[WEC Race] 2015 WEC Round 6 - 6 Hours of Fuji

[tux]

Its all about to get very messy seems Yacaman and G drive have been cleared and Bradley reprimanded because the FIA GPS data says he braked 37 metres earlier the lap Yacaman made contact with the KCMG car. However! KCMG data from the car tells a different story, KCMG say they will appeal.

This is crazy, regardless of the actual Yacaman incident what about all the other contacts between G Drive cars and KCMG?

There is more information here. http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/1...ter-taste.html

The more i think about it the more i think what possible reason would Bradley have for brake testing him? Yacaman had already tried to push him off the track at turn 3 on the same lap already. Its kinda disgraceful that G Drive have gotten away with this. Shame on you FIA & WEC.

[ederss7]

For those blaming him without knowing what actually happened... http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/1...to-appeal.html

[Ospi]

I can't find where it mentions gps data but if true, utilising that over car data is ludicrous. Also there was a tap on the back before final contact was made, that's enough to upset the car and require the car in front to brake earlier. This reprimand is dumbfounding yet not surprising given it's practically the works ligier team.

[peterbester]

John Dagys reporting on Twitter that 'Stewards Decision on Bradley/ Yacaman has been suspended. New evidence shows Bradley was under full throttle'

[chernaudi]

DSC says that a revised decision will be made by the officials before the next round (per DSC photo of the officiating group's documents)

[MoMedic9019]

Yacaman punted the KCMG car.

[TF110]

And the kcmg car hit them before and they were also hit before, it was a duel that ended predictably imo.

[Ospi]

So today I learned it's okay to punt a car into the wall who was of no wrong doing and completely get away with it. On top of that basing a critical championship decision on incorrect information. Aco playing favourites.

[TF110]

Favorites? Against Oreca? Thats a new one

[Ospi]

Ligier is far higher in the ranks than oreca, there's a strong history with top ligier staff and the aco. There's a lot of politics involved here that the public does not see. None of you feel there's nothing fishy about this situation? Stewards making a big decision on incorrect information without gaining all the facts first and then even with the facts they have delay a decision on the matter for 2 weeks? So they'll make a rash decision within an hour of the race without the facts of the situation but when they do get facts it suddenly takes 2 weeks. Watch this all go away.

[chernaudi]

Question: How long has Onroak been involved with the ACO/FIA compared to Oreca? Onroak came into being when Jaques Nicolet bought the assets of Saulnier Racing when Surge Saulnier sold the team after he became team manager for Peugeot Sport. Hughes de Chaunac has fielded cars at LM since 1977 when he was still a college mathematics professor.

I don't think that the ACO are favoring Onroak over Oreca. Instead, if you're gonna argue that they're favoring something over the other, consider the ownership/funding of the teams. G-Drive is Russian owned and funded, KCMG are China/Hong Kong owned and funded. And though France (as part of the EU) does participate in financial sanctions against Russia over Putin's handling of the Ukraine affair, France and Russia have had at least 150 years of alliance though treaties, which is how France and England got into World War I when Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary and Germany.

[Maelochs]

Now That's some politics. I never realized the P2 class was a proxy continuation of WWI.

As for making a bad decision in haste and then waiting two weeks ... If I had messed up badly, I would want to take my time and not release a second bad decision only to get even more neglected evidence later.

Let's see who we want to tar and feather before we start heating the tar and tearing up the pillows--we don't want to be like WEC, do we?

[chernaudi]

It also doesn't help that Gus nearly totaled 3 cars in two races in the 2013 Grand Am season, two of them belonging to Michael Shank Racing (Yacaman was driving for Mike Shank at the time). He almost destroyed the Ganassi car and his teammates' car at Detroit and Ganassi and MSR were fortunate to get those cars fixed for Mid Ohio.

Then he tangled with the Ganassi Riley again at Mid Ohio, went off course, broke an oil line and almost burned the car to the ground (something that MSR had happen in 2010 or '11 as a result of an engine failure at Watkins Glen that almost wrote off a car).

Not to mention ironically that part of the reason why MSR has to buy a new Ligier tub from Onroak is that Yacaman almost totaled that car at PLM last year due to an ill-advised overtaking move.

