[WEC] 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship

[Acid09]

But that's nearly impossible if your main event is larger than life.

it's like Indycars trying to create an event as big as the Indy 500. It's not possible .

[Alex Langheck]

They need to start promoting the WEC; rather than Le Mans, oh and some other races as well.

Personally, Le Mans is a huge plus, but it's also a weakness; Sportscar racing isn't just about 1 race in June. They need to build the WEC into a brand; they have a great 'product'; road relevant technology, big hitters joining, etc

And it's slightly blasphemous - but, as big as Le Mans is; the mainstream coverage is hardly earth shattering, is it?

[bella]

Originally Posted by Bandicoot17

The other events should be better promoted, with high quality adverts to try and make them 'events'.

this is easy to say but very difficult to do convincingly. especially in the uk, and some less enthusiastic motorsport markets. look at silverstone - that's going to be a huge event but why? it's not because of a significant promotion effort, or trying to big the event up in that really sort of playschool way that msv do.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by bella

this is easy to say but very difficult to do convincingly. especially in the uk, and some less enthusiastic motorsport markets. look at silverstone - that's going to be a huge event but why? it's not because of a significant promotion effort, or trying to big the event up in that really sort of playschool way that msv do.

I have seen an advert for the Silverstone round quite a few times on the TV for the past few weeks.

[bella]

me too, but they've been on in previous years too iirc (happy to be corrected about that). i think it's more a combination of porsche, mark webber and the easter weekend. and some good old british optimism about the weather

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by bella

me too, but they've been on in previous years too iirc (happy to be corrected about that). i think it's more a combination of porsche, mark webber and the easter weekend. and some good old british optimism about the weather

I think there might of been an advert last year, but not sure about other years.

Hopefully the weather isn't like Saturday last year during the ELMS race.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Well it's been suggested enough times on the forum - but it seems the ACO/FIA are considering switching the calendar to run through the winter.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/?p=25940

I'm not sure how a 'late summer' or even Autumn start would work if you wanted to make Le Mans the last round. The turnaround is too tight. By doing that you'd have to make the season start in mid-November.

That would afford a lot less clashes and it would be the centre of attention of the motorsport world during that time (depending on the success of Formula E).

The season already runs late into the year as it is. The traditional Le Mans build-up races could remain similar. It encourages teams to stay in the series until the end of the season.

I suppose you wouldn't need to change any dates at all. The winter break would replace the summer break, and the summer break would come in the off-season.

Bit confused by this point made by Gary Watkins

Asking them to be in the final throes of development just as they are gearing up for the most important — and most demanding - race of the season at Le Mans would be problematical in the extreme.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113136

Surely, if anything, the manufacturers would want to take Le Mans at the end of their development curve, when they're in their best shape? It justifies the pace of development if you're building towards the "big one".

You'd be far less likely to see someone like Toyota pulling a car mid-season.

[Rodger Davies]

Yes, unfortunately you can't choose to make an 'event' overnight, as many music festival promoters have found in recent years. You need a combination of ingredients, of which luck is undoubtedly one and stability another. The latter is hardly the case with the Silverstone round; just as it had begun to find its feet in August, it was moved to a different, colder time of year.

To me, Le Mans should be the start rather than end of a season. It's scary to me to consider someone in 2nd not giving 100% in the last hour because of wanting to make sure of championship points. In my ideal world, it wouldn't be part of the championship at all though, bit I'm aware that's merely my own fantasy.

However, if it is to be at the end, then I'd prefer it to be the penultimate round. ALMS was a great case, where Laguna used to be a great season-ending event until it too became victim to similar meddling.

[gustavobamba]

IMHO, Le Mans at the end of season is a very good idea.

Le Mans is the most importante race of endurance and it deserves to be the season finale. And with double points at the final race, things could be spice

The WEC will, with this proposal, grow in interest and the manufactures will have their cars at the top development in Le Mans.

I support the idea

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Yes, unfortunately you can't choose to make an 'event' overnight, as many music festival promoters have found in recent years. You need a combination of ingredients, of which luck is undoubtedly one and stability another. The latter is hardly the case with the Silverstone round; just as it had begun to find its feet in August, it was moved to a different, colder time of year.

To me, Le Mans should be the start rather than end of a season. It's scary to me to consider someone in 2nd not giving 100% in the last hour because of wanting to make sure of championship points. In my ideal world, it wouldn't be part of the championship at all though, bit I'm aware that's merely my own fantasy.

However, if it is to be at the end, then I'd prefer it to be the penultimate round. ALMS was a great case, where Laguna used to be a great season-ending event until it too became victim to similar meddling.

I hadn't thought of that problem, good point. But no matter how big the WEC gets, I don't think it will ever surpass the prestige of winning Le Mans. If the WEC's stock rises, so does LM's.

At the same time, it could make Le Mans even more exciting. Teams have clung on to podium positions at Le Mans before rather than chase victory, and when that's meaningless, it's boring. If holding that position hinges on your championship, on the other hand, things could be really tense on the Sunday...

[isynge]

I have absolutely no problem with Le Mans coming at the end of the season and it running from Autumn to June. Indeed since reading about the prospect this morning I've quite enjoyed speculating about what a calendar to support this might look like.

It's a bit before my day, being born in 1972, but if you look at The Speed Merchants (still, I think, the best bit of cinema about sportscar racing) it's all about building up to Le Mans, and the reflective bit at the end with Watkins Glen feels like a somewhat wistful afterthought. We've been lucky the last couple of years in that we've had an enjoyable series of races post Le Mans, but there's no getting away from the issue that the big race has a gravity all of its own, and this consistently dwarfs the championship, or in other words, most of us could list Le Mans winners going back a few years off the top of our heads - could we say the same about the championship?

