[deggis]

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/0...the-issue.html

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/0...from-here.html

In the wake of the withdrawal of Audi Sport’s long-standing programme last year, I asked a question of the head of the FIA Endurance Commission, Sir Lindsey Owen-Jones: “Had an error been made not giving aspirant manufacturers an easier route into prototype racing than has been offered by the LMP1 H regulations?”

The answer, after brief consideration, was that this might very well have been a correct observation.

There is then an opportunity to put that right immediately.

Allow factory engines, factory aero and full factory badging on a range of LMP1 chassis. Allow those teams to enter the 2018 FIA WEC from the start with a non-factory-badged car, a Ginetta for instance, potentially debuting a new car at Le Mans next year.

Take the hit that parking the tech-based formula might require, allow them to measure their efforts against Toyota, and ensure that any privateers get a fair crack of the whip too.

If the 2020 regs survive the maelstrom, if Toyota can be persuaded to return, and are joined by Peugeot, and, who knows, in a year or two down the line by one of the new boys, attracted by the package and the technical hard reset that entirely new tech provides, then it would be mission accomplished.