2023 WEC

FLRacingFan said:
The A424 was testing at Paul Ricard yesterday, and sounds quite a bit better for a turbo V6 than I expected.





Lamborghini were also there but apparently the SC63 was crashed at one point. Hopefully not a big one because a smaller program like that doesn’t need a big setback.
Click to expand...

That sounds fabulous.
 
November? WTF? I was ready for Fuji to be next weekend!


369534191_627690619467100_8408912577686264143_n.jpg
 
Lots of old Fuji photos:

www.speedhunters.com

Fuji Speedway Through History - Speedhunters

If there is one track that really qualifies as a Temple of Speed, it has to be Fuji Speedway. It might not have the long history of some of the legendary race circuits we have featured so far like Brooklands and Autodromo Nazionale Monza, but since its opening in December 1965 it has held an …
www.speedhunters.com www.speedhunters.com
 
Anyone notice how stiffy sprung the Porsche is and how compliant the Ferrari is? They had great views of all the cars in the last chicanes and it was really easy to see the differences.

I finally got to see all of lemans and had a chance to study the car's behavior. The Porsche would launch itself off the curbs, and you could routinely see both inside wheels off the ground. The Ferrari though would hit the curbs and act like they were not even there. The Toyota acted much like the Ferrari, though not as dramatically locked in. The Peugeot looked great on the curbs too.

With this in mind, maybe the BOP is right and the Ferrari and Toyota chassis' are simply more refined. It can't be the 4WD because it's not engaged at that low of a speed, so maybe it's the dampers. You can't get the power down is the wheels are in the air, and this has got to be holding Porsche back. There was a lot of talk about the Multimatic Mazda DPI being so stiffly sprung, so maybe that's just their way of setting the car up. With Penske's damper expertise, they will eventually get to the bottom of it.

Check out the Fuji race poster from post #323. It's got the wrong date!
 
Doc Austin said:
Anyone notice how stiffy sprung the Porsche is and how compliant the Ferrari is? They had great views of all the cars in the last chicanes and it was really easy to see the differences.

I finally got to see all of lemans and had a chance to study the car's behavior. The Porsche would launch itself off the curbs, and you could routinely see both inside wheels off the ground. The Ferrari though would hit the curbs and act like they were not even there. The Toyota acted much like the Ferrari, though not as dramatically locked in. The Peugeot looked great on the curbs too.

With this in mind, maybe the BOP is right and the Ferrari and Toyota chassis' are simply more refined. It can't be the 4WD because it's not engaged at that low of a speed, so maybe it's the dampers. You can't get the power down is the wheels are in the air, and this has got to be holding Porsche back. There was a lot of talk about the Multimatic Mazda DPI being so stiffly sprung, so maybe that's just their way of setting the car up. With Penske's damper expertise, they will eventually get to the bottom of it.

Check out the Fuji race poster from post #323. It's got the wrong date!
Click to expand...
WEC calendar has a lot of important medium- and high-speed corners, so even though the LMH hybrids aren’t activated all the time, they are at places that have a lot of load, and they tend to have better balance and tire wear over stints as a result. For Ferrari and Toyota, that activation number is about 118 MPH (190 KPH), and about 93 MPH (150 KPH) for Peugeot. At Le Mans, those three can all take the Porsche Curves, Dunlop Curve, and Tertre Rouge better than the LMDhs can.

Porsche also generally tend to wear their rears more than the other LMDhs seem to. If you asked me, I’d say the Acura is the best overall LMDh so far, but unfortunately Honda don’t seem to be interested in taking it global so far.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Porsche also generally tend to wear their rears more than the other LMDhs seem to. If you asked me, I’d say the Acura is the best overall LMDh so far, but unfortunately Honda don’t seem to be interested in taking it global so far.
Click to expand...
Now that Mikey has an interest in sportscars, and Acura at that, I wouldn't be surprised if he and Wayne put a WEC team together.
 
10 PM-4 AM ET late Saturday/early Sunday here

Not sure I’ll make it that deep into the race, but hopefully there’s some good action early on. I have a feeling Toyota will grab a home win ultimately.
 
Looks like Typhoon Yun-yeung is heading for Japan, would not be surprised if practices got washed out.
 
Toyota went 1-2 in qualifying…surprisingly Penske Porsches 3-4 and Cadillac 5th, Ferrari back in 6-7th, Peugeot something like 11th and 13th. I think some teams had issues getting tire temp and then within the last five minutes it started to rain and pretty much ended things.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Toyota went 1-2 in qualifying…surprisingly Penske Porsches 3-4 and Cadillac 5th, Ferrari back in 6-7th, Peugeot something like 11th and 13th. I think some teams had issues getting tire temp and then within the last five minutes it started to rain and pretty much ended things.
Click to expand...
No surprise Toyota is fastest at home. It's the margin I'm not happy about. 2,3 tenths was more like I was expecting, but it's blown out to a second. Might be a long race unless someone has some speed they haven't been able to show yet.
 
