[WEC Race] WEC 2015 Round 2: Spa

[joeb]

Time for the final warmup before Le Mans. Silverstone was a great race, and I'm hoping for an equally exciting Spa! We will see an extra Audi and Porsche this round as well as the updated Kolles car in LMP1. IN P2 Extreme Speed will be debuting their new Ligiers and I'm waiting to see the Patron livery on them. GT should be the normal dog fight, and all the classes should be good, but I'm most intrigued by what the factory P1 teams will be bringing to the table!


Schedule

Entry List

Spotters Guide

Track Map

Weather

FRC

RLM

[Deleted]

Updated ILMC/WEC entry tracker (without Le Mans)

[TF110]

Toyota will run new "Gazoo" branding at Spa and their LM-spec cars. Audi wont reveal how many cars will run the LM-spec package, but "at least one" according to Autosport. Nico Hulkenberg makes his lmp1 race debut for Porsche. ByKolles (supposedly) will run their new car. Lots of things to look for in lmp1.

[Deleted]

LMP1 will be 90% amazing prior to coming 100% amazing at Le Mans Will be interesting to see if Toyota buries under the VW armada.

70% percentage of cars now being coupes in LMP2 is sign of things to come. Lack of HPD now is a bit sad though. The ELMS also has better variety (not that variety is a trendy for in this business anymore). But at least the numbers are back to healthy .

Support package looks awful again.

[TF110]

Sard will be running. Coupe or open, variety is still there. P1 is all coupes but we have 4 different cars, maybe 5 depending on what Audi brings. LM will have 7 different cars in P1. I think P2 is good. Could be better, but everything can be better. Especially GTE. Thats the sore spot, if you can call it that. An AM Vette is great, now I wish Riley would enter their Viper for the rest of the season post-LM.

[Deleted]

How much of actual SARD staff we will actually see in the Morand pits though. There have been numerous team & rebadging linkups in recent years and not all of the add-on names have actually done more than handed the cashbags for appearing in titles. I'm sure SARD is a little bit different though. Will be interesting to see japanese faces in the garage. And seeing if any beyond the curtain P1 talks with other parties emerge for 2016.

Cannot make predictions on who's gonna win this dress rehearsal, other than very likely not Toyota, but it's pretty obvious who's gonna take pole. Even Audi's low DF package certainly cannot beat the power of Porsche in sectors 1 and 3

Spa's probably the best place all year to make comparisons to F1 times if the weather holds. But hopefully the commentary won't focus on series comparisons so heavily again.

My view of current state

LMP1 factory is amazing.
LMP1 privateer could be great, but isn't attractive or even sensible enough now so it's bit of Derpy
LMP2 is good (for now)
LMGTE provides chicanes for the proper competition so there's the positive bit

[tux]

The Carrera Cup GB race will be shown on Motors TV after the WEC race.

[Artur]

I think pole could be even at 1.44.xxx if the track stays dry until qualifying. Last year Porsche already did 1.59 on FP3(qualifying was damp), so with the 4-5s improvement, I guess we'll see record breaking at Spa(IIRC the best time ever, by an LMP1, was 1.57 by Peugeot)

[deggis]

Originally Posted by TF110

Toyota will run new "Gazoo" branding at Spa and their LM-spec cars.

Wishful thinking: new livery and based on other color than white.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by deggis

Wishful thinking: new livery and based on other color than white.

I think we'll see some stickers and a rebadge on the windscreen.

[GT3.14]

Gazoo Racing liveries are usually white with black and red. So there is a chance it will look like an Audi.

[GT6]

Originally Posted by GT3.14

Gazoo Racing liveries are usually white with black and red. So there is a chance it will look like an Audi.

Oh please no, surely they could do better than that

[GT3.14]

Originally Posted by GT6

Oh please no, surely they could do better than that

We can only hope.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Chiana

How much of actual SARD staff we will actually see in the Morand pits though. There have been numerous team & rebadging linkups in recent years and not all of the add-on names have actually done more than handed the cashbags for appearing in titles. I'm sure SARD is a little bit different though. Will be interesting to see japanese faces in the garage. And seeing if any beyond the curtain P1 talks with other parties emerge for 2016.

Cannot make predictions on who's gonna win this dress rehearsal, other than very likely not Toyota, but it's pretty obvious who's gonna take pole. Even Audi's low DF package certainly cannot beat the power of Porsche in sectors 1 and 3

Spa's probably the best place all year to make comparisons to F1 times if the weather holds. But hopefully the commentary won't focus on series comparisons so heavily again.

My view of current state

LMP1 factory is amazing.
LMP1 privateer could be great, but isn't attractive or even sensible enough now so it's bit of Derpy
LMP2 is good (for now)
LMGTE provides chicanes for the proper competition so there's the positive bit

How did you come to a conclusion that Toyota, who is running their low drag package, wont be in the fight for a win but think Audi's low drag package will be? Neither has even run a race yet, but Im sure the Toyota favors Spa's layout to Silverstone's. Last season Audi's low drag package didnt come on till the later stages of the race. Weather may play a part too. Im looking forward to Spa more than Silverstone. Much better track imo.

[jee]

Toyota will not change their colour scheme mid season, all merchandise should be produced already

[carbsmith]

They haven't been in Toyota Racing colours since the initial testing either anyways.

[TF110]

Iirc, they went with the hybrid blue because thats the company's color for its hybrid badges on the road cars.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by TF110

Iirc, they went with the hybrid blue because thats the company's color for its hybrid badges on the road cars.

Perhaps, but how many people will see the TS040 and say "that's the same color as the badge on my Prius!"

[Bob Baldwin]

I like the looks of the hybrid blue

[Acid09]

Why does everybody want them to change their livery? I don't get it.. it looks both good and is unique in LMP1.

A livery that is primarily white/red would make it clash with Audi and Porsche.

[Pandemonium]

I love Toyotas current livery

[bella]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Support package looks awful again.

what do you want to see? something more varied like the spa 24 or silverstone wec?

(not being argumentative, i'm curious because yeah ok 2x porsche series isn't great for variety but at least it's something. elms only has one support series and it's a pretty good arrangement from a spectating point of view)

[Coach Ep]

Have a look at one of the IMSA event schedules - it's racing (almost) all day long, not hard to copy something like that without throwing fan favorites like pit & grid walks and autograph sessions out of the window.

[Deleted]

What Coach said. Of course for IMSA it's easier as they mostly own all those series themselves (except at shared ICS meetings) but that doesn't take anything away from those meetings. In fact I'd say up there the support package is almost more interesting than the main product SRO also has / used to have pretty good mixes.

Le Mans Series used to have good support packages few years ago before ACO started revamping things, and yes I know that while CER in particular has changed its weekend formats since then, it was still interesting arragment.

Anyway, Spa EoT
http://www.fia.com/file/27179/download?token=gKO8-35z

[Coach Ep]

Yes, CER (Classic Endurance Racing) was a real highlight of the support package, I loved it (especially when they ran them all together)! Also good to see series like British and Belgian GT series on the support bill occasionally.

Applying all this the other way round: why doesn't have IMSA a vintage GTP/Group C series in their package? Surely you cannot claim your future place in history without honoring your past?!