2015 General WEC/ELMS/AsLMS Discussion ThreadSports Cars 

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Furinkazen

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Right, as of now all we have on GTP is a rather vague and misleading "Le Mans General Discussion" thread. Since that thread was created back before the existence of the WEC, when the ALMS was around, the ELMS was also a fairly minor series, and also the Le Mans 24 Hours getting its own thread. It can be argued it is time for a new thread for 2015.

2014 was a classic as for the first time Audi, Toyota, and Porsche all arrived at the Silverstone WEC round with brand new 2014 spec cars. Toyota and the Antony Davidson / Sebastian Buemi #8 car became World Champions despite the Le Mans 24 Hours proving elusive. Porsche won the final race at Sao Paulo, despite a major accident for Mark Webber, and Audi took Le Mans.

In 2015 expect an even deeper battle with a triplet of Nissans joining. The new LMP1 car has not been revealed yet but can be confidently predicted as a strong entry surely already. Porsche will have a third P1 car for the Spa and Le Mans races, with Force India F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg one of the drivers. Porsche's 919 for 2015 is also supposed to be a brand new car. LMP1 may be set to be a full unified class with no more splits for the Rebellion and Kodewa/Agess/Lotus/Black&Gold T1xxx AER by CLM (or whichever name the Lotus LMp is going by this week as well.

LMP2 will be set for a renewed battle between the ORECAs and Ligiers, with Strakka Racing finally debuting their Dome chassis and the HPD Coupe from stateside outfit Extreme Speed Racing. The GT ranks will continue to be a mass dogfight between the Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Porsche squads, with the possibility of customer Corvette C7R's as well.

It's going to be a fantastic year of racing, with real strength as well in the European Le Mans Series, with the brand new LMP3 class bringing in a number of cars. Roll on 2015 I say!

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Good idea 👍

And about the schedule, here's hoping they turn it into a winter series and end with Le Mans.

Can not wait for this year, I'm gonna be attending it!

Also really excited they're racing at the Nurburging GP circuit!
 
Why the 2.5 month layoff after Le Mans? A great way to kill off any momentum.

Because WEC stupidity. Silverstone in April is asking for snow as well as rain. It should be at the end of July, six weeks after Le Mans. That gives the teams long enough to recover from Le Mans.

COTA is silly as well. In 2014 that race started at 11PM in the UK and Midnight on the European mainland. That isn't getting up early for a race. That's missing a nights sleep.

@Wardez If they move to a winter series they would have to have the races in the Southern hemisphere? That would be a brilliant way of losing your European core audience.

Le Mans is okay where it is. It just needs a couple more races before it to push it more towards to the middle of the season. Maybe February & March in the Middle East.
 
And about the schedule, here's hoping they turn it into a winter series and end with Le Mans.

I hope they don't. At the moment winning the championship is still seen by some as a consolation prize for not winning Le Mans. Ending the championship at the 24hr almost makes the champions irrelevant unless they happen to win Le Mans as well.

I think the championship needs 2 or 3 more rounds, 2 or which need to be in the summer - 1 in mid-July at the latest and the other in early to mid-August. Having a 2.5 month gap after the biggest race of your calendar just means everyone forgets about your series. They should be using the publicity gained from Le Mans to increase the stock of the series, not just let it peter out and try to rebuild in the autumn.

Still, it's better than this season, when there was a 3 month gap between Le Mans and the following race.

I'm going to Silverstone and probably Le Mans as well.

COTA is silly as well. In 2014 that race started at 11PM in the UK and Midnight on the European mainland. That isn't getting up early for a race. That's missing a nights sleep.

It's a World championship. If the organisers are only interested in appealing to a European audience, just host a European championship. This is one of bugbears with F1, which appears to jeopardise events like Malaysia by forcing them in to a European time frame, which affects the running of the event - in Malaysia's case by introducing the possibility of evening storms ending the race.

If you want to run an international series, someone's got to lose some sleep. If that's a problem then only run events in the timezone of your intended audience.

Out of curiosity, how do you watch Le Mans?
 
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Roo
It's a World championship. If the organisers are only interested in appealing to a European audience, just host a European championship. This is one of bugbears with F1, which appears to jeopardise events like Malaysia by forcing them in to a European time frame, which affects the running of the event - in Malaysia's case by introducing the possibility of evening storms ending the race.

If you want to run an international series, someone's got to lose some sleep. If that's a problem then only run events in the timezone of your intended audience.

Out of curiosity, how do you watch Le Mans?

I have no issue at all with getting up early for races. I do that a lot. COTA was a six hour race scheduled to run after a Tudor United Sports car race. If it had happened at a normal time there would be zero issue. The timing of that race was totally stupid.

I prepare for Le Mans just as I prepare for N24. with plenty of time to rest up afterwards. I will do that two/three times a year. I won't do it for races timed like COTA.
 
I have no issue at all with getting up early for races. I do that a lot. COTA was a six hour race scheduled to run after a Tudor United Sports car race. If it had happened at a normal time there would be zero issue. The timing of that race was totally stupid.

I prepare for Le Mans just as I prepare for N24. with plenty of time to rest up afterwards. I will do that two/three times a year. I won't do it for races timed like COTA.
Ironically, COTA was a huge hit because of it, one of the best moves was to form a double header because then crowds increased.
 
I think it's funny how little the championship matters in the WEC. It's all about winning Le Mans, not the other races- the other races are practically just for practice.
 
I think it's funny how little the championship matters in the WEC. It's all about winning Le Mans, not the other races- the other races are practically just for practice.
Try telling SMP Racing and Toyota that.
 
I wait until I see the car. Front engine isn't out of question, but I doubt that Nissan decided to go for something that hasn't worked since 1960s.
 
I dont like the NASCAR-esque recycling of the schedule. And I dont get why your introducing a LMP3 class when LMP1 and LMP2 both struggled to get numbers.

Recently I've started to dislike the 'same looking car, but slower' formula. LMP2 looks like LMP1, but slower. GTE Am looks like GTE Pro, but slower. All these classes should look very different from one another. Make GTE Am GT3 cars that dont run in the GTE Pro class. And replace LMP2 with LMP3
 
I dont like the NASCAR-esque recycling of the schedule. And I dont get why your introducing a LMP3 class when LMP1 and LMP2 both struggled to get numbers.

Recently I've started to dislike