Checking in just past halfway…the 6 Penske Porsche has a narrow lead over the 7 Toyota, with the 8 Toyota several seconds further back.
 
So far I've only seen the first hour, but it was really good. Toyota is still the benchmark, but at least Porsche made it interesting.
 
Kevin Estre had a mega defensive drive in his second stint, holding off the 7 and 8 as the top three ran pretty much nose-to-tail much of the stint. As he was on his in-lap to close the stint, he was finally passed by Hirakawa for the lead. Ultimately the 6 Porsche wound up leading nearly the first four hours entirely, and came home in the final podium spot. Penske’s most convincing performance yet. No one else had anything for Toyota.

 
Toyota probably had it under control the whole time. They just got roughed up and pushed back on the start, and then had to fight back. The difference between the winning Toyota and the Porsche was around 45 seconds, which doesn't seem like much until you have to make it up. We'll find out if they can make up the difference Nov. 4th.

The fact it took Toyota four hours to catch the Porsche is a good sign the BOP is not that far off. They have the winter to work on it, and I'm sure they will get it better.

With one race to go it's a tiny bit early to sum up the season, but I think we all agree it has surpassed what we were expecting. Sure, Toyota is still ahead, but that is shrinking. Toyota has done a tremendous job with their Hypercar program, but we couldn't see it because they weren't racing anyone, unless you count Alpine, and before that nothing but underfunded privateers. Now they have handily defeated Porsche, Ferrari and Cadillac, so this time it was no open goal. Toyota has supported WEC all along, and they richly deserve their success. I've just had enough of it and am already looking to Bahrain and hoping for an upset.

Sportscars are on such a great trajectory that we don't need to spoil the buzz with Red Bull type of domination.

Looking back on the glory days of the 917s and all, this is not even remotely the same thing. You used to have to baby the car and take care of it, and often the winning car would have to overcome some sort of repair, so you could never even make a remote guess who would win. Now it's so close they are banging each other off the track on the first lap of a six-hour contest. The competition is insane and even a small mistake can put you so far back there's no hope. As the manufacturers figure the cars out better and maybe WEC gets the BOP perfected, next year should be even wilder, and hopefully someone will step up and offer Toyota a more consistent challenge.

One thing that Bahrin won't change is Ferrari winning Lemans will be the story of the year.
 
This was a great battle between Harry Tincknell and Miguel Molina early in the race, wheel to wheel for a full lap.

 
Doc Austin said:
Toyota probably had it under control the whole time. They just got roughed up and pushed back on the start, and then had to fight back. The difference between the winning Toyota and the Porsche was around 45 seconds, which doesn't seem like much until you have to make it up. We'll find out if they can make up the difference Nov. 4th.

The fact it took Toyota four hours to catch the Porsche is a good sign the BOP is not that far off. They have the winter to work on it, and I'm sure they will get it better.

With one race to go it's a tiny bit early to sum up the season, but I think we all agree it has surpassed what we were expecting. Sure, Toyota is still ahead, but that is shrinking. Toyota has done a tremendous job with their Hypercar program, but we couldn't see it because they weren't racing anyone, unless you count Alpine, and before that nothing but underfunded privateers. Now they have handily defeated Porsche, Ferrari and Cadillac, so this time it was no open goal. Toyota has supported WEC all along, and they richly deserve their success. I've just had enough of it and am already looking to Bahrain and hoping for an upset.

Sportscars are on such a great trajectory that we don't need to spoil the buzz with Red Bull type of domination.

Looking back on the glory days of the 917s and all, this is not even remotely the same thing. You used to have to baby the car and take care of it, and often the winning car would have to overcome some sort of repair, so you could never even make a remote guess who would win. Now it's so close they are banging each other off the track on the first lap of a six-hour contest. The competition is insane and even a small mistake can put you so far back there's no hope. As the manufacturers figure the cars out better and maybe WEC gets the BOP perfected, next year should be even wilder, and hopefully someone will step up and offer Toyota a more consistent challenge.

One thing that Bahrin won't change is Ferrari winning Lemans will be the story of the year.
Click to expand...
All the testing Penske Porsche have done in the States recently seems to have helped, the drivers said the straight line braking and traction last night was as good as it’s been. I think the remainder of the field have been inactive since they don’t have parallel IMSA programs. Also, Toyota and Peugeot were the only ones with Fuji experience, and Peugeot spent much of last year’s race in the garage. The likes of Ferrari can test at Sebring and the European tracks but they had pretty much no data going into this one.

I do think there’s still some BoP tweaking to be done. They can adjust every two races so I imagine we’ll see one ahead of the finale at Bahrain.

