[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[TF110]

I think my point got lost. Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Quatar... the region in general has been talked about as a lost cause for sportscar racing. Abu Dhabi's case I can't speak of, but there's a desire to race in the region as what you're saying. So the desire to race at Bahrain, would that be a reason NOT to race @Yas Marina circuit? In other words, why wouldn't they? What's the reason?

[trickyd]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Of course. The races at Istanbul always have been incredibly dull atmosphere-wise.

Bahrain this year was pretty cool, racing into the darkness and everything. Made for great TV pictures too.

You see I have to disagree with you here. The atmosphere I can't comment on, as I wasn't there, but racing into the night did not make for good TV. Quite the opposite in fact, you couldn't see the cars which are generally the reason people tune in to watch a car race. Racing at night at Le Mans is fine, its unavoidable, and also at Sebring and other longer events. But when you are doing a 6 hour race it makes sense to me for it to be done in daylight hours, so spectators can see something other than headlights. If headlights are your thing then you might find motorway bridges at around 3am to your liking. It came across as a gimmick to liven up an otherwise drab location.

Yas Marina is a nice circuit, one of our friend Hermann's better efforts, and it produced an exciting race yesterday. If we are going to be at Tilkedromes then Abu Dhabi, Turkey and to an extent India I can live with. Shanghai and Malaysia merge into one and are too fiddly for sportscars and Korea is in probably the ugliest location any circuit has ever been. Austin we will just have to wait and see.

[gregtummer]

Originally Posted by trickyd

You see I have to disagree with you here. The atmosphere I can't comment on, as I wasn't there, but racing into the night did not make for good TV. Quite the opposite in fact, you couldn't see the cars which are generally the reason people tune in to watch a car race. Racing at night at Le Mans is fine, its unavoidable, and also at Sebring and other longer events. But when you are doing a 6 hour race it makes sense to me for it to be done in daylight hours, so spectators can see something other than headlights. If headlights are your thing then you might find motorway bridges at around 3am to your liking. It came across as a gimmick to liven up an otherwise drab location.

Yas Marina is a nice circuit, one of our friend Hermann's better efforts, and it produced an exciting race yesterday. If we are going to be at Tilkedromes then Abu Dhabi, Turkey and to an extent India I can live with. Shanghai and Malaysia merge into one and are too fiddly for sportscars and Korea is in probably the ugliest location any circuit has ever been. Austin we will just have to wait and see.

Gotta disagree with you on this one. I love watching Sportscars fly around the courses using only their headlights without a lot of ambient lighting. It is magical.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by gregtummer

Gotta disagree with you on this one. I love watching Sportscars fly around the courses using only their headlights without a lot of ambient lighting. It is magical.

Yep, I agree with this. The unique desert sunset made for brilliant pictures. I don't care if it's a gimmick, it made an otherwise dull event worth watching.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I'd hoped that the trip to Bahrain could spark some interest from in that region to get behind a team. Not sure if there is any evidence of that happening. I wonder whether a team could end up adopting the model we've seen in the WRC where money comes in from somewhere like Abu Dhabi to run a privateer works car.

Isn't that the problem with racing in places like this? There's no interest at a grass roots level and since motorsport first went to the Middle East with the GP, no finance has emerged from the region to run a privateer works car or indeed another F1 team.

[joeb]

There was some interesting talk on twitter in the past day with Dagys mentioning a possibility of 20 cars looking for lmp2 wec entries. The talk then switched to the fact that only 35 spots are likely for the wec, so then the question becomes how many cars to accept in each class and will the cars that don't get accepted try a d run a regional series?

My guess for next year would be 7-10 LMP1, 12-15 LMP2, and the remaining 10-16 split between the GT classes. That would mean growth in the GT categories, but I think that is a realistic expectation.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Isn't that the problem with racing in places like this? There's no interest at a grass roots level and since motorsport first went to the Middle East with the GP, no finance has emerged from the region to run a privateer works car or indeed another F1 team.

Even if they haven't purchased an F1 team, I think it's only fair to point out that Middle Eastern investment/sponsorship is pretty important to a number of the teams nonetheless. Aabar owns 40% of the Brawn/MB operation, Mubadala is involved in Ferrari (though only as a sponsor now), Mumtalakat is a part-owner of McLaren. Those are all government agencies. IPIC is involved with Toro Rosso, Emirates sponsors McLaren and Ethiad Ferrari, while Williams has some sort of tech research reciprocity going on with the Qataris. I don't think F1 would be keen to lose that investment.

There is also a bit more grassroots motorsport of sorts going on in the Middle East now, with GT cars, Radicals etc. being raced in local series and in endurance races with international cars. Middle Eastern drivers are increasingly involved in sportscar racing in Europe and the US too. It's not a total loss.

[KingKenny04]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I'd hoped that the trip to Bahrain could spark some interest from in that region to get behind a team. Not sure if there is any evidence of that happening. I wonder whether a team could end up adopting the model we've seen in the WRC where money comes in from somewhere like Abu Dhabi to run a privateer works car.

Seems to me that lack of interest would stem more from culture and/or law. I would think if anyone in that region tried to start their own team, the local secret religious police would show up, execute three or four of them, and then burn their shop down.

