[chernaudi]

My point is that this is starting to look more and more like it's something that the ACO are doing for "their" people, not just the fans and media. It's not often that fans or even media people tour the pits routinely during set up days. If it's an official session or the day of one, or during a pit walk or autograph session, fine, the ACO can punish the offense however they see fit, which seems to be a deal of three strikes and you're out as far as in race penalties.

And as long as fans and media people behave themselves within the etiquette that the ACO enforces on their part, there's no good excuse for the teams to shut down around them.

However, if there are secrets (which I doubt), if a team's unwilling to do so during a set up day, force the team into a make up date where they exhibit their cars. And it's not like the Porsche has anything new going on outside of external bodywork, since the tub and powertrain is the same as it was in 2015.

Granted, I do agree with you in that the reality probably is unless the ACO make it so inconvenient or a pain to do the exhibit that teams will think twice about bending the rules with garage visibility too far, threats of in race penalties might be the only thing that keeps them from pushing things too far.

Now teams know that they get, aside from a $5500 fee, two freebees from the ACO on this issue. The third strike will probably screw them out of the race, which is probably deserved if you push your luck too far and knowing what the ACO's stance is. Whether it's for the benefit of the fans and media, or that's just a positive (for us) byproduct of it is debatable.