FLRacingFan
Team Owner
First official event is here with the Prologue test at Paul Ricard. 36 cars entered for the full season, and 37 for the season opener at Spa - the most ever for the series outside of Le Mans.

***The WEC has yet to confirm its U.S. TV package for the ‘Super Season’ although Neveu indicated that an announcement is imminent. Rumors have pointed towards a potential deal with Discovery Network, which owns and operates Eurosport, a longtime series TV partner.
Toyota were allowed to run outside of the EoT early in the test to push their new cooling system to extreme levels.
Once they were done with that their quickest lap registered 5th for the test.
So Toyota's "official" best lap times and trap speeds aren't representative, which gives me a lot of hope for this season.
For Rebellion, running second-quickest on their first true test day with the car (which they only have one of right now) is very encouraging.
sounds political to my untrained eye. It's like they are trying their best to insure a hybrid has all of the advantage.Best times from the Prologue:
#11 SMP - 1:37.034
#1 Rebellion - 1:37.044
#17 SMP - 1:37.574
#4 ByKolles - 1:37.795
#7 Toyota - 1:38.142 (when running within EoT)
#6 Manor - 1:38.156
#10 DragonSpeed - 1:38.264
It doesn't sound like these changes should affect performance too much, but I don't know if raw pace can overcome Toyota getting two laps more per fuel stint. That's why they run a hybrid though. We'll see next week.
Well, the hybrid should provide some sort of advantage, or there'd be no point to running one.
It should be roughly equivalent. Toyota should have an efficiency advantage, the non-hybrids a pace advantage, and by the end of six hours they should be on par with each other. Like I said, the efficiency advantage for Toyota could only prove to be a one-stop advantage at best over six hours according to what stint ranges they're aiming for. We don't even really know what the potential of the non-hybrids are since most of them have only the one weekend of real track time. There's a lot more speed to be found in them than in the Toyotas. Once the race weekend is over, we'll have an idea of whether or not things are shaking out as they're intended to.Except the privateers were assured they would get a fair shot. The EOT thing is supposed to be equivalence of technology, not Toyota being gifted an advantage.
A reputation that they've certainly earned - they totally forgot about the privateers when things were good with Porsche/Toyota/Audi.I hope we have good season, I'm just skeptical of the FIA and their ability/motivation to run a fair deal.
A reputation that they've certainly earned - they totally forgot about the privateers when things were good with Porsche/Toyota/Audi.
I did a little data dump to get a better idea of what the average lap times were at the Prologue. This is what I got.
Toyota - 1:40.2
Rebellion - 1:40.5
SMP - 1:40.6
DragonSpeed - 1:41.2 (1:40.7*)
ByKolles - 1:41.4
Manor - 1:41.9 (1:41.1**)
* Excluding Henrik Hedman, who's a Bronze driver being given special dispensation to run in LMP1
** Excluding the #5 car, which was literally being built up at the track as parts came in
That is not bad at all for brand new cars.
Please forgive this bit of self indulgence, but allow me to present my collection of sports prototype racing model cars. My last real job was building cars for some teams and drivers. It sort of turned into a hobby and grew out of control. My focus has shifted to model aviation and I would love to sell the whole thing. If not, I am willing to sell it piece by piece.
If nothing else, please enjoy the video.
That’s seriously an amazing collection.
Jenson Button in for the whole season at SMP, starting with Le Mans.
Felipe Nasr also got himself a Le Mans drive in LMP2.
I read that puts the Le Mans grid at 23 current/former F1 drivers.
#3 Rebellion and the DragonSpeed entry both were within a second of the leading Toyota. Only problem with DragonSpeed is Hedman is going to kill them when he's in the car. I figure the other Rebellion will get up to pace with the sister car soon enough though. The #1 car that placed 5th is the fresh build with no miles on it.Alonso Fastest In Opening Practice At Spa
Toyota is 1, 2 in Spa open practice, a little over three second faster than the privateers. It's still early, but that's not an encouraging sign. I hope the privateers can find some speed and make a race out of this.
#3 Rebellion and the DragonSpeed entry both were within a second of the leading Toyota.
Only problem with DragonSpeed is Hedman is going to kill them when he's in the car.
Sounds like the #6 Manor may be pulled due to the whole TRS thing in China...
First and last hour are on Velocity if you have it. They’re also streaming the entirety on MotorTrend if you subscribe to that.Can someone please tell me how I can find this race on TV? I can't find anything.
First and last hour are on Velocity if you have it. They’re also streaming the entirety on MotorTrend if you subscribe to that.
I’m decidedly less optimistic after FP2. Jeez. Nonhybrids are way quicker than last year but not quick enough.Here's the latest info on practice I could find: Spa WEC: Toyota pulls clear of privateer rivals in FP2
Damm, it's still two seconds. Honestly, that's much better than I feared but it's still too much. I figured the privateers could find some speed and the Toyota would be stuck, but according to this they are pulling clear.
I was hoping the privateers could get close enough to push the Toyota into a mistake or make them break, but two seconds a lap isn't going to do it.
I think 7-8:30 AM Eastern Saturday and then 12:30-2 PM. So a half hour of pre and post race too.Thanks so much.
The schedule on my cable box says something else, so I guess I will have to turn it on and see. Any idea on air times?
I’m decidedly less optimistic after FP2. Jeez. Nonhybrids are way quicker than last year but not quick enough.
I think 7-8:30 AM Eastern Saturday and then 12:30-2 PM. So a half hour of pre and post race too.
Mine didn’t update until two days ago and Velocity barely mentions it on their web site, so it could be some different programming listed depending on your provider but the race will show anyways.
Thankfully both Le Mans races and Sebring will air in their entirety on Velocity. All other races are just the first hour and last hour though. Lame. I get that they were caught off guard by FOX but signing a deal where it seems like four hours per race are exclusively online is...not good.Thanks. I'll check it on Sunday night for an update and if we don't get one I will set the DVR for the times you mentioned.
Honestly, Velocity has nothing but crap "reality" programs, half of which are reruns, so it's hard to see why they don't just carry the whole race. I also don't like having to jump networks. What would be wrong with leaving it on one network for say, I dunno, the whole race? Who is going to complain about missing a rerun of all girls garage, especially on Sunday morning? That or maybe WEC wants too much for the TV rights and buying little snippets is the only affordable way.
This has always been the fate of sportscar racing. We either get pitiful coverage or no coverage, or it's so spread out in pieces over multiple networks that it's exasperating to watch, change, watch, change. Thankfully at least IMSA seems set to have an NBC deal for next year that puts it all on one network. NBC seems to be committed to Indycar and Sportscars, and was definitely committed to F1 before they lost it to ESPN. NBC coverage is always superior to just about anyone else, so that's a positive step. Maybe through IMSA NBC can work some sort of WEC deal.
Something else, the ELMS has 35 confirmed P2 and P3 full season entries. I wish we could see that too.