The one performance I just don’t get was Peugeot. They were nowhere in qualifying and the race itself, and I thought they had a pretty favorable performance table coming in. Just no idea why they were so invisible.
 
Having had time to watch the last hour, I can honestly say that's the roughest sportscar race I've ever seen. Someone was always cutting someone off, or banging doors or running someone off. Like, Ben Keating hardly ever puts a scratch on a car, but he slammed a Ferrari (on the straight, no less), so you know the gloves were off. The surprising part is they only had one yellow on the opening lap (which was a clusterfork), and another that lasted half a lap for debris. This wasn't a crashfest or anything, but they sure ran into each other enough. It was rough, but I don't think much of it was dirty. The guys were just hanging it out a little bit too much. It was a little sloppy, but it was fun to watch.

It was great to see the Porsche competitive, but once Toyota got the lead it was over, and that 45 odd second buffer is a bit discouraging. Ferrari fell off a bit and Peugeot seemed lost. The most discouraging part was the Cadillac ran most of the race in 8th or 9th. We've got until Nov 4th (I believe) for everyone to find some speed, but Toyota will still probably be the team to beat.

At this point I am not sure I want a big BOP adjustment. Toyota put in the work while supporting the series, was first to commit to the Hypercar formula, and I believe whatever advantage they have was solidly earned. Still, the Porsche has plenty of time on it, so it's not like it's underdeveloped or is going to get much faster. Peugeot has had a year and they are nowhere right now. Cadillac has been a little disappointing. Until now it's been a bit of bad luck that's hurt them, but this time they got blown out instead.

Between now and Bahrain, we still have both Indianapolis and the Petite in IMSA. It's been a great year for sportscars.

The telecast mentioned every car that started was classified as a finisher! Six hours and no DNFs. I don't ever remember something like that happening.
 
Hmmmmmmmmm.......first United Autosports says they want to go hyper car, and the very next day Aston says they are trying to close a deal to race their car. Anyone see a possible connection to those two things?

While we are at it, has anyone heard what happened to Rebellion, the staff and equipment? They just vanished.
 
Doc Austin said:
Hmmmmmmmmm.......first United Autosports says they want to go hyper car, and the very next day Aston says they are trying to close a deal to race their car. Anyone see a possible connection to those two things?

While we are at it, has anyone heard what happened to Rebellion, the staff and equipment? They just vanished.
Click to expand...
The United article was from June, I don’t think they have anything lined up besides ELMS and IMSA LMP2. The Valkyrie would be run by the Heart of Racing, who run a couple of Vantage GT3s in IMSA. There aren’t really any other factory opportunities for United at the moment.

Rebellion are an SRO sponsor these days. There were four R13s/A480s built, only one of which served as both a Rebellion and an Alpine. Not sure where they went but since they’re all based off of the ORECA 07 I wouldn’t be surprised if they were repurposed.
 
After initially capping full season entries at 36, there’s an ongoing initiative to expand the grid to 40 cars for 2024, via cramming two-car LMGT3 teams into one garage/pit each plus shared freight space.

Also, should all of this come to fruition and more grid spots opened up, United Autosport are now expected to run the McLaren 720S in LMGT3.

www.motorsport.com

WEC grid could expand to 40 cars for 2024 season

www.motorsport.com www.motorsport.com

The Final Pieces Of The LMGT3 Jigsaw Are Coming Together

The final pieces of the LMGT3 jigsaw are coming together rapidly, as several manufacturers move to make their submissions and customer team nominations ahead of the new class' debut in the FIA WEC next year.
www.dailysportscar.com www.dailysportscar.com
 
FLRacingFan said:
Also, should all of this come to fruition and more grid spots opened up, United Autosport are now expected to run the McLaren 720S in LMGT3
Click to expand...

I read yesterday they will be running two P2 full season in IMSA next year.

racer.com

Jr III to end IMSA program, support United Autosports for 2024

Jr III Racing will step away from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the conclusion of the 2023 season. The decision comes in the wake of the announcement that United Autosports will mo…
racer.com racer.com

The P2 Oreca is going to go down in history as one of the most successful sportscars in history. It can be argued that they didn't have any competition, but then again, they ran off all competition by being so dominant. No one even tries to run anything else.
 
Doc Austin said:
Devries in line for possible Toyota hypercar seat: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...p&cvid=6fcf6e54000b4f7cfc8cdaafb22dd7e5&ei=50
Click to expand...
He was destined for a Toyota drive before his big break in F1 last year, he always shined in LMP2 beforehand and was the Toyota reserve/sim guy. He’ll be a great fit and replacement for Lopez.

There’ve been a number of reports recently that Mick Schumacher is also in line for a seat with Alpine, which would be a lot of fun.
 
There’s a report that Peugeot will redevelop their car to the tire size everyone else runs and incorporate a rear wing. Credit to them for swallowing their pride and spending the money to get competitive, if this is the case.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom