Quote:
Originally Posted by Félix
What in the world do you think more budget is going to change when they lose most of their time on the straights? Just look at pictures from Silverstone: the petrol P1s have trouble passing P2 cars while the diesel P1 cars have speed that makes them an entirely distinct class. Just think about it: how bad do their chassis and aero have to be to explain such a gap in straightline speed?? We're talking about teams with years of experience like Pescarolo and Rebellion - yes quadrupling the number of team members and spending more on chassis development would help, but it would NEVER make up for stupid rules that give the diesels an unfair advantage. But yeah of course Audi and Peugeot are friends with the ACO and help them pay the bills so let's keep hoping for better (actual!) racing in 2013, 2014, 2015...
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The Judd and Zytek 3.4L V8s, the ones most of the petrol runners are using this year, were routinely whipped by the HPD 3.4L V8 last season when they were all LMP2 engines. That was especially the case when mounted to an ARX-01. The same could be said about the RS Spyder a year or two earlier. So what is the excuse in those situations? Was Essex, Strakka, and company paying off the ACO so they could beat the Judds? Did Highcroft pay off the ACO at Sebring this year when they ran very competitively and almost won? Maybe that's why they are laying off their employees, but I don't think so.
I think the edge that some of the diesel teams have is not just that they have more outright speed, but they also have better reliability. That comes with lots of testing and development obviously. That allows them to push their equipment harder than the petrol teams probably and they can get away with it. Also, there is just more to learn about diesel racing engines and so they can make big jumps that the petrol teams can't really, but that takes a lot of money and expertise to exploit and the diesel giants have it. How do you want to counteract that with the rules? Performance balance before every race? That's not what I consider to be effective rules.