[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[The Badger]

Any chance of Nissan entering GTE ?

I know Mclaren are planning a GTE car .

[Gingers4Justice]

What about Toyota? It seems very fashionable for factory Prototype teams to flirt with GT racing, and vice versa.

[lms]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

What about Toyota?

the gt86 would look great.

[Mal]

Originally Posted by lms

the gt86 would look great.

More likely with a Lexus LFA I would have thought

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by lms

the gt86 would look great.

I think it would look really really weird next to other GTE cars. The 86 is a better fit for grass roots motorsport and up to GT4.

[GT3.14]

The Safety car would have to be detuned for a GT-86 GTE to keep up.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by lms

the gt86 would look great.

Then the RCZ (Peugoet) should also run in GTE. Not going to happen

[kober]

Originally Posted by carsten66

"Even though we won the World Championship togethe"

Somebody should have told them that what Starworks won "ain't" a World Championship, but "just" an FIA Endurance Trophy.

Either way, great news about Potolicchio.

[The Badger]

Starworks won the WEC P2 class ..... World Endurance Championship .

What do you think World suggests then ?

[deggis]

...and the class championship is called FIA Endurance Trophy (for LMP2 Teams).

[TF110]

Subaru is making a turbo version of the BRZ (which is the Toyota GT86). A rumored 280hp/2700lbs. If they ran the BRZ GT300 it wouldn't look out of place, so why would a GT86? I'd rather the LFA myself, though.

[Pandamasque]

Besides GT86 is RWD, while RCZ is FWD.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

Besides GT86 is RWD, while RCZ is FWD.

Yes. My point was just that the Gt86 doesn't fit in with the current GTE cars, in the same way the RCZ doesn't as they are the same segment of cars.

[gwyllion]

ACO president Pierre Fillon and WEC director Gérard Neveu look back at the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship and look forward to the 2013 series.

We had 28 entries this year and, despite legitimate concerns, they stayed with us all season. That’s more than the 26 cars we had been expecting. Given the economic situation and the fact that there will be new regulations from 2014, we need to be realistic, however: next year will be a transitional year. We would like 32 or 33 entries for the entire season, plus a few ‘wild card’ entries at certain races.

source: http://lemanslive.com/Lemanslive/New...-2012-and-2013

[gregtummer]

250 journalists from China are attending this weekend's race.

Sounds like there may be some future potential here.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by deggis

...and the class championship is called FIA Endurance Trophy (for LMP2 Teams).

Ok , FIA Endurance Trophy in what championship ?

[gwyllion]

You have to compare the situation to WTCC. The winner of the Independents Trophy is not a world champion either.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by gregtummer

250 journalists from China are attending this weekend's race.

Sounds like there may be some future potential here.

I was watching the warm up on the WEC website, until the feed went and if this is anything to go by, the visibility due to the haze/smog is practically zero, as is the attendance, so this being the last race of the season the Chinese have to big it up somehow.

[FstrthnU]

Hot off the presses from Radio Le Mans: Greaves 2-car effort for next year

[Purist]

Back to the events thing for a bit, Monza and Nurburgring may not have been as crowded as Spa or Silverstone have been in the best of their recent years, but they weren't particularly bad either. I can't find consistent spectator numbers for races at Monza or Nurburgring (or a number of the tracks for that matter), and some of the numbers I am finding don't necessarily make sense. I have no doubt that the German and Italian rounds drew and would draw better than just a token round in Iberia, not to mention Paul Ricard, which has minimal spectator facilities.

With Porsche joining, and TMG in Cologne, a German round in 2014 will make plenty of sense. If GTE can improve in WEC, which it looks like it will, Ferrari can make a real marketing exercise of it, especially if they have a home round.

The biggest thing, regardless of LMS or WEC, is that real promotion is needed. This has been something that has been rather lacking in the ACO-run series compared to the American series. In addition, the ALMS has done quite a good job of keeping the same venues year after year, and trying to keep them at more or less the same time of year each successive year. It's quite telling, when the US has less than half the population, that the ALMS gets larger crowds (apart from LM itself), holding twice as many LM-type races a season, than the European counterpart.

Finally, you have to consider that a number of these new market races are being run as a government or oil baron hobby (not making money on their own merits). This isn't F1, so the money stream may not continue to be so generous.

