[WEC] WEC 2024

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

I assume you're talking about Juan-Pablo Montoya rather than Eric Curran
But anyway, if you're the weakest Porsche driver then you can't expect to stick around that long, considering the binders full of drivers they have access to.

Exactly. He's not bad - you can't be bad in a Porsche. But the problem is if you're not A+, then everyone wanting your seat is. Matt Campbell is A+.

But I'm not sure this will make a real difference to the Porsche effort. In all honesty, the Jota Porsche should never ever be near the factory Porsche. The fact it is raises questions.

[tomcug]

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...try-selection/

“I will not give too many commits on this,” Lequien said. “As I said, we have to take our decisions based on different criteria.
“For Vanwall Racing, some of them was not OK. But I just want to add that I have a lot of respect and admiration for the team. It was a very, very hard decision to take.”

I guess the problem was both their 2023 performance and using branding they have no rights to use (Vanwall).

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

But I'm not sure this will make a real difference to the Porsche effort. In all honesty, the Jota Porsche should never ever be near the factory Porsche. The fact it is raises questions.

I think that's an interesting point, though not one I necessarily agree with. I don't automatically disagree, but I think it might be thinking rooted in a particular era of racing that has ended (for now at least).


I've grown up with Le Mans being the domain of the factory teams, and it was said on multiple occasions that the factory teams wouldn't provide cars to privateers as they were too complicated for the privateers to get the most out of, they didn't want one of their cars chugging round getting beaten by the other factories every race.
Perhaps those LMP1 rocketships were too complicated. But perhaps not? The privateers all had inferior cars, but the teams themselves weren't 'necessarily' inferior.



The privateers certainly seem more professional than at any time since I've been watching endurance racing.
I mentioned above that there are always more good drivers available than there are seats, but there are also more good engineers available than there are factory jobs. Those engineers have to work somewhere, and the good LMP2/GT teams like Jota, WRT, UA will snap them up.


So, if you are able to hire engineering staff and drivers that are basically on par with those the factories can hire, why wouldn't you be able to challenge the factory squad? Maybe not over a whole season, more money counts for more, but certainly over individual races.

[PhilipR]

For the last few races I found the number 6 Porsche to be on par with the Jota - even in Bahrain it had similar pace just that it lost a lot of time at the start with the Bamber move.

The reasons why Jota is on par with Penske might be that Penske having developed the car they over complicate the set up whilst Jota finds one that works and keeps to it. Another reason could be Jota having knowledge of the WEC tracks whilst Porsche and Penske have limited knowledge of these.
Also Jota is great team with great results in LMP2 (which unrestricted are probably similar pace to the LMDHs) so they can probably transfer some of that knowledge

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

I think that's an interesting point, though not one I necessarily agree with. I don't automatically disagree, but I think it might be thinking rooted in a particular era of racing that has ended (for now at least).


I've grown up with Le Mans being the domain of the factory teams, and it was said on multiple occasions that the factory teams wouldn't provide cars to privateers as they were too complicated for the privateers to get the most out of, they didn't want one of their cars chugging round getting beaten by the other factories every race.
Perhaps those LMP1 rocketships were too complicated. But perhaps not? The privateers all had inferior cars, but the teams themselves weren't 'necessarily' inferior.



The privateers certainly seem more professional than at any time since I've been watching endurance racing.
I mentioned above that there are always more good drivers available than there are seats, but there are also more good engineers available than there are factory jobs. Those engineers have to work somewhere, and the good LMP2/GT teams like Jota, WRT, UA will snap them up.


So, if you are able to hire engineering staff and drivers that are basically on par with those the factories can hire, why wouldn't you be able to challenge the factory squad? Maybe not over a whole season, more money counts for more, but certainly over individual races.

I see your point, but I don't think it should be so easy for Jota to have made up the gap. Penske developed the cars, have two programs running gathering an immense amount of data, have Porsche factory backing, have Porsche factory drivers, and got the cars delivered earlier. They should be streaks ahead.

It should also be noted that this happened in IMSA too. JDC got the car late, does not have factory backing or drivers, and regularly was matching the factory cars.

[tomcug]

I think this pretty much means that Penske aren't delivering what they should. Acura won the big races in IMSA only after switching to MSR/WTR.

[Sodemo]

Shame we are losing Vanwall, when the big boys come in, the also rans get shoved to the sidelines as is so often the case…

[v8supes]

What happens IF there are too many factory entries though? Who gets shoved then ?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by v8supes

What happens IF there are too many factory entries though? Who gets shoved then ?

