[WEC] Porsche Prototype Discussion

[Artur]

@Ephaeton , all I can say after reading your post is that we both have very different priorities and reasons for watching WEC, and car racing in general. Your "ulcers" are not mine and vice-versa

FIA have been continously slowing down F1 since the ground effect era. The only time I remember it coming without previous planning was 94-95(knee-jerk reaction of Imola). All the other axes were discussed for years.

You say they already had this max of 10MJ reduction in the drawer, but, even if so, this was unecessary as there is a planned reg change next year already. There was no rush, just let it be for one more season.

Graham Goodwin, on his article about Cox, correctly(imo) pointed out how Nissan did a great job, with their cars(even with the farcical DW), as to promoting the series FAR more than most other parts involved.

On that note, nothing, absolutely nothing would promote WEC more than the following line: "FASTER THAN F1"

The power of these 3 letters is unmatchable.

My guess will always be that WEC bent over to F1. They've abdicated of the ultimate marketing tool(the fact of being faster than F1, thus becomeing the pinnacle of motorracing). I can be wrong, just my guess

I think like Spyderman, "slowing down" is blue balls(sorry for the term)

[Deleted]

As much as I don't want to defend the FIA, or even this series with it's problems, having one of your world championships saying something along the lines of "we are better and more cooler than that other world championship!1111 because of this" would be immensely unprofessional. As (co-)organizing body, you don't stack them up to have war with each other. Behind the curtains, yeah you may have whatever nonsense going on in internal conflicts, but officially, you keep things civil.

At least the slowing down isn't as visible Ebenezer Ecclestone trick as the laughable Baku clash is, what with the famous ACO history even without full FIA influence in every case.

And this championship shouldn't be targeted to masses anyway, but for the specialized groups this niche can attract. Which isn't gonna happen with the current format of 6 hour races somewhere doing something, not solely anyway.

[Artur]

I agree with the last paragraph. Trying to make WEC a more mainstream-ish event like F1, NASCAR's series, MotoGP is fruitless. Too long races, not driver centered and etc. We already went there many times.

WEC doesn't need to have millions of followers of every single hour of it's races. It just needs the masses to know it exist. Becoming the pinnacle(which would've happened by accident btw, ie, not initially intended) would add, as never otherwise possible, immensely to WEC's prestige. It would make the marketing ROI better for the OEMs.

For instance, imagine Audi marketing along the lines: "New Audi 'X', derived directly from the world's fastest racing car"

Regardless how accurate such derivation would be, marketing works like that(with lies/partial truths)

[chernaudi]

I'd say blame the ACO more than anything. The FIA may be branding the championship and helping with logistics and such, but the WEC is largely the ACO's baby, everyone who the major sports car sites interview about the series are from the ACO, and the ACO write most of the sporting regs and almost all the tech regs.

And we do have to remember that "slowing" the cars has as much to do with the ACO's paranoia over lap times (formerly within a couple of seconds of 3:30, now within a couple of seconds of 3:20 or so) and stuff like liability insurance (largely the same reason as NASCAR uses restrictor plates at Daytona and Talledega--to give lip service to working on "safety" at those particular tracks) as anything else, including any FIA meddling.

That's my soapbox rant about this whole slowing down the LMP1s, and it's not like they'll be a ton slower next year, considering that Audi Sport now apparently are claiming that the new R18 has the same total engine/hybrid BHP rating as the 919 had this year. And even from what it seems, the 919 may only share the tub and engine block with the 2015 version.

[wolfhound]

I see where the Porsche 919 won the John Bolster Award at the Autosport Awards and Nico Hulkenberg was given the Gregor Grant Award.
I suspect Hulkenberg would not have got that without the win at Le Mans.
Mind you I think the racing car of the year should have come from the LMP ranks but then I did not vote.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122158

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122157

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

I see where the Porsche 919 won the John Bolster Award at the Autosport Awards and Nico Hulkenberg was given the Gregor Grant Award.
I suspect Hulkenberg would not have got that without the win at Le Mans.
Mind you I think the racing car of the year should have come from the LMP ranks but then I did not vote.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122158

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122157

Autosport's awards are mostly voted on by the readers, and most of them are unbelievably F1-centric/biased. The last non-F1 car to win the Racing Car of the Year was the Bentley Speed 8 back in 2003. Since then it's mostly been the world championship-winning F1 car.

