[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by wewantourdarbyback

Qualy rule seems daft. It's all well and good making sure all the drivers have time in the car before the race, and perhaps saying they must be within a certain percentage of the others if you want to make sure they are good enough. But that system will be almost impossible for fans to follow, especially trackside.

Agreed, unnecessary complications. The single lap is far more exciting.

Chris Dyson ‏@ChrisDyson16
@almsnotes @fiawec More confusing stupidity.

[Pandamasque]

Funnily enough, the complicated quali format, that will prove difficult to follow not only for casual spectators but even for commentators, has been introduced "to make it more attractive for spectators and media".

[Salamus]

I understand what they are trying to do but this format is a bit ridiculous. KISS

[Purist]

Panda, I know what you mean, but the "bean counters" can go fornicate themselves for all I care! Maybe if the sport did things that people wholeheartedly find attractive and exciting, the sport would have a better following (what a concept!). (I bet Kaz, along with the other combatants, would be grinning from ear to ear after a knock-down-drag-out battle at Elkhart Lake!)

And I have to agree, having one man going for the ultimate lap in qualifying is the best arrangement. Getting minimum driving time covered to qualify to participate should be taken care of during the regular practice sessions. And as for qualifying, it's a bloody six-hour (or more) race! If the driver line-up as a whole isn't up to snuff, that will be brought to the fore during the race.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

FIA WMSC press release concerning the WEC in 2013-2014:



http://www.fia.com/news/world-motor-sport-council-2012

Quali rule seems a tad too over-complicated to me, further cost reductions for LMP2 and GTE-Am are a good idea though, makes it more cost-effective for the gentleman drivers.

I don't like the new qualifying format, or the fact that Warm-Up is cancelled. Of course I can now sleep longer, and be better rested for the race, but I will miss the, well yes, "Warm-Up/Teaser" to the race.

[NaBUru38]

I like that two drivers must qualify. BUt I don't like counting four laps, I'd prefer two. With the new system, it will be much more likely that a backmarker will ruin a team's position.

[tux]

Really stupid to change the Qualifying rules. If they want both drivers to drive in the session just mandate the first 15 mins for driver 1, 2nd 15 minutes for driver 2, then take the fastest time set by the quickest driver to set the grid.

[Simmi]

Yeah it's a bit crap to be honest. Will wreck the excitement at Le Mans. Especially when you mainly have three-man teams it renders the whole thing pointless.

[Rodger Davies]

please tell me that stupid qualifying rule doesn't apply to Le Mans too - will ruin the end of Wednesday and Thursday

[Pandamasque]

I already feel very sorry for commentators having to explain what on earth is going on and who's where in terms of provisional grid position.

[CTD]

One "smart" thing from the new qualifying, is that it's more endurance now, rather than just 1 quick lap. Setting a quick lap time 4 times is more realistic to once true pace, than setting one.

[Simmi]

It kills the magic of pulling a flying lap out of the bag. If this was F1 at least they would supply some tech to work out the positions in real time. I don't see the ACO doing that.

[Canada ALMS fan]

For the overall pole in LMP1 and in GTE-Pro it should be a single driver shootout but I like the new qualy rules for LMP2 and GTE-Am. This will give a more representative grid of the the pro-am teams and the casual fans will likely only care about the pro classes anyway.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by Simmi

It kills the magic of pulling a flying lap out of the bag.

Yep, it certainly feels like they're trying to reinvent the wheel. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Simmi

It kills the magic of pulling a flying lap out of the bag. If this was F1 at least they would supply some tech to work out the positions in real time. I don't see the ACO doing that.

The tech needed, can be done in a spreadsheet. You just need to plug-in the lap times manually, lap by lap.
So hopefully ACO will supply this, or else we have to put our hopes up for RLM's Math skills.

Originally Posted by Bentley03

Yep, it certainly feels like they're trying to reinvent the wheel. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!

Although I see a point in the change, I agree.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by CTD

Although I see a point in the change, I agree.

And, moving on from that, we are talking about a sport which is already confusing enough, to the casual observer (multi class format). This surely only serves to compound the problem still further.

For the spectators and the media? For the sake of it, more like!

[Victor_RO]

Well... the Indy 500 has had 4-lap qualifying runs for years and they manage alright, plus their qualifying system has been more complicated anyway with qualifying stretched over a few days. However... last time the FIA tried aggregate-times qualifying in any series, it got scrapped about a quarter of the way through the season (F1 in '05). So if the same rate applies here, the rule may (hopefully) be gone by the time we are in Le Mans.

[Tim the Grey]

I reckon any decent timing company could handle this. After all, they can offer, live, the 'optimum' lap in qualifying, now, aggregating sectors from various cars...
I can see THAT leading to some Banzai efforts, to move that aggregate time up the charts.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

I reckon any decent timing company could handle this.

But we're talking about ACO, le technique a la 1982.

[Pandamasque]

Yup. Timing is calculated by state of the art tape ordinateurs and then sent through to FIA's fax machines, scanned and posted on the web.

[Mal]

Do each drivers 2 laps have to be consecutive or can it be any 2 laps?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Mal

Do each drivers 2 laps have to be consecutive or can it be any 2 laps?

As far as I'm aware, it's each driver's fastest two laps, but they'll probably still be consecutive to fit within the time constraints of a regular quali session. (Hopefully they won't apply the rule to Le Mans though.)

[Mal]

It could be exciting on some circuits as there will be little opportunity for error (maybe one extra lap at most) and therefore the whole 20 mins will be quite frantic and the drivers that make the best of any traffic will come to the fore.

[gregtummer]

Too confusing.

Keep it simple with one lap magic.

[Mal]

I am not so sure, I will reserve judgement until I see it in action.

Providing the live timing shows aggregate times I cant see why it will be so confusing. It will build up over a longer period until the last lap for each car is much the same a a one lap banzai.

In P1 the reality is that the factory cars have been doing a qualifying run in the first 10 minutes and then parking and sitting in the pit for the rest of the session. This is presumably what the FIA are trying to avoid. by making the final few minutes more exciting.