[WEC Race] 2021 6 Hours of Monza

[Simmi]

Yeah makes sense but to be honest I still don't back that car to behave itself fully across 24 hours. I can't remember too many trouble-free runs for Rebellion in the last few years. So maybe mechanical sympathy is the way.

[bella]

with all the uncertainties and issues, what price a p2 on the main podium again?

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by bella

with all the uncertainties and issues, what price a p2 on the main podium again?

both 007 and toyota look far away from being reliable enough for a 24H race to me... considering alpine will be forced to have shorter stints, the only strategy for them is to be as steady and prudent as possible, taking advantage of problems toyota can have during the race. Same about best oreca07 teams like jota and united, they just need to do their race with no incidents/mistakes.

[AndrewCherry]

Originally Posted by bella

with all the uncertainties and issues, what price a p2 on the main podium again?

Pretty good chance of that I'd say, not sure I'd give much chance of it being the top step, but I wouldn't be at all surprised by only one or two hypercar finishers. It's going to be an odd race to watch this year, rather a retro feel from the sense of waiting for the failures...

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by AndrewCherry

Pretty good chance of that I'd say, not sure I'd give much chance of it being the top step, but I wouldn't be at all surprised by only one or two hypercar finishers. It's going to be an odd race to watch this year, rather a retro feel from the sense of waiting for the failures...

agree, I expect a slower le mans this year with a more strategic and endurance attitude opposed to the constant ride on qualifying pace of last 10 years. I expect also to see toyota doing lot of lift and coast all the time on long straights to be more gentle on brakes and prevent failures

[WyldStallion]

Hot weather will make the reliability even more of a factor. Good to have a Le Mans 24 to look forward to again. 2018 and 2019 my interest was 100% GTE Pro. 2020 was boring, did not even follow it with Corvette being otu and Toyota TS050 being the sure guareteed overall winner. So I have not followed or watched Le Mans in 2 years now.

GTE Pro is more interesting this year with Corvette back and Toyota is not a 100% sure bet winner for the first time since 2017....a Le Mans that was hot too.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by bella

with all the uncertainties and issues, what price a p2 on the main podium again?

Guaranteed, and I don't even think it's a bold claim to make.

There are too many good LMP2 entrants for them all to have enough incidents that keep them behind at least three of the hypercars.

The LMP2s will be able to push as always while the hypercars, for various reasons, will have to find their limits in terms of pace versus endurance.

[Pandamasque]

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

Hot weather will make the reliability even more of a factor.

Do we have a forecast already? I mean, I get it, this summer has all been one giant heatwave with small breaks for flooding, but who knows... it may end up cold and hailing.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Guaranteed, and I don't even think it's a bold claim to make.

There are too many good LMP2 entrants for them all to have enough incidents that keep them behind at least three of the hypercars.

The LMP2s will be able to push as always while the hypercars, for various reasons, will have to find their limits in terms of pace versus endurance.

Any idea if the heavier P2 cars are going to run into any mechanical issues themselves? That is somewhat of a question to me. If they were running same spec as last year I'd say P2 would be the favorite to win, but adding a little extra weight could stress some components that weren't normally an issue.

[Pandamasque]

Good point.

Another thing to consider is that Alpine isn't running to LMH weight and power specs, but is just balanced to produce similar lap times instead. But that's similar on normal tracks. Le Mans being so different and also with LMH cars having (20kw?) less power for this one round, WEC may have to come up with a different BoP for this race. And who knows how this pans out for Alpine.

[joeb]

Thinking about it more, I think the P2 cars in imsa have already been running at a heavier weight, and it doesn't seem to cause any issues over the long duration races. At least none that have shown up to us fans.

[Mike E]

They're only carrying an extra 20kg, which is about 2% of total weight. It's not going to make that much difference.

The Alpine is 100kg heavier than last year's Rebellion. That's surely a bigger deal from a stress point of view.

[J Jay]

You've all answered it before me! We've seen LMP2s run "heavy" enough times now to predict with some confidence that they won't be adversely affected at Le Mans.

[canaglia]

I actually think those extra 20kg could be helpful to the teams to get a better F/R weight distribution, not to mention that gibson engine will rev lower than spec 9200rpm, increasing its already great reliability.