British GT 2024

[flatlandsman]

I would think it is not the car, they are normally pretty bulletproof

[stuart thompson]

Originally Posted by Adamcas87

Marciellos comments before donington
And after witnessing John Ferguson slamming and kicking the car after retiring it on Dunlop Straight at donington makes me think not all is good with that RAM BMW M4 and the team

What did Marciello say?

[flatlandsman]

He quit earlier in the year, probably from workload, but I would think also he was not happy about how the team was working either he never shone that much in British GT and only seemed interesting picking up a pay cheque.

[Adamcas87]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

What did Marciello say?

He mentioned on Twitter before donington he decided to miss last 2 rounds of Season
In his words “he works in a different way to the team, so the working conditions in the team were no longer acceptable”

[stuart thompson]

Cheers guys,I did wonder why Hesse was in, I just assumed it was workload/availability.

[chunterer]

Marciello is a BMW factory driver.

So is Hesse.

So is Harper..

Do the the teams/owners request a works driver, or do the manufacturers say 'listen if you're going to buy/lease one of our cars and represent us you better have somebody who at least knows how to drive it'??

[flatlandsman]

I would guess Macdonald leases the cars and pays extra for a good driver, either way he is paying for the main driver.

[F1_fan]

On the off chance? Is anyone going to BrandsHatch tomorrow? Was supposed to be marshalling but had an accident, so just going as a spectator instead but public transport there is a nightmare. I can get to Swanley train station. I believe I can get you a free ticket as a marshall!

[v8supes]

I understand why they left the race under FCY because it came out just before the pit window opened and they didnt want to ruin the race but now we have had an almost 25 minute FCY/SC period for a car to be removed from the gravel. The GT4 leader was also able to gain the best part of a lap on the rest of the GT4 field. Why couldn't they just delay the pit window instead?

[v8supes]

Second FCY/SC period - 26 minutes.

[flatlandsman]

Main reason I dont watch British GT anymore, the rules dont suit our racing or our tracks. They are for good reason, but so m,any races are just endless periods under SC, it needs a shake up for British GT.

[stuart thompson]

I get the trying to be fair with allowing teams to pit before ending the FCY, but in the old days it was called good strategy calls and what made endurance racing interesting. All SRO managed championship s are merely sectioned out sprint races nowadays

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by stuart thompson

I get the trying to be fair with allowing teams to pit before ending the FCY, but in the old days it was called good strategy calls and what made endurance racing interesting. All SRO managed championship s are merely sectioned out sprint races nowadays

There seems to have been a massive sea change in recent years that its race control's business to ensure "fairness" in a race

In the past they just bothered themselves with safety concerns and the teams and drivers could sort out the fairness, but what started with Indycar waiting to throw full course cautions until the leaders could cycle through their pit stops in the name of fairness (the incident that is causing the Yellow to be thrown in the first place is apparently happy enough to sit there not being dangerous or getting any more dangerous until race control deem it so, apparently, which seems highly risky to me, something is either dangerous enough for a FCY or it can be cleared up under waved yellows, not "well, it'll be dangerous in about 2 laps so we'll throw the yellow then when the leaders have pitted") is now spreading across motorsport that Race Control have an obligation to ensure there's not this "random" element to a race that teams can react to, for good or ill....

Such a weird recent sydrome, if a SC is thrown at a "Random", strategy ruining moment, it affects everyone simultaniously, in the old days some of the best races across all catagories could be the ones where the pre-planned strategy script gets thrown out and fast cars get sent down the field and underdogs get a surprise result...it doesn't feel like this is "allowed" any more, and any time something happens that doesn't fit a strategy plan the teams have worked out before the race, they throw a fit

This, coupled with a similar circumstance in the wet, that any time the rain comes down its now race control's business to ensure the teams/drivers are running the right tyres for the conditions, removing a key strategy element of wet racing that makes it so exciting, teams gambling on the what the conditions might be like in 5/10 laps time and getting a march on their rivals, is part of the overreach of race controls around the world and is really having a sanatising effect on the racing

We need random events back in racing, you can't mandate them out of motorsport, or Motorsport will lose its soul!

[pimmy]

That race was a farce. 55 minutes under yellow in total.

I don't buy this "we have to put the safety car out after an FCY so people can get their tyres back up to temperature" rubbish. Every other series around the world copes just fine. It's merely a procedure to placate useless amateurs who couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's backside.

The utter obsession with amateurs has to stop. I have no problem with less experienced drivers competing but the structure of this series (and majority of GT racing) revolves around their existence. Every driver in a particular series has a licence of sufficient grade to participate and, as such, should all be treated as equals. Splitting drivers into categories and only allowing certain combinations of precious metals only penalises good drivers. The fact that silver/silver pairings are allowed in GT4 but not GT3 is baffling too. Surely you want the faster cars to have a higher quality of driver? This is motor racing, not life choices racing.

Pit stop time penalties are unfair as well. Unlike ballast systems or hybrid restrictions used in other series, which gradually cost competitors time over the course of the race, the pit time penalty is incurred all in one lump and is impossible to defend against. Luckily, the timing of the yellow in this particular race didn't affect the outcome.

Stéphane Ratel is a disgrace to motorsport.

