WEC 2024

Toyota 1-2 on the grid for Sunday. Feel like it’s been a little bit since they swept the front row. Porsche Penskes 3rd and 5th, split by the Cadillac.

Only a couple of push laps available in qualifying, the second sector here just devours tires in a hurry. Seems like tomorrow will be a deg race.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Toyota 1-2 on the grid for Sunday.
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Toyota pounds the grid with the good old double hyperpole!

Wait ......... that came out wrong.

Just checking the previous video and the Ferrari was getting a wicked snap in the first sweeper after the Senna S. This could be a lot of fun.

Feel like it’s been a little bit since they swept the front row. Porsche Penskes 3rd and 5th, split by the Cadillac.
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Gotta admire how they have fought off the bop and some pretty serious challengers. I think they are probably the best hypercar team on the grid. I'm tired of their dominance, but they supported WEC when everyone else bailed, and carried the series into the hypercar era.

OK, right now, Toyota has the speed and they still have execution on their side. I'm going to go with them and hope for one of the privateers instead. Anybody else want to stick their neck out? :)

Seems like tomorrow will be a deg race.
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Might be fun watching them run around in a big pack for the last hour with dead tires. The slide jobs would be epic.

We might be looking at the same kind of thing for the Indycar race tonight.
 
Doc Austin said:
Toyota pounds the grid with the good old double hyperpole!

Wait ......... that came out wrong.

Just checking the previous video and the Ferrari was getting a wicked snap in the first sweeper after the Senna S. This could be a lot of fun.

Gotta admire how they have fought off the bop and some pretty serious challengers. I think they are probably the best hypercar team on the grid. I'm tired of their dominance, but they supported WEC when everyone else bailed, and carried the series into the hypercar era.

OK, right now, Toyota has the speed and they still have execution on their side. I'm going to go with them and hope for one of the privateers instead. Anybody else want to stick their neck out? :)

Might be fun watching them run around in a big pack for the last hour with dead tires. The slide jobs would be epic.

We might be looking at the same kind of thing for the Indycar race tonight.
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With as tricky a track as it is, I wouldn’t rule out some safety cars to pack the field every so often. Toyota usually seem to manage their tires better than their competitors, so when they have the speed to match it’s hard to bet against them.
 
Doc Austin said:
Not great by WEC standards, but just seeing these cars run is enough.
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Aside from Hypercar and GT3 both having runaway winners, I thought it was a lot of fun. Really good battles up and down either field, more so in Hypercar. If there were ever a WEC round that raced like an IMSA round, it was this one with the narrow track and argybargy. The second sector reminds me of Fuji’s final sector, which is great for wheel-to-wheel action. The #6 Porsche and #7 Toyota really maximized their days with great comebacks after early troubles.
 
I thought it was a great race, especially in the mid-field on hypercar.

That battle between Schumacher and Jani at the end of the race was awesome.
 
Doc Austin said:
Looks like a Porsche with Ferrari wing fences. Doesn't look anything like the Valkyries we have seen.
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The 963 and Valkyrie have pretty similar noses, tbf. To me it kooks like the Valkyrie (minus the crazy splitter on the road/track day versions) with a Glickenhaus-esque wing on the back. I’m a fan.
 
Doc Austin said:
That color scheme doesn't do it any favors.
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Pretty sure it’s just test camo and will be either Heart of Racing blue or British racing green on the final product.

I think a lot of these angles also make it more clear how much of the styling from the Valkyrie/AMR Pro they were able to carry over.
 
Damm, I'm tired of Toyota winning, but you gotta give it to them for being the best team in Hypercar.

Virtually every race this year the pecking order seems to change. Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota have all had both dominant and off weekends. We have no idea who is going to have the upper hand at COTA.

Cota should be really good. Hopefully Cadillac can get a breakthrough win.
 
Doc Austin said:
Damm, I'm tired of Toyota winning, but you gotta give it to them for being the best team in Hypercar.

Virtually every race this year the pecking order seems to change. Porsche, Ferrari and Toyota have all had both dominant and off weekends. We have no idea who is going to have the upper hand at COTA.

Cota should be really good. Hopefully Cadillac can get a breakthrough win.
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COTA is going to be stupid hot, I can’t believe they’re running a race in Austin, TX on Labor Day weekend between 1-7 PM local time.
 
Doc Austin said:
Don't the prototypes have some sort of climate control?
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They do have ****pit temperature limits and the prototypes do have some sort of ventilation or A/C, but they’ll be right up against it that weekend. On the GT3 side there are some models that lack A/C I believe, and I’m not sure if they have the same ****pit temp limits.

Going to be a tough weekend for the crews as well, and I think it’ll make it pretty tough on attendance given how much of the track is open air general admission.
 
FLRacingFan said:
They do have ****pit temperature limits and the prototypes do have some sort of ventilation or A/C, but they’ll be right up against it that weekend. On the GT3 side there are some models that lack A/C I believe, and I’m not sure if they have the same ****pit temp limits.
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Remember in the 80s GTP they were running cool caps and cool suits?

FLRacingFan said:
Going to be a tough weekend for the crews as well, and I think it’ll make it pretty tough on attendance given how much of the track is open air general admission.
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They have run there before, and attendance was always a disaster. The Grand American races were an attendance disaster too, which was saying something for that series. Indycar flamed out there too. They pack the place for F1, but other series can't seem to cut it there.
 
