[WEC Race] 2015 WEC Round 4 - 6 Hours of Nurburgring: 28

[bobec]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

The modified LM aero kit on the Audis was junk. I doubt that they'll make that mistake at COTA.

I was surprised the nostrils were again plugged.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Bernard Bram

Never trust numbers put out by the officials. Good crowd yes but certainly not more than 20k.

Why do you think that?

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

The modified LM aero kit on the Audis was junk.

How do you know? 'Someone on the team in your pocket? 'Not doubting you; 'just curious about the source.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Why do you think that?

Because that's roughly the number you can put in the front-grandstands and those were packed, while everywhere else crowds looked pretty thin and won't add too much to the total.

[chernaudi]

Originally Posted by jimclark

How do you know? 'Someone on the team in your pocket? 'Not doubting you; 'just curious about the source.

Nurburgring GP is closer in character and flow to Silverstone than Spa or LM.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Why do you think that?

I also will never trust on WEC official numbers. I remember once they claimed a "huge crowd" of 45k(maybe 35, my memory is bad) people at Interlagos(don't remember the year), on their website. Then, I talked on the internet with a guy that went to the event and he actually estimated a real figure between 1/3 to 1/4 of what was officially claimed.

[J Jay]

Unfortunately I missed the end, but I did get to see the ding-dong between the Audis & the #18, which was masterful driving all round.

Great result for Porsche. They got it right, Audi got it wrong.

[cokata]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

The modified LM aero kit on the Audis was junk. I doubt that they'll make that mistake at COTA.

Nobody believed me when i disagreed with the notion that the LM package was much better than the sprint one. I guess everyone very quickly forgot just how dominant Audi were at Silverstone.

[Artur]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Nurburgring GP is closer in character and flow to Silverstone than Spa or LM.

Yup. Reincke admitted their downforce level was like a bit more than a wet LM config.

There is no real long straight at this track, and the full throttle parts are very few. The track is mostly twisty, so a a high downforce level is the best suited.

You can say: hey, the engineers at Audi know what they're doing. And that's true, but so does the F1 engineers when they raced there(as well as Porsche, this weekend, who cranked up lot's of rear downforce with those, legally doubtful, bits)
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/f1-inform...t-information/
or

The Nürburgring is one of the highest-downforce circuits of the season.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/116853/

Or directly from F1 engineers mouths:

Rod Nelson (Fernando Alonso’s race engineer)“Overall, you need quite high downforce levels for the Nürburgring,” explains Rod.
Rear wing: High downforce, almost as much as in Monaco
Willy Rampf (Sauber Technical Director)
"As for downforce level, the new regulations which have limited aerodynamics have put the Nurburgring firmly into the category of tracks that require the maximum

http://www.f1technical.net/features/816

[tux]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Because that's roughly the number you can put in the front-grandstands and those were packed, while everywhere else crowds looked pretty thin and won't add too much to the total.

The number was over the weekend though, not for today. But even so, the WEC numbers do seem "high"

[Stefvh]

Back from the track.

As i was also there in '09 for the LMS, i can tell you there was way more people today. Can't say how many, though

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Stefvh

Back from the track.

As i was also there in '09 for the LMS, i can tell you there was way more people today. Can't say how many, though

Agreed, way more. Car parks where packed, stands on the S/F straight was packed and even the uncovered grand stands at the Ford Curve and beyond had plenty of fans.

Also, there were countless of people roaming the Ring "attractions" as well.

Definitely the biggest crowd I've ever seen at a sports car race on the Grand Prix track, no comparison to the LMS years which were dreadful in parts (2006 was particularly bad, the Bilstein Grandstand was hardly half full at start back then..today it was packed)

It was hard to get a good seat on the Mercedes grand stand halfway through the race even, never seen that before. Also, from what I've gathered, people were very pleased with what they got offered. Let's hope the race stays on the calendar, this is something to build on.

[CyberMotor]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Agreed, way more. Car parks where packed, stands on the S/F straight was packed and even the uncovered grand stands at the Ford Curve and beyond had plenty of fans.

Also, there were countless of people roaming the Ring "attractions" as well.

