[WEC Race] 2013 FIA WEC - Round 6 - 6 Hours of Fuji

[carbon_titanium]

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

I'm quite surprised, I thought that if a race didn't cover a meaningful distance, the race was cancelled and no trophy/points/classification awarded.

Japanese fans don't deserve this.

I agree, I don't think is fair that only duval in audi #2 will receive points. Championship classification is falsified.

[TF110]

Well, bring on Shanghai.

[Simmi]

Wow. So glad I didn't stay up for this.

Been scrolling through the thread in line with what I'm watching to avoid spoilers. Got as far as the second red flag but happily I now know not to bother.

It's just such a massive shame. I don't think anyone deserves points for this, but on the other hand we did see mistakes from some big teams (Toyota/Aston) and reliability from another (Audi). They shouldn't get off scot-free.

Have to admit that in my head I always think of Fuji and rain. In reality that's only because of the Grand Prix in '76 and '07. Weather can take out a race anywhere in the world on any given day and I think the teams know that.

Just sad for the fans.

[carbon_titanium]

rain at fuji is one of the few remeaning motorsport clichè.

[Simmi]

Looks like Porsche are the most unhappy about the race being kept off track. Seems like they feel there were periods it would have been okay to race.

Marcel TC has some quotes on his twitter feed: https://twitter.com/dsceuroeditor

[MyNameIsNigel]

So, congrats to Audi for having clinched the 2013 World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship. And the 2013 World Endurance Drivers' Championship will be Audi's as well. It will be hard for the #1 trio to catch up, though.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Looks like Porsche are the most unhappy about the race being kept off track. Seems like they feel there were periods it would have been okay to race.

Marcel TC has some quotes on his twitter feed: https://twitter.com/dsceuroeditor

After sleeping on it (for 4 hours ...) I'm still not pleased with this. I assume the team must be frustrated that their wet race tyres/strategy didn't take place, but given the events of this week safety has to be the main priority. Those quotes (as presented by Ten Caat) seem rather sour grapes to me and especially disappointing from Porsche.

Edit: Full quotes courtesy of endurance-Info

[tux]

Of course everyone is disappointed that the race could not go ahead properly but there really wasn't any alternative. Ive seen on Twitter and Facebook a few people saying that its a joke series that is scared of the rain and all the associated online rubbish people sprout but the fact is no way could you have let them race with the levels of standing water around.

Would have been interesting to see who would have handled the wet conditions best.

[bentley speed 8]

I'm happy they did red flag the race rather than see someone get injured.
It's a shame, since it would really have been a good battle in all the classes. But driver safety always come first

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by tux

Of course everyone is disappointed that the race could not go ahead properly but there really wasn't any alternative. Ive seen on Twitter and Facebook a few people saying that its a joke series that is scared of the rain and all the associated online rubbish people sprout but the fact is no way could you have let them race with the levels of standing water around.

Would have been interesting to see who would have handled the wet conditions best.

I agree, apparently for some people out there this year we hadn't enough tragedies.

[PointDSM]

Originally Posted by J Jay

After sleeping on it (for 4 hours ...) I'm still not pleased with this. I assume the team must be frustrated that their wet race tyres/strategy didn't take place, but given the events of this week safety has to be the main priority. Those quotes (as presented by Ten Caat) seem rather sour grapes to me and especially disappointing from Porsche.

Edit: Full quotes courtesy of endurance-Info

There is absolutely NO reason to connect the events of earlier this week to any safety precautions made today. We all have to remember that this is sports car racing, and we race in the rain and assume the risk. The difference comes if the track can not push water off-course, causing massive puddles. It appears that Fugi can not handle rain as well as other tracks.

The event earlier this week wasn't caused by anything other than an inexperienced driver.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

There is absolutely NO reason to connect the events of earlier this week to any safety precautions made today. We all have to remember that this is sports car racing, and we race in the rain and assume the risk. The difference comes if the track can not push water off-course, causing massive puddles. It appears that Fugi can not handle rain as well as other tracks.

The event earlier this week wasn't caused by anything other than an inexperienced driver.

About handling the rain, Silverstone ELMS on track looked like doomsday and the track was a puddle. On the roads close to the track the situation was normal and there wasn't so much water at the surface like in the circuit. So I think that there is something wrong with the asphalt used on modern racing tracks.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

The event earlier this week wasn't caused by anything other than an inexperienced driver.

You don't know that. May have been a mechanical problem just as well.

And the point is that criticizing a safety based decision that was pretty much universally supported (except for the one team doing the criticizing), insinuating that a hidden agenda was present, and demanding safety to be compromised for one's own advantage, is in extremely poor taste when we just lost a driver last week.

[PointDSM]

I'll re-phrase my comment above: I believe it was due to an inexperienced driver (or driver error), however it certainly was not the fault of the track or weather.

Maybe Porsche is the only team on the grid that is there to race and not just "travel" . What's wrong with a team wanting to race? Should they be forced to follow what other teams are saying if they don't agree with it? Why couldn't they delay the race until today and actually run?

[chernaudi]

The FIA had to know from '07 that Fuji has dodgy track draining in heavy rain, and they had to know that the forecast didn't look good.

If they weren't confident that the race would go off, why not postpone the race to Monday, where the weather could at least be decent. We may slag off at NASCAR for doing it so often, but if holding a race was impractical, why not?

Disappointed for the fans, teams, and the FIA and ACO (if the latter organizations were forced into a box by rules). I mentioned that the race could be in jeopardy because of what happened in '07 under similarly poor conditions.

Hallow win for Toyota, hallow WEC clinch for Audi, and probably a sour taste in the WEC's mouth on account of mother nature. I know that a win's a win, but I don't think that Audi wanted their World Championship this way, nor Toyota their race win.