Also, it will become less desirable to show off the spoils of wealth so prominently in many of these emerging countries. The people are becoming more aware, but actually, it's as much a concern on the part of the governments, who do not wish for their people to see some of these things about their leaders. China just had a fit over the New York Times revealing the wealth that has been accumulated by the family of the man who is about to become China's new leader (they completely censored the paper's website out of China's internet). This tendency toward censorship could easily prevent the manufacturers from getting the promotional value they want out of some of these races. The visa situation with the Japanese can't be helping matters either. And then, there is the issue that the leadership of some countries are voicing concerns that their countries may be becoming "too Western", and China has already implemented laws to begin to stamp some of that out ("entertaining television" being one major measure taken up).

[Mike_Wooshy]

I do tend to agree that Germany COULD have a round, BUT with DTM and the like maybe Audi Feels its presence is enough with that in the German Market ? BUT IMO If they (WEC, Manufactures etc) really want a round of the WEC in Germany, it Should NOT be at Nurburgring OR Hockenhiem...... Use Lausitzring or Latch on the the DTM street race at Norrisring ..... Infact in many ways the Norrisring wouldnt be such a bad idea .... Endurance race on the Saturday night and let the DTM have Sunday.

[Samoan Attorney]

Greaves Motorsport announce plans for two car entry in 2013 FIA WEC

HERE

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Purist

Back to the events thing for a bit, Monza and Nurburgring may not have been as crowded as Spa or Silverstone have been in the best of their recent years, but they weren't particularly bad either. I can't find consistent spectator numbers for races at Monza or Nurburgring (or a number of the tracks for that matter), and some of the numbers I am finding don't necessarily make sense. I have no doubt that the German and Italian rounds drew and would draw better than just a token round in Iberia, not to mention Paul Ricard, which has minimal spectator facilities.

With Porsche joining, and TMG in Cologne, a German round in 2014 will make plenty of sense. If GTE can improve in WEC, which it looks like it will, Ferrari can make a real marketing exercise of it, especially if they have a home round.

The biggest thing, regardless of LMS or WEC, is that real promotion is needed. This has been something that has been rather lacking in the ACO-run series compared to the American series. In addition, the ALMS has done quite a good job of keeping the same venues year after year, and trying to keep them at more or less the same time of year each successive year. It's quite telling, when the US has less than half the population, that the ALMS gets larger crowds (apart from LM itself), holding twice as many LM-type races a season, than the European counterpart.

Finally, you have to consider that a number of these new market races are being run as a government or oil baron hobby (not making money on their own merits). This isn't F1, so the money stream may not continue to be so generous.

Also, it will become less desirable to show off the spoils of wealth so prominently in many of these emerging countries. The people are becoming more aware, but actually, it's as much a concern on the part of the governments, who do not wish for their people to see some of these things about their leaders. China just had a fit over the New York Times revealing the wealth that has been accumulated by the family of the man who is about to become China's new leader (they completely censored the paper's website out of China's internet). This tendency toward censorship could easily prevent the manufacturers from getting the promotional value they want out of some of these races. The visa situation with the Japanese can't be helping matters either. And then, there is the issue that the leadership of some countries are voicing concerns that their countries may be becoming "too Western", and China has already implemented laws to begin to stamp some of that out ("entertaining television" being one major measure taken up).

I don't see what censorship of foreign manufacturers would achieve. The Chinese want foreign manufacturers to come to China, so I can see a compromise where foreign manufacturers market their products so that they don't appear too Western. However, I think the problem with motorsport, is it doesn't have a natural fan base in China and I don't think it ever will, not because Motorsport is seen as being too Western but because the ethos is contradictory.

[chernaudi]

It should be noted that Wurz and Lapierre took third in the WEC drivers' championship when the #12 Rebellion Lola dropped out with 10 minutes remaining.

That shows how the WEC championship rewards winning, seeing as how the #7 Toyota didn't enter Sebring, withdrew from Spa, and DNF'd at Le Mans and Bahrain, and didn't complete enough distance in either race to score points.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

It should be noted that Wurz and Lapierre took third in the WEC drivers' championship when the #12 Rebellion Lola dropped out with 10 minutes remaining.

That shows how the WEC championship rewards winning, seeing as how the #7 Toyota didn't enter Sebring, withdrew from Spa, and DNF'd at Le Mans and Bahrain, and didn't complete enough distance in either race to score points.

The WEC uses the same points scoring system as other championships do. The emphasis is on winning. Two 4th place finishes (a likely result for Rebellion) is still less than one win (a likely result for Toyota). Even at Le Mans, Rebellion finished 3rd, which is 30 points, only 5 points more than a win at any other race.