standard car." The R18 TDI tested once before its mid-December launch. Two-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish did most of the running, thought to have taken place at Vallelunga in Italy. Timo Bernhard also drove during the three-day session. The R18 will not race for the first time until the six-hour endurance race at Spa in Belgium in May, because it will not complete its required test program before the 12 Hours of Sebring in March. "We can't do the necessary endurance running before Sebring," Ullrich said, "and we will not go into a race without having done so." That means a performance-restricted version of 2010's R15-Plus will make a final appearance in what is also the opening round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in the United States. Audi confirmed McNish, Bernhard and Tom Kristensen for one R18 in a projected two-car attack on the ILMC. Other drivers from Audi's Le Mans lineup, likely to be the same as in 2010, will rotate through the second car during ILMC events.