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Old 23 Apr 2020, 07:12 (Ref:3972324)   #13
BrentJackson
Racer
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 317
BrentJackson should be qualifying in the top 10 on the gridBrentJackson should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, will depend on how the United States handles the coronavirus, and frankly, so far they've done a truly awful job of it. As people say, the economic losses that will invariably result from the damage done worldwide isn't a wrench thrown into the mix, I think it's more like a shotgun to the chest.

In the aftermath of COVID-19 mess - which is gonna last all of 2020 unless the Americans get their crap together, and quickly - the appetite for manufacturers to engage in motorsport, and their financial resources for doing so, will be massively, massively diminished, as the political (and consumer) demand for ever-more-advanced road cars will not be diminished, and creating them will take up and ever-larger slice of the companies' budgets. And since the various sports car series are pretty much completely reliant on this (as are a lot of touring car series), they need to shift gears and make their series more about fans in the stands, watching on TV and streaming online so that other sponsors can see enough return on investment to justify spending in what will be a very uncertain world.

For the ACO, it means scrapping both Hypercar (which will almost certainly not get off the ground aside from maybe Toyota, and they won't be a certainty now) and LMDH and moving to DPi 1.0 + open-platform LMP2. Dump the four-chassis rule as fast as possible and let all comers chase it, as Ginetta certainly will and others very likely will. GTE-Am has to go as well, and GT3 should be invited to take part into the event, with pure-factory efforts made to race in GTE-Pro. LMP3 should be the backup plan if there isn't a big enough grid, though this is most unlikely if you ask me. There simply isn't a need, nor is it wise, to push for an entirely new prototype category, particularly when it requires the use of a hybrid system, which is additional complexity and cost which is entirely inappropriate at this point in time.

The WEC I'm seeing as a 50/50 whether it lives on or not. As people say, it's extremely difficult to say how well international racing will move on. IMSA will almost certainly live on, though I expect that the prototype rules will at best remain on DPi 1.0, if not move back before then and re-allow the previous LMP2s and perhaps even the original souped-up DPs and the DeltaWing, and IMSA will definitely, definitely have to open up the rules for it GT categories and merge LMP2 back into the prototype category, even if it means they get blasted by the DPis on a regular basis. IMSA was down to mid-30s regulars at its marquee races, when realistically in this new world if they are going to get (and keep) fan interest, they need to start showing up with +/- 40-42 at most tracks and 55-60 for the big events to get the fans showing up for the action. A revival of AGT and Trans-Am style cars? Older GT3s? LMP3s?

For the ACO, the Oreca monopoly on the LMP2 category is Okay right now, but it's a fan problem waiting to happen and will certainly see the likes of Ginetta, Dallara and Multimatic abandon the sport, which the ACO DOES NOT need, which means they need to one way or another break Oreca's stranglehold, and using the existing technical rules. Not sure how they do that, but they will need to make it happen. The 24 Hours of Le Mans and the ELMS can handle a loss of fans assuming many of its old teams show up, but if that doesn't happen then the GT3s will probably get brought in to help fill out the field.

Last edited by BrentJackson; 23 Apr 2020 at 07:25. Reason: Cuss removal, additional thoughts
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