As to the gasoline engined teams, wouldn't a cash bonus be enough to light some fire under some bottoms to get factories to back up some more privateer teams? Grand Am is rumored to be offering teams a $25,000 bonus to any team that can beat Ganassi this year. Money, they say, is the root of all evil. Well, evil might not be the intent here, but it certianly can be a big motivator. However, bonus or no bonus, you're still fighting the likes of Audi and Peugeot--two companies that have invested the most, are used to winning, and have bespoke cars designed and built to their specifcations.
On to Spa, Allan McNish has posted on his site something that I find interesting. He said that Spa has some characteristics of Le Mans, but has shorter straights and more corners, and more entries on a shorter track. The comments I'm referring to seem to say that some changes will be made to the R18's setup for Spa compared to Le Mans, but he didn't go into specifics:
http://www.allanmcnish.com/blog/2011...te-tracks-.asp
Other that minor changes to the chassis setup, what else could Audi change, with Allan's statement being rather non-descript? I don't even know if Audi has any high downforce bits ready for Spa, and it might not be until Imola or even Silverstone that they get a full kit ready.