[WEC] 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship

[carbon_titanium]

"all the spotlight will be on the Le Mans winners...which is bad for WEC publicity"

but has always been this! how many people knows that even if audi won LM in 2011, their ILMC season was quite disappointing and peugeot won the title? If we talk about media coverage and importance, LM > WEC.

[Salamus]

Yes, you won't change that if you make Le Mans the season finale.

WEC has to be able to stand up on its own. Make an exciting 6+ hour event to end the season, but it can't be Le Mans.

[TF110]

That obviously needs to change, which is what the wec is aiming for. If you dont have an appealing championship, the series is useless. Thats why the races need value to them. The same 6-hour format is one thing that needs shaking up.

As for tracks, Fuji is a great place. Just because there is paved runoff its all of a sudden a tilkedrome or whatever. I see Spa went the same route, as did Silverstone. The reason is safety according to the FIA's standards. If I were to choose a Japanese race, it would be Autopolis!

[Simmi]

Never seen a doc like this before but John Dagys just tweeted this testing log for WEC teams: http://team.fiawec.com/wpphpFichiers...red_030414.pdf

Shows where everyone has been/will be testing

[Rodger Davies]

Very interesting doc, thanks for the link. Interesting to see Toyota have three days booked in Spa later in the month.

[carbon_titanium]

I'm sure that there was also af corse and michelotto testing on february at abu dhabi with audi. Toyota tested at vallelunga, very strange.

[Deleted]

Actually rather fascinating.

I guess one of the things that really has improved over the last few years has been the availability of information so ACO/FIA gets thumbs up for that.

[Bandicoot17]

IIRC teams are only allowed to have a certain number of private tests, therefore the existence of this document does make a lot of sense.

[Deleted]

Really, I thought they were free to do pretty much anything they wanted for as long as they wanted.

Teams sitting all depressed in factories and playing simulators is F1's business model.

[bernard b]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Really, I thought they were free to do pretty much anything they wanted for as long as they wanted. ...

the doc above is entitled "OPEN PRIVATE TEST SESSIONS DECLARED"
the non-open sessions may not appear here (we all know Rebellion tests this week at Paul Ricard, not mentionned on the document)

[chernaudi]

The rule is/was that teams could have up to 10 private test days to use at their discretion. However, there are two caveats to that. If a test is declared to be "open", it doesn't count against those 10 days. Also, teams can buy more test day off the ACO for a fee of I believe 45,000 or 90,000 Euros a day.

[Articus]

Has anyone considered that Nissan could rock the world with the ZEOD RC? We all know the deltawing is quick in a straightline but this Nissan was done on a proper budget and seems like they've left nothing on the table and actually want to do battle with the P1's. Can we hope to see this car mixing it up with the P1's in the early hours? I'm sure they have laptime sims of the pace of the car around lemans.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by bernard b

the doc above is entitled "OPEN PRIVATE TEST SESSIONS DECLARED"
the non-open sessions may not appear here (we all know Rebellion tests this week at Paul Ricard, not mentionned on the document)

I don't think the document is bang up to date if you look at the date on it. Also not sure whether a team can go test, then declare it afterwards?

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I don't think the document is bang up to date if you look at the date on it. Also not sure whether a team can go test, then declare it afterwards?

http://www.fia.com/sites/default/fil...14.pdf#page=41 (page 41)

Any open private testing day must be declared by the
competitor to the Championship Promoter at least 30 days
before the date of the tests.

Failing that, the testing session(s) will be considered as
closed private testing

These rules have been in effect at least since 2012. I think it is really smart as cost-saving.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

yes but with le mans as last race with double points will keep the championship open until the very end!

But what happens if one team win the 24h but the other scores a 2-3 and wins the championship? Who celebrates glory?

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

in this way all full season teams will be forced to take part all the season long.

With the reversed season, the part-time issue won't change a bit. Some teams could say "we will be back in mid-season in April".

[carbon_titanium]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

But what happens if one team win the 24h but the other scores a 2-3 and wins the championship? Who celebrates glory?

what does mean this? .-. the one who won le mans will celebrate le mans victory, the one who won the championship will celebrate the championship victory...


With the reversed season, the part-time issue won't change a bit. Some teams could say "we will be back in mid-season in April".

well no, that's the difference: being LM the third race on calendar, teams can obtain easily a WEC full season entry but nothing forces them to take part also after le mans! while with the "reserve winter" season, LM will be the last race and ACO can make a rule that allows full season teams to take part at al le mans ONLY if they have taken part at least at 5 of the 7 previous races before LM (and 2 races in a row can't be skipped). Basicly the leit motiv for team principals is: does your private team want to take part at le mans? well, you must first earn the right to take part.

[Simmi]

My biggest question is - say they did switch to the winter calendar - how do they even go about making the transition? A partial season of just 3 rounds?

[carbon_titanium]

same races for 2 different championships, example

sept. 2014 ---------------------------> december 2014
austin-fuji -shangai -bahrein -interlagos

these races award points for the last 5 races of WEC 2014 and at the same time award points for the first 5 races of WEC 2015.

[wewantourdarbyback]

Originally Posted by Simmi

My biggest question is - say they did switch to the winter calendar - how do they even go about making the transition? A partial season of just 3 rounds?

I would imagine a short season ending at Le Mans followed by the first full winter season?

[Deleted]

Technically it's already that way. Nobody -including teams- gives a crap about the championship in the first three races but concentrates fully on the big one, only after the 12 year summer break start they thinking about next y... I mean championship.

IndyCar too has one event easily bigger than all the rest combined but the pre-500 races mean more as entities

[Pandemonium]

Audi choose 2 MJ showing that they care about the WEC as much as they care about Le Mans. So I really don´t know what you are talking about.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Pandemonium

Audi choose 2 MJ showing that they care about the WEC as much as they care about Le Mans.

What kind of logic is that???

[Bandicoot17]

They choose 2MJ as it suits every track not just lm.
Toyota choose 6 and aren't able to harvest it at every track, showing emphasis on Le man.

[carbon_titanium]

need to say also that if audi was going for the 6MJ solution, they would obtain ridiculous fuel flows compared to the gasoline 6MJ (audi has been screwed anyway by eot...)

[Deleted]

Yeah I'm pretty sure choosing 2MJ had slightly other motives (before they knew about BoP/EoT screwing things up) behind than just being perhaps more suitable on other tracks...

Also Dr Ullrich said this in March:

““We opted for this concept [single hybrid 2MJ V6 4liter] following extensive testing. -- “In our opinion, it provides the optimum balance between efficient energy use, size, weight, energy conversion efficiency, responsiveness, drivability and a favorable operating strategy – combined with durability, which is the basic prerequisite for success at Le Mans.””