[Bcarr6]

I dont disagree with anything you really have to say there Pimmy, but... there isnt money in national or even international motorsport these days to just forget the Am's. This pro-am focused format is here to stay, and as long as that is the case the organisers will pursue the pleasing of Am's.. If they don't, said Am's can just clear off to another series.

Its just a fact of life now, and realistically is the only way we started with 16 GT3's on the grid this year

[flatlandsman]

I was listening to a NASCAR guy (not sure who) talking about the fake yellows in NASCAR over the years, quite a brave thing to do for someone involved in racing still, we all know it goes on in NASCAR and affiliated series.

Some of the reasons they throw yellows in SRO stuff also bothers me, tiny bits of debris, I know they can cause issues but is that also not part of driving, why can't we have slowzones etc.

I feel that all series regardless of them being FIA or SRO or IMSA should ALL use the same procedure, then we can all get used to it, drives can to. British GT has become largely unwatchable because if it, and cannot be offering drivers value really, for a race that long to spend well over a third of its length behind SC is beyond the joke.

And sadly convince me further that GT cars at this level simply have overgrown British tracks in general, the amateur drivers are not good enough, the cars are too big, too fast and the tracks are too narrow in the main.

Again being frank, sadly I watch a few people who club race in the UK and it is now sadly very common to have just about every race interrupted by some sort of yellow. Maybe I am unlucky.

It's why I don't watch it live, and why I would NEVER want to do it.

[pimmy]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

I dont disagree with anything you really have to say there Pimmy, but... there isnt money in national or even international motorsport these days to just forget the Am's. This pro-am focused format is here to stay, and as long as that is the case the organisers will pursue the pleasing of Am's.. If they don't, said Am's can just clear off to another series.

Its just a fact of life now, and realistically is the only way we started with 16 GT3's on the grid this year

Yeah, I completely understand it's about money and without the Am's the whole thing would collapse (what a sustainable discipline of racing!) but it's just so... unappealing.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

I dont disagree with anything you really have to say there Pimmy, but... there isnt money in national or even international motorsport these days to just forget the Am's. This pro-am focused format is here to stay, and as long as that is the case the organisers will pursue the pleasing of Am's.. If they don't, said Am's can just clear off to another series.

Its just a fact of life now, and realistically is the only way we started with 16 GT3's on the grid this year

19 at the beginning wasn't it?

I can see both sides of the coin.

The wealthy amateurs provide the grid, some of them are very good, some are ordinary but without them there would only be a dozen cars

What gets me is when said am chucks it in the tyres or gravel before the gun driver gets their go!

[v8supes]

Originally Posted by pimmy

That race was a farce. 55 minutes under yellow in total.

I don't buy this "we have to put the safety car out after an FCY so people can get their tyres back up to temperature" rubbish. Every other series around the world copes just fine. It's merely a procedure to placate useless amateurs who couldn't drive a greasy stick up a dog's backside.

The utter obsession with amateurs has to stop. I have no problem with less experienced drivers competing but the structure of this series (and majority of GT racing) revolves around their existence. Every driver in a particular series has a licence of sufficient grade to participate and, as such, should all be treated as equals. Splitting drivers into categories and only allowing certain combinations of precious metals only penalises good drivers. The fact that silver/silver pairings are allowed in GT4 but not GT3 is baffling too. Surely you want the faster cars to have a higher quality of driver? This is motor racing, not life choices racing.

Pit stop time penalties are unfair as well. Unlike ballast systems or hybrid restrictions used in other series, which gradually cost competitors time over the course of the race, the pit time penalty is incurred all in one lump and is impossible to defend against. Luckily, the timing of the yellow in this particular race didn't affect the outcome.

Stéphane Ratel is a disgrace to motorsport.

The SC after FCY thing was introduced after the 2014 SPA 24 hour fiasco where youd have an incident, a long SC period and then a big crash quickly after resulting in another lengthy SC period. I particularly remember a very destructive first 6-8 hours.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by v8supes

The SC after FCY thing was introduced after the 2014 SPA 24 hour fiasco where youd have an incident, a long SC period and then a big crash quickly after resulting in another lengthy SC period. I particularly remember a very destructive first 6-8 hours.

I may be misunderstanding the situation, but why was a FCY->SC introduced as a response to SCs occurring back to back? This potentially makes the situation worse as you always have a SC. If they'd gone back green after a FCY they wouldn't be bunched up.

The explanation the commentary team give for this procedure does vary on occasions. The 2 I've heard is it's better for entertainment (which I believe is the truth) and it allows the drivers to warm their tyres as they're catching the SC - I personally don't believe this one.

I believe they are doing it to bunch the field to get some racing, but the result is less interesting racing as the cars are under yellow for longer and we have more yellows as a result.

[flatlandsman]

Seems mr Ferguson was banned for a while after a meeting this year, not quite as innocent as he said on here then!!

[stuart thompson]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Seems mr Ferguson was banned for a while after a meeting this year, not quite as innocent as he said on here then!!

That probably explains the absence at Brands Hatch.

[BertMk2]

MSUK Court notes here:

https://revolution.motorsportuk.org/...6/content.html

3 month ban (so ok for next season).