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Originally Posted by AGD
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.
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Another manufacturer needs to come in to "offer things" to the ACO as well so they have to balance their rules a bit in return. Not gonna happen because they all sniff around and pass - or at least never get really involved.
When was the last time we saw an air restricted engine have a significant advantage when they play from sensible balanced regulations? Such an engine can lose races if it's not reliable, win races if it's efficient, but it never accounts for more than 5-10 kph at the end of a straight.
And the HPD was incredibly lucky with safety cars at Sebring because it would have ended up numerous laps behind as usual, "in contention" with the diesel cars that crashed early in the race.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AGD
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.
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I'm pretty sure the petrol cars from OAK (recently), Pescarolo and Rebellion have had more perfect runs this year than the factory diesels (who love to play bumper cars it seems). Seriously.
But all they're "in contention" for is a spot behind the untroubled diesels. And even then, if the DP1s who had problems lost less than 10-15 minutes (!!!) they'll come back before the end of a 6 hour race.
You don't believe me? Watch the Silverstone coverage again, pay attention to the speed gaps between DP1-P1-P2 and look at how close the crashing diesels were from beating the P1s with a flawless run.