[WEC Race] 4 Hours of Shanghai 2019

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by Badlands99

Now to the UK TV coverage ........ Eurosport had the whole race and BT Sport appeared to have the last two hours so was able to see it all. BUT ........ Eurosport commentary was just painful! I can do Mark Cole as he at least has an idea of what is going on, but Tom Gaymor is just painful to listen to and sometimes just doesn't appear to know what is happening. It was nice to turn over to BT and listen to Alan McNish who definitely knows what he is doing.

Somewhat related: I had to chuckle when they read out a tweet from a viewer saying something like 'these penalty rules are ridiculous, hypercar can't come soon enough'.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Somewhat related: I had to chuckle when they read out a tweet from a viewer saying something like 'these penalty rules are ridiculous, hypercar can't come soon enough'.

Hmm yes they have the liberty to do anything they like as they're not really the official ACO channel

My favorite was at LM 2010 when Martin Haven was imitating Jonathan Legard during ES night shift

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Badlands99

'Interesting Race' ....... I think! Yes it was artificial, but isn't most racing in these BOP/Safety Car/FCY days?
Quite enjoyed it really, some good battles up and down the other classes as always ........ just a few more cars in GT Pro would be good. Pleased that Rebellion finally won in a 'straight fight' but I do think that the changes went a little too far. Toyota strategy and professionalism kept them in touch.
Good also to see Ginetta going in the right direction - both finished which was encouraging and they are progressing quickly through the usual new car/new team learning curve. Good effort!
Now to the UK TV coverage ........ Eurosport had the whole race and BT Sport appeared to have the last two hours so was able to see it all. BUT ........ Eurosport commentary was just painful! I can do Mark Cole as he at least has an idea of what is going on, but Tom Gaymor is just painful to listen to and sometimes just doesn't appear to know what is happening. It was nice to turn over to BT and listen to Alan McNish who definitely knows what he is doing.

Didn't have Louise in the pit lane, which was disappointing.

[GT6]

Well enjoyed the race this weekend, had to watch it in two parts as spent weekend at the britcar event at brands hatch, but it was certainly an interesting race and felt really pleased that Rebellion won a race on the track, the performance of the toyota's were held back but as the race was much better for those changes we will see how future races pan out.

[TF110]

The penalties have gone a little too far imo. The Toyota's were barely passing GTE's on the straights. That's bad for safety. They should reduce the amount of hybrid power per lap instead of the amount of fuel so much. This is what really hurts the top speed. Reducing hybrid a little more won't hurt the top speed so much, but will their 4wd advantage in acceleration. That way they'll be closer to the non-hybrids in the way they make their lap time. I guess we'll see how it goes but if Toyota were this close at basically 'max' penalties. I don't see the non-hybrids winning again until they "lose a little".

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Chiana

It'll be even worse at Bahrain (and that's double the length of this race) given that even if Toyotas finish 3rd or 4th or whatever, they'll still be receiving further bop penalties on top of this, right?

Originally Posted by Mike E

"currently the two Toyotas’ are pegged back as far as they can be by the success handicap regulations. The maximum handicap has been achieved by a combination of a 40% reduction in hybrid power, 7.5% drop in fuel energy and a 28kg minimum weight increase to the car."

https://racer.com/2019/11/09/insight...mpression=true

Already it's seeming questionable

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ap-in-bahrain/

The championship-leading car of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley will contest the fourth round of the 2019-20 season with a 2.72 second per lap handicap compared to the ‘reference car’, which in this case is the No. 6 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AER.

Toyota’s sister No. 7 car for Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez – which trails the No. 8 by three points – will be made 2.51 seconds slower.

Both Toyotas were expected to be penalized by the same amount for Bahrain because both cars are more than 40 points clear of the No. 6 Ginetta which is last in the standings and therefore the reference vehicle.

The WEC rules published at the start of the season state that handicaps beyond 40 points’ worth cannot be made, meaning the TS050s should be penalized equally as long as they are above this threshold.