[Keycube]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

If you think about it more carefully, cutting down the available energy in a powertrain with a given percentage of efficiency will just spur the engineers on to develop something to try and increase that efficiency and reclaim the lost usable energy by increasing the percentage of the total energy that they can use, and reducing the amount of wasted energy. And so the powertrain development arms race will march on undeterred, maybe even boosted by this cut in available energy.

Let's try to see the positives if possible, shall we?

I love this post; efficient engineering is about doing the most with the least, and if any series should be about having to find efficient answers to performance obstacles, it should be sportscars.

A few tenths - or seconds even - be damned; a 0-0 draw in a ball/puck sport is just as exciting as a 7-6 slugfest. The perspective is just different.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Keycube

A few tenths - or seconds even - be damned; a 0-0 draw in a ball/puck sport is just as exciting as a 7-6 slugfest. The perspective is just different.

It really, genuinely, definitely, absolutely, surely 100% isn't!!!! What I would give to see a goal at Old Trafford again, I think I've forgotten what they look like

I replied to Victor_RO's post earlier and my response remains the same here. The teams will be striving for efficiency gains anyway because any energy can be used to make their cars faster. Therefore the drive for efficiency would exist regardless of a reduction in energy and it would still be there even if the allocations were increased.

I will say this much though - there's more than one way to look at efficiency in ICEs. The ACO were clearly banking on the factories using the recovered energy to replace the energy from fossil fuels (i.e. increased stint length) and have been caught out by the factories using the hybrid energy to augment the engines (increased power) instead, because the latter produces the car that covers the most distance at LM.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by J Jay

It really, genuinely, definitely, absolutely, surely 100% isn't!!!! What I would give to see a goal at Old Trafford again, I think I've forgotten what they look like

I replied to Victor_RO's post earlier and my response remains the same here. The teams will be striving for efficiency gains anyway because any energy can be used to make their cars faster. Therefore the drive for efficiency would exist regardless of a reduction in energy and it would still be there even if the allocations were increased.

I will say this much though - there's more than one way to look at efficiency in ICEs. The ACO were clearly banking on the factories using the recovered energy to replace the energy from fossil fuels (i.e. increased stint length) and have been caught out by the factories using the hybrid energy to augment the engines (increased power) instead, because the latter produces the car that covers the most distance at LM.

+1

[Spyderman]

From what I can tell, it seems that Porsche are/have been testing in Spain (Aragon?)

[gustavobamba]

When could we see 2016 Porsche 919????

Is there any official date to preset the car to the general public?!?!

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Spyderman

From what I can tell, it seems that Porsche are/have been testing in Spain (Aragon?)

The motorsport-total article says the same. Webber's twitter shows him in his Porsche overalls on a scale. He says last time on the scales for 2015 in Spain.

[Victor_RO]

https://twitter.com/PorscheRaces/sta...69829402755072

Test was the first endurance test for the 2016-spec 919, at Motorland Aragon. 5800 km completed apparently.

(for comparison, the race distance record for Le Mans is 5410 km)

[YorkshireLad]

Nice to see, Tandy and Bamber joined the clan for the test aswell.

[Spyderman]

As per Romain Dumas Facebook post: I dont think they were using the new body panels as the car looks the same :

[YorkshireLad]

Isn't there more black on the front and side pieces.

Don't you think the splitter looks different?

[Spyderman]

There may be slight differences, but I'm going by the words that Alex Hitzinger said (on the RLM interview) : "The car will look different...mainly because of the new body panels...".To me , this car does not look very different. It has the LDF package , but I cant see too many differences.

[Spyderman]

Night of Champions tonight.

[Spyderman]

GTE Pro WEC team with Lietz and Christensen. Re-branded as Dempsey Proton

[Spyderman]

Kevin Estre is a new Porsche Factory driver

[J Jay]

Good news on both counts; Christensen gets a season of WEC while Lietz can get the most appropriate experience for developing the new GT car, and with all due respect to McLaren Estre is too good a driver to not be driving for one of the "big" factory efforts.

[Spyderman]

So, it looks like we will only see the new 919 at the Prologue....unless someone takes spy photos from testing in February,

[Hawkwood]

Which drivers have been dropped from Porsche's roster for 2016?
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/1...e-drivers.html
Connor di Phillipi was a junior wasn't he?
Who else is gone?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Which drivers have been dropped from Porsche's roster for 2016?
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/1...e-drivers.html
Connor di Phillipi was a junior wasn't he?
Who else is gone?

Only him. Olsen and Jaminet are the new juniors, the full works drivers from 2015 have all been retained and Estre has been added to that roster.

[Spyderman]

More on the Porsche and Audi Tests:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122235