[WEC] 2018-2019 WEC Super Season

[chernaudi]

Will there be a WEC and IMSA Sebring weekend thread? Official sessions start today. I'm considering starting at least the WEC thread if no one else is willing or if the forum is supportive of the idea.

[Deleted]

Yes please

https://twitter.com/Toyota_Hybrid/st...01827260530688
Marshals report that the queues have never been so long on a Wednesday

https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/1105796129625686018
Morning view

[chernaudi]

Been reading reports on Facebook that Neel Jani is thinking of leaving or scaling back his involvement with Rebellion in the WEC in favor of his factory Porsche ride in Formula E. Reports site the limited competitiveness of privateer teams against Toyota in the current formula in LMP1 as one of the reasons.

To his credit, Jani has been complementary of Toyota for designing and building an excellent car under the rules as given in a personal FB post of his. However, he's unhappy with the ACO over BOP and technical regs, which to be fair, TMG's advantage is IMO just too much to overcome without major BOP, which IMO would be a bit unfair to Toyota.

[S griffin]

Well those rumours are true, he feels his time is up in WEC, so wants to try more Formula E instead. I think there aren’t enough teams to challenge Toyota at the moment

The fact the ACO are now having to revert to BoP to keep it close says it all. Toyota have build up that advantage and are now forced to give it up, which is not good for a world series

[TF110]

Maybe when (if) the private teams get the bespoke tires the gap will close. I'm sure that's not the only thing that has to change for them to be closer but it's probably the biggest thing that can be done without going to the extreme side like sub 800kg cars and 800hp engines. Toyota is already at 904kg vs 833kg for the heaviest private teams (turbo engines). They also have about 60% of the fuel power per lap in MJ. You can tell the level between them by looking at the eot tables, even if they have a hybrid advantage.

[Deleted]

Extra garages possible for 2023 LM (or before) when the new pit complex should be fully constructed
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...rid-expansion/

Finally some good news after all the horrible ones last Friday

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Extra garages possible for 2023 LM (or before) when the new pit complex should be fully constructed
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...rid-expansion/

Finally some good news after all the horrible ones last Friday

What was the horrible news?

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

What was the horrible news?

That P1/GTP/Car-Car will just be BoP class.

Also that it might consist of all of these jammed into one
1) ACO prototypes with hyper/roadcar styling
2) ACO prototype-GTs straight derived from hyper/roadcars
3) Grandfathered nonhybrid LMP1s (for the first year)
4) Gen 2 DPi

[S griffin]

Well this is not the way it is supposed to go. I can see the attraction of the hybrid class, plus others. Would a one off LMP1 class work though?

[S griffin]

I think the series is in trouble. Only the hybrid class and a few others can save it. LMP1 s have probably had their day here by the looks of it

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

Forgive my ignorance, but is there insurance of any sort for such an event, or did someone literally just see half a million £ go up in smoke?

It's a really big big gray zone actually; guess that an insurance can be stipulated for basically everthing by now, the messy part is to prove that certain kind of accidental or not accidental possible damages are included in the stipulated policy.
Example: 911 RSR burnt to the ground; it was caused by chance? it was caused by carelessness of a team's mechanic? it was caused by a manufacturing issue?


If after the expertise, insurance company will assume that damages were caused by a team mistake, very likely just forget to see any refund... it works like this with everyday road cars, guess the same will be with racing cars.

Pescarolo ruined his team when back in 2009 insurance didn't pay for the 908HDi crashed by treluyer.


This kind of sportscars series like IMSA or WEC are insanely expensive for privaters; a team owner shouldn't be surprised to see his cars destroyed soon or later anyway.... some teams can afford the purchase of new cars, some other can't.

[S griffin]

Yes, it’s never a guarantee. Sometimes insurance just don’t care. Especially if you can’t prove it was a freak, a manufacturing fault or finger trouble. Accidental damage is a grey area. No one knows what really caused the Porsche to burn to the ground and might remain a mystery for a while

Of course it was different in 09, but I guess teams know the risk in competing in these high profile series

Certainly WEC is very expensive, although IMSA is more sustainable. Privateers are a bit out of place in the former, but are ok in the latter. Of course it depends how much damage you have, but of course all motorsport has it’s cost risk involved

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes, it’s never a guarantee. Sometimes insurance just don’t care. Especially if you can’t prove it was a freak, a manufacturing fault or finger trouble. Accidental damage is a grey area. No one knows what really caused the Porsche to burn to the ground and might remain a mystery for a while

Of course it was different in 09, but I guess teams know the risk in competing in these high profile series

Certainly WEC is very expensive, although IMSA is more sustainable. Privateers are a bit out of place in the former, but are ok in the latter. Of course it depends how much damage you have, but of course all motorsport has it’s cost risk involved

yeah.... just think about SoD
in 2017 had to trash a riley chassis just after 2 races....

[S griffin]

Well I didn’t see that one. But no surprises it went after two races there, it is expensive

[S griffin]

I need to look that one up. Must have been a big one

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Well I didn’t see that one. But no surprises it went after two races there, it is expensive

During last year spa 6h, also 2 of 3 debuting BR1 dallara chassis ended up in the trash can actually.

One of them I'm sure because dragonspeed got a fresh BR1 chassis just before le mans test and the SMP BR1 that went airborne unlikely was fixable

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I need to look that one up. Must have been a big one

If you mean SoD riley chassis, the car crashed at the first corner wall during free practice; tub couldn't be fixed and had to use the other riley chassis for the other races before switching to ligier.

Recall 2010 LM where pedro lamy 908HDi retired after 2 hours because of a tub damage that wrecked suspensions, sometimes carbon tubs break without any accident it seems

[chernaudi]

I thought that the LM '10 suspension failure was due to an attempt to repair a tub that was in a previous accident. Peugeot had a similar issue at Sebring in 2009 during practice.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

I thought that the LM '10 suspension failure was due to an attempt to repair a tub that was in a previous accident. Peugeot had a similar issue at Sebring in 2009 during practice.

Actually don't know if that chassis was already damaged, it was a really unsual withdraw indeed.
Enter le mans with a damaged tub + new and not accurately tested titanium rods

[S griffin]

Well it could have been. Seems no one has the answer. At least it made Le Mans

[S griffin]

I need to see it. Won’t answer the already damaged question. But at least survived a bit longer after that

[Deleted]

Le Mans goes back to double points event
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-2019-20-regs/

Among other things like the already announced canning of the lame pit proceedings, introduction of success ballast to GTE (AM and ELMS) in addition to BoP, and some tire and drive time allocations

[S griffin]

Was it a double points event last season? I can’t remember

I really hope success ballest is not introduced, BoP is enough! It does not belong in what is supposed to be the premier sportscar series

[Deleted]

It was double points from 2011-2017 and now will be again starting 2020

And it'll happen

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Le Mans goes back to double points event
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-2019-20-regs/

And the 8h races go to 1.5x points as well.