[WEC] WEC 2019/20 season

[TF110]

I know Bathurst is really popular but in terms of eyes-on, Brazil's population far outweighs Australia's. All of Australia has ~24 million people. Sao Paulo alone has half that with 12 million, just in the area near Interlagos, and the race takes place during a festival period. You can't be serious in thinking that race must be avoided at all costs by the WEC. It'd be nice but there's only so many weekends in the year. According to DSC there's wiggle room for a date change for Bathurst too. All is not lost. Silverstone dropping to 4 hours is a head-scratcher, but the reasons listed were the attendees and teams trying to leave the circuit. Not sure how true that is. Bahrain I could do without 8hrs of, but they seemingly pay the WEC so if more money comes from them I guess it's worth it since it helps float the series?

[Adam43]

Variable race lengths. Hurrah, just what I wanted. A good step.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Variable race lengths. Hurrah, just what I wanted. A good step.

Something I realized that this schedule we see posted will be the first season without Ford in GTE Pro.

[Akrapovic]

I don't think anyone thinks Bathurst should be avoided at all costs, but it is worth trying to avoid certainly. A week after Daytona doesn't bother me though. The amount of teams doing double duty is already dropping and will drop further. Drivers will do double duty between a week, so that's fine - and as you said, only so many weekends. The Petit clash again though is careless. If it was one clash, you say well fine, but WEC seems to make a habit of it.

I agree with your Silverstone reasoning. That's...nonsense. If Bahrain wanted 8 hours then fine, there's no harm in it. But it does feel like someone has a beef with Silverstone. It was dropped for weird reasons, then readded (showing there wasn't really a problem with having it) after backlash, and now it's one of the first to get a length cut. The fan survey said they want Silverstone, and the fan survey rated 4 hour lengths as a lot less popular. It's just...weird. Feels like there's an odd conflict we don't know about. I think when people voted for different race lengths, this isn't quite what they had in mind lol.

It's a decent calendar, it just has weird little bits where it's odd.

[TF110]

There's lots of foreigners and Military who 'live' and work in Bahrain and that area of the M.E. If I were to guess, it'd be more of them attending the race than the locals unless they're the higher ups.

[Akrapovic]

https://storage.googleapis.com/fiawe...dia_Report.pdf (Pages 14-16)

I do find it weird that Bahrain never got mentioned in the fan survey...at all. They even say in that survey that Le Mans, Fuji, Sebring, Silverstone and Spa are the races with the most appeal, and they ranked the highest in event importance (Nurburgring was also up there in ratings). Fans also didn't want 4 hour races. It's just...weird.

No point in looking up attendance, as the attendance for every race outside Le Mans is always 55,000. It's cringy when they announce that about 5 hours into the race.

[Adam43]

Basically there aren’t many sportscar fans and those small number that there are all hate it. They should probably shut up shop. Zero hour races nowhere is the real solution.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

2 paddocks in use for ELMS and WEC. Reducing the race from 6 to 4 doesn't really change much in that regard.

It helps ease the timetable congestion at Silverstone.
This weekend is very tight: it only took one red flag this morning to eliminate the lunch break. Saturday and Sunday don't even have a lunch break (although Sunday does have a church break).

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

And another Petit-Fuji clash + Sao Paolo is same weekend as Bathurst 12H.

Brilliant job by the WEC - as always!

We don't know that, as the Bathurst date hasn't been announced for 2020 yet.
It is traditionally the first weekend of February, which would be the weekend of the 7th and 8th.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by sceptic

It helps ease the timetable congestion at Silverstone.
This weekend is very tight: it only took one red flag this morning to eliminate the lunch break. Saturday and Sunday don't even have a lunch break (although Sunday does have a church break).

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't see this solving timetable congestion. Assuming ELMS retains the 4 hour event and the Saturday slot, then Saturday timetable will be identical.

Sunday would indeed cut 2 hours off the race, but looking at the timetable, there is only two races. Sunday actually starts an hour later, and the first track action isn't until 10am. If they had too much congestion then they really should consider moving the Formula 3 race an hour earlier, or dropping it completely from the Silverstone weekend as ELMS is already the support event. The Le Mans Cup event doesn't attend due to timetable constraints and tbh, I doubt anyone would miss F3.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't see this solving timetable congestion. Assuming ELMS retains the 4 hour event and the Saturday slot, then Saturday timetable will be identical.

