[WEC Race] WEC Round 8: Brazil

[GT6]

Originally Posted by J Jay

I had assumed those problems were down to free stream hoster, but if they originated from the WEC feed then I'd be miffed if I paid. Hopefully it's better for the race.

Well in the UK you can watch it live on freeview (Motors TV)

[chernaudi]

Games are already being played: Audi only did a handful of laps in qualifying to save their tires. They're definitely looking at double stinting from the outset.

[MyNameIsNigel]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Games are already being played: Audi only did a handful of laps in qualifying to save their tires. They're definitely looking at double stinting from the outset.

Seems like it indeed. I do hope that Audi will adopt an "aggressive" strategy during the race. Double-stinting the tires is going to be key if they want to fight for overall victory.

Porsche are surely going to be strong performance-wise but tire wear is probably going to be an issue for them.

Question mark is Toyota. Will they again show dominant performance during the race ? Will they try to double-stint their tires if Audi do so ?

[chernaudi]

Toyota have been harder on their tires than last year, and even the TS030 had issues late in the season with double stinting last year.

Only real comparison that I can draw is COTA, where Audi double stinted early, and didn't lose time and stayed fairly close to the #8 Toyota. And like COTA, the #8 is clearly the faster of the two, while the #7 is struggling by comparison.

Only major difference is that Porsche are faster than at COTA, but their car is known for being hard on their tires.

Audi are already saying that they want for it to be hot tomorrow, because that will benefit them the most, and the temp tomorrow will be in the mid 80s tomorrow.

Also of note is how much faster in terms of top speed the cars are compared to last year. Porsche have topped out at nearly 330kmh, which is about 205mph. The actual figure is like about 203mph/328kmh.

Last year, Audi and Toyota were pulling about 285kmh, or just below 180mph. If the cornering speeds are similar to last year, it's little wonder that the cars are 2-3 seconds a lap faster than last year.

Even Audi with their high downforce package are about 15km/h or 10mph faster than they were last year.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by MyNameIsNigel

Question mark is Toyota. Will they again show dominant performance during the race ? Will they try to double-stint their tires if Audi do so ?

Toyota #8 did the same number of laps in qualifying as Audi #2.

In http://www.racer.com/wec-le-mans/ite...owall=&start=2 Davidson explained that Toyota knows how to best use this year's Michelins.

I don’t think they [Audi] quite understood the tires very well. I don’t think they were matched very well for their car this year. And that’s something we completely nailed and gave us quite a bit of an advantage, especially at Fuji; I think was the biggest one. But a lot of the time, our dominance, if you want to call it that, came at the end of stints. It wasn’t at the beginning. I think at the beginning of stints we always seemed pretty comparable, especially at Porsche, at the end of the year. It was only the end of the stint where we started to make progress compared to the rest of them.

[TF110]

Davidson remarked they could have double stinted at Fuji. But why take the risk when you have the advantage already? If that is true, this might be the weekend they do it. I think it will come down to the track temperature and the pace vs. time advantage. It could be something like 1:19's on new tires vs say 1:20's on double stinted, for 37/38 laps a stint (based on practice 2). There may be a bigger gap, but maybe we see strategy like this.

[tyronnezx]

any other links to the race video feed guys?

[TF110]

Originally Posted by tyronnezx

any other links to the race video feed guys?

I think vipbox has motorstv's feed.

[Spyderman]

What to expect: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116985

[GTfour]

Sooo, again a free stream is just about to be found nowhere? Only the 'suck it out of you' pay channel of the WEC?

No wonder that even a high profile championship like this will struggle to gain in popularity.

[AndreasDavour]

Well, the big thing is everyone still chases TV revenue first. I bet something like that is behind it.

I do remember Porsche, Audi and Toyota actually rumbling about that at the beginning of the season. Nothing came of it, though.

[kaivo]

http://www.olweb.me/motors-tv

[GT6]

Settling down with a cup of tea to watch the full 6 hours live on the tv, should be a good race

[Gulf]

http://ampihlsevent2-f.akamaihd.net/..._600_av-p.m3u8

[Marcus666]

Just tuned in. Gotta ask, is the track damp at the moment?

[J Jay]

Looks like #2 went off at the start, fallen to the back of the field.

[TzeiTzei]

Terrible replays of the start

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

Terrible replays of the start

Indeed, you'd think the turn 1 camera would stay static and watch the field come through instead of following the leaders...

[GT6]

Astons seem very suited to the track for this race, lets hope they make to the end without problems this time

[canamman]

Originally Posted by kaivo

http://www.olweb.me/motors-tv

Thanks!

[Maelochs]

Holy S*** this is great racing!

[GT6]

Well seems like the porsche LMP1 cars are going well

[J Jay]

Stout defending from Buemi keeping Lieb past. Looks like the 919 is having to hang back and get the batteries charged before trying again to get past.

Edit - The R18 #1 can match the pace of the others, but not consistently. Di Grassi into the 1:18s.

Edit edit - Puncture for the #37. Something up with setup for SMP?

[tux]

I look forward very much to June.

[Salamus]

The frozen picture

This is a great battle!