[WEC] WEC 2021 season

[Mike E]

No idea, although the Signatech guys were trying to find a way to get Alpine into the top class. This would be a fairly easy way to do that before taking the plunge with LMDh.
Provided the BoP stacks up.

[Deleted]

Ludicrous 15 minutes of warm-up (meaning that the session is pretty much immediately cancelled once single car runs off) which also now happens earlier, no public scrutineering, and the previously announced nonsense hyperbole sessions still there among other weirdly timed happenings. What a treat, it's like they're trying to find the worst possible timetable they possibly can
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ed-to-circuit/

Edit: sorry this was for the 2019-20 thread, move please

[NaBUru38]

Thread bump!


The 2021 season is expected to have 6 races from March to November.


https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...2021-calendar/

[Mike E]

So those 6 races will probably be...

Le Mans
Spa
Silverstone
Bahrain
Fuji
Sebring/COTA/Interlagos?

Unless the plague is still with us and the FIA scrap their 3 continents requirement for a world championship and we end up with two ELMS's.

[Akrapovic]

I think Silverstone will be dropped for China. They've been doing their best to get rid of it anyway.

[Deleted]

Surely plan A is

March- Sebring 1000mil
May- Spa 6h
Jun- Le Mans 24h
Aug- Silverstone 6h
Oct- Fuji 6h
Nov- Bahrain 8h


And plan B is

April- Monza/Ricard/Silverstone/Spa
May- Monza/Ricard/Silverstone/Spa
Jun- Le Mans
Aug- Monza/Ricard/Silverstone
Oct- Fuji/Bahrain/Shanghai/Monza/Ricard
Nov- Fuji/Bahrain/Shanghai/whatever-in-America

[canaglia]

due cost saving for lmp2/gtam team, I think there will be just 1 extra european round, so I image this kind of calendar:

monza mid april
spa early may
le mans mid june
barcelona mid july
silverstone late august
fuji mid october

with european rounds weekend, but le mans, shared with ELMS.
For the reason of above to me will be extremely unlikely a logistic effort round trip to and from sebring by the sea.

I would change fuji with shanghai or bahrain as alternatives, but it's unlikely toyota would drop his home race for the hypercar debut season.

[Deleted]

I don't think they're sharing anything with ELMS, as just recently shown by separate back to back weekends on same circuit at Spa. The same ill logic has also been used by ASLMS in recent years. I guess the gentlemen driver teams want to have weekend dedicated to them rather than being relegated to support race status (or "worse" yet, integrated to the WEC)

[zipper]

Are the gentleman driver teams really that much hassle that they should be sectioned off? I think they add colour to the races. Sure, it's not like anyone here can go and soup up a regular car and take it to Le Mans but there's a history of amateur racing that'd be sad to relegate out. If I wanted to watch pro racing completely dominated by money I'd watch F1.

[NaBUru38]

Of course I'd prefer Silversone over China. But you know about manufacturers and sponsors.


Now, amateurs who don't want to travel far can enter the European Le Mans Series. It wouldn't surprise me the least if the FIA WEC has just two rounds in Europe.

[GT6]

Well i will go to le mans, spa and silverstone if they are on and i am allowed to attend, fingers crossed

[peetleouf]

Alpine in LMP1 in 2021 with a rebadged Rebellion R13



https://www.autohebdo.fr/wec/actuali...21-212957.html

[chernaudi]

Well, the Rebellion LMP1 and Alpine LMP2 are both Oreca 07 tubs, so makes sense.


Also, the Gibson 4.5 V8 in the Rebellion is a bored out LMP2 engine with a fuel flow meter instead of an air restrictor.

[Mike E]

It will be good to have another car on the grid even if it is a strangled LMP1.
LMH/LMDh minimum weight is 214kg higher than the Rebellion's weight at LM this year. They can add a bit of weight but not that much so it will take some serious fuel flow or inlet restrictor limits to peg them back.
They should be able to run in a very low stress spec and the car is reliable already.

Presumably they don't intend to do this for just a single year. LMDh next?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Mike E

It will be good to have another car on the grid even if it is a strangled LMP1.

LMH/LMDh minimum weight is 214kg higher than the Rebellion's weight at LM this year. They can add a bit of weight but not that much so it will take some serious fuel flow or inlet restrictor limits to peg them back.

They should be able to run in a very low stress spec and the car is reliable already.



Presumably they don't intend to do this for just a single year. LMDh next?

That's what it sounds like to me. Wondering how they're get the LMDh approval. Will they have to run in IMSA as well or will they build to the rules and get an ACO approval?

[tux]

Next years calendar. No UK round https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/13...049489408?s=20

13-14 March: Pre-Season Test (Sebring)
19 March: 1000 Miles of Sebring
1 May: 6 Hours of Spa
12/13 June: 24 Hours of Le Mans
18 July: 6 Hours Monza
26 September: 6 Hours of Fuji
20 November: 6 Hours of Bahrain

Seems more and more international championships are deciding to swerve the UK these days. So much for "Global Britain"

[GT6]

I hope that is not a final list, ok will do spa and le mans if i am allowed but silverstone is always a nice easy to do race for us in the uk

[broadrun96]

And if nothing changes in international travel, Sebring could be moved to a 6 hour race in Europe so there's still that chance.

[Aysedasi]

Disappointing....

[GT6]

Well we can all hope that we get to see the new cars in the uk

[Tique]

Originally Posted by GT6

I hope that is not a final list, ok will do spa and le mans if i am allowed but silverstone is always a nice easy to do race for us in the uk

Having listen to the ACO conference, I understood that Silverstone might be the contigency plan if the situation in US is not good for a Covid point of view

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Tique

Having listen to the ACO conference, I understood that Silverstone might be the contigency plan if the situation in US is not good for a Covid point of view

That was what it sounded like to me as well, even in the press articles as well.

[kobefly]

You are disappointed. Imagine myself wondering if they would come at least to Brazil not to have it that far...

[Akrapovic]

Of course Silverstone is dropped. They've spent years trying to get rid of it, even when their own surveys said people wanted it back.

[Anyopenroad]

With 6 races, one of which is Le Mans and one of which was certain to be Spa, there is only one more European slot and it cannot be a surprise that Monza was chosen over Silverstone. I'd have made the same choice tbh.