[WEC] 2018-2019 WEC Super Season

[RedSquirrel]

Hello there, first post.

I've been thinking about the speed of the new LMP1s and the inclusion of Sebring on the calendar. The 3:17 at Le Mans that silente simulated and Toyota's 3:14 from last year are mental. Might cars capable of that be too fast for Sebring? The fastest Sebring lap I can find is 1:43.195 by an Audi R10 in 2008 and the new cars are much, much faster. Could we see a 1:40 next year?

[Coach Ep]

No, the FIA is gonna put a chicane on the back straight....

[Deleted]

They will make the DPis look like turtles in comparison...

By the way is there a particular reason why the ACO couldn't just reschedule Fuji for December... you know, for same weekend they run the ASLMS there anyway...?

[chernaudi]

Originally Posted by RedSquirrel

Hello there, first post.

I've been thinking about the speed of the new LMP1s and the inclusion of Sebring on the calendar. The 3:17 at Le Mans that silente simulated and Toyota's 3:14 from last year are mental. Might cars capable of that be too fast for Sebring? The fastest Sebring lap I can find is 1:43.195 by an Audi R10 in 2008 and the new cars are much, much faster. Could we see a 1:40 next year?

Offical track record is a 1:43.886 by an Audi R18 in 2013. Peugeot did I think a 1:42.8 in testing, and reportedly an Audi R18 in 2015 did a 1:41.

But with the power and aero cuts on the factory cars, we might see a faster time, but mostly due to better tires than when Audi did testing there in 2015.

For comparison, LMP900s were still faster around Sebring than the DPIs were, which again is due largely to tires.

[Damian Baldi]

I'm not sure, but I think the DRS system was discarded for the new regulations.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

No, the FIA is gonna put a chicane on the back straight....

Is that a joke?

[Coach Ep]

It better be!

[TF110]

Originally Posted by RedSquirrel

Hello there, first post.

I've been thinking about the speed of the new LMP1s and the inclusion of Sebring on the calendar. The 3:17 at Le Mans that silente simulated and Toyota's 3:14 from last year are mental. Might cars capable of that be too fast for Sebring? The fastest Sebring lap I can find is 1:43.195 by an Audi R10 in 2008 and the new cars are much, much faster. Could we see a 1:40 next year?

I think it's pretty certain record laps will be set. The pace of the Toyota and Porsche at the end of last year was already fastest of all. In Shanghai Toyota broke the qualifying lap record from 2015 with a 1:42.5 by Kobayashi. Porsche beat the qualifying lap record from 2015 in Bahrain with a 1:39.0 and Toyota was under it as well. If Toyota doesn't even improve at all from 2017, they'll be beating the lmp1 record easily. I think 1:40 is doable, maybe even a 1:39?

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Is that a joke?

Yep, they're putting in speed humps instead.

[XtC24]

Ok, so the Rebellion got No 1 and 3. Why not 2 ?
They seem to like the number 13 I guess Such a combination may bring more luck, then 13 alone maybe.

I remember last year on the ACO, LM24 presentation we had most if not all the drivers announced. This time there are many TBAs.

Do you think are there interesting names coming ?
There are some rumours about Kvyat/Sirotkin, who else may be on the table ?

[MaskedRacer]

-Dang I hope Porsche can win some GT races this year. That car is awesome. Will cheer for them in AM too. Also hope that GTE gets major screen time in 2018 too. In 2017 they got much better coverage than in previous years in the WEC. Should be even better in 2018. If any single driving team can win 2 races this year in GTE Pro it will be very very impressive.

-Maybe it will be close sometimes, but I still don't see anybody beating the Toyota at any of the 6 hour races. I think Toyota goes 4 for 4 in 2018 at those races. With Le Mans being the X-factor due to Toyota's reliability history there.

-Jackie Chan DC Jota, very much the car to beat in the WEC LMP2 races. The Alpine car will be the biggest challenger. But a sweep of all 5 races 2018 is not out the question I think. Can't see the others winning at all.

[MaskedRacer]

Kind of a strange question but does anybody have a picture of the new Aston Martin 2018 livery in a sideways spotters guide-like direction?

[Mike E]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Kind of a strange question but does anybody have a picture of the new Aston Martin 2018 livery in a sideways spotters guide-like direction?

You ask, Alex Lynn responds

https://twitter.com/alexlynnracing/s...36482889302021

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by XtC24

Ok, so the Rebellion got No 1 and 3. Why not 2 ?
They seem to like the number 13 I guess Such a combination may bring more luck, then 13 alone maybe.

I remember last year on the ACO, LM24 presentation we had most if not all the drivers announced. This time there are many TBAs.

Do you think are there interesting names coming ?
There are some rumours about Kvyat/Sirotkin, who else may be on the table ?

There are quite a lot of names known already - the ACO normally only note the 'placeholder' drivers (for want of a better expression)..... It's early days, the number of drivers already known is about the same as usual at this time (and I've been watching this process fairly closely for quite a few years now).

[chernaudi]

For some comic relief, Magnus Racing weighs in on the Fuji vs PLM debacle:

http://www.magnusracing.com/news/201...-decision.html

[joeb]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

For some comic relief, Magnus Racing weighs in on the Fuji vs PLM debacle:

http://www.magnusracing.com/news/201...-decision.html

Brilliant!

[Matt]

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/1...at-beat-toyota

what a joke

[Akrapovic]

And that's where the EoT starts to turn into a BoP. Sigh.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Matt

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/1...at-beat-toyota

what a joke

That was in the rules before this season, how is it a joke? I can see the slant in the title of the article misleading people. They do that on purpose to generate clicks obviously. The cars are supposed to be equal and this rule was already in place for cars that were sandbagging. The eot is already set so if the cars are magically faster than what they led on, a penalty can be applied. It's the same in other classes (GTE). Reading the article, there's nothing that says the cars are not allowed to be faster than Toyota's, but that they have data and if that's exceeded, then you misled them.

[canaglia]

" ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil told Autosport: "There will be a penalty system, of which we will release details later, in case a non-hybrid car is faster than a hybrid.
 "

ooooooooooook, so toyota must to be the mandatory fastest lmp1 in grid.

Actually it all makes sense.... WEC is a ACO creature, if lmp1 manufacturers haven't been able to kill it yet, it's ACO duty to accomplish that.

[tux]

Hahahahahahahaha

[Deleted]

It's... bad... but at least the balancing should still only happen between hybrid and non-hybrid as a whole, not between individual vehicles (like in DPi round-by-round)

[TF110]

This is the same eot from 2014 forward. Toyota is the benchmark because it's the most efficient in class. So they equalize the lmp1's to their level, no, not faster. The article even says that they have data from the private teams and their cars should be where they said they are. It's an anti-sandbagging measure. The article is pure click bait imo.

[Deleted]

Well things have changed. Between 2014-2017, the privateers as whole were really not part of the same equation as hybrids but rather given (or 95% of the time not given) "whatever" on ad hoc basis, whenever. The manufacturers had the "performance maybe adjusted once a year after Le Mans" -rule in place (with minor possible changes like http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....postcount=3831) but the nonhybrids did not.

[carbsmith]

They aren't going to penalize the privateers for being slightly faster, but if someone is so far out of whack that it's clear (given the Toyota is a well developed baseline) they gamed the regulations for the category the rule is there as it is in every class in all the series these days. Although it only gets used for penalizing ProAm teams for breaking rules that don't exist and not factory teams magically finding 1-2% lap time advantage when the race starts.