GT3

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

GT3

What about privateer 963s? We don't expect any restrictions there?

[Coach Ep]

Pretty much limited by Porsche themselves at this stage. Second fulltime Proton expected in 2025 but after that?

The three unofficially announced entries for 2025 are likely to be:
1) Heart of Racing Aston Martin
2) 2nd Lambo
3) 2nd Proton Porsche
all 3 are Hypercar entries

Once the series reaches 30 HY entries fulltime, the organizers might start to think about splitting off the GTs.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Short of having another 6-8 entries, I dont think we could ask for much more.

I could ask for a GT pro class, in fact I still do.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Pretty much limited by Porsche themselves at this stage. Second fulltime Proton expected in 2025 but after that?

The three unofficially announced entries for 2025 are likely to be:
1) Heart of Racing Aston Martin
2) 2nd Lambo
3) 2nd Proton Porsche
all 3 are Hypercar entries

Once the series reaches 30 HY entries fulltime, the organizers might start to think about splitting off the GTs.

All sounds good, I just hope that the BOP doesn't **** off the likes of Toyota to the extent they decide to quit.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

All sounds good, I just hope that the BOP doesn't **** off the likes of Toyota to the extent they decide to quit.

I think Peugeot or the Penske Porsches would be more likely to disappear. Porsche is well represented with Jota and Proton, maybe they decide they don't need the additional factory support there

[broadrun96]

Yeah, the day after the Penske deal expires I would expect those cars sold on and him to leave again until another deal emerges to pay him enough

[veeten]

If right now doesn't please you, then just wait for '25. Lequien seems to have the right idea...

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...-for-2025.html

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by veeten

If right now doesn't please you, then just wait for '25. Lequien seems to have the right idea...

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...-for-2025.html

So 40 automatic entries to le mans
15 lmp2s
2-3 auto invitations from ELMS, ALMS and the Bronze trophy in IMSA

Add in potential extra entry for a top manufacturer - people will be upset that their favourite team(cough Risi cough) from a regional championship did not get an entry for Le Mans

[broadrun96]

Risi is fun and they race well but giving them a LM spot when they don't run a full regional series is a slap in the face to those who do and could also run LM.

[Matador]

Tire warmers may be back for Le mans '24

Tire warmer ovens could return to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s marquee event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, next year according to WEC CEO Frederic Lequien, who said a decision has not yet been taken.
Re-instated for this year’s French endurance classic based on safety-related concerns from the opening rounds of the WEC season, particularly at Spa-Francorchamps, the measure was taken as an expected one-off occurrence and not utilized at any other WEC events since.

I.e. If the BoP isn't helping a certain equestrian enough over the first few races then .... ?

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I see your point, but I don't think it should be so easy for Jota to have made up the gap. Penske developed the cars, have two programs running gathering an immense amount of data, have Porsche factory backing, have Porsche factory drivers, and got the cars delivered earlier. They should be streaks ahead.

It should also be noted that this happened in IMSA too. JDC got the car late, does not have factory backing or drivers, and regularly was matching the factory cars.

Yeah that's a good point, you'd think it should take longer for a privateer (however good they are) to catch up with the factory team.


Leaves a couple of interesting possibilities*, such as Porsche/Penske not being quite as on the ball as we all think they are, or their car was so easy to get up to decent speed that Jota, JDC etc could accomplish it in just a couple of races.


* Other possibilies are surely available.

[broadrun96]

Well Penske hasn't been showering themselves in glory in Indy of late. They're not the worst but make some bone headed decisions, not MSR level but occasionally

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Well Penske hasn't been showering themselves in glory in Indy of late. They're not the worst but make some bone headed decisions, not MSR level but occasionally

This is it for me. They aren't bad but it feels like they're spread stupidly thin and not achieving the potential we'd expect from Penske.

[RL17]

It’s not a Porsche factory team like 919 era. Also they were poor at LM in 2014 (first year) and lucky in 2017.

Porsche Penske has two bases, two teams plus Weissach and different rules sets and especially tyres and must be more at home at IMSA. Plus chassis manufacturer and hybrid. So Jota WEC/LMP2 experience
and later cars may be better built/more reliable.

So need to judge Porsche Penske WEC next year although Porsche are playing the numbers game.

[FIRE]

Left or right it's great to see customers like Jota and JDC Miller performing well against the factory teams.

[claude2cv]

Obviously not in 2024 , but we may see more red card

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/al...n-f1/10554554/

Sean