[WEC Race] 2016 WEC Round 2: Spa

[joeb]

This weekend marks the second race of the 2016 WEC season. The 6 hour race begins on Saturday afternoon, and the initial practice session kicks off on Thursday. Audi is going to be looking to score maximum points after the debacle at Silverstone. While Porsche and Toyota look to extend their points lead over the Audi team.


Schedule

Entry List/Spotter Guide

Track Map

Weather

Timing & Scoring

Fantasy Racing Challange

[Maelochs]

Now we will see if Toyota's (Alex Wurz's) claim "The new car is optimized for Le Mans" holds water ... if the TS 050 isn't quick at Spa, Toyota faces another year as the also-ran.

[Toyotats03OUS]

I expect Toyota to show up at the front with great performance ,,,after further tested the car ,,,I predict podium ..

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Now we will see if Toyota's (Alex Wurz's) claim "The new car is optimized for Le Mans" holds water ... if the TS 050 isn't quick at Spa, Toyota faces another year as the also-ran.

But they won't have the LM downforce kit on, so we cannot judge their true performance until Test Day.

Though if they are still where they were at Silverstone, it gives clearer pre indication.

[Toyotats03OUS]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Now we will see if Toyota's (Alex Wurz's) claim "The new car is optimized for Le Mans" holds water ... if the TS 050 isn't quick at Spa, Toyota faces another year as the also-ran.

Go to toyotaracing and read the PR ....I was expecting them to run a low down force package ,,but they are going to run high downforce just like at Silverstone ,,,they probably don't want to show anything before LM..

[carbon_titanium]

Honestly I don't expect so much from them at spa; so far they seem to be able to set competitive fastest laps, but as silverstone shown, their race pace was terrible and incostant.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

Honestly I don't expect so much from them at spa; so far they seem to be able to set competitive fastest laps, but as silverstone shown, their race pace was terrible and incostant.

Agree

If there's gonna be (real) improvement, it won't come until the Test Day. And even then only if they show their cards and perhaps do some low fuel runs

[GT6]

i think Toyota want to finish well in the WEC so they will throw everything they can at Spa, if inly to scare the opposition into pushing things to breaking point at Le mans, tactics other than sandbagging are allowed.

[airbusA346]

Wonder if Lotterer was trying to get some practice in before the race?



I saw something was posted on DSC, but it had been removed before I read it.

[GT6]

Oh dear, wonder what he put on the insurance claim

[joeb]

Originally Posted by GT6

Oh dear, wonder what he put on the insurance claim

"oops"

[J Jay]

I think his plan was to sabotage the competition. Fortunately for the folks at Stuttgart, he picked the wrong Porsche...

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by J Jay

I think his plan was to sabotage the competition. Fortunately for the folks at Stuttgart, he picked the wrong Porsche...

[TF110]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

Honestly I don't expect so much from them at spa; so far they seem to be able to set competitive fastest laps, but as silverstone shown, their race pace was terrible and incostant.

That was their first race with a brand new car, so I wouldn't expect miracles unless everyone else had the same situation. But the fact they were 1.6 seconds faster than last year and had numerous laps under their absolute best from 2015 is confidence inspiring imo. They went and did a two-day test at Aragon after Silverstone- http://www.toyotahybridracing.com/sp...-gazoo-racing/, presumably with the 'low' and 'high' downforce car to get a better handle on the setup. They had great top speed at the Prologue with both packages, and was about .5-.8 seconds behind Porsche with the same package they used at Silverstone. I wonder what Audi are turning up with.

[carbon_titanium]

so another 918 crashed... some time ago I've read somewhere that almost 1 918 on 4 have been involved somehow in some kind of incident. Anyway, it doesn't seem much damaged; Lotterer should ask Hartley how to obliterate a very expensive hybrid porsche

@TF100, I also consider 2016 R18 a brand new car for audi because of new tub, new hybrid system and a radical and different aero; but anyway audi was close to porsche performance, if not better sometimes. At least for this season, toyota drivers can mark fastest laps, but they need to improve on pace, or they will be basically scr€wed.
Wurz PR skills seem to be not much better than his driving skills... if a car struggles in the first 2 races, is really unlikely that magically turns in a gun at le mans... and I still didn't read yet your magic word (s**db*g*in*)

[TF110]

Well, the Audi has the same V6t engine, unlike the new V6tt for Toyota. And Silverstone has always been an 'Audi track' with their high downforce car. Toyota's car is nowhere near what Audi and Porsche were running in terms of a true high downforce package. Lets also take into account the Audi was dq'ed because it ran illegally. So that may have flattered it's performance slightly more. I don't think Toyota is sandbagging. I think they're trying to come to grips with a totally new car. Hope it turns out for them. They seem confident it will.

