[WEC Race] 2014 FIA WEC - Round 2 - Spa

[Beetle]

This race totally snuck up on me! Sorry for the delay (again). I will have the class previews up here replacing this placeholder by April 29. Cheers!

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Lap of Spa
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[Salamus]

Thanks Beetle

Just to confirm, Rebellion will be debuting the R-One, yes? On the entry list, it still says Lola.

Also, has Millennium Racing closed its doors for the entire season?

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by Salamus

Thanks Beetle

Just to confirm, Rebellion will be debuting the R-One, yes? On the entry list, it still says Lola.

Also, has Millennium Racing closed its doors for the entire season?

Yes rebellion will have the R-One there. They've put the right entry list on their twitter account.

[hcl123]

" Also, has Millennium Racing closed its doors for the entire season? "

Most probably, they never happened yet
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113473

No money ... no race lol ... if fresh money does not come in time for Le Mans from somewhere, its season over i think.

"" "OMD funds were deposited on January 7, 2014 within a major international bank, on an account legitimately owned by OMD. Political manoeuvres have been since then initiated by some international institutions in order to block OMD actions." ""

What were they doing to be blocked ? ( they seem more of the same, a simple ORECA-Nissan )

[Intimidator]

They announced today Millennium Racing out of Le Mans.
Take a look at this http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/f...raw-from-lm24/

[TF110]

Is that the official poster for Spa? If so its a laugh. Last year's Audi with Mark Webber... How about this year's Porsche 919 in the background? Its not hard to put a TS040 and new R18 up there is it? They need some better PR guys imo. 4 cars on a random pit straight with Webber doesnt scream excitement. Im just being picky.

[Hendrix]

Originally Posted by TF110

Is that the official poster for Spa? If so its a laugh. Last year's Audi with Mark Webber... How about this year's Porsche 919 in the background? Its not hard to put a TS040 and new R18 up there is it? They need some better PR guys imo. 4 cars on a random pit straight with Webber doesnt scream excitement. Im just being picky.

Well, the Porsche was only shown a couple weeks before the poster(Mar. 21 from what I've gathered) so they probably didn't have time to add it and Audi and Toyota didn't show their new cars until after the poster was shown.

In other words, it would have been quite hard to put a TS040 or R18 on it.

[Mal]

With Audi the only team running a Spa specific set up it shows that they need the race win. If they lose again to Toyota it will really compromise their WEC title ambitions.

[Ferrari333SP]

Mmmmm, over 5 minutes of pure Toyota TS040, courtesy of DRIVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUFH60cqn40

[GT6]

Would love Rebellion to win but think it will be toyota that triumphs on saturday

[NelisB]

The website of the WEC now says that there will be 1 R-One and 1 Lola voor Rebellion. To bad they won't bring 2, but then again it's always nice to go back to back testing and compare data between the old and the new car.

[GT6]

Originally Posted by NelisB

The website of the WEC now says that there will be 1 R-One and 1 Lola voor Rebellion. To bad they won't bring 2, but then again it's always nice to go back to back testing and compare data between the old and the new car.

That is the first i have heard about that, yesterday everyone was saying that both rebellions would be the new car

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by GT6

That is the first i have heard about that, yesterday everyone was saying that both rebellions would be the new car

Here is the new entrylist dated today: http://www.fiawec.com/wpphpFichiers/.../entrylist.pdf

[TF110]

Originally Posted by GT6

That is the first i have heard about that, yesterday everyone was saying that both rebellions would be the new car

At least on their twitter feed, they speak of R-One's plural and show 2 on their provisional entry list- https://twitter.com/RebellionRacing/...27219891163136 but thats from the 24th! Things may have changed.

[Deleted]

I would have done the same thing...

It would be sort of amusing if the slightly favourable specs (=more towards ALMS trim) the ACO gave for Lola this year proved to be considerably quicker than the R-One

Anyway if we trust that list they'll now have lovely beauty of a car from the old P1 era and also rather nice looking one from the new era

TBH as much as I want to see the R-One, it could be a wise decision to do the same for LM... have one unproven model and one proven. In any case they'll be playing second fiddle to the factories so having at least one reliable chassis could come in handy

[GT6]

But the old one was not able to get anywhere near the factory cars at silverstone so if the R1 is slower than the old tub then Rebellion has a problem, they must put all thier efforts into getting the new car up to speed

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by GT6

But the old one was not able to get anywhere near the factory cars at silverstone so if the R1 is slower than the old tub then Rebellion has a problem, they must put all thier efforts into getting the new car up to speed

Do we really, really think that R-One is going to be any closer to the factory pace than the (favourably adjusted) Lola was?

