Sportscar/GT (and Le Mans) Rumours and Repetition

[joeb]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

I believe the luxury, and the logistical cost control elements. I think one thing we may not be thinking about is keeping tabs on demand to create exclusivity among entry spots. Ferrari makes one less car than they want to sell for high end models. The 32 cap also reduces fluctuations in grid sizes, which definitely indicate when teams view one race less important than the others. If wec accepts 50 entries, and completely opens up local entry spots, but only 29 show up for Bahrain...people will know Bahrain is viewed as less desirable. Which, as we all know, is completely untrue.

That is a really good analysis of the situation.

[Mr Pink]

That's probably close to the truth behind how they reason about it but I honestly don't buy it for one second. I'm convinced one of the biggest gains the WEC could possibly do in increasing their profile is to have more events that are exciting on their own, as it is now they only have Le Mans.

One of the most common comments I hear from not so motorsport interested friends about F1 is that it's always the same, and often they think Monaco is the holy grail because it's the only event they think stand out. For F1 this is hard to change but within sportscar racing there's every opportunity to make events special, car count obviously isn't the only way but I think nerds as well as casuals would appreciate a 50 car Spa field to a 32 car one.

[Deleted]

Don't feel like I should be bothering to reply to TF110 anymore.

Anyhow this graph of mine should illustrate the evolution...


http://imgur.com/1ZH2iCC

[TF110]

Everyone has an opinion, but Im not shouting it as a fact. I dont feel the wec are looking to attract celebrities or whatever by giving lmp1 teams more garage space. Theyre more complicated cars and have more crew. Thats the most obvious reason for them to have that addotional space imo. Modeling themselves after f1 is foolish. We see the controversy surrounding them and small teams. But thats one main area I think they do need more work in.

[seanyb505]

Originally Posted by Mr Pink

That's probably close to the truth behind how they reason about it but I honestly don't buy it for one second. I'm convinced one of the biggest gains the WEC could possibly do in increasing their profile is to have more events that are exciting on their own, as it is now they only have Le Mans. .

The super wealthy don't necessarily welcome the same vision of growth that us peasants do.

Originally Posted by Mr Pink

...within sportscar racing there's every opportunity to make events special, car count obviously isn't the only way but I think nerds as well as casuals would appreciate a 50 car Spa field to a 32 car one.

True. What wouldn't be appreciated by leadership, sponsors, and promoters is illuminating how terrible some of the newer events actually are by giving data such as cars counts. The grid cap restricts such data from emerging.

[TF110]

Theyre not shying away from the numbers. Their twitter just put up all the summaries of this year's events including the car count http://twitter.com/FIAWEC

Silverstone- 27 cars
Spa- 28 cars
Austin- 29 cars
Fuji- 27 cars
Shanghai- 27 cars
Bahrain- 27 cars
Sao Paulo- 26 cars

The newest track on there had the highest entries (thanks in part to Corvette and ESM)

[Mr Pink]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

True. What wouldn't be appreciated by leadership, sponsors, and promoters is illuminating how terrible some of the newer events actually are by giving data such as cars counts. The grid cap restricts such data from emerging.

Maybe you're right, but the ones that come to mind are Bahrain and Shanghai and they're obviously important enough anyway? I don't think any bad press is really going to affect their status.

[Deleted]

CotA being the newest track has nothing to do why it had the most regular race entries, it's the US market zone. And while it actually did become the first race in some time to have more entries than the previous prior-LM race as well as biggest all season, it would've never got that honor anyway if the Silverstone & Spa numbers hadn't fallen so low in recent years

As for P1 teams "needing the extra space", how on Earth do they manage with 3 garages for 3 cars at Sarthe but not with 2 for 2 at ultra shiny Formula 1 paddocks? Also at Silverstone they had (on top of simply empty garages) extra slot for Rebellion Racing.

Remember how little Audi needed to operate hybrid R18s just 20 months ago?

[TF110]

Ask the wec why they need more garage space. Not sure what youre pointing out with trying to refute my point in grid numbers. I was replying to seanyb about the newer races having the lower car counts. But the 'new' races have the same amount. In fact, one of the oldest had the least- Sao Paulo.

[Richard117]

If i remember correct, the limit isn't about the number of pitboxes but about the paddock space for hospatality units.

