2010 LeMans Series Rd. 2/ Spa Francorchamps

[freshseth83]

So we have the 2nd round of the LMS (LeMans Series) at Spa Francorchamps this weekend.

Entries include Aston Martin, Audi, Peugeot, and Oreca (Peugeot) in LMP1...

entry list as follows- http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s52_circuits/s52p06_engages.php?circuit=4

Who are your favorites for this weekend? I'm guessing the Peugeot and Audi will be the class of the field. It will be a hard fought battle, and the Signature Aston Martin should challenge as well.

 

[furai]

Although being German, I think, PEUGEOT will win this weekend. Not only that - guess, they'll also be victorious again at the 24h LeMans - sorry AUDI

 

[adam46]

I think Audi will win back the endurance racing dominance of the last decade back again this year, it's also very good to see a strong GT1 field after the recent downfall in entries.

 

[wbrinkman]

I'll be rooting for Rebellion, and hope to see the Spyker do a little bit better than last race

 

[Clark]

I'll be hoping Rebellion (I'm a JC.Boullion fan) and JMW Motorsport.

 

[freshseth83]

I'm rooting for the Signature Plus Aston Martin in black and white. Nice looking car, beautiful sound from the awesome V12. Diesel sucks and it's unfair with the amount of torque they make. They should be limited a bit further or have more airflow into the Petrol LMP1 cars to make up for the torque gap

 

[Prince.M5]

I'll be supporting the GT2 class of BMW Team Schnitzer... Let's see what they can come up with this weekend

Their second practice session result doesn't seem to sound promising...

 

[Clark]

I'm rooting for the Signature Plus Aston Martin in black and white. Nice looking car, beautiful sound from the awesome V12. Diesel sucks and it's unfair with the amount of torque they make. They should be limited a bit further or have more airflow into the Petrol LMP1 cars to make up for the torque gap

Even if they equalized them, they'd have no chance, Signature Plus don't have very good drivers and decided to not use Michelin tyres despite the car being developed on them.

 

[freshseth83]

I meant petrol cars in general, not just signature plus. they aren't even a factory backed team. Their drivers aren't good and I know that. But if the petrol cars produced the torque anywhere close to what the diesels do, it would be closer. Someone stated on another forum that it was stated by one of Peugeot's drivers, Davidson I think, that the reason the Petrol cars aren't as close is because of aerodynamics. That's a bunch of bull to me. Aston Martin aren't going to make a car that's not aero efficient enough. The fact is the Diesel cars get out of corners much faster. Their acceleration is hard to match. And on top of that fuel efficiency is probably a factor too, though maybe not as much.

EDIT: meant to put in the qualifying link- race starts in 4 hours. http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s54_courses/s54p01_classement.php It seems like the fastest Petrol car (Signature Aston Martin) is 4.4 seconds off the lead diesel (Peugeot).

 

[Ardius]

I meant petrol cars in general, not just signature plus. they aren't even a factory backed team. Their drivers aren't good and I know that. But if the petrol cars produced the torque anywhere close to what the diesels do, it would be closer. Someone stated on another forum that it was stated by one of Peugeot's drivers, Davidson I think, that the reason the Petrol cars aren't as close is because of aerodynamics. That's a bunch of bull to me. Aston Martin aren't going to make a car that's not aero efficient enough. The fact is the Diesel cars get out of corners much faster. Their acceleration is hard to match. And on top of that fuel efficiency is probably a factor too, though maybe not as much.

EDIT: meant to put in the qualifying link- race starts in 4 hours. http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s54_courses/s54p01_classement.php It seems like the fastest Petrol car (Signature Aston Martin) is 4.4 seconds off the lead diesel (Peugeot).

You know better, eh?

What Davidson actually said was the aero was the advantage...and that Peugoet and Audi had the huge budgets to spend on aero. Prodrive will never have the same kind of budget.
I think Ant would know what he is talking about seeing as he has driven for both teams.

Its also possible to make mistakes with aero design by the way.

 

[Clark]

You know better, eh?

