Quote:
Originally Posted by seanyb505
To sum up Ferrari's thoughts:
- Hypercar - "No, no, no, eet's too expenseeve."
- LMDh - "No, no, no, we want to make our own car."
- GTE - "No, no, no, we could spend that much in LMDh."
- F1 - "No, no, no, thees is our year."
- GT3 - "No, no, no, we don't want to race Nurburgring."
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Customers want a chassis with the Ferrari name on it, and that point finally came out late in the articles. They would have no problem buying the IP reproduction rights of say Dallara but make the car in their factory so it gets the Ferrari chassis plate and the "provenance" that goes with that. I get their point but is that really still a Ferrari? Well the Dinos were a Fiat parts bin special and the California was the same, much of the switchgear and bits are the same as my Ram truck. Yes, they both have Ferrari hearts but racing chassis buyers are a bit more particular. And we still, mockingly at times, call the DPi cars by their base chassis names.
But they do make a boatload, for Ferrari chassis standards, of the GT3 cars so it's not like they haven't put their effort in there. And the GTE cars sell fairly well as well, just ask Risi about the number of cars he's raced once for owner's provenance before their put in the shed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TF110
I think LMDh is the thing they're saying is reasonable right now because it can do both series. Right now it doesn't look like hypercar can do both series. They made this clear. But the idea that they can take lmp2 parts and use them on their own car isn't really that far-fetched imo. Contact the suppliers that do the lmp2 brakes etc. I think if they do come, they'll do a hypercar since they want their own chassis design. But I think they are going to have to influence the rule makers.
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You raise a valid point there. Hadn't thought of it but, and give me a bit to roam here, what if they (IMSA/ACO) were to allow another to build the chassis under license from the approved vendor list? Say Ferrari could buy the, and I'll use Dallara just for ease and Italian linkage, rights to build a Ferrari badged Dallara chassis at the cost limit established by regulations. Yes, that would probably have to be added as the regs cover the rolling chassis I believe. But Ferrari has the know-how to build the tub and can build a car from the order bin. It could work and maintain a level of "affordability" if IMSA/ACO required a very specific construction standard and made them follow the chassis builder's specs exactly. Now, if they were to build something "better" at a loss that could become a problem and I'm not sure how to limit that. But that could also open McLaren up to making a Ligier, for variety sake, based LMDh. I'm not sure how many teams would want to do that, and think Toyota and SCG would stick with their plans. But could Toyota license and build an Oreca based Lexus DPi?