[WEC] 2013 WEC Schedule

[Mal]

Originally Posted by isynge

I'll allow the early season Silverstone tradition if the WEC will compromise and let there be a September race at Brands Hatch...

now your talking

[gwyllion]

Graham Goodwin did an interview with ACO president Pierre Fillon and WEC director Gerard Neveu: http://www.dailysportscar.com/viewAr...97A2368D2EE743

They seem to believe that some WEC team will go to Sebring as a stand alone event:

It is important to add too that we have been very careful to leave plenty of room on the calendar so that any WEC team that wants to race at Sebring as a standalone race will be able to do so, and to take account of any testing they want to do before and after the race. We’ll also be looking at providing the opportunity for the WEC teams to test over in Europe if they choose not to travel to Sebring.

The official term for the double header (i.e. WEC/ELMS Silverstone and WEC/ALMS Austin) seems to be "Super Endurance Weekend"

[Speed-King]

http://sport.turbomagazine.be/news_N...rachtbron.html

Marc VDS are looking at a P2 WEC campaign for next year. Interestingly, with an engine that's not yet used in P2 and suppossedly from a German manufacturer.
With Mercedes adapting the SLS engine for V8Supercars and bringing it down to 5.0 liters, could they be a candidate?

Or an Audi Diesel engine?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

http://sport.turbomagazine.be/news_N...rachtbron.html

Marc VDS are looking at a P2 WEC campaign for next year. Interestingly, with an engine that's not yet used in P2 and suppossedly from a German manufacturer.
With Mercedes adapting the SLS engine for V8Supercars and bringing it down to 5.0 liters, could they be a candidate?

Or an Audi Diesel engine?

Or the engine from the Z4 GT3?

[trickyd]

Originally Posted by Mr Pink

So only F1-circuits accept for La Sarthe with the two worst ones (together with Hockenheim) ending the season. For spectator numbers, wouldn't it be better to go to places were they aren't spoiled with big motorsport events?

Also, from a personal standpoint, I'm not thrilled to watch endurance racing on bland Tilkedromes.

Its going to be just another bland FIA series nowhere near fulfilling its potential, along with WTCC and WRC.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

http://sport.turbomagazine.be/news_N...rachtbron.html

Marc VDS are looking at a P2 WEC campaign for next year. Interestingly, with an engine that's not yet used in P2 and suppossedly from a German manufacturer.
With Mercedes adapting the SLS engine for V8Supercars and bringing it down to 5.0 liters, could they be a candidate?

Or an Audi Diesel engine?

Interesting, and a very welcome addition.

Your Mercedes suggestion, whilst possible, makes little sense to me. If Mercedes were to return to ACO regs racing, they would surely be looking to compete head to head with Audi and Porsche in P1, or in GTE.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

Interesting, and a very welcome addition.

Your Mercedes suggestion, whilst possible, makes little sense to me. If Mercedes were to return to ACO regs racing, they would surely be looking to compete head to head with Audi and Porsche in P1, or in GTE.

Mercedes really seem to step up their game in terms of customer support, though. The V8SC project is a really interesting one - they don't get official factory support, but HWA seems to have adopted a "if you pay for it we'll built it" policy.

So this would be less of a case of MB getting serious about endurance racing, but more of HWA getting serious about earning money.

[Creep89]

They should better return with a Z4 GTE version This would be more fun to me.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Mercedes really seem to step up their game in terms of customer support, though. The V8SC project is a really interesting one - they don't get official factory support, but HWA seems to have adopted a "if you pay for it we'll built it" policy.

So this would be less of a case of MB getting serious about endurance racing, but more of HWA getting serious about earning money.

Fair comment, and I'd certainly welcome such an initiative.

[helgi]

It's awful that Bahrain stays in calendar. It has no history and no car market. Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful. It's a shame that FIA continues to promote such places. No wonder though.

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by helgi

It's awful that Bahrain stays in calendar. It has no history and no car market. Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful. It's a shame that FIA continues to promote such places. No wonder though.

I guess they get payed good money to race there.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by helgi

Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful.

The reporters that are there now, have seen zero violence.

Originally Posted by @johndagys

@Gabor_V zero. I've seen zero violence and only friendly/happy locals

source: http://twitter.com/johndagys/status/250940839851851776

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

The reporters that are there now, have seen zero violence.
source: http://twitter.com/johndagys/status/250940839851851776

Graveyards tend to be kinda quiet...

[joeb]

Originally Posted by helgi

It's awful that Bahrain stays in calendar. It has no history and no car market. Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful. It's a shame that FIA continues to promote such places. No wonder though.

No history, are you kidding? It was part of the inaugural WEC!

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Creep89

Marc VDS should better return with a Z4 GTE version This would be more fun to me.

Originally Posted by helgi

It's awful that Bahrain stays in calendar. It has no history and no car market. Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful. It's a shame that FIA continues to promote such places. No wonder though.

Agree with both.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by helgi

It's awful that Bahrain stays in calendar. It has no history and no car market. Besides the atmosphere there is far from peaceful. It's a shame that FIA continues to promote such places. No wonder though.

Maybe they should replace Bahrain with either Abu Dhabi or Dubai in the future.

[C6R Racing Fan]

already a change to schedule:

" Following the announcement of the FIA Formula One 2013 Calendar by the World Motor Sport Council in Paris the FIA World Endurance Championship has revised the date of the 6 Hours of São Paulo after the original date for the Belgian Grand Prix changed from the 1 September to the 25 August.

In order to avoid a clash with the Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo will now take place on Saturday 31 August, which was the original date agreed with the promoter of the event Emerson Fittipaldi."

[helgi]

I beg a pardon but 1000 km of Nurburgring or 6h of Monza have more sense from sporting and even from advertising point of view, rather than 10 events at Abu Dhabi.
If Dakar has more suitable racetrack than it would be very interesting to held a race there.
Kyalami or something else in South Africa - the country that has more racing history than the whole Middle East. Not mention Australia. Of course, it's too difficult for logistic. But it doesn't answer the question why they should race in the middle of nowhere.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by helgi

But it doesn't answer the question why they should race in the middle of nowhere.

You will get your answer once Middle-Eastern company stickers start appearing on the cars (well, they better start appearing ).

[isynge]

Originally Posted by deggis

You will get your answer once Middle-Eastern company stickers start appearing on the cars (well, they better start appearing ).

I strongly suspect that if you took the Middle Eastern cash out of the WEC at the moment you'd end up with a considerably smaller grid.

I think we can all agree that Bahrain isn't a classic track but maybe there's a time and place for a little pragmatism?

[lms]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Graveyards tend to be kinda quiet...

[lms]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

Maybe they should replace Bahrain with either Abu Dhabi

yes please

[helgi]

Just looked at empty grandstands and realize that it's a real short range pragmatism. But it's not a good sign when the health of the whole championship strongly depends on the market where only oil companies are interested in advertising. All in all oil-century is at its finish straight. In some 10 or 20 years we are going to see "Gulf" only in archive videos or some historic racing. Why do FIA think in so close-term solutions?

[isynge]

It's not just oil companies involved, although obviously the petrodollar has an impact. It's more the case that there are a lot of very wealthy individuals and organisations in the Middle East who very much like fast cars.

A lot of this has to do with the Business to Business sector, so really the acid test isn't so much whether the grandstands are full but if the hospitality suites are busy.

In an ideal world we maybe wouldn't have to do this. I'd much rather see Monza than Manama, but go through the grid, ask where the funding comes from, remove the Middle Eastern, and see what's left. To my eyes it's not a result that works all that well for me.

[Purist]

Those wealthy individuals and businesses in the Middle East got their money, directly or indirectly, almost exclusively, from the petroleum industry.

The easily accessible rare minerals and metals in that part of the world have LONG since been exhausted.