Reflecting on the first hybrid era

[isynge]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Of course, these phenomenal cars are now obsolescent because of the new rules for next year. The sprint spec Audi R18 e-tron quattros and Toyota TS030s are probably going to be mothballed at Inglostadt and Cologne, with the LM cars coming out occasionally to do demo runs at things like the Goodwood Festival of Speed or other events that Audi and Toyota/TMG will put on. Or in the case of Audi, the LM winning R18s will be on exhibit at the Museum Mobile in Inglostadt.

It's an end of an era. Hopefully the new cars will be just as interesting to watch and see develop and race.

This post on Bahrain, from Chernaudi, raises an interesting point.

How will we look back on the last couple of years and the regulatory environment that gave us the R18 and TS-030? Will it be as a brief but brilliant period that at times had a pair of very well matched contenders truly going head to toe, or as a brief couple of years that ushered in something different?

For me the real highlights were at Silverstone in 2012 and 13. First thinking "wow, the Toyota's really quick - we might have a genuine contender here" in 2012, and then in 2013 feeling that Audi had so dramatically raised their game in a way that was both hugely impressive and a little bit disappointing.

Most history written right after the event is distorted, wrong, and only of value as historiographical context rather than a contribution to record, but right now I think feelings of some good if not quite great racing, a mild disappointment that Toyota took quite so long to get going in 2013, and an LMP1 grid that was a lot smaller than it should have been are the big threads to pick up on.

What do we collectively feel? A short classic era like 1969-71? A forgotten interregnum like the mid-1970s, or promise unfulfilled like 1991/92? Indeed do we have other historical analogues we can use?

Any thoughts to keep us going through the off season?