[WEC] 2018-2019 WEC Super Season

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Sounds like "Le Mans only - until Le Mans is over.

That was pretty much known before. It served as a reminder that I should spectate, and not speculate.

[Coach Ep]

I like speculation - it's half the fun in the off season.

[Deleted]

Dragonspeed, Jota and Corvette will skip the Sat/Sun Sebring test prior to the raceweek but the rest are there
https://storage.googleapis.com/fiawe...test150219.pdf

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Dragonspeed, Jota and Corvette will skip the Sat/Sun Sebring test prior to the raceweek but the rest are there
https://storage.googleapis.com/fiawe...test150219.pdf

Buemi and Lopez won't be there for Toyota either. Formula E is going on iirc.

[chernaudi]

Just to make sure I'm on the same page as others here, is this a series endorsed open test? IE, is there no penalty if teams or drivers miss or skip this test? Seems that it's just an open test sanctioned by the ACO.

[Deleted]

I don't think there are any mandatory tests other than Barcelona Prologue, Bahrain Rookie (for some) and LM TD

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Just to make sure I'm on the same page as others here, is this a series endorsed open test? IE, is there no penalty if teams or drivers miss or skip this test? Seems that it's just an open test sanctioned by the ACO.

Let's put it in a simply way: someone is making some extra bucks.

[chernaudi]

So it's like IMSA's promoters' test days?

[Deleted]

Yes

[chernaudi]

Thanks guys. I know that the Prologue and LM test day that all teams that intend to compete need to send at least one car.

[skycafe]

Per DSC Billy Johnson and Jonathan Bomarito will be added to the Ford GT effort for the Sebring 1000 miles (Bomarito will still be on Mazda roster for the following day Sebring 12 Hour.) Good for both.

[TF110]

Brendon Hartley will be in the 12hrs race also, driving for Action Express. So he's another driver doing double duty.

[skycafe]

Sebring 1000 Miles track question: I know the WEC race will have pit road on the Ulman Straight. From the track website it looks like the entry is at the Turn 16 area. Where is the exit? Also, will any sort of temporary grandstands be erected for that pit road?

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by TF110

Brendon Hartley will be in the 12hrs race also, driving for Action Express. So he's another driver doing double duty.

Is there so less good drivers in the market that all the teams have to pick up the very same guys? Hope they share the expenses.

[Adam43]

That’s the spirit. Find how this can be bad.

A chance to have Hartley? Why not. And on top of that isn’t it great that some drivers are doing the double. In days gone past, which were much better than the current rubbish obviously, we’d celebrate this endeavour. It’s up there with trying the Indy 500 and NASCAR 600 on he same day, although with less travel!

I cite this as a good thing. And interesting thing. A great thing for driver and the teams.

[Juntos]

It is not for me to judge another man's life but I can't see any greatness in this. The driver will not be 100% focus on his team over the weekend as he needs to divide his attention between two very different cars and two very different team mentalities. Hartley never worked with any of the guys nor he drove any of the cars. Probably he doesn't care too. He has a nice job at Ferrari sim and a good contract with Porsche. These WEC/IMSA races are to pocket some bucks to buy a new house in NZ. His most likely average run and the his teams sad results are meaningless to him. Anyway everyone knows you can't win in WEC with BR. His Le Mans 24 Hour win nobody can't take from him.

[chernaudi]

I'm not sure where exactly the pit exit will be (I haven't seen a good map of the track), but just for curiousity's sake, I did some math.

If the WEC Sebring even is supposed to be 1000 mile approx, it'd be 273 laps. One thing that I'm curious of is does the Sebring WEC round have a time limit, or is it based solely off distance?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Juntos

Hartley never worked with any of the guys nor he drove any of the cars. Probably he doesn't care

Hartley is a professional driver, with a very good CV. I hardly think he goes to a team without being fully committed to performing at the top of his game. That would be a sure way to stop his telephone from ringing, don't you think?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

If the WEC Sebring even is supposed to be 1000 mile approx, it'd be 273 laps. One thing that I'm curious of is does the Sebring WEC round have a time limit, or is it based solely off distance?

1000 Miles (or 8 Hours) from the Sebring Raceway website.

[TF110]

At an average of 1:43 per lap (my guess including yellows and pit stops), 273 laps would be 7.8 hours or 7hrs 45-50mins. If the pace (of Toyota most likely) is faster than that they could be done in 7 and a half hours. They run to whichever is faster.

[Deleted]

IIRC in the Audi-Pug era they never managed to reach 1000 miles in less than 8 hours at PLM, not even close, so I don't have much confidence for it happening here either. Too bad about the limitation, it should've been the good old 1000 Miles or 10 Hours (if 1500 Miles really was too 'offensive' for matching against IMSA's 12 Hours or whatever)

In the 2010 Paul Ricard 8 Hours Audi did 1540,4km in the 8 hour window, which is 957,1 miles, but I don't think there were cautions

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Juntos

It is not for me to judge another man's life but I can't see any greatness in this. The driver will not be 100% focus on his team over the weekend as he needs to divide his attention between two very different cars and two very different team mentalities. Hartley never worked with any of the guys nor he drove any of the cars. Probably he doesn't care too. He has a nice job at Ferrari sim and a good contract with Porsche. These WEC/IMSA races are to pocket some bucks to buy a new house in NZ. His most likely average run and the his teams sad results are meaningless to him. Anyway everyone knows you can't win in WEC with BR. His Le Mans 24 Hour win nobody can't take from him.

Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell are both doing the 12 Hour with Mazda and the WEC race in a Ford GT. Team crossover through Multimatic having a part in both Ford and the Mazda DPi, completely different cars.
Matthieu Vaxiviere is doing the 12 Hour with WTR and the WEC race in the TDS LMP2 Oreca.
Renger Van Der Zande is doing the 12 Hour with WTR and the WEC race for Dragonspeed in LMP1.

This reduction of a professional racing driver's intentions in such circumstances to being just "pocket some bucks" is absurd frankly.

[Akrapovic]

There are so many endurance drivers that race for multiple teams that it's not sensible to even try and list them. But this idea that a driver cannot be fully committed if they race elsewhere is daft. Bleekemolen may have something to say about it.

[Adam43]

Are we basically saying that Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Jim Clark, etc... were all whores and ruined racing?

I thought modern days drivers were lightweight losers and it wasn’t what it once was because they only did one series (at least in F1). I’m confused.

This should be encouraged IMO. It’s cool.

[chernaudi]

Besides, even if they do have a cushy factory ride, and even if it's for said manufacturer, how many prototype or GT drivers race in more than one series in a season?

I don't see a problem here.