Sunday would indeed cut 2 hours off the race, but looking at the timetable, there is only two races. Sunday actually starts an hour later, and the first track action isn't until 10am. If they had too much congestion then they really should consider moving the Formula 3 race an hour earlier, or dropping it completely from the Silverstone weekend as ELMS is already the support event. The Le Mans Cup event doesn't attend due to timetable constraints and tbh, I doubt anyone would miss F3.

I agree, F3 is not needed on the Sunday. Silverstone should stay 6 hours, it's usually a great race.

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't see this solving timetable congestion. Assuming ELMS retains the 4 hour event and the Saturday slot, then Saturday timetable will be identical.

It means you can move a support race from Saturday, which is really congested, to Sunday, and get another support series in too.

For example:

10:00 - 10:40 Support Series A race 1
10:40 - 11:15 Church break
11:15 - 12:15 Support Series B race 1
12:15 - 13:00 Support Series A race 2
13:30 - 17:30 WEC race

and use the time you have saved on Saturday for qualifying for Support Series B.

[JoeW04]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't see this solving timetable congestion. Assuming ELMS retains the 4 hour event and the Saturday slot, then Saturday timetable will be identical.

Sunday would indeed cut 2 hours off the race, but looking at the timetable, there is only two races. Sunday actually starts an hour later, and the first track action isn't until 10am. If they had too much congestion then they really should consider moving the Formula 3 race an hour earlier, or dropping it completely from the Silverstone weekend as ELMS is already the support event. The Le Mans Cup event doesn't attend due to timetable constraints and tbh, I doubt anyone would miss F3.

I won't even bother watching the F3 tomorrow morning, paint drying springs to mind

[Anyopenroad]

I'd drop F3 in a heartbeat and replace it with 2x1hr Le Mans Cup races.

Bearing in mind that during the ELMS race today there were probably more people in the WEC pitwalk than watching the race on track, we should remember that ELMS is very much the support race this weekend. The crowd was really thin.

It's a shame about the 6hr->4hr change but I'm relieved to see Silverstone on the calendar at all.

As an aside, I much prefer the 2-day ELMS format forced on them this weekend. 3-day ELMS weekends stretch the track action very thin indeed.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by sceptic

It helps ease the timetable congestion at Silverstone.
This weekend is very tight: it only took one red flag this morning to eliminate the lunch break. Saturday and Sunday don't even have a lunch break (although Sunday does have a church break).

From a weekend timetable point of view Silverstone lends itself to a shorter race. Silverstone easily puts on more support and has, as pointed out, the ELMS race too. Whereas with Bahrain the main feature is well the feature!

Not what I would have chosen, but if the marshals get a bit of rest-bite fair enough.

Warning, what follows is a rant and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Ten-Tenths. (To be honest, it probably doesn't even represent the opinions of the poster when they aren't ranting.) You have to factor in a slice of realism before we go down the woe is me everything is bad avenue. Quite frankly I’d just not bother if I was running this series, it seems you can’t please anyone. Pragmatism is required in all areas of life. Except you can please some people. There will be thousands (maybe not 55,000 ) at Silverstone and we'll enjoy it. Shame most don’t post here. Perhaps they aren’t real fans. The fans didn’t chose the race lengths by circuit they just said they wanted variety. That’s what we got. Good. We’re not going to get Bathurst, Watkins Glen, Nordschleife, Donington, Suzuka or Reims. So why cry when we don’t? It strikes me it is bizarre to follow a sport (or anything) when it continually doesn’t give you what you want and that is all that interests you. We now return you to our normal ramblings.

Woo, Silverstone.

[Articus]

the fan surveys were probably hacked by Russian bots..

[seanyb505]

Originally Posted by Articus

the fan surveys were probably hacked by Russian bots..

Bahrain bots.


One perspective - the reduced lengths are probably a nod to reducing budgets of teams (thought having any event is way more expensive than the per hour cost of the race). And the Bahrain payment to ACO may be paying for other aspects of the series that Silverstone itself wouldn't want to burden themselves with. Bahrain may seem pointless as a race. But who knows what's being enabled in during the season because of their desire to pay the ACO.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

That's for 2019.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by EffectiveSprinkles

That's for 2019.