[bella]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

Bit confused by this point made by Gary Watkins
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113136

Surely, if anything, the manufacturers would want to take Le Mans at the end of their development curve, when they're in their best shape? It justifies the pace of development if you're building towards the "big one".

You'd be far less likely to see someone like Toyota pulling a car mid-season.

yeah, that confused me too. it'd be interesting to hear the logic behind that statement.

the idea of the season culminating with the jewel in its crown is a very poetic one. it would be excellent to have some motorsport to follow over the winter, though i would imagine the options for sneaky off-season testing would dwindle somewhat with summer as the development time

i wonder how a switch from summer to winter would work in practice - two le mans counting in one season, or one short euro-based le mans trophy type effort?

[isynge]

Originally Posted by bella

yeah, that confused me too. it'd be interesting to hear the logic behind that statement.

the idea of the season culminating with the jewel in its crown is a very poetic one. it would be excellent to have some motorsport to follow over the winter, though i would imagine the options for sneaky off-season testing would dwindle somewhat with summer as the development time

i wonder how a switch from summer to winter would work in practice - two le mans counting in one season, or one short euro-based le mans trophy type effort?

Interesting one. I'd keep it so there was only ever one Le Mans in a season, so let's say it starts this year.

2014 championship runs Silverstone 2014 - Interlagos 2014
2015 championship runs Austin 2014 - Le Mans 2015

Obviously this would mean the five 2014 rounds from Austin - Interlagos would essentially count for two titles, but if nothing else this would provide some interesting retrospective comments in decades to come about how unusual it all was.

You'd probably also have to waive the 'rule' about having to enter a full season for that year, but again don't see this as being insurmountable.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

IMHO, Le Mans at the end of season is a very good idea.

Le Mans is the most importante race of endurance and it deserves to be the season finale. And with double points at the final race, things could be spice

The WEC will, with this proposal, grow in interest and the manufactures will have their cars at the top development in Le Mans.

I support the idea

At face value, it seems like a great idea. Ending the season with the most prestige and longest race seems like a no brainer.

However, once you start thinking about it, a lot of problems can occur. Like Rodger Davies said, championship implications can affect the performance of some teams. But another problem that I don't think has been mentioned is the fact that you end up with two winners. A Le Mans winner and a WEC winner.

At the end of the race, all the spotlight is going to be on the LM winner, which will hurt the WEC's image imo. If ACO wants WEC to grow and become a legitimate prestigious championship, it needs its own spotlight at a track other than Le Mans.

Edit: Image if the IndyCar season ended with the Indy 500. You have one guy in victory circle drinking milk and kissing the bricks while another guy is jumping up and down because he won the championship. To me, that seems very odd.

[airbusA346]

Porsche have decided to enter 6MJ class.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/wec/...-14032803.html

[carbon_titanium]

I like the "winter -> summer" concept of WEC, I image a champ like this:

september/october - the american races (COTA and interlagos)
november/december - the asian races (fuji, shangai, bahrein)
april - silversotne
may - spa
june - le mans grand final

It will remains a 3 months hole, but now le mans will decide the championship

+ the introduction of 3 new trophies:
the american cup
(earned by the team that scored more points in american races)
the asian cup
(earned by the team that scored more points in asian races)
the european cup
(earned by the team that scored more points in european races)

[Scooter185]

The overall champion being different from the LM winner is a bit disconcerting.

[Rodger Davies]

Originally Posted by Salamus

At the end of the race, all the spotlight is going to be on the LM winner, which will hurt the WEC's image imo. If ACO wants WEC to grow and become a legitimate prestigious championship, it needs its own spotlight at a track other than Le Mans.

Good. Sodding. Point.

I'd suggest even more so that this is note reason for it starting the season and Spa being a finish. Means they couldn't spend the entire Spa 1000kms sandbagging any more...

[Pontlieue]

I think instead of making Le Mans the season final, they need to create a second big event. Not as big as Le Mans, that's impossible, but something which is different from the usual 6 Hour races. Maybe make Fuji the season final, extend the length of the race to 10 or 12 hours, and combine the WEC and Asian LMS grids, which would make about 45-50 starters.

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by Pontlieue

I think instead of making Le Mans the season final, they need to create a second big event. Not as big as Le Mans, that's impossible, but something which is different from the usual 6 Hour races. Maybe make Fuji the season final, extend the length of the race to 10 or 12 hours, and combine the WEC and Asian LMS grids, which would make about 45-50 starters.

12 H Sebring… did this ring some bells!!!!!!!

[airbusA346]

GTE BoP Adjustments ahead of Silverstone

Vantage GTE (Pro)

- 15 kg weight break from the configuration it ran late last year
- 5 mm higher ride height

997 GT3 RSR

-0.6 mm air restrictor increase

991 RSR will run in the same configuration seen in last year’s finale in Bahrain.

Vantage GTE (Am) will continue to have a 0.3 mm larger air restrictor and 5 liter increase in fuel capacity.

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/g...pecs-revealed/

[carbon_titanium]

Strange, I expected to see the lola-rebellion with a 915kg minimum weight and shorter restrictors/fuel tank to keep the status quo performances between new work lmp1 and old private lmp1, indeed they are now 10kg lighter and gained 2L in fuel tank too!

[TheNo1F1Fan]

LMP1-L entry list has been filled by the two last drivers, Thomas Holzer and James Rossiter.

[FstrthnU]

http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/gb...or-the-future/
GB Autosport quite ambitious, saying they're looking at a possible WEC program by 2016 (with a possible team partnership in 2015)

[mclarenf1papa]

I wonder how competitive the Lola Rebellion will be. (Assuming they don't have the R-One ready) Hopefully the ACO will do a good job with the BOP of the LMP1s.