Definitely the biggest crowd I've ever seen at a sports car race on the Grand Prix track, no comparison to the LMS years which were dreadful in parts (2006 was particularly bad, the Bilstein Grandstand was hardly half full at start back then..today it was packed)

It was hard to get a good seat on the Mercedes grand stand halfway through the race even, never seen that before. Also, from what I've gathered, people were very pleased with what they got offered. Let's hope the race stays on the calendar, this is something to build on.

No matter what the promoters say, it's the people on the ground looking for seats, parking spots and viewing points that can quickly verify crowd sizes.

Sounds like it was a large and excited crowd, whatever the final count. I think the WEC is a winning formula. I hope our planners for the future here in the US are taking note.

[CTD]

I was there yesterday (saturday) intended to watch the race, but unfortunately had to travel home shortly after arriving.
Already yesterday was well visited, and even the Nordschleife had a lot of traffic.

[Acid09]

Toyota is stating the attendance was 61k over the weekend which is probably the official figure since they will not have bothered to count themselves.

Given that Saturday already had a quite visible crowd my guess based on how the stands looked like today would be 40-45k for Sunday. Which, for the Nürburgring, is very respectable.

They definitely had an improved PR budget this year as well, there were big advertising posters for the race in my city which is 200 kilometers away from the ring. I can't recall ever seeing any race promotion posters here before, not even for DTM.

So yeah, it's a step in the right direction for sure

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Toyota is stating the attendance was 61k over the weekend which is probably the official figure since they will not have bothered to count themselves.

Curious 1,000 difference (unless typo)...

A bumper 62,000 crowd enjoyed three days of excellent WEC action on the first ever visit to Germany.

http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/porsch...many_3342.html

[ederss7]

The problem with this track is how traffic can have a huge impact on the lap times. In a lap where Lotterer was stuck behind GT cars, he was 7-8 seconds off his normal pace.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by deggis

Curious 1,000 difference (unless typo)...

A bumper 62,000 crowd enjoyed three days of excellent WEC action on the first ever visit to Germany.

http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/porsch...many_3342.html

Toyota's post race PR also says 62,000

[chernaudi]

One of the better attended WEC races I can remember, and IMO it'd be a shame if Nurburgring doesn't feature in the WEC's future plans. When cars could get close to each other, it was conducive to good racing, too.

[chernaudi]

BTW, Lucas di Grassi and Mark Webber get my standout performances of the day. Pretty easy to explain why, though Ben also gets a shout out for how he raced Jani when the Porsche was trying to catch him. That was some of the best racing of the season right there, and this season has no shortage of high marks for great racing.

[TzeiTzei]

Just for comparison, in 2013 F1 GP the race day attendance was 44000.

It wasn't the most exciting race I've seen. I was expecting more from Audi, but they just didn't seem to have the race pace. In the end Porsche was quite dominant. I still can't believe how far off the pace Toyota have fallen. They were nowhere.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Also, from what I've gathered, people were very pleased with what they got offered. Let's hope the race stays on the calendar, this is something to build on.

This is to me, the most important! If the product is good, it will almost always sell itself.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

Just for comparison, in 2013 F1 GP the race day attendance was 44000.

It wasn't the most exciting race I've seen. I was expecting more from Audi, but they just didn't seem to have the race pace. In the end Porsche was quite dominant. I still can't believe how far off the pace Toyota have fallen. They were nowhere.

Toyota have given up on this year's car. Unlike Audi and Porsche 9-figure budgets, they spend at most $80 or 90 million. Those two have brand new cars but Toyota runs mostly a refined '14 car. They will step it up in 2016. I think the fact that lmp2 was nearly as fast as the non hybrid lmp1's is more a concern than Toyotas pace.

[Stefvh]

Originally Posted by ederss7

The problem with this track is how traffic can have a huge impact on the lap times. In a lap where Lotterer was stuck behind GT cars, he was 7-8 seconds off his normal pace.

And the GT was already lapped after 10 min.

[Akrapovic]

Not the best race ever, but not bad. Another incredible fight between Porsche and Audi, even if we knew the Porsche would eventually get by. But it was still brilliant! Generally Porsche were amazing throughout every class. Tandy with the P2 win and the GTE cars were great too. There's not much more Porsche could've asked for.

And now that Porsche have turned up with a high downforce car, maybe the melodramatic moaning about the EoT can be turned down. A petrol car has firmly planted itself top of the tree, and the maths says the engines should be balanced. Although why the diesel fuel flow rate is so slow in the pit stop I don't know, but it made very little difference really.