The guy has a rep for making bone-headed moves and rash decisions, just like Franck Montangy, but it took Wolfgang Ullrich getting PO'd enough to say that he'd never hire Franck, Peugeot pulling out of LMP1, and flunking a drug test (for taking cocaine!) to get him blacklisted. I wonder how much WEC teams will tolerate such behavior this time around, or will Yac have to take out an Audi, Porsche or Toyota to get him in serious hot water with the officials?

[chernaudi]

Oh, and one way to cut down on incidents like this that are outside the bounds of "normal" racing incidents, is a way that's been talked about in NASCAR circles for years, it make the driver responsible either fix the car he damages or make him pay for repair costs.

[TF110]

Dont think we should lynch one guy while there were others in the same car doing questionable moves. Theres 6(?) incidents under investigation. The clash that took out the kcmg car is just 1. Lets see what the aco decides.

[joeb]

I'm impressed at the level of (over) analysis of this here! lots of angles I hadn't thought of.

[Akrapovic]

Yacman was clearly at fault, but I don't think the final accident was intentional. There was a lot of over aggressive driving, and penalties should be handed out, but Yacman was clearly just being an idiot following him too closely into the braking zone.

[Akrapovic]

Attached a wee screen grab here. The front brakes of the KCMG car are red hot. I doubt they managed to get that hot in the split second after he was hit.

However, if you're offline and coming into a hard braking zone, shouldn't you be braking early anyway? You're on the wrong side of a wet track.

[outnumbered]

I thought it was a pretty enjoyable race... After the first 40 mins of the safety car I was wondering if it'd get rained off again this year, but the variable conditions definitely made it a more interesting race as a result. Plenty of enjoyable battles throughout, and my opinion is definitely against Yacaman in the G-Drive/KCMG incident. Even if there had been some tit-for-tat going on throughout the race, his response was idiotic and dangerous.

[S griffin]

I caught the closing stages of the race about 7:30. Bit of contact here and there, seemed to be a magnet on the back of the KCMG car, don't know what Yacaman was doing, they need to give him a good rabbiting to.

[Ospi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Attached a wee screen grab here. The front brakes of the KCMG car are red hot. I doubt they managed to get that hot in the split second after he was hit.

However, if you're offline and coming into a hard braking zone, shouldn't you be braking early anyway? You're on the wrong side of a wet track.

The brakes would have likely been around 500c already before impact, from that temperature you'll easily increase them to 800+ (glowing) in well under half a second, so it's very possible for him with them at full brake pressure to have reached glowing temps within that time. Besides, the data proves he wasn't on the brakes at the point of contact, thus them suspending their original decision of him being on them prior to contact, I don't really see that as being an argument any longer.

[bella]

i've watched the video a few times and it just looks like the pair of them need the riot act reading to them. i don't know what yacaman thought he was doing being that close to bradley's rear wing going into a corner, but equally if howson was in the kcmg car would he have got himself in the same pickle? the whole thing looked like the kind of stuff kids get out of their system in formula renault/f4/f3 if your name is stroll.

not sure it even matters what the data says, neither of them should have got themselves in that position in the first place.

[Ospi]

Perplexed as to how Bradley driving in a straight defensive line and doing no wrong is getting himself into a pickle.

[bella]

it's not as simple as that, is it? it's not just a case of yacaman getting angry, running out of options and driving into him. if it was, there'd be an obvious guilty party and the penalty wouldn't still be up in the air...

[carbsmith]

Originally Posted by Ospi

Perplexed as to how Bradley driving in a straight defensive line and doing no wrong is getting himself into a pickle.

Interpretation of that depends whether you think Yacaman hit him twice or not, which is very hard to prove from the broadcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDWjXRTPne8#t=136
That first divebomb from the #47 was really the worst driving in all that mess, wasn't even close to alongside or making the apex. Watching the first time Yacaman spun him the #28 was actually nearly fully alongside when Bradley just decided to turn in on him. Compare with two passes made there in this year's Fuji 500km:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAMBUAWuvyo#t=54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAMBUAWuvyo#t=218
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDWjXRTPne8#t=168
All that to hold off a car he wasn't racing for position at the time either.

Pretty much saloon car stuff all around.