[WEC] New rules. New manufacturers. The 2021 and beyond positivity thread!

[Graham Goodwin]

Originally Posted by veeten

Well, they were promised a privateer 9X8 a while back...

No - no they weren't

They expressed interest in running one - it was clear from the start they did not have remotely enough budget and were counting on fullsome support from a single sponsor that told us immediately that it wasn't happening

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

Surely Mercedes would go for a LMH vs LMDH, right? Freedom to design the car how they want, combined with more than enough budget to fund the development.

Of any manufacturer that could come in I think they are the most likely to go LMH. They are a little like Ferrari like that in that they could use old F1 resource that isn’t needed with the budget cap. Although their facilities are quite the same.

However LMDh is very attractive to do. There is still stuff to do and it is nice a simple to get into. This makes it the most likely if they do enter.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

Surely Mercedes would go for a LMH vs LMDH, right? Freedom to design the car how they want, combined with more than enough budget to fund the development.

Ferrari uses the same tub as Caddy and BMW, so the freedom of lmh is mostly just front wheel drive. You can win wec races with an lmdh so why not start with a crash tested tub and make it your own?

[TF110]

Originally Posted by joeb

Ferrari uses the same tub as Caddy and BMW, so the freedom of lmh is mostly just front wheel drive. You can win wec races with an lmdh so why not start with a crash tested tub and make it your own?

I know it's Dallara but I thought I read it was a Ferrari design and Dallara was the constructor?

[chernaudi]

It's a Ferrari design built by Dallara, though it's been said that the Ferrari tub has more similarities to the Dallara GTP tub than Ferrari are willing to admit to...

[tomcug]

LMH surely gives freedom with hybrid that LMDh doesn't but I think there are other reasons why specific manufacturers or teams went that way (maybe even more important):

• ability to join the grid before 2023 (Toyota, Glickenhaus, Peugeot)
• you can't have no wing with LMDh (Peugeot)
• your car can be 100% yours on paper at least (Ferrari which has a Dallara co-designed chassis -> but not on paper)
• you're a garagist with no production capacity to be eligible for LMDh (Glick, "Vanwall", Isotta)
• ability to run without a hybrid (Aston)

There might be more that I missed. In general LMDh is a cheaper option, capable of winning races and championships so it's no surprise it's a bit more popular.