[WEC] 2015 WEC Discussion

[seanyb505]

I hate to come off as an arrogant American, though I would quicker believe the entries, no mater which country of origin, would care more about the potential market for selling road vehicles than simply having a "home race."

I see why the organizers have gone with this schedule, though I'll echo David in saying only one western hemisphere race seems off considering how large the North American automobile market is. China and Middle East races make sense - huge, growing markets.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the ACO is Anti-American. There are some "legitimate" reasons for only one race. Availability of Grade 1 tracks being main, nascar's reduction of once significant events being another.

To say Audi, Porsche, and Toyota don't care as much about racing in America simply because the race operations are not headquartered there...maybe not the most accurate thing that has been said.

[TF110]

In 2016, there should be at least 9 rounds if Interlagos is back and we keep everything else. This shouldnt be hard if you move Nurburgring up by a few weeks. If its first week of August its a 2-month break from LM, then head to Brazil late August. Then up to Austin. Whatd be really interesting is if they add Montreal or Mexico. At least theres a new race next year all else being said.

[Deleted]

So the number of WEC(/ILMC) visits in total after next year

Silverstone (G1) 4+2
Spa (G1) 4+1
Le Mans (G2) 4+1
Fuji (G1) 4+0
Shanghai (G1) 4+0
Bahrain (G1) 4+0
CotA (G1) 3+0
Interlagos (G1) 3+0
Sebring (G2) 1+1
Road Atlanta (G2) 0+2
Zhuhai (G2) 0+2
Nurburgring (G1) 1+0
Imola (G1) 0+1

[David Land]

Originally Posted by Acid09

The fact that the WEC did not have a German round up until next year was absurd to begin with, all three of the current LMP1 competitors are based in Germany!

I agree 100%. I am happy for the German fans who will be able to see the P1 cars in their home country.

Originally Posted by seanyb505

I wouldn't go so far as to say the ACO is Anti-American. There are some "legitimate" reasons for only one race. Availability of Grade 1 tracks being main, nascar's reduction of once significant events being another.

The ACO certainly isn't anti-American, they have been following Don Panoz's lead for the past 15 years. The FIA on the other hand...

If I had it my way, the schedule would read something like this.

1.) Sebring
2.) Silverstone
3.) Spa
4.) Le Mans
5.) Monza
6.) Bahrain/Abu Dahbi
7.) Fuji/Suzuka
8.) China
9.) Laguna Seca
10.) Road America/Indianapolis/Montreal
11.) Road Atlanta
12.) Interlagos

[Rcz]

What about daytona?

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by TF110

In 2016, there should be at least 9 rounds if Interlagos is back and we keep everything else. This shouldnt be hard if you move Nurburgring up by a few weeks. If its first week of August its a 2-month break from LM, then head to Brazil late August. Then up to Austin. Whatd be really interesting is if they add Montreal or Mexico. At least theres a new race next year all else being said.

The issues for 2016 is exactly the same as it was for 2015 and 2014: time and money. The WEC is a mix of manufacturers in P1 and GTE-Pro, privateers in LMP-1L and sometimes GTE-Pro, and gentlemen-driver funded P2 and GTE-Am entries. Those different groups’ interests are, well, different. While some (but not all) of the factory entries would probably like a longer season, that would also increase the cost of participation in both time and money for gentlemen drivers and likely push some of them out of the series to ELMS or TUSC.

A longer season happens in 2016 only if the WEC can make up possible pro-am class losses through addition factory and privateer entries. Whether that happens in adequate numbers to allow a longer season remains to be seen.

[Rodger Davies]

At the risk of flogging a dead horse.......

So why not, in future, add the Pro classes to another round in another country (TUSC, ELMS, AsLMS). Maybe TUSC wouldn't want them sharing, but the other two series would be no problem (arguably there will be enough Pro entries to run standalone at a shorter track like Laguna though).

Red Bull Ring ELMS is in July, why not add the WEC Pro classes there and give the other 'classes' the race off? Heck, it's even Grade 1.......

