[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[joeb]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Is there a cliff notes version available?

Pick any of the past 20 pages and read it, they are all pretty much the same points being argued over and over!

[Coach Ep]

Sure!

Original schedule:

WEC Fuji 6H - september 30
WEC Bahrain 6H - october 21 clashed with ALMS Petit Le Mans
No prior discussions between ACO and ALMS it seemed about these dates, a LOT of wondering why´s (to say the least).
Petit Le Mans therefor demoted to ´nothing but a national event´* (like Laguna, Road America, etc.)
* no punt intended!

Updated calender: see prior posts. No WEC race scheduled on same weekend as the Petit which - as a result of this - could be ´offered a lifeline´ as far as still being an international classic next year (although logistics suggest that will be very hard for potential participating teams).

Now, would it be a good idea to put the Petit one week further back to give potential entries a reasonable amount of time to make the trip from Japan before they fly back to China? It would save Audi one more clash with their DTM activities.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Looks like the date of Bahrain has been moved afterall. Now clashes with Abu Dhabi.

I don´t see a clash with either ALMS/F1 or even ELMS.

WEC Fuji however is on the same weekend as the Korean GP (for those who care...)

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

I don´t see a clash with either ALMS/F1 or even ELMS.

WEC Fuji however is on the same weekend as the Korean GP (for those who care...)

Yeah I just nicked that off something Hindy put on twitter.

[Pandamasque]

15/09 BRA 6 Hours of Sao Paulo Interlagos
29/09 BHR 6 Hours of Bahrain Sakhir
14/10 JPN 6 Hours of Fuji Mount‐Fuji

Makes sense. If the Bahrain gets canceled (which is a strong possibility, I read that the list of fatalities further increased today, don't expect the Grand Prix to happen either) the teams would travel from Brazil to Braselton, which logistically seems more logical than visiting the Middle East.

[FstrthnU]

I'm actually glad with the date and status of Petit now, it leaves the option for SOME WEC teams to come without flooding it with ALL of them. Leaves enough room for the regular ALMS entrants to breathe

[Rodger Davies]

Originally Posted by Pandamasque

Makes sense. If the Bahrain gets canceled (which is a strong possibility, I read that the list of fatalities further increased today, don't expect the Grand Prix to happen either) the teams would travel from Brazil to Braselton, which logistically seems more logical than visiting the Middle East.

Think they'd still have to go to Japan first - makes more sense your way but beggars can't be choosers, eh? Will take the reorganised schedule and say a tentative "well done... now don't screw it up".

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

I'm actually glad with the date and status of Petit now, it leaves the option for SOME WEC teams to come without flooding it with ALL of them. Leaves enough room for the regular ALMS entrants to breathe

With the current date it seems improbable that any teams will come over.

Fuji is currently Oct 14th, PLM official testing on the 17th... though historically speaking, you would expect track rental testing by the big teams to start on the 13th. Logistically, I don't think this is going to happen, unless teams have two sets of cars, equipment, pretty much everything.

However, this does alleviate the issue that certain drivers might have had, so it is a positive from that perspective.

[JAG]

After reading this thread I don't think I'll step out of my front door again, danger at every turn!

As for the date changes, it always seemed likely some switch would be made, this season has barely concluded so there was a window of opportunity, the question was whether the change would be from the WEC or ALMS side.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

With the current date it seems improbable that any teams will come over.

Fuji is currently Oct 14th, PLM official testing on the 17th... though historically speaking, you would expect track rental testing by the big teams to start on the 13th. Logistically, I don't think this is going to happen, unless teams have two sets of cars, equipment, pretty much everything.

However, this does alleviate the issue that certain drivers might have had, so it is a positive from that perspective.

Who knows, we'll see. Like I said earlier, I believe that AMR shipped their sole Lola between Silverstone and Laguna within less than a week's time. That's a pretty long journey and it turned out pretty well for them. It might be possible with some missed practice time perhaps, but Audi, Toyota, and anyone else who may want to play can probably get some practice time in at RA earlier if they want it. It's not like beating the Dysons of the world will require immense practice anyway.

[Simmi]

John Dagys has noticed a couple of things about the revised WEC calendar. Namely a couple of events including Silverstone switching from Saturday to Sunday.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ule-announced/

On a personal note it looks like that switch has ruled me out of Silverstone for the second year in a row!

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Simmi

John Dagys has noticed a couple of things about the revised WEC calendar. Namely a couple of events including Silverstone switching from Saturday to Sunday.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ule-announced/

On a personal note it looks like that switch has ruled me out of Silverstone for the second year in a row!

I suspect that may be a typo. The official FIA release dated 7th December states otherwise (still 25th August). Here.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

I suspect that may be a typo. The official FIA release dated 7th December states otherwise (still 25th August). Here.

But, the WEC calendar on lemans.org states 26th August, so he may be right afterall........seems to be a bit of confusion there.