I don't know what the FIA plan on doing with driver's points, because even though Duval and Lotterer were the only Audi drivers to drive, I don't think that it's fair for their teammates to get no points for something out of the WEC's control, let alone their control. Nature shouldn't screw McNish or TK out of a drivers' title because Duval was the only guy to drive under the pace car periods.

Best solution, possibly, is null and void the race results as an anomaly caused by a freak event, let the results stand and manufacturers' points stand, but void the drivers' points or award half points based on the race running to half distance. I don't know what the FIA can do here aside from that out of fairness.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

Maybe Porsche is the only team on the grid that is there to race and not just "travel" . What's wrong with a team wanting to race? Should they be forced to follow what other teams are saying if they don't agree with it? Why couldn't they delay the race until today and actually run?

If they'd said "We think it was possible to race" it would have been fine. But basically what they (especially Lieb and Lietz) said was "the race wasn't run to help cars that aren't good in the rain", and that is plainly ridiculous and disgraceful.

Why they couldn't delay the race? To just name a few of the myriad reasons: Track rental, travel arrangements, TV arrangements, Safety arrangements (try telling volunteer marshals that they have to come back on the next day).

[chernaudi]

NASCAR does it all the time, and they don't have races spaced 2-3 weeks apart. Often, their races are spaced only a week apart, and sometimes involves nearly 3000 miles of travel from point A to point B, with both more team personnel and are often paid more than WEC team members are. Delaying the race by one day won't kill most of these guys, considering that some NASCAR or Indy Car teams are rather less awash with money than even private GTE teams.

And of course, in addition to the LMP1 drivers championship, this may screw up other drivers championship battles in LMP2, and both GTE classes.

I understand that this is a event of force majure and there was little alternative, but the FIA and ACO need to have contingency plans. Between this and LM, I believe that they need plans for such events.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

NASCAR does it all the time, and they don't have races spaced 2-3 weeks apart. Often, their races are spaced only a week apart, and sometimes involves nearly 3000 miles of travel from point A to point B, with both more team personnel and are often paid more than WEC team members are. Delaying the race by one day won't kill most of these guys, considering that some NASCAR or Indy Car teams are rather less awash with money than even private GTE teams.

And of course, in addition to the LMP1 drivers championship, this may screw up other drivers championship battles in LMP2, and both GTE classes.

I understand that this is a event of force majure and there was little alternative, but the FIA and ACO need to have contingency plans. Between this and LM, I believe that they need plans for such events.

Yeah, but NASCAR's transport arrangements are within the same country, transport arrangements and customs deals between Japan and China are rather more... complicated (in terms of paperwork and timing of processing paperwork).

[Paradise City]

The race should be written off in terms of points, staged on Monday as an alternative. To retain points for this fiasco is a complete disaster. The Fuji people need get the drainage sorted if they want their track to remain an international venue. Tough ask, given the potential level of rainfall, but there you go.

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Yeah, but NASCAR's transport arrangements are within the same country, transport arrangements and customs deals between Japan and China are rather more... complicated (in terms of paperwork and timing of processing paperwork).

Spot on. The teams have to pack up all their equipment and cars to be collected in the containers by DHL by Monday. The logistics package is part of the full season entry and the plans cannot be messed about with. There is no flexibility as container ships are full at this time of the year with pre-Christmas stock being exported from China. I would suggest that importing such items as racecars into the People's Republic of China presents more than a few headaches.

[chernaudi]

Still, it seems that the FIA painted themselves into a box here. There should be better contingency plans than what they're stuck with now. Fuji was basically a disaster.

Sad thing is that the FIA knew from '07 that drainage in heavy rain was an issue, and basically if anything Tike's mods screwed the FIA/ACO, teams and fans more than the rainstorms themselves. I know that heavy fog was an issue, but it was the rain that doomed the event.

I believe my comment about the heavy rain pre-race was a sad omen. Audi can't be happy to win the WEC that way, Toyota can't be happy to have won the race that way (which thankfully may've lead to them entering two cars for China reportedly ), and the FIA and ACO can't be happy with the box they got painted in.

Fuji is currently on the schedule for next year. Hopefully for Fuji and TMC, that spot isn't provisional, or that they can fix the track's issues for next year. This is the eastern Asia rainy season, after all.

[Gingers4Justice]

I think some people need to have a little nap before they fully comment on what's happened - fans, drivers, media alike.

I'm sorry, but if you had seen the pictures and had any sense, you'd understand that racing just wasn't possible. The conditions were just stupid. Never mind the safety aspect, the conditions were so poor, I don't think the cars could have gone fast enough for it to be called a race.

There is a very narrow window within which the WEC can make its visit to Japan, and it seems Fuji is always going to get the nod over Suzuka. Unfortunately, there is this risk from mother nature.

That said, Fuji have surely got to take a look at the track's drainage system. Once or twice the rain cleared and we might have been able to go racing, but the track didn't improve as you might expect.

[chernaudi]

That's what I've read and understand. There were windows where racing could've happened, but the track's horrid drainage system shafted the FIA every time.

The fans really got hosed--literally and figuratively. At least everyone acknowledged that and did try and make amends the best that they could Plus for the WEC, but they still shouldn't have been forced into that situation. Maybe with Toyota owning the track and Toyota being in the WEC might force a fix?

[FstrthnU]

Is Autopolis certified by the FIA to be able to host LMP1 cars? They could try that circuit for a year, if the weather might be nicer.

[chernaudi]

Problem is that this is Japan's rainy season and tropical storm season. You can only dodge that bullet so many times no matter where you go.

My big complaint is drainage at Fuji. Was it this bad before the remodel, or did the mods cause the issues, or make them worse?