Unless of course it was a royal or a member of the government.

[Pandamasque]

So how are Gulf Racing still running? Are they down to just 1 car because half the team were executed?

[Rodger Davies]

Originally Posted by KingKenny04

I would think if anyone in that region tried to start their own team, the local secret religious police would show up, execute three or four of them, and then burn their shop down.

Wow.

Just wow.

Guess the future of the Dubai 24 is pretty bleak then.

Personally I'd suggest that a lot of money from that region is in the sport, but it's been paired with proven teams and other opportunities.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Wow.

Just wow.

Guess the future of the Dubai 24 is pretty bleak then.

In Dubai 24h you'll only get shot for exceeding the target laptime :P

[The Badger]

How about the Iranian 24 then !!! ..... firework show post race could be cool .....

[gwyllion]

WEC Silly Season Heating Up by John Dagys

[trickyd]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

WEC Silly Season Heating Up by John Dagys

I hope Toyota allow an Oreca run car

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

WEC Silly Season Heating Up by John Dagys

Be interesting to see what Krohn do next year, because I was told today that Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo have been reclassified in the driver grading system.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by airbusA346

Be interesting to see what Krohn do next year, because I was told today that Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo have been reclassified in the driver grading system.

Reclassification which would leave Tracy as the only silver/bronze driver in the current line-up?

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Reclassification which would leave Tracy as the only silver/bronze driver in the current line-up?

Yup.

[JHamilton]

Krohn is more aluminum than bronze. Maybe that will offset it.

[Victor_RO]

Dagys did tweet some of the more major changes, some drivers got reclassifications due to moving into different age brackets, while others got upgraded/downgraded on performance.

The change that must have the guys at Nissan tearing their hair out right now is the fact that Lucas Ordonez just got re-classified as Gold. So if they want to keep him in a LMP2 car, they can't count on sneaking him in as the non-pro any longer...

EDIT: Some of the changes mentioned:

Rui Aguas: Silver -> Gold
Michael Waltrip: Platinum -> Gold
Brian Vickers: Platinum -> Gold
Martin Brundle: Platinum -> Gold
Alex Brundle: Silver -> Gold
Lucas Ordonez: Silver -> Gold
Michele Rugolo: Silver -> Gold
Spencer Pumpelly: Silver -> Gold
Ricardo Gonzalez: Silver -> Gold
Jon Bennett: Bronze -> Silver
David Heinemeier Hansson: Bronze -> Silver
Greg Pickett: Gold -> Silver
Stefan Johansson: Gold -> Silver
Fabien Giroix: Gold -> Silver
John Martin: Gold -> Platinum
Mathias Beche: Gold -> Platinum
Pierre Ragues: Gold -> Silver
Olivier Lombard: Gold -> Silver

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Krohn is more aluminum than bronze. Maybe that will offset it.

I drove with him at Laguna this year in a Porsche and was surprised.. he's a very good driver (I study data of everyone I drive w/ trying to learn something). I'm sure the GTE Ferrari's are different and I have no idea what strategy the teams use in those races, but was very solid in the Porsche.

His endurance was impressive as well, I think he did a triple stint to end the race after our differential exploded (while leading GTC class) and the car went back out. Cockpit temps were super high with no coolsuit or helmet blower either. :-)

The more I race the more I'm learning about the politics of the "silver" rated drivers and the more the classification system doesn't seem to make sense.

-mike

[Simmi]

Definitely a few head-scratchers there.

How, with the greatest respect to those guys, are Beche and Martin platinum drivers without any significant P1 experience?

Alex Brundle moves up a class after what, five races in a P2 car.

[GT3.14]

Lombard down to silver? Ouch.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by GT3.14

Lombard down to silver? Ouch.

Didn't realise he was gold in the first place? If so that was nonsensical too and the change actually makes a lot of sense. Same as the likes of Waltrip, Vickers and to a lesser extent Brundle senior being demoted.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Definitely a few head-scratchers there.

How, with the greatest respect to those guys, are Beche and Martin platinum drivers without any significant P1 experience?

Alex Brundle moves up a class after what, five races in a P2 car.

Performances this year would be the catalyst for the promotions, I would assume. Beche does have some P1 experience I believe, he hasn't raced them but I believe he has tested for Rebellion some time over the last year and a bit. He was at least declared as reserve driver for Rebellion at Le Mans either this year or last year.

Originally Posted by GT3.14

Lombard down to silver? Ouch.

He was promoted to Gold this year after his performance with Greaves last year, but it's fair to say that he underperformed rather massively this year.

Originally Posted by Simmi

Didn't realise he was gold in the first place? If so that was nonsensical too and the change actually makes a lot of sense. Same as the likes of Waltrip, Vickers and to a lesser extent Brundle senior being demoted.

Brundle Sr's demotion is probably due to him no longer meeting the age criterion for a Platinum driver (which he would be as a former superlicense holder, F1 driver and Le Mans winner).

[aneesh99]

Still stumped as to the criteria they are using to classify drivers, some real 'eh?' moments whilst going through that...