You're quite correct *slaps forehead*

[EffectiveSprinkles]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

You're quite correct *slaps forehead*

The winter calendar for WEC certainly takes some getting used to. But it also means it's still over 18 months before the event, plenty of time to iron out any issues. This is more a statement of intent by WEC than anything else. I still maintain having a race at Interlagos is far more important than not clashing with Bathurst.

[Akrapovic]

I see what you're getting at there, fair enough. Although I don't see the upside to that. I can't imagine any WEC fan has ever went to Silverstone and said they wanted less WEC and more Formula 3. I'd even go as far as dropping the F3 event completely and using Le Mans Cup - even if that has to be a shorter race.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I see what you're getting at there, fair enough. Although I don't see the upside to that. I can't imagine any WEC fan has ever went to Silverstone and said they wanted less WEC and more Formula 3. I'd even go as far as dropping the F3 event completely and using Le Mans Cup - even if that has to be a shorter race.

I believe Silverstone themselves asked for the change to accommodate another series, and I'm guessing the money they'd get they feel offsets any lost ticket sales by saying they've increased your value per ticket. Although I think many here would argue less WEC means less value.

I know people who have stopped coming to Petit on Wednesday as the WeatherTech guys don't come in track until Thursday morning now, so not exactly better value there. It's not the same thing as it was done here to save the teams money by cutting a day not race length. But it is still one less practice session so less time on track with the main event. More spec MX-5s is NOT an improvement for me. But I want my camping spot so I'm there early regardless who's on track, maybe I'm not the target audience for this type of change either.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

I believe Silverstone themselves asked for the change to accommodate another series, and I'm guessing the money they'd get they feel offsets any lost ticket sales by saying they've increased your value per ticket. Although I think many here would argue less WEC means less value.

I know people who have stopped coming to Petit on Wednesday as the WeatherTech guys don't come in track until Thursday morning now, so not exactly better value there. It's not the same thing as it was done here to save the teams money by cutting a day not race length. But it is still one less practice session so less time on track with the main event. More spec MX-5s is NOT an improvement for me. But I want my camping spot so I'm there early regardless who's on track, maybe I'm not the target audience for this type of change either.

I think your last line is quite funny because it's how we all seem to feel, lol. Everyone seems to be saying "maybe this isn't targeted at me", including me. If it isn't for us, who is it for? lol.

Reducing the main event to get another support event is bizarre. Although there was a weird statement during ELMS, but I forgot who said it - they said Silverstone was basically the only place other than Le Mans where you'll get that many top line sportscars in one weekend, but I disagree - Sebring next year will have the same thing.

Maybe that's what they should do. Turn Silverstone into an ACO festival to start the year. Stick Le Mans Cup in as well, and do what IMSA does so well - big weekends of everything.

[gert]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Although there was a weird statement during ELMS, but I forgot who said it - they said Silverstone was basically the only place other than Le Mans where you'll get that many top line sportscars in one weekend

I don't remember the exact quote, but what they said was basically that instead of 6 hours of sportscar racing, Silverstone would have 8 AND a far larger car count (i.e. the car count of WEC + that of ELMS).

IIRC, that was Graham Goodwin, and the way he told it - it occurred to me as that was how the organizers would try to sell it, and not something he himself would buy into...


Later on in the ELMS race, this was brought up again, and then the possibility of the LMP3 races was added

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by gert

I don't remember the exact quote, but what they said was basically that instead of 6 hours of sportscar racing, Silverstone would have 8 AND a far larger car count (i.e. the car count of WEC + that of ELMS).

IIRC, that was Graham Goodwin, and the way he told it - it occurred to me as that was how the organizers would try to sell it, and not something he himself would buy into...


Later on in the ELMS race, this was brought up again, and then the possibility of the LMP3 races was added

it was me - and I forgot Sebring with the double-header there - it most certainly was not something suggested to me by the organisers - in fact the calendar was announced while I was in the booth - I wasn't at the media briefing

[TF110]

Does Silverstone have any noise restrictions for the surrounding area? Do they have flood lights at the track? I can't recall seeing a race there that went into darkness. At Bahrain there is lighting and it runs at night so there's no issue there for 8 hours. As for the noise, I'm pretty sure the Bahrainian government puts on the show and noise complaints probably work a little differently in that area