And even it was like 2 seconds a lap faster than Lola at LM it would still be losing laps for the factories in no time... the only real chance is to have works P1s retiring (actually retiring, not having problems since they overcome those) in order to have opportunity for better positions and for that job Lola is better equipped than new unproven chassis at the moment

I don't think they really care for LMP1-L sub honours and "Lotus" is questionable at best, so better go for reliability than speed

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Do we really, really think that R-One is going to be any closer to the factory pace than the (favourably adjusted) Lola was?

And even it was like 2 seconds a lap faster than Lola at LM it would still be losing laps for the factories in no time... the only real chance is to have works P1s retiring (actually retiring, not having problems since they overcome those) in order to have opportunity for better positions and for that job Lola is better equipped than new unproven chassis at the moment

I don't think they really care for LMP1-L sub honours and "Lotus" is questionable at best, so better go for reliability than speed

Blimey you have no faith in rebellion do you, they are a top rate team and i am confidentially expecting them to be much closer to the factory cars with the new car, the ten-tenths le mans mob all have a real soft spot for Rebellion, i was wearing my 2009 pit crew shirt last night on a le mans planning meeting at the pub and was very proud to wear it

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by GT6

Blimey you have no faith in rebellion do you, they are a top rate team and i am confidentially expecting them to be much closer to the factory cars with the new car, the ten-tenths le mans mob all have a real soft spot for Rebellion, i was wearing my 2009 pit crew shirt last night on a le mans planning meeting at the pub and was very proud to wear it

No faith in Rebellion? They are my favourite prototype team by far, always have been...

It's just that even with Oreca's help in chassis design one would be naive to think they'd be seriously challenging any of the factories at LM, the budget gap is absolutely massive... as I said, even if R-One was couple of seconds faster than Lola with favourable specs it would still lack badly behind all works cars. Maybe not on single lap pace, but on long run

[eps]

Before Silverstone I would have said Audi for the win with Toyota pushing them hard.. But after Silverstone Audi looked decidedly non-Audi..

Toyota seem to have upped their game and chosen the correct LMP1-H package as have Porsche. Porsche seemed to sit back and soak it all up, I suspect they are biding their time before LM24, then I expect at least one of them to really push the other two teams, whilst the other one is designated to finish and gather data.

Audi seemed to have dropped the ball, have they lost their focus because of Porsche entering the fray or there's another reason??

Interesting!

Rebellion? Sorry but they will be plucky losers, always. They won't be able to pressure the manufacturer teams. Then again I always supported Panoz when they were at LM, but they were at least a factory team, so in control of their own destiny.

[GasperG]

It's interesting that Audi will still use high downforce package at Spa, but then again it's logical, with lower ERS capacity and efficient engine they want to get as consistent average speed as possible.

For instance, Audi is doing 277 kph on the strait and then they brake to 100 kph for a corner, Porsche is doing 308 kph and they are braking longer (more energy) to 90 kph (not sure).

The end result in Silverstone was still better lap time than Porsche, but how will that strategy work in Spa and will they use it in LeMans too?

[Filos]

Any livestream link for SPA?

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by Filos

Any livestream link for SPA?

Bit early to ask for a livestream I think. There probably will be links in the livestream topic.

[eps]

Originally Posted by Filos

Any livestream link for SPA?

MotorsTV will have it, if you're in the UK and have a TV / STB that can pick it up (Freeview HD+ only with decent MHEG support)

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by GasperG

It's interesting that Audi will still use high downforce package at Spa, but then again it's logical, with lower ERS capacity and efficient engine they want to get as consistent average speed as possible.

For instance, Audi is doing 277 kph on the strait and then they brake to 100 kph for a corner, Porsche is doing 308 kph and they are braking longer (more energy) to 90 kph (not sure).

The end result in Silverstone was still better lap time than Porsche, but how will that strategy work in Spa and will they use it in LeMans too?

The third car from Audi is the one with the low downforce specifications I think. They've not confirmed what package they will run for the other cars but atleast one of them will be a low downforce package. I think either way the cars will be fast enough. Spa is a track where you can run either one of the specifications and get similar laptimes and with the new frontwings they are probably able to trim the car out a little more.