[carbon_titanium]

it was confirmed that it was a pressure drop during SC period that caused the ride height lowering that followed in DQ... audi was great at silverstone because the overall package is great! they didn't cheat, truth is that sometimes sh!t happens, and you can't do anything to dodge the ball.

Disagree about high downforce matter... last year at silverstone, both 919 were in low drag configuration and were competitive enough to win.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

so another 918 crashed... some time ago I've read somewhere that almost 1 918 on 4 have been involved somehow in some kind of incident. Anyway, it doesn't seem much damaged; Lotterer should ask Hartley how to obliterate a very expensive hybrid porsche

Nah, that's a Carrera GT.

[porman]

[QUOTE=carbon_titanium;3638232]so another 918 crashed... some time ago I've read somewhere that almost 1 918 on 4 have been involved somehow in some kind of incident. Anyway, it doesn't seem much damaged; Lotterer should ask Hartley how to obliterate a very expensive hybrid porsche


Well, in this case.... it's a cgt (Carrera GT). Funny though.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

it was confirmed that it was a pressure drop during SC period that caused the ride height lowering that followed in DQ... audi was great at silverstone because the overall package is great! they didn't cheat, truth is that sometimes sh!t happens, and you can't do anything to dodge the ball.

Disagree about high downforce matter... last year at silverstone, both 919 were in low drag configuration and were competitive enough to win.

Tire pressure? I thought Audi's reasoning was excessive bouncing http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123890? I didn't say they were cheating, but a too-worn plank means the car was running lower to the ground which can produce faster lap times.

At Silverstone 2015 Porsche had a lot higher top speed than Audi and had 8mj vs 4mj. This year it was 8mj vs. 6mj both with high downforce cars and like top speeds.

[MaskedRacer]

A great feature that a WEC online subscription could offer that I would be happy to pay for is class specific feeds. Channel 1 would focus on LMP1 for the entire 6 hour race. Ditto for Channel 2 (P2), Channel 3 (GTE). All with the regular RLM commentary though. I'd be all about that idea. I would feel the same way for that idea with IMSA.

[GasperG]

This is info from F1 but the track is the same

Source for all F1 circuits:
http://f-1.link/brembo-brake-circuit...ty-cards-2015/

[Deleted]

Updates

PRO AMR Vantage -20kg (orly)
PRO Ford GTE +4,5mm fuel restrictor

The P1 Hybrid-Nonhybrid EOT table isn't on FIA site visible yet, but I doubt that's really changed given the recent trend there

[Artur]

I didn't have much time to analyse more carefully the onboards from Silverstone but, after a brief look into it, it seemed that Audi cars had very ill handling. The R18 has plenty of grip, noticebly more than the 919 and even more so than the TS050, but it's very inconsistent in the high speed corners and the drivers constantly missed apexes due to understeer while other times suffered the opposite, oversteer. Porsche and Toyota were more stable and if Audi don't fix that, it might make things very tough for them throughout the season. They had a 5 day testing at Aragon, if I'm not mistaken, and apparently that was, partially, used to fix the FRIC issues that alledgelly led to the worn plank. If the bad handling and the bouncing(FRIC issues) were related, then good for them and they likely solved the problem. Otherwise, this might become their biggest concern after reliability.

As for Toyota, I'm sure they'll be on par, if not faster, on S1 and S3. The crucial point here for them is S2 and how much they manage to minimize their lack of pace there.

Finally, I think the -10MJ will hurt far more at Spa than at Silverstone and I don't believe they will reach 1.54 again.

[Adam43]

I'm not going to watch then