[WEC] WEC 2022 Season

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by REmvs

I don't get the ACO.

There is a hypercar wanting to race (Bykolles Vanwall) not alowed to race (yes yes yes, i know the new rules carmaker etc.) and there is a Hypercar which is allowed to race, not willing to race --> Glickenhaus

I don't think 'not willing' paints a true picture of the position.....

[REmvs]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I don't think 'not willing' paints a true picture of the position.....

Depends on how you look at it. At the beginning of the year, ACO forced anyone entering the FIAWEC to participate in all events. They were willing when entering. Now Le Mans happened, only raced with one car at Monza and that was it. And my guess is that this was their plan all along.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I don't think 'not willing' paints a true picture of the position.....

Not having the budget to run to be precise

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Not having the budget to run to be precise

Exactly so....

Originally Posted by REmvs

Depends on how you look at it. At the beginning of the year, ACO forced anyone entering the FIAWEC to participate in all events. They were willing when entering. Now Le Mans happened, only raced with one car at Monza and that was it. And my guess is that this was their plan all along.

I accept that's possibly so, but I have a strong feeling that if he had the wherewithal to run the car(s), Jum would love to have them out there.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by REmvs

Depends on how you look at it. At the beginning of the year, ACO forced anyone entering the FIAWEC to participate in all events. They were willing when entering. Now Le Mans happened, only raced with one car at Monza and that was it. And my guess is that this was their plan all along.

It was their plan all along and they’ve been pretty transparent about it. I think it’s a rare showing of pragmatic flexibility from the ACO.

Would you rather have Glickenhaus there and competitive for half a season, or not there at all?

[gert]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

It was their plan all along and they’ve been pretty transparent about it. I think it’s a rare showing of pragmatic flexibility from the ACO.

Would you rather have Glickenhaus there and competitive for half a season, or not there at all?

At the end of last season / beginning of this one they said they were in for a full season wth at least one car.

Glickenhaus can compete and I'd be happy to have them.
Now for the 2 Le Mans tickets, I'm not sure I would grant them the way they were granted this year.
As far as I'm concerned they would have to queue AFTER all the full season entries.

Their 2nd entry would probably have fallen away against - let's say - 1 of the Highclass Racing entries (who had both entries on the reserve list) or the Racing For Nederland/Jumbo car.

That is - for me at least - the consequence of cherry-picking the events you like and skipping the ones that don't suit you.

[Aysedasi]

The 'problem' with that is would you (or the ACO) rather have another competitive top class car or 'just another' LMP2.... (issues of 'fairness' excluded).

[Simmi]

Pretty sure the ACO has written something into their own selection rules around sporting merit (good for the show), which is what Ayse is referencing.

The hypercar class has been a bit of a joke as it is without turning away extra cars. Luckily these issues will soon disappear as the car counts increase and the ACO's hand strengthens. You'd imagine teams will have to toe the line, as it won't be a small privateer P2 team topping the reserve list, it will be something more appealing.

[gert]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

The 'problem' with that is would you (or the ACO) rather have another competitive top class car or 'just another' LMP2.... (issues of 'fairness' excluded).

I would not have invited the 2nd Glickenhaus no.
The 708 did not do the full season as I had asked, so even that one was lucky to be invited. But quite logical, to have it.

But the 709 did nothing, and I wasn't prepared to make 2 exceptions for the same team.

So yes, if that meant "just another" LMP2 or "just another" GT car, then so be it.

[Akrapovic]

On principle I agree with Gert because this is how the ACO has wanted to play things. Very strict rules.

But - Le Mans, historically, has been filled with weird entries and invites and one-offs. And we are kinda missing that sort of thing at the moment. And I do get a little bit unhappy when we drop long term independent teams just because Ford and Porsche have decided they need to bring 16 cars.

[Simmi]

'23 calendar is here. Don't think anyone will be surprised by the addition of Portimao. Might take a little look at attending that round next year.

[S griffin]

Nice calendar. I think Algarve will be a great addition.

[Mike E]

BoP updates for Bahrain

12kg weight reduction for Peugeot, 4kW power cut for Toyota, 4kW power increase for Alpine. Changes in GT classes too.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...k-for-bahrain/

[Simmi]

Finger in the air BoP that feels like possibly.

They're going to need a bit more of a robust process next year. It's going to be like the GT Pro lobbying on steroids.

It's going to be really interesting to see if anyone tries to play the game out of the box next year with a slow opening few races followed by some real pace at Le Mans. As Pug have shown, where does poor performance end and the need for BoP begin?

Albeit if you go that route you've got to fully commit and not show your hand until lap one. I'd be scared of gunning it in warm up to be honest.

[Sodemo]

There should be a threshold of power, weight, fuel tank size and then if you are hitting the limits of those then you just need to improve the car. The BOP in TCR got ridiculous with cars nearly 200kg heavier than others.

[broadrun96]

Yeah, that's been tried and failed miserably. The cars are homologated and set, there is no improving the car and limited test days as well. There just is not unlimited funds from tobacco companies to relive the 70s-90s.

[Simmi]

Not really sure what thread this goes in but the current P2 car(s) are being extended to encompass the next 3 seasons - https://www.dailysportscar.com/2022/...d-to-2025.html

Can understand the rationale behind putting all the eggs into the big class. But damn, it really brings up very conflicted feelings. When the Ligiers and Dallaras were getting lit up back in 2017 when the new P2s debuted, imagine being told these Oreca 07s would go on to dominate in scorched earth fashion for NINE years.

I'm not sure it's possible for something to be both a major success and also an abject failure, but LMP2 has somehow managed it.

[Tom908V12]

Peugeot 1-2 at the first free practice in Bahraïn
2nd free practice running...

[Tom908V12]

Peugeot - Toyota - Alpine is the result of the second free practice in Bahraïn

[Simmi]

Pugs have been decent in a few FPs so far but tanked in the race. So let's see. Got my fingers crossed for them.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I'm not sure it's possible for something to be both a major success and also an abject failure, but LMP2 has somehow managed it.

I think LMP2 post-2017 achieved all its set aims tremendously well.

Of course, at least one of those aims was the exact opposite of egalitarian...

[Mike E]

FP3 on YouTube if you have nothing better to do this morning

https://youtu.be/dbVT6nRchjw

[S griffin]

Peugeot looking good, let's see if they can keep this pace up come qualifying.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Mike E

FP3 on YouTube if you have nothing better to do this morning

https://youtu.be/dbVT6nRchjw

And Toyota finds some pace and sets the fastest time of the event thus far.

[outnumbered]

Am I the only one watching the race A few close battles in the first hour or two, but it's settled down now. Peugeot looking better than previously, apart from ctrl+alt+del problems with #94

I've noticed that the WEC live timing website is much better than it used to be, with lots of stats such as drive time and pit time available if you log in and use "expert mode". One glaring thing that's still missing is the driver class ratings.