[WEC] Toyota LMP1 Discussion

[TF110]

Why? The prologue is a good thing since it's a mandatory for every team to be at with at least one car. And it's free to attend so the fans get to see the cars and teams.

Edit- their reasoning is the limited testing days (the prologue takes away one of those it seems) http://www.racer.com/wec-le-mans/ite...ar-at-wec-test

[Adam43]

That's an easy fix, remove the test day from the allocation. Perhaps for next year.

[Deleted]

Toyota response for singleton car:

"Testing is limited and running two cars wouldn't fit with our schedule. There are a lot of cars on track and a lot of red flags, so it is not necessarily the best environment for testing."

Official collective test event not best environment for testing

Third pre-LM event - as was the original plan with Monza before that got canned - would've put at least little more emphasis on championship at the start of the season. Rather than now where nobody cares of the series in the first two races, only treat them as dress rehearsals for LM.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by TF110

Edit- their reasoning is the limited testing days (the prologue takes away one of those it seems) http://www.racer.com/wec-le-mans/ite...ar-at-wec-test

Yes

http://www.24h-lemans.com/wpphpFichi...egulations.pdf

Each car participating in the following official collective test will be counted as 1 open private testing car/day respecting
the pre-announcement period of 90 days:
1. Prologue (Paul Ricard – 2 days): 25/26 March 2016
2. Le Mans Test (Circuit des 24 Heures – 1 day): 5 June 2016
3. Le Mans Bugatti Test (Circuit Bugatti – 1 day): 7 June (unless the Roll Out private testing conditions are respected)
4. End of season rookie test (Bahrain International Circuit -1 day) : 20 November

But doesn't this just prove that, despite what has been argued here countless of times that the now-more-restricted testing allocation is easily enough for the factories, it may actually not be?

Oh well, I guess when in 5 years time the only testing available to the WEC teams will be some single day excursion at Bahrain at the start of the season and every other testing is forbidden by law a la F1, we will remember todays allocation with fondness...

[chernaudi]

I thought that series sanctioned tests didn't count towards the 43 day testing allocation, unless the ACO changed the rules without my knowledge.

[Deleted]

The only thing they don't count towards to is the 10 day "closed testing" allocation within the 43 day overall allocation. So if manufacturer were to do all four collective tests (three of which mandatory) with two cars, that'd mean they'd have already lost 10 open days, leaving just 23 open days + 10 closed days. Which again goes down quickly if you run with more than just single chassis. And if you do say 30 hour simulation test that will count as multiple days (12 hours seems to equal as "a day"). It's a lot more restrictive you might have thought.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by Chiana

.... Rather than now where nobody cares of the series in the first two races, only treat them as dress rehearsals for LM.

I think you're on the minority(that only cares about LM) on this one

I hope Toyota and Audi single cars don't often break up at the Prologue because that event is quite important to me as it indicates what the season will be like. Depending on what I'll see, I won't even bother with WEC.

[chernaudi]

Problem is that the Prologue only really showed last year what the first two races were like. Audi were dominant in the first two, but Porsche dominated most of the second half the season, even when Audi could have (and should have) gave Porsche a harder time in the last 3 or so events.

[Adam43]

I think I'll wait until first practice at Silverstone before I decide whether I'll watch the season or not. I should be able to sell my ticket for that event and Le Mans.

The prologue will be good if only to see the cars in detail.

[TF110]

I thought sandbagging was frowned on at the prologue for bop reasons (in lmp1). The Audi/Porsche pace was down to Porsche using it's LM package in Silverstone and Spa.

[Akrapovic]

Isn't the LMP BOP/EOT set post LM? So sandbagging wouldn't matter?

[TF110]

Maybe that was 2014 I'm thinking of and it's not done at the prologue?

[J Jay]

As far as I remember EoT has always been post-LM for these regs for exactly this reason, so there's little point in sandbagging at the prologue anyway; something that last year Porsche really took to heart!

[Artur]

My understading is that as well. If it was before LM, then it would lead to obvious and inevitable sandbagging, which would be a very stupid ruling, btw.

I wished and was expecting Toyota to release another teaser before the prologue but since it's only 2 weeks away from that event, I guess we'll have to wait until then to see new things about the TS050.

[kaivo]

https://www.facebook.com/fiawec/vide...4896262566827/

V6 sound teaser.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by kaivo

https://www.facebook.com/fiawec/vide...4896262566827/

V6 sound teaser.

Sounds very much like an F1.

[godlameroso]

Really because it doesn't sound like crap to me

[Deleted]

The low audio bitrate doesn't help, but it's not particularly great.

[cokata]

Yep V6 engines tend to sound like crap. At least from this first glimpse it seems to me that the Porsche will sound nicer.

[kvenom]

Just show us the damn car already, I'm very impatient.

[carbon_titanium]

hope that toyota will reveal the displacement!
just to speculate if the new motor will be a high torque/low rev ford ecoboost V6 style or a "moderate" high rev like porsche

[TF110]

Heres a night video https://www.instagram.com/p/BCvwgj5mhc_/ the videos slow down when it passes by. That scews the audio and it's (probably) purposely low quality. Here's a capture from the daytime footage

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by TF110

Heres a night video https://www.instagram.com/p/BCvwgj5mhc_/ the videos slow down when it passes by. That scews the audio and it's (probably) purposely low quality. Here's a capture from the daytime footage

I think we will have a nice surprise with the front aero of the car... just a guess by the way

[S griffin]

I thought for a minute that was a picture of a crashed Toyota

[Deleted]

Intriguing shapes, however every year it seems, these blurry preseason Toyota teasing images end up making the car look far more interesting and attractive than it actually is when later revealed