[Gulf]

Originally Posted by David Land

I agree 100%. I am happy for the German fans who will be able to see the P1 cars in their home country.



The ACO certainly isn't anti-American, they have been following Don Panoz's lead for the past 15 years. The FIA on the other hand...

If I had it my way, the schedule would read something like this.

1.) Sebring
2.) Silverstone
3.) Spa
4.) Le Mans
5.) Monza
6.) Bahrain/Abu Dahbi
7.) Fuji/Suzuka
8.) China
9.) Laguna Seca
10.) Road America/Indianapolis/Montreal
11.) Road Atlanta
12.) Interlagos

You should run the WEC. If I could I would vote for you lol that's a dream schedule.

[TheMightyM]

John Dagys reports that:

The LMP1 class is set to fall back under a single class designation for 2015, which will see the elimination of the Hybrid and Lightweight subclasses currently used to distinguish different technologies in the top prototype category.

and

“For sure today, the performance [of the non-hybrid LMP1 cars] needs to be improved,” Beaumesnil said. “They are working and for sure the level of manufacturers and privateers is maybe different.
“But we must consider them as a full group. The “Light” name could be considered something that reduces the value, so this is why we want to do this.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

John Dagys reports that:



and


You can read the rest of the article here.

"although Beaumesnil said it hasn’t yet been determined whether there will continue to be separate podiums."

If they do continue, then it's pretty meaningless change. I have always wondered is it for example for Rebellion more worth it to be listed in the standings next to famous manufacturers or to be listed in another standings table that nobody looks at.

[Coach Ep]

As promised (if you are a WEC lover you might wanna skip this post...):

- Silverstone is same date as Blancpain ES at Monza, if ELMS joins WEC again (to be expected) it makes for some really frustrating scheduling
- another big summer break, if 2,5 months doesn't sound long to you try saying it in weeks - the number is 10!
- addition of the Ring is great but the dismiss of Interlagos is a real loss, especially considering the reason given to drop it - because it was "not a good solution" to return for a second season at the end of November (quote from racer.com article). Hence the last race was scheduled for November 21st at Bahrain (sounds like the Bahraini are paying a little extra money to be the finale, including the pay off the WEC owned to Emmo for not fulfilling their contract)
- Fuji round scheduled 2 weeks after the Japanese F1 GP, great for the fans who wanna visit both but barely have time to save some money for the tickets.
- 1.000 km title for the Ring race has already been discussed extensively.
- full season entry should not be limited in numbers, there'll be enough drop out and possibly too many again that the ACO has to scrape for last minute ones for LM anyway.

Make it a manufacturers championship only and let P1 and GTE Pro run the big, classic events worldwide combined with the regional series and use a couple of also events (Bahrain, China) as stand alone fillers that hardly anybody is interested in anyway. Something like Rodger said earlier.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

As promised (if you are a WEC lover you might wanna skip this post...):

- Silverstone is same date as Blancpain ES at Monza, if ELMS joins WEC again (to be expected) it makes for some really frustrating scheduling
- another big summer break, if 2,5 months doesn't sound long to you try saying it in weeks - the number is 10!
- addition of the Ring is great but the dismiss of Interlagos is a real loss, especially considering the reason given to drop it - because it was "not a good solution" to return for a second season at the end of November (quote from racer.com article). Hence the last race was scheduled for November 21st at Bahrain (sounds like the Bahraini are paying a little extra money to be the finale, including the pay off the WEC owned to Emmo for not fulfilling their contract)
- Fuji round scheduled 2 weeks after the Japanese F1 GP, great for the fans who wanna visit both but barely have time to save some money for the tickets.
- 1.000 km title for the Ring race has already been discussed extensively.
- full season entry should not be limited in numbers, there'll be enough drop out and possibly too many again that the ACO has to scrape for last minute ones for LM anyway.

Make it a manufacturers championship only and let P1 and GTE Pro run the big, classic events worldwide combined with the regional series and use a couple of also events (Bahrain, China) as stand alone fillers that hardly anybody is interested in anyway. Something like Rodger said earlier.

