What can be done to improve the WEC ?

[The Badger]

Ive started this thread cuz the ELMS thread is getting full of WEC comments .

Question is , asked initially of Fogelhund ..... what would you do to improve the WEC , and bolster up the ALMS , ELMS , AsLMS chain of series .

[The Badger]

One of my first thoughts is to balance out P1 and P2 in the ALMS ..... instead of having 3 cars per class , then at least we would have 6 in the same battle .

GTE is fine and getting healthier with Chrysler and Mclaren showing remened interest , so leave that alone .

CTC could be used to bolster up ELMS,ALMS and AsLMS ..... but not Le Mans , same with LMPC .

Making the WEC a P1 class only wont work imo , as there isnt enough to give full girds .

[Dyson Mazda]

Bring it to the places where the Sports Car fans are (Europe and USA/Canada) and stop sending them to the middle and far east. Also if they agree to run 5 races in Europe and 5 races in North America it makes it far cheaper on the teams and reduces travel costs a great deal and they could combine them with the ALMS and ELMS grids. They need to stop being such a competitor to those two series and work with them to build a stronger product. They also need to put together a decent tv package so fans can watch the races (ESPN 3 model would be fine for me).

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Making the WEC a P1 class only wont work imo , as there isnt enough to give full girds .

You do understand that it has been explained multiple times now, that the World Endurance Championship would only be rewarded, under my scenario to P1 teams, but would NEVER run standalone events? That means that the WEC would run with ELMS and ALMS, and have their full grids as support. Grids would not be an issue.

[lms]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

stop sending them to the middle and far east.

you mean like china and japan? lol. as i understand there are important car markets there for the manufacturers. You must have those rounds even if toyota wouldnt be racing in p1. + mazda will be joining soon with p2 engine, and maybe honda later as factory team in p1. There should absolutely be a race in at least japan. As for middle east like bahrain - no sense racing there. 2 euro rounds (+lm), 2 american rounds and 2 asian rounds makes perfect sense to me.
joined rounds would be cool if they would keep those fricking challange cars away. But that will never happen.

[kober]

Originally Posted by The Badger

what would you do to improve the WEC , and bolster up the ALMS , ELMS , AsLMS chain of series .

The answer is short: bring back the ILMC format (although for LMP1 only).

[Purist]

People buying cars does NOT equate to people buying high-end performance cars, much less being racing fans. To most, the car allows them to get places, but is merely a means of conveyance, and therefore no more important than any other household appliance to them in their normal, everyday thinking.

Japan makes sense, and I think China warrants A round, but to do more than that, I'd say they should do a third round in South Korea probably, where there is also a much stronger car culture than China.

I think the idea of just having P1 running for the WEC title is good, with the ALMS, ELMS, and AsLMS providing the rest of the grid.

If you get to the point where LMP1 and GTE-PRO can provide, say, 20 entries, then look at making it a bit more of a standalone series. If that happens though, I would simply merge the ELMS in to the WEC and have 5-6 European rounds, 2 Asian rounds, and 2-3 rounds in the Americas. The ALMS would still be separate, and the AsLMS could still function with GT3s or whatnot bolstering the grids.

BTW, during the old WSC, there was no great championship just for Europe per se; the World Championship included the major European races already.

Some of you seem to forget that for most of its existence, the old WSC did, in fact, include the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The World Championship for Makes did not include Le Mans in 1975-79, but I think the World Sportscar Championship did include the race in those years, so the only years from 1953-92 when Le Mans was fully standalone were 1989-90; that's it.

And Le Mans brings up a World Championship far more than being a part of a championship could drag Le Mans down, if it does any measurable damage to Le Mans at all. Not to mention, I'm not sure the manufacturers would have signed on to the WEC this time around if Le Mans had not been included in the series.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

You do understand that it has been explained multiple times now, that the World Endurance Championship would only be rewarded, under my scenario to P1 teams, but would NEVER run standalone events? That means that the WEC would run with ELMS and ALMS, and have their full grids as support. Grids would not be an issue.

Ahh , I see your point now .

But , what happens if you get 30 regular entries for a particular series , and there is 15 P1 cars out there ..... but the circuit isnt lisenced for 45 cars ?

[The Badger]

Whats the big differance between the ILMC and WEC then ?

[Purist]

Badger, the above was asked and answered (by Victor) in the ELMS thread.

Having a track not cleared for a field of 45 cars is a non-issue in Europe with the tracks you can expect to be chosen: Silverstone, Nurburgring, Barcelona, Algarve, Monza, Brno, etc.

Fuji and Shanghai over in Asia will have no such problem either, not to mention the AsLMS grid isn't going to be that big.

In the Americas, if Road Atlanta's maximum is 53 cars, Interlagos should be just fine with 45, or whatever number they can get. As for ALMS territory, I wouldn't even consider some of the tracks on the calendar over here, and I wouldn't expect the FIA to select a track of less than 4.0km for a WEC event, which would leave you with (fairly realistically) Montreal, Watkins Glen, Road America, Austin, Road Atlanta, Sebring, and possibly VIR. Among those circuits, Road Atlanta probably has the lowest maximum field size, at 53 cars. So again, I don't think your scenario is of particular concern as far as it actually happening.

[Rodger Davies]

agreed with everything Fogelhund has written throughout - said it last year and I'll say it again; you can't have a unique WEC grid and strong regional series without much more interest.

However, unfortunately, it's too late now to implement that kind of structure I fear - teams and Am drivers are able to buy their way into Le Mans and it doesn't seem like the ACO have any intention of stopping it.

ILMC was perfect in its concept - even the sportscar World Championships of years past relied heavily on local entries for its grids and now is no exception; these criteria the FIA have for 'World' status make little sense.

Unfortunately, I don't see how any of this is going to change until the WEC folds and, with the ACO plunging their money into this and the latest CLMS (Chinese Le Mans Series...), I don't see that being the case for a few years until the novelty factor wears off.

[alexkiller8]

in my opinion the thing that i don't like about WEC is that ACO selects a list of 30 cars as full-entry season and doesn't let other cars outside that list to bring points for the lmp1/lmp2/gtpro/gtam trophy!

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Purist

Badger, the above was asked and answered (by Victor) in the ELMS thread.

Ok , just checked that one .

[kober]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

in my opinion the thing that i don't like about WEC is that ACO selects a list of 30 cars as full-entry season and doesn't let other cars outside that list to bring points for the lmp1/lmp2/gtpro/gtam trophy!

Take a look at it from the other side: it's a way to force WEC-entrants to participate in all of the rounds. Bahrain race, for example, wouldn't give much fame to the championships with 10 cars on the grid, if majority of the entrants decided to skip it.
And currently, if you want to score points, you need to sign up, but if you signed up, you can't skip any races (in theory).

[The Badger]

Manufacturers should be forced to supply chassis , either 1 or 2 at a cost of course .

It would make them money from sales and support , as well as bolstering a series .

Group C would have been better if chassis had been made available , instead of having 19 Porsche 962C racing around Le Mans against works machines from Jag,Nissan,Toyota and sauber .