[WEC Race] 2014 WEC Round 6: Shanghai

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by JoestForEver

Hope you guys enjoy it

Really like this one - the friendly rivalry of sports cars.

The only top-line motorsport which has kept that atmosphere, you could argue.

[Deleted]

I could type "F1 press conference 2014" into google image search and get countless amount of pictures like that in a flash of second.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I could type "F1 press conference 2014" into google image search and get countless amount of pictures like that in a flash of second.

Perhaps a poor image to stress the point with but the point still stands...

Sorry, I'll do better next time.

[Maelochs]

I like the low-angle shot of the Porsche partially obscured by barriers.

As the the laptime chart: Not surprised the Ligier was faster by so much, but very surprised Ryan Dalziel was so much faster than David Brabham. Nicolas Minassian seems to have been the only non-Ligier driver who could keep up with Dalziel; Kiril Ladygin the only of the rest who could match Brabs. Shame Imperatore didn't get a chance.

Somehow both WEC and ELMS manage to put on exciting races between P2 cars, while ... never mind.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

Perhaps a poor image to stress the point with but the point still stands...

Sorry, I'll do better next time.

You wont see that much between Lewis and Nico.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by TF110

You wont see that much between Lewis and Nico.

They used to be literally the best of friends, but competitive nature can destroy former driver friendships, just as it ultimately did with Webber & Vettel and so on as well. If winning WEC championship was nearly as prestigious as winning F1 championshp, and we had say #8 against #14 going neck and neck against each other on track every weekend using any means necessary, I don't think things would be as merry in WEC either. And even so, remember Audi vs Pug: dirty tactics at LM, frustration driven clashes at PLM, blocking opposition on purpose at Zhuhai and so on - that rivalry was certainly not pretty all the time. When heat goes up, things change.

Anyway of course as you share the cars with others in (endurance) sports cars and when the manufacturer/team benefit plays bigger role in importance, the "atmosphere" between drivers and teams may appear as more friendly generally, but I don't think you can describe the entire genre "only top-line motorsport which has kept that atmosphere" just as simply as that. I'm sure you have equally as respectful folks in say World Superbikes or World Touring Cars than you have in WEC or European Le Mans.

[TF110]

The wec is a team sport. Theres no individuality because you always share your car anyway. If it was only Buemi in the #8 beating Nakajima in the #7 then you might get that unfriendly rivalry. But thats not how endurance racing is, and thats what were discussing right?

[divxx]

Originally Posted by GT-Eins

Our statistic-department digged through all the Alkamel-data and processed them for a deeper understanding of the race.
interesting Example here: the LMP2-team-performances, as we had in Shanghai the best LMP2-Teams from WEC, TUSC and AsLMS racing together:

More of this stuff can be found for the other classes of the race in our race-report:
http://www.gt-eins.de/Berichte2014/wec/shang/shang.html
(Just scroll down the page below the race-result - graphs can be enlarged by clicking on them)

I love these charts. Great job, thanks. It looks like Dalziel was litterally dragging that car along by himself. But I found it surprising how far off the pace the semi-works Morgan was, sure they haven't run in WEC but it's not like they've been sitting idle all year prior to this race.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by TF110

The wec is a team sport. Theres no individuality because you always share your car anyway. If it was only Buemi in the #8 beating Nakajima in the #7 then you might get that unfriendly rivalry. But thats not how endurance racing is, and thats what were discussing right?

Just because you share your car with other(s) doesn't automatically mean there cannot be unfriendly rivalry with another entry. As, again, past has proved from time to time. Anyway that wasn't the point really

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

As the the laptime chart: Not surprised the Ligier was faster by so much, but very surprised Ryan Dalziel was so much faster than David Brabham. Nicolas Minassian seems to have been the only non-Ligier driver who could keep up with Dalziel; Kiril Ladygin the only of the rest who could match Brabs. Shame Imperatore didn't get a chance.

The graph also shows how much K.Ladygin was tanking in his last stint to let the other car through for points. Must have been tough to have a deserved 2nd place become 4th because of a points situation that shouldn't even exist.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by GT-Eins

Our statistic-department digged through all the Alkamel-data and processed them for a deeper understanding of the race.
interesting Example here: the LMP2-team-performances, as we had in Shanghai the best LMP2-Teams from WEC, TUSC and AsLMS racing together:

More of this stuff can be found for the other classes of the race in our race-report:
http://www.gt-eins.de/Berichte2014/wec/shang/shang.html
(Just scroll down the page below the race-result - graphs can be enlarged by clicking on them)

That's excellent! Very interesting, thanks for sharing them

[Mike E]

What strikes me from that lap chart is how tightly bunched the times are for all of the Ligier crew. The only other team with such closely matched drivers was the 37 and that was significantly slower.
No wonder G-Drive won by 3 laps.