I argue with many of your points. Just a slight correction: the summer break between Le Mans and the Nürburgring will be 11 weeks, not 10.

[Simmi]

How much of them being in Brazil was legacy stuff from when Peugeot were still involved? We know it was a big market for them.

It's a shame because Interlagos is a great track but I think another European race will attract a much better grid.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by Simmi

It's a shame because Interlagos is a great track but I think another European race will attract a much better grid.

Maybe, but it largely depends upon the ELMS schedule. Spa this year drew exactly one additional P2 (Jota) and one additional GTE-Am (an extra AF Corse) entry when there was an ELMS race two weeks later at Imola.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by deggis

"although Beaumesnil said it hasn’t yet been determined whether there will continue to be separate podiums."

If they do continue, then it's pretty meaningless change. I have always wondered is it for example for Rebellion more worth it to be listed in the standings next to famous manufacturers or to be listed in another standings table that nobody looks at.

Separate podium would be for the useless "Endurance Trophy" not for L though

It's meaningless in itself but at least the big public would see the class unified in the TV graphics and PR releases, as they should be. So it's a step for better

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Separate podium would be for the useless "Endurance Trophy" not for L though

That's what I mean with separate standings table. That's the bigger problem for me rather than the L/H designation.

[Deleted]

FIA WEC Poised for Maximum Capacity Grid in 2015

Okay what all of that still screams to me under the excuses given is the need to cap entries for LM more than anything, but couple of other things:

A) GTE-SHAM ain't going anywhere “We have to be careful as we have LMP1, LMP2 and GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. We have to find a good balance” Oh great, because "balance" is just what is needed - ie potentially big (P2-)prototype teams turned down because of some rich pants AM team fielding granny Astons.
B) “There will be no more than 32 full-season entries but it could mean 32, 33, 34 cars in place as we have to keep one or two entries open per race for local teams" Just one or two entries open? What kind of crap is that? If that is not a true sign of generic standardization, I don't know what is? I mean, Spa 2012 was disgusting enough with artificial 42 car gap, but now you could have a 33-34 car gap for the same race mostly because of ->
C) “When you’re visiting all the different tracks, you have to make sure you have a good pit lane organization and enough space in the garages. You can see how much space the LMP1 programs take up, for example.” which to me (again) is also THE REAL REASON for the series never ever going anywhere other than shiny Grade 1 tracks again bar LM. Space, so much space, and room for corporate guests and VIP.

[isynge]

Main details of next year's Spa trip now sorted - so very much hoping they don't muck about with calendar again...

[jase]

Originally Posted by isynge

Main details of next year's Spa trip now sorted - so very much hoping they don't muck about with calendar again...

Spa has been the first weekend in May for so long now, it is almost a fixed point (like Le Mans is 3rd weekend in June)
I just need to book the ferry crossing and I'm ready

[isynge]

Originally Posted by jase

Spa has been the first weekend in May for so long now, it is almost a fixed point (like Le Mans is 3rd weekend in June)
I just need to book the ferry crossing and I'm ready

Indeed, but having been mildly inconvenienced by the date change this year there's always a small level of concern...

[Purist]

And with the mention of four 747s for air freight, can we cut the crap about the huge window being needed for sea travel?

[Coach Ep]

Indeed!

• Ring in mid/late July

• replacement race in South America for Interlagos or 2nd North American race early september

would have been so much better.

It hardly corresponds with Neveu's ambitions though.

[TF110]

Theres more to it than "ambitions". There is the teams' and manufacturer's interests for one. They cant just go wherever they please and put on a successful event. Its not perfect but its far from as bad as some seem to make it out to be.

[rich07]

Who are the soon to be announced American GTE effort? First I've heard of this unless they're talking about Dempsey.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by rich07

Who are the soon to be announced American GTE effort? First I've heard of this unless they're talking about Dempsey.

GrahamGoodwinChiefEditorOfDailysportscarDotCom says there's solid pointers towards Ford in GTE soon (2015 or 2016).