Quote:
Originally Posted by JAG
Ultimately I don't think there'll be a great deal of difference with the ALMS's future if they run LMP's or GT's as the top class.
If cars are competing for overall wins and the stakes are sufficiently high budgets will rise.
BMW could pull their GTE program when they return to DTM, Audi may not build the R8 GTE, then you are then left with Porsche vs Ferrari and boutique manufactuers such as Panoz and Matech Ford.
I've always believed the ALMS should run a small number of endurance races as the current format is overaly reliant on manufactuers filling grids and funding the series.
It's a redical change but so is moving to an all GT series.
There are few long term worries over the LMS precisely because the schedule is so short and a signifcant chunck of the races will eventually count towards the ILMC.
In isolation and before the financial crises the ALMS could attract major manufactuer LMP teams. These days those same manufactuers prefare to race across the globe so selectively picked their races.
The ILMC is simply formulising what the manufactuers had set in motion.
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So your saying -
Sprint Races benefit factories and those with the deep pockets willing to battle them?
Endurance Racing (4 hours or longer) benefit the private teams more?
How?
Risi has done Petit and won with two drivers. Sebring and Le Mans, the standard is pretty much 3 drivers.
So your saying races longer than 5-6 hours benefit smaller teams? The only benefit is, if you make a mistake you have time to make it up. In a more sprint racing format, you make a mistake you pay for it in the point standings, you don't have time to make it up.
But I say a team that has a great car and makes no mistakes, you'll end up WAY ahead. In 2008 & 2009 I believe Risi was up by a lap or two after 10-12 hours, not because others made mistakes, they were just faster and made no mistakes.
Are you saying you're counting on what happen at Le Mans 2010 with Risi again? The laws of averages just caught up with them, they still won Sebring because BMW, Flying Lizard and Corvette made mistakes, all kinds of mistakes and had more than half the race to make them up and didn't....
As long as somebody out there is willing to invest in a quality team or quality drivers, they will be successful, I don't subscribe to the idea that factories take all the air out of the room. It only happens because series are afraid of loosing the investment (see Audi complaining about LMP2 cars) and instead of making Audi play ball or go home, they capitulated and LMP imploded in 2009.
Which I dare to say is the reason for this discussion...