Doc Austin said:
Remember in the 80s GTP they were running cool caps and cool suits?


They have run there before, and attendance was always a disaster. The Grand American races were an attendance disaster too, which was saying something for that series. Indycar flamed out there too. They pack the place for F1, but other series can't seem to cut it there.
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MotoGP and NASCAR seem to do pretty well, but it definitely hasn’t translated to anything else yet. The 2020 WEC event was reported 22k over two days, after the 2016 figure was reported as 75k but disputed by those within the paddock (some said 10k on race day).

I think if there were ever an era you would draw a good crowd it would obviously be now, because it would be great to see some stability in the U.S. round. I highly doubt we’ll see huge jumps like we’ve seen the past two years at Monza, Imola, Le Mans, Spa, and Interlagos, but just something that looks viable would be nice.
 
Isotta Fraschini withdraws effective immediately. They had to run pay drivers to help fund the program and were just never going to be able to financially hang with the factory entries, especially with everyone being forced to scale up to two entries next season. Would say their Le Mans run is definitely something to be proud of, though.

Makes for a likely 20-car Hypercar grid next year. With an increased 40-car total capacity that might make way for Mercedes to join LMGT3.

 
Doc Austin said:

Doesn't look good for either marque.​

WEC's French marques already have one eye on next season ahead of U.S. trip​

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I’ve heard the Peugeot project is currently funded through 2026, but you do get the impression that they need to show significant improvement next season to keep that in place.

I’m not super worried about Alpine because they have a good base chassis underneath them with the Oreca. If they’re not at least exploring moving to a Gibson engine I’m not sure what they’re doing though. Everyone but them seemed to know the Mecachrome would be a liability. But overall they’re still very early in the development curve.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I’ve heard the Peugeot project is currently funded through 2026, but you do get the impression that they need to show significant improvement next season to keep that in place.
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It doesn't make sense they can't get that car competitive. They are not a bad operation and probably much better than they have shown so far.
FLRacingFan said:
I’m not super worried about Alpine because they have a good base chassis underneath them with the Oreca. If they’re not at least exploring moving to a Gibson engine I’m not sure what they’re doing though.
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My thoughts exactly. Like, how do you not win with an Oreca? Even the current P2 motor would be competitive if they just unleashed them Check the P2 times from 2018 (when they were part of the DPI class) and they were not that much slower than the new GTP cars.

Did you see the P2 that blew up at leMans that laid down so much smoke they have throw a full course yellow until it cleared? I'de say that one was definitely mileaged out. Smoke rolled out of the airbox for 15 minutes!
 
Doc Austin said:
My thoughts exactly. Like, how do you not win with an Oreca? Even the current P2 motor would be competitive if they just unleashed them Check the P2 times from 2018 (when they were part of the DPI class) and they were not that much slower than the new GTP cars.
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P2 engines are underpowered compared to what they need for Hypercar/GTP; F2 power level is pretty similar to what’s required. In that respect it makes some sense. But they cheaped out and tried to tune that for reliability when they probably should’ve commissioned Gibson for a new engine given their positive track record.
 
FLRacingFan said:
P2 engines are underpowered compared to what they need for Hypercar/GTP;
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Even restricted, they still challenged the DPIs for the IMSA championship in 2018, and the new GTPs are not that much faster. I'm sure it could be BOP to be competitive.

I believe that motor is 4.2 liters, so maybe they could punch it out, maybe add a turbo, or even build a new larger motor. The way (that one Lemans motor aside) I have never seen nor heard of one blowing up.

Either way, it would certainly be better than what they are currently using.
FLRacingFan said:
F2 power level is pretty similar to what’s required. In that respect it makes some sense. But they cheaped out and tried to tune that for reliability when they probably should’ve commissioned Gibson for a new engine given their positive track record.
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I'm sure Gibson could build whatever is necessary.
 
Doc Austin said:
Even restricted, they still challenged the DPIs for the IMSA championship in 2018, and the new GTPs are not that much faster. I'm sure it could be BOP to be competitive.

I believe that motor is 4.2 liters, so maybe they could punch it out, maybe add a turbo, or even build a new larger motor. The way (that one Lemans motor aside) I have never seen nor heard of one blowing up.

Either way, it would certainly be better than what they are currently using.

I'm sure Gibson could build whatever is necessary.
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P2 engines were pushing out 450kw at max when they were unrestricted several years back; Hypercar/GTP BoP power range is 480-520kw. So it would take some modifications and tuning if they were to use the GK428. LMP2/DPi were as fast as they were because they were lighter and had more downforce.

It would be possible though. BMW took their old DTM engine (the P66/1) that pushed out ~ 500 HP and added twin turbos to create the engine they currently run.
 
Alpine is going to have to do something, even if it's to have Gibson come up with a new motor. Alpine are bailing on their F1 engine program. so that would not be unprecedented.

Peugeot, though, the drivers say the car handles well and they have good power, so I don't what they could possibly do short of getting Newey.
 
Doc Austin said:
I didn't know about WEC TV until this morning, but it's a lot like F1 Pro, only it's free. All you have to do is sign up.


I'm going to try it later for FP1, but it looks like all the P, Q and race sessions are streamed live and also live timing.
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I think it’s geoblocked for the qualifying and race broadcasts.

FP1/FP2 are live timing only, FP3 is streamed on YouTube, and qualifying/race are on B/R Sports on Max. Plus the usual first hour + last hour of the race on the Motor Trend tv channel.
 
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