[WEC Race] 2016 FIA WEC Round 1: 6 Hours of Silverstone - Race Thread

[chernaudi]

I do wonder if the discrepancy in times is a by product of the fuel flow regs. In the air restrictor era, the cars generally lapped closer to their Q times in the race vs the past couple of years at most tracks.

[TF110]

Each p1 team seems to be around low 1:42's and high 1:41's.

[sssssssss]

exactly. lots of high 1:41s for porsche though (and even some low 1:41s). audi and toyota very seldom do them.

[TF110]

#2 Porsche had to be recovered.

[kaivo]

Sooo, Kobayashi is the fastest Toyota driver now ?

[TF110]

Originally Posted by kaivo

Sooo, Kobayashi is the fastest Toyota driver now ?

That's what was reported. Talked about in the Toyota thread.

[Acid09]

I really don't think all this means much yet. We have two manufacturers with brand spanking new cars and one who has a sorted out package that has been further refined but is all dialed in.

Anything but Porsche leading right now would be bad news for them, because the other two are very likely to find more speed during the weekend (year), Porsche is not.

Also, another thing to consider is that Toyota traditionally does not give too much about setting fast times in these sessions, I remember they weren't all that dominant in practice in 2014 either but then ran away with it in the race.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by kvenom

Good ol' Ed Brown setting laps 12secs down on the leading LMP2. Oh well, he pays the bills.

Yeah, it's hilarious that he's there living his dream while we just sit here typing about it.
I'm pretty sure I know who's having the last laugh.

Does my envy show through?

[Spyderman]

#2 stopped because it had a collision with a GT car.

[kvenom]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

I'm pretty sure I know who's having the last laugh.

Other P2 drivers?

[sssssssss]

oliver jarvis sounded pretty confident in that interview and he mentioned they feel are closer to porsche than what it looks like right now.

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Impressive time.

And at least Rebellions upped up the speed to "normal realm" from embarrassing FP1.

Two years ago they did 1.43,7 with the old Lola. What happened?

[chernaudi]

For all the talk about reliability problems, Audi did run the most laps in FP2 combined between their cars vs Porsche and Toyota (not withstanding that the #2 Porsche was parked due to accident damage).

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

Two years ago they did 1.43,7 with the old Lola. What happened?

They were allowed to run bigger ALMS-spec air restrictors, bigger tank, and obviously no fuel flow limits

Today they got in the 46's in FP2, I suppose '44 is reachable in Q?

Hard to tell, LMP2 as whole is going slower than last year too.

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by Chiana

They were allowed to run bigger ALMS-spec air restrictors, bigger tank, and obviously no fuel flow limits

Today they got in the 46's in FP2, I suppose '44 is reachable in Q?

Hard to tell, LMP2 as whole is going slower than last year too.

Makes me wonder why can't they do that now? Whose master plan is it to make privateers even less competitive?

[cokata]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

Makes me wonder why can't they do that now? Whose master plan is it to make privateers even less competitive?

No one was trying to make them less competitive. The regulations opened up and the privateers left them 4 dead.

[TF110]

It was a pretty green track. Steady rain never really came but the rlm guys said it was sprinkling at the end of practice.

[sssssssss]

looking at the ideal lap times, porsche no1 has got a 1:39.521.

other than the presumed qualifying run for porsche, the ideal laps look like this:
audi no8 - 1:40.920
audi no7 - 1:41.033
toyota no6 - 1:41.258
porsche no2 - 1:41.344
toyota no5 - 1:42.180
the cars look really close together in terms of pace, so far. they're also very similar in top speed: 292.7 km/h for toyota, 291.9 km/h for porsche and 290.3 km/h for audi.

[Deleted]

Whether the LMP1 privateer breaks are 'enough' or not, I think the Rebellion Oreca has just been engineered to be primarily LM-optimized, as shown by the improved pace compared to the Lolas there, whereas elsewhere they relatively continue to lack in contrast. The Oreca 05 is also LM-optimized, even the heads involved have said that, but better "all rounder" me thinks, though that also has more to do with the standardized nature of LMP2

[kvenom]

Toyota confirm they didn't go for a lap time and Conway said they never ran on low fuel.

[chernaudi]

If ideal laptimes are an indication of potential pace, then it stands right now that Audi and Toyota are no slower than Porsche is in race pace it seems. Improvements should also come as the track rubbers in.

Reports on Motorsport Total also suggest that Audi were very good on long runs relative to Porsche and Toyota, though by a bit of an edge as opposed to a huge amount.

[TF110]

Toyota say they went through their setup and tire programs and all the drivers feel there's more to come. I don't think anyone went for a full stint.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by sssssssss

weird that audi were the only ones claiming they'd be even a bit faster than last year (porsche were saying "almost as fast" as last year) and yet porsche has already gone faster than last year's pole and audi are about 2 seconds down from their race pace last year.

I already said this many times before but I guess it's worthy mentioning again that the track was completely green for LMPs' QLF(damp for GT's).

FP1 started wet, then got just damp, then it got a bit rubbered in. FP2 had a reasonably rubbered in track(not as much as 2015's FP2, but still more than 2015's QLF)

If it stays dry tomorrow, and the track further gains grip, the times will obviously be much better than last year's.

R18 was marginaly faster, in today's FP2, than on last year's and we all know the trashing the other two got last year....

Porsche might even get the pole again, but I'll be surprised if Audi doesn't walk over with the race. The reason for it is very simple: R18 is already over 10kmh faster, on the speed trap, than their best during last year' weekend. Due to the -10MJ, the ICE is less powered but they still have better top speed, which means much less drag. The acceleration is also higher due to the higher overall power. So, R18 is faster pretty much through all the straights' lengths. Michelin keeps developing the tires, so the cornering speed, on the slower stuff, should be higher too. Then comes the downforce aspect, which one would expect that have considerably increased in the R18.

All in all, I think Audi will be very strong here but, if not, my guess is that they didn't focus on developing a high downforce car(they are still losing to last year's car on S2, afterall, so it's possible) as, very oddly, they are testing at Monza, while Silverstone is going on, which might indicate that they are more focused on LM than ever, after losing it last year.

[Beetle]

As echoed throughout at least the latter pages of this thread, Audi and Porsche should theoretically be closer in racing trim than one would expect by just looking at FP1 and FP2 times. All that said, I think it's still Porsche's race to lose. Hartley dipped into the 1:39.xxx bracket in FP2 after 33 laps. That's an absurd (in a good way!) time. Yes, Duval only ran 19 laps, but that's nearly two whole seconds we're talking about.

In LMP2, I think Manor could really be poised to impress on debut. Anyway you slice it the lineup is impeccable and almost LMP1-tier, especially in the No. 45 car (which, sadly, won't be doing the full season). I'm sure they've all done plenty of testing but it really remains to be seen if Matt Rao will fade, if at all, under long, endurance racing stints. I think this is the first bit of endurance racing he's ever done. Richard Bradley has proven himself to be an invaluable star and Merhi, of course, is a former F1 driver.

Ferrari is OP in GTE for sure. In GTE-Pro it'll just be a battle between No. 51 and No. 71 AF Corse. Who the hell knows in GTE-Am.

[deggis]

Great to know there is a fully working live timing with sector times, but it is simply not used for the WEC sessions (only supports) because x, y and z:

http://livetiming.alkamelsystems.com/fiawec/