What Davidson actually said was the aero was the advantage...and that Peugoet and Audi had the huge budgets to spend on aero. Prodrive will never have the same kind of budget.
I think Ant would know what he is talking about seeing as he has driven for both teams.

Its also possible to make mistakes with aero design by the way.

Ardius, I still think it's down to the diesel engine. At Le Mans last yeaDavidson said they were better in the cornersover the petrols as they could run more wing than them. Because of the extra power and torque of the diesel engine they'd still be just as fast in the straights despite the extra drag.

 

[wbrinkman]

Does Eurosport have a dedicated channel for the full race online, or is it just Eurosport1 & 2 that show bits?

 

[Clark]

Yeah but you have to pay for it.

It's back on Eurosport 1 now.

 

[wbrinkman]

*got subscription at eurosport player renewed*

Ah, I wondered why I was watching 25 minutes of commercials & WATTS on Eurosport2, race stopped because of the thunderstorms.

 

[Ardius]

Ardius, I still think it's down to the diesel engine. At Le Mans last yeaDavidson said they were better in the cornersover the petrols as they could run more wing than them. Because of the extra power and torque of the diesel engine they'd still be just as fast in the straights despite the extra drag.

No, its because they have better, more effecient aero. The ideal aero setup is minimal drag and maximum downforce, so that you can run more wing without the disadvantages. Clearly, the Pugs have got an aero layout that provides good downforce with little drag effects, whereas the Lola-Astons have slightly worse aero effeciency.
Its not a clear-cut case of "they have more power", and seeing as Davidson has driven both cars its fair to say he should know what hes talking about.
There were numerous rule changes to provide the petrol engines a better chance, but none of the petrol-run cars are run by big-budget teams, so they cannot develop the kind of aerodynamics Audi and Peugeot have.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Good lord, may I have permission to say the new Audi R15 looks absolutely awful?

The Peugeots on the other hand have never looked better. That machine is evolved so much now, do I dare say Peugeot will perform Audi-ish at Le Mans in the next few years? I'm not so sure, but the current 908 will be very hard to beat for anyone...

 

[Alex.]

My good friend finished 4th in GT1 driving the Larbre Saleen, here are his comments from the race. Nice to give you guys an on track view.

Hello everyone.

I'll post some pictures and more details when I get home. I'm at the train between Liege and Paris at the moment. :roll:

We had some problems in the last stint. Changed to rain tires, and two laps later it stopped to rain. We had about a lap of gap to 4th place, but the pit-stop there was about 2 minutes in total. So if we stopped, we would be 4th anyway... the idea then was to drive with rain tires on the dry until the end, and see if we could get a safety car or something to save us ;-)

Didn't work... tires were gone, and I had to stop anyway after we lost the podium.

But it was a great weekend.

My first real experience with the Saleen, first time in a GT car since end of 2007, new team mates, etc. So many new things to deal with, and it all worked fine.

Did the best lap time of the car in the race, and wasn't really pushing towards it, so it was surprising. Did no laps on Friday, only a couple of laps on Saturday with the car with serious problems, and 5-6 laps in the Warm-up. That was it, so I was basically learning everything during the race itself.

4th was excellent, I learned a lot and left a good image in Spa... aa)

More details and images tonight.

Thanks for the support, as always!

Yeah, it was curious to see how fast the GT2s were.

Farfus in the BMW did 2:20.8xx in the race, which at that time was 3 tenths quicker than Bas Leinders in the Ford GT (the quickest GT1). The GT1s only became quicker than GT2 in the race when they started running with soft tires.... the GT2s were all on mediums...

The GT2s also consume less fuel, so after each pit-stop they were closer and closer to the GT1 leaders. Was funny... but really nice...

They were much quicker on corners, and we were quicker on straights, so it was fun to drive around them... much nicer than a boring race driving all alone... just overtaking slower cars... hehehe...

 

[freshseth83]

Isn't that sad? That the difference between GT1 and GT2 has now come to this? I remember the GT1 cars would fly past the GT2 cars, now things seem to be equalized. But why? The regulations and rule changes don't make for exiting racing but confusing racing.