[Asa]

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2011...#ixzz1g02xloUd

“We switched the dates between Bahrain and Japan due to a major logistical problem for freight and staff just after Brazil,” said WEC general manager Gerard Neveu. “It was a request from most of the teams and it makes good sense for our WEC calendar.”

He described the avoidance of a clash with Petit Le Mans on Oct. 20, which was a by-product of the change, as a “good fact.”

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Asa

He described the avoidance of a clash with Petit Le Mans on Oct. 20, which was a by-product of the change, as a “good fact.”

Gerard "Bernie was my boss" Neveu: "What's an ALMS? Petit Le Mans? Oh, Le Mans isn't that small, it has a population of about 150,000!"

[TF110]

Not with this again, please.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by TF110

Not with this again, please.

What? What? I'm just sayin', that's all. I'm sure we're all aware that Neveu ran Paul Ricard while Bernie's company owned it. I was just pointing out his business acumen. It's a good fact to know if you didn't know it already.

On a side note, what happened to the ILMC honcho? Hayes Baud-Modem was his name I believe. Or something like that.

[wewantourdarbyback]

Originally Posted by Asa

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2011...#ixzz1g02xloUd

“We switched the dates between Bahrain and Japan due to a major logistical problem for freight and staff just after Brazil,” said WEC general manager Gerard Neveu. “It was a request from most of the teams and it makes good sense for our WEC calendar.”

He described the avoidance of a clash with Petit Le Mans on Oct. 20, which was a by-product of the change, as a “good fact.”

Don't you love it when a calendar that will involve flying all over the world is just slapped together with no thought of how much it will cost to fly back and forth constantly.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by wewantourdarbyback

Don't you love it when a calendar that will involve flying all over the world is just slapped together with no thought of how much it will cost to fly back and forth constantly.

It does appear that the initial calendar was released without any consultation with the stakeholders. Having said that, there were rumors much earlier in the year of combining the Sebring and Brazil trip, but the teams said no to having 3 pre-Le Mans races. I don't know if running Brazil after Sebring was ever a realistic option, but I guess the teams struck that one down preemptively. I actually would have preferred seeing Brazil earlier in the year for a number of reasons including that having more races early might have limited the amount of sandbagging the teams do before Le Mans.

[JAG]

Audi to start one-make R8 LMS Cup in China, wonder if some cars will end up on the WEC grid for the local round?

http://www.planetlemans.com/2011/12/...ns+Newsfeed%29

Mentioned previously, but ORECA are starting an LMPC series too, good potential to get Chinese teams and drivers into sportscars.

[JAG]

New site

http://www.fiawec.com/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by JAG

New site

http://www.fiawec.com/

I enjoyed the video they have on there advertising the championship. Interesting choice to have a close up of somebody's Petit Le Mans shirt....

[gwyllion]

When going through the WEC sporting regulations (available here), I noticed that the 2% BoP rule is still there.

In order to keep the differences between the various propulsion technologies within a 2% margin of the lap time, the Endurance Committee will be able to adapt the performance of the slowest technologies of the cars in accordance with the following conditions.

Last year, the small petrol powered teams did not like the fact that they had to do all the investments when they got a restrictor and weight cut before Le Mans. Next year this rule will still be in effect, instead of slowing down the fastest technology (most likely diesel engines and/or hybrid cars).

In LMP2 the rules are exactly the opposite:

Thus, should a particular model of car perform too well, under the terms applicable to the adjustment of performance the Endurance Committee may take immediate measures to reduce that car’s performance.
The Endurance Committee will favour reducing the performance of the fastest models rather than increasing the performance of the slower models.

I guess this is another clear message that LMP1 is for manufacturers and LMP2 for privateers.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

I guess this is another clear message that LMP1 is for manufacturers and LMP2 for privateers.

Did the regs stipulate a BoP for LMP2 last year? At least worded the same way as the lines you quoted above? I know there was some unofficial stuff and rumors of further under the table P2 BoP. Either way, more BoP = less reason to give a damn.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

When going through the WEC sporting regulations (available here), I noticed that the 2% BoP rule is still there.

Last year, the small petrol powered teams did not like the fact that they had to do all the investments when they got a restrictor and weight cut before Le Mans. Next year this rule will still be in effect, instead of slowing down the fastest technology (most likely diesel engines and/or hybrid cars).

In LMP2 the rules are exactly the opposite:

I guess this is another clear message that LMP1 is for manufacturers and LMP2 for privateers.

When different techonolgies is avalible a BoP makes sense, but when only petrol non hybrid is allowed, the BoP makes no sense, as in theory, the slowest and often cheapest car will dictate the pase of the others. This will completely kill any effort from manufacture a fast car, and instead focus on making them cheap, and sell the cars under the slogan: "dont worry about the speed, as regulation will make you competitive". We risk that the manufactures only think of selling cars for profit, and is headed by people like Jean Py! (the person who ran Pescarolo Sport to the ground)
I know the idea is a bit "out there", but in general there is nothing but good sportsmanship, from stopping this from happening