FIA WEC 2017 Championship

That's a bit harsh, even if it's the letter of the law. I guess the rules are intended to prevent non-homologated bodywork being fitted mid race for an advantage.

In this case if they removed the bodywork to smack the starter motor then they were obliged under the pit rules to stop and restart the engine again with the bodywork fitted again. Which it wouldn't. That or take a series of stop/go penalties each time they stopped. Catch 22.
 
pacegod said:
Never understood why tv directors seem to think viewers want to see inside the pit garage when there's some good racing going on. I couldn't care less what C list celebrity is in the garage.
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Yeah the director seemed to spend more time looking at mechanics, the crowd or the leading Porsche during that epic GT Pro battle.

The commentators were saying that Toyota had put in hundreds of millions of Euros into their LMP1 project. I can't see that being too attractive to manufacturers. It'd be great to see Mercedes and Ferrari back in the top tier of endurance racing.
 
I can kinda see the point - it's marketing and R&D rolled into one. My Dad's comment yesterday after I mentioned I'd watched the race was, "How did Toyota do, they run a similar system to that on my car". He owns a Toyota Hybrid.
 
Ryan-3 said:
The 2020 P1 regulations will surely drive the big manufacturers away from the LMP1-H category, especially if they're spending hundreds of millions now and this is happening at the biggest race, not only of their racing calendar, but Motorsports calendar. It's a massive sum of money for people to see their cars stranded at the side of the road.

But... come on Jackie Chan racing. :D

Gutted for Toyota though. I went to bed once the second car gave up the ghost. So close to the pits, yet so far. :(
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The current LMP1-H regulations haven't been attracting the major manufacturers to WEC either. The combined spend of Audi and Porsche was rumoured to be around $500M which is huge for the amount of exposure that the teams get.

MagicBoy said:
It's worth the teams keeping the cars running where possible as it's WEC class points. 22nd overall and 10 laps down will still be 2nd in LMP1 , with lots of points towards the championship.
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Once the non championship cars are removed from the standings the teams and drivers only receive points for the actual finishing position, not their position in class. This is a change from last year.
 
Porsche must have a significant amount invested in it even outside of running the cars too - they have their own VIP centre, assumedly free invites and probably accomodation to go with it, lots of track branding and a whole series of shuttle cars around the track etc
 
So what's going to happen with Lmp1 and WEC in a wider sense then? It's not looking good for the next couple of years even if Porsche don't pull out.

Given it doesn't seem like the WEC attracts large TV audiences even including Le Mans (let's face it it wouldn't be on Eurosport if there was a lot of interest) it feels like lack of Lmp1 would really hurt attendances on top of sponsorships etc.

Feels like it's in real trouble to me
 
LMP1-H certainly looks a bit precarious, but LMP1-Privateer has new regulations coming in 2018 to improve their performance to closer to the H levels. SMP Racing are producing a car, and Ginetta is working on an LMP1 chassis which they apparently have multiple clients for.

As there are only a couple of actual manufacturer teams in the WEC, in some ways they would be better off without LMP1-H and manufacturer whims and politics. LMP1 could be a more unlimited version of LMP2 (entrants can build their own chassis, choose their own engine etc) with fuel flow limits etc as exist already.
 
I honestly think the manufacturer draw is huge though, LMP2 is a bit of a lost class - impressive rmachinery but nobody seems to really care about it because they want to see Aston, Ford, Ferrari and Corvette racing or Audi/Porsche/Toyota/Nissan.

It's hard to see a real strong marketable appeal for cars that can never carry manufacturer liveries (for those who aren't physically there).

I hope you're right and that it just steadies itself for a couple.of years / the ACO are forced to wake up - I can't stand the thought of formula E becoming ever more popular whilst the WEC dies
 
rodenal said:
So what's going to happen with Lmp1 and WEC in a wider sense then? It's not looking good for the next couple of years even if Porsche don't pull out.

Given it doesn't seem like the WEC attracts large TV audiences even including Le Mans (let's face it it wouldn't be on Eurosport if there was a lot of interest) it feels like lack of Lmp1 would really hurt attendances on top of sponsorships etc.

Feels like it's in real trouble to me
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By that logic there is no interest in the Olympics then.

WEC is only on Eurosport because of Peugeot as they wanted a bigger broadcaster than Motors TV, and then they pulled out.

Marvin said:
LMP1-H certainly looks a bit precarious, but LMP1-Privateer has new regulations coming in 2018 to improve their performance to closer to the H levels. SMP Racing are producing a car, and Ginetta is working on an LMP1 chassis which they apparently have multiple clients for.

As there are only a couple of actual manufacturer teams in the WEC, in some ways they would be better off without LMP1-H and manufacturer whims and politics. LMP1 could be a more unlimited version of LMP2 (entrants can build their own chassis, choose their own engine etc) with fuel flow limits etc as exist already.
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It isn't really possible for the LMP1-L (or privateer) cars to really compete with the manufacturers as they just cannot do the aero. When one of the Audis lost its hybrid system last year, it was disconnected and the car sent back out. Despite more weight and being down on power it managed to lap around 5secs a lap quicker than the LMP1-L cars.

LMP2 has only just moved away from a free chassis / engine formula to its new variant this year.
 
Yes, but the 2018 LMP1 privateer regulations are supposed to close the gap to the hybrids (more power and movable aero - essentially DRS but not just when following another car), probably not fully, but certainly significantly closer. With LMP2 now semi spec, the idea is that LMP1 will be the constructors championship as opposed to the teams championships in LMP2 and GTE.

Unless something major has changed since the last time I checked.
 
It's looking increasingly likely. In some ways, I don't mind. Car manufacturers often ruin motorsport by taking everything far too seriously (spending insane budgets along the way) and are notoriously fickle, whilst independent teams tend to stay for the long term.
 
Marvin said:
It's looking increasingly likely. In some ways, I don't mind. Car manufacturers often ruin motorsport by taking everything far too seriously (spending insane budgets along the way) and are notoriously fickle, whilst independent teams tend to stay for the long term.
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Agree. Motorsport is worse when built to support the whims of manufacturers. I have been saying this for years and I have never moved from this view. Build something great and they will come, they will never miss out on opportunity for limelight. However, they are corporations so give them too much control and they will ruin your championship without a care in the world. Porsche and Toyota will be out of LMP1 end of this season.
 
Porsche have announced they're leaving LMP1 at the end of 2017 to join Formula E and to focus more on GT.

Toyota are now considering their position.

The WEC is now concerned about its world championship status.

I guess that's the end of LMP1H then.

Source
 
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