[Mal]

I understand from some colleagues on another Forum that the WEC have booked a press conference for the Tuesday of the Detroit Auto Show in January. Any ideas what this is for?

I guess an announcement by Ford is the most likely. They have their main press conference the day before.

[Deleted]

Justice might finally catch Chief Darth Tucker as FBI is taking action
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2014/1...l-charges.html

[dbagtbag]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Justice might finally catch Chief Darth Tucker as FBI is taking action
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2014/1...l-charges.html

'bout time! What goes around comes around.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by Mal

I understand from some colleagues on another Forum that the WEC have booked a press conference for the Tuesday of the Detroit Auto Show in January. Any ideas what this is for?

I guess an announcement by Ford is the most likely. They have their main press conference the day before.

Yes: Looks like this has gone from rumour to full on confirmation of two car ford GTLM Tudor entry and Le Mans 2016 from Chip Ganassi Racing for halo ford racer.

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/new...in-2016-459802

deserves its own thread i suppose.

[Graham Goodwin]

So Motorsport.com and Autoweek finally catch up with what DSC and Racer readers, and Midweek Motorsport listeners have known since 1 October!

[Articus]

I guess what I'm most interested in is Fords announcement at the auto show/ what market this new "sports car" or "supercar" even will be targeting.

Is it Corvette Territory? 911 Territory? 458/NSX Territory?

speaking of that NSX. Graham do you know anything about how those guys are doing and projected plans for Le Mans 2016?

[BullMan]

Honda seems pretty adamant about that NSX GTE car being a hybrid. I don't see it happening.

[Articus]

The NSX seems to be a can of worms the ACO really don't want to deal with. It is not only a hybrid, but also psuedo 4WD.

I don't think the ACO has done much to address the changing face of the everyday sportscar/supercar (i.e. the proverbial GT car).

[Robbo28]

Originally Posted by Articus

The NSX seems to be a can of worms the ACO really don't want to deal with. It is not only a hybrid, but also psuedo 4WD.

I don't think the ACO has done much to address the changing face of the everyday sportscar/supercar (i.e. the proverbial GT car).

Surely if Honda (and other manufacturers) want to pursue a hybrid then they should be in LMP1 HY!!

GTE should stay as it is (ain't broke, don't fix it!)

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Articus

Yes: Looks like this has gone from rumour to full on confirmation of two car ford GTLM Tudor entry and Le Mans 2016 from Chip Ganassi Racing for halo ford racer.

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/new...in-2016-459802

deserves its own thread i suppose.

I figured Joey Hand signed up with Ganassi for some big news in the future. He let on in his twitter he had something good in his plans. If this is what it is, he made a good move.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by Robbo28

Surely if Honda (and other manufacturers) want to pursue a hybrid then they should be in LMP1 HY!!

GTE should stay as it is (ain't broke, don't fix it!)

I sure as hell don't want GTE to change! It's not broke! agreed

But I also really want to see a Honda NSX going toe to toe with Gimmi Bruni and Ferrari at the end of 24 hours. It's a 458 competitor among other things and certainly deserves a spot in the class. As far as I care I would ask them to just get rid of the hybrid system and run a petrol RWD (but Honda is just not going to play ball like that because a decent portion of the 500 or so hp of the powertrain is going to come from the electric motors.

[CTD]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
It's true to many things, however I seem to remember it was also what killed GT1.
ACO didn't do anything to keep costs down meaning the real racing moved to GT2, essentially killing GT1.
You always have to evolve to stay relevant.

[Miguel]

Ignoring the future of the automobile WILL break GT2. I'd like to see a GT class, preferably based on existing GT2 regulations, that allows hybrid and AWD and whatever is relevant for near future sports cars. That should be the way forward.

[Rcz]

And get rid of that silly engine size limit too.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by Miguel

Ignoring the future of the automobile WILL break GT2. I'd like to see a GT class, preferably based on existing GT2 regulations, that allows hybrid and AWD and whatever is relevant for near future sports cars. That should be the way forward.

Yes! They ought to run the fueling formulas in LMP1 for GTE because the manufacturer involvement with just as strong in both classes.

Trying to balance the hybrid and non hybrid vehicles as well as allowing hybrid AWD and conventional AWD is going to be even worse than balancing LMP1 though.