[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Disagree

There wouldn't be a WEC if it wasn't for the the ALMS. But it's not as straight forward as the former taking entries away from the latter, without the WEC manufactuers may have left the sport altogether.

The international sportscar grid was in FIA GT, decamped to the ALMS, and now the WEC.

IMO, the ALMS needs to gather it's own momentum or focus all of it's resources on a handful of races as part of a larger WEC schedule.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Acid09

It' a nice track but Peugeot is much keener to go racing in Brazil I guess, it's one of their most important markets.

Same goes for Audi I think, Brazil is just a more interesting market for the manufacturers overall.

You must consider that a race in Brazil has a large impact in Brazil, but not that much in the rest of the continent. A race in Argentina will get serious television coverage in all the continent if there's an agreement with Fox Sports (see Rally Dakar) or ESPN (Rugby World Cup).

Also, Potrero de los Funes is very close to Santiago de Chile. That's a very strong luxury car market.

[The Badger]

Whats to stop a WEC team from pulling outta the championship , once Le mans has been and gone ?

For example , just like ASM Quifel . Missed every race since Le mans and have now pulled the plug ..... although I dont blame them with that peice of junk they have at present .

As for a race in India ..... Im well interested in that .

[JAG]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Whats to stop a WEC team from pulling outta the championship , once Le mans has been and gone ?

Sitting on millions of pounds worth of equipment with little chance of having your WEC entry accepted for the following year.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Whats to stop a WEC team from pulling outta the championship , once Le mans has been and gone ?

For example , just like ASM Quifel . Missed every race since Le mans and have now pulled the plug ..... although I dont blame them with that peice of junk they have at present .

As for a race in India ..... Im well interested in that .

I am sure I read that the teams get 'fined' for missing races.

Tom.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by JAG

Sitting on millions of pounds worth of equipment with little chance of having your WEC entry accepted for the following year.

I´m not sure the WEC alone will be in a position to turn down prototype entries for the first few years...

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Acid09

I´m not sure the WEC alone will be in a position to turn down prototype entries for the first few years...

I thought the point of the WEC was to include prototypes?

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by airbusA346

I am sure I read that the teams get 'fined' for missing races.

Tom.

Yeah , 30 grand a race . But that hasnt stopped some teams from doing just that , missing races .

There was a waiver for teams with "NEW" cars , to miss Sebring , but that was it , only for Sebring . That Hope Polevision , AMR and ASM must have to cough up a few shiny pennys by now .

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by The Badger

There was a waiver for teams with "NEW" cars , to miss Sebring , but that was it , only for Sebring . That Hope Polevision , AMR and ASM must have to cough up a few shiny pennys by now .

Uh... Quifel-ASM is not a ILMC entry mate, they don't have to pay that fine as far as I'm aware. At least I don't know of fines for LMS-only entrants missing LMS races.

[The Badger]

Ok , my mistake .

[AGD]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I thought the point of the WEC was to include prototypes?

Yes, of course, but the thought could be that the WEC may have to accept even questionable entries because their entry lists could be pretty thin now that they won't have full-time LMS teams filling up the grid. This could also be a problem if they do standalone American races without the ALMS. It already is a problem of sorts with China. We'll have to see what happens in that regard. It's possible that a number of LMS teams will enter as guests for the European WEC rounds, we'll see.

The LMP1 car count will probably be pretty good, but I'm not so sure what to expect from LMP2 and GTE. As BMW pointed out, the European/WEC focus on LMP1 to the extreme can be a turn off for LMP2 and GTE teams.

[Félix]

I was thinking about the LMP1 car count for next year and it seems pretty low to me. 6 factory entrants from Audi-Peugeot-AMR are to be expected, hopefully at least one of the other rumoured manufacturers will make it (Nissan, Toyota, Wirth with whoever), but it still feels like the few serious privateers left should be taken into consideration if we don't want the P1 grid to be in the single digits. Rebellion and Pescarolo are highly capable teams, but both seem unlikely to fully commit giving what little return they're getting for their efforts this year and how their situation is evolving. Rebellion must be changing now that Hugh is gone (commitments were already made for this year when it happened) and thinking of doing things differently (drivers -at the very least - should change) and Pescarolo keeps having a hard time getting significant sponsorship in his home country because France finds motor racing ringard (lousy). How can they be convinced and encouraged to embark on a world tour if they are set to be completely destroyed by the factory teams once again? (yeah I know I'm forgetting possible single entries from small outfits like Strakka and Hope)

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Félix

Rebellion must be changing now that Hugh is gone (commitments were already made for this year when it happened) and thinking of doing things differently (drivers -at the very least - should change).....

No reason for anything to change at Rebellion, Bart is an exceptionally capable and well established team boss.

Driver changes for next year? I'd say there's one very obvious candidate for non-renewal of contract, but just one.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

Driver changes for next year? I'd say there's one very obvious candidate for non-renewal of contract, but just one.

Yeah, that particular candidate has been *digging* around gravel traps a bit too much this year...

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Félix

I was thinking about the LMP1 car count for next year and it seems pretty low to me. 6 factory entrants from Audi-Peugeot-AMR are to be expected, hopefully at least one of the other rumoured manufacturers will make it (Nissan, Toyota, Wirth with whoever), but it still feels like the few serious privateers left should be taken into consideration if we don't want the P1 grid to be in the single digits. Rebellion and Pescarolo are highly capable teams, but both seem unlikely to fully commit giving what little return they're getting for their efforts this year and how their situation is evolving. Rebellion must be changing now that Hugh is gone (commitments were already made for this year when it happened) and thinking of doing things differently (drivers -at the very least - should change) and Pescarolo keeps having a hard time getting significant sponsorship in his home country because France finds motor racing ringard (lousy). How can they be convinced and encouraged to embark on a world tour if they are set to be completely destroyed by the factory teams once again? (yeah I know I'm forgetting possible single entries from small outfits like Strakka and Hope)

You may be suprised when you see the WEC entry list next year then, Pescarolo is already planning a campaign in the series next year. Why would Bart in charge change things at Rebellion???? He lead a Le Mans finishing team this year and is leading a possible LMS championship contender. Not to mention he kept all his drivers from last year minus Marco Andretti.

[TF110]

Thought Rebellion has a special deal with Toyota? I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll do next year.

[JAG]

The prospect of competing in a World Championship will attract manufactuers and teams not already in P1.

A few weeks back Graham Goodwin said he was aware Wirth would be on the grid but could not reveal the details. I believe this was with regards to the coupe.

ORECA will be involved, whether they run Nissans or just build them is open to question, Lola are also building another pair of Toyota engined chassis.

Pescarolo still seem intent on building their own cars, and it will be interesting to see how OAK's cars develop.

There are stories about customer R18's, AMR-One's etc.

[Purist]

Who in their right mind would buy a customer AMR-One at this juncture?

Sorry, Aston Martin, that spyder NEEDS to develop a lot in terms of reliability, if not aesthetics also, before I'd take it ahead of the Lola coupe.

[Accident]

Originally Posted by Purist

Who in their right mind would buy a customer AMR-One at this juncture?

Sorry, Aston Martin, that spyder NEEDS to develop a lot in terms of reliability, if not aesthetics also, before I'd take it ahead of the Lola coupe.

Hell, a GT2 Vantage with its roof chopped off would be a more successful prototype entry than the AMR-One.

[TheNewBob]

Originally Posted by Purist

Who in their right mind would buy a customer AMR-One at this juncture?

Sorry, Aston Martin, that spyder NEEDS to develop a lot in terms of reliability, if not aesthetics also, before I'd take it ahead of the Lola coupe.

Given the success of the previous car among the leading petrols, I'd imagine a few people bought them before the AMR-One raced, and were going on predictions and reputations...

[AGD]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

Given the success of the previous car among the leading petrols, I'd imagine a few people bought them before the AMR-One raced, and were going on predictions and reputations...

Supposedly Jota is/was one of those teams, but I don't know what the situation is now.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by JAG

Lola are also building another pair of Toyota engined chassis.

Are building? Or will build if they receive firm orders?

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

Are building? Or will build if they receive firm orders?

I don't see much point negotiating more engines if their wasn't serious interest.

[johntt]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Yeah , 30 grand a race . But that hasnt stopped some teams from doing just that , missing races .

There was a waiver for teams with "NEW" cars , to miss Sebring , but that was it , only for Sebring . That Hope Polevision , AMR and ASM must have to cough up a few shiny pennys by now .

Does anyone think that it would help the grid sizes for the WEC if they only enforced that rule for LMP1 and GTE-PRO?

Allow the P2s and GTE-AMs to come and go as they please (i.e. can afford) and I reckon we'd get a fair few more turning up.

[duke_toaster]

That's a possible there John. I'd like to also see something that stops willy-nilly driver lineup changes too (assuming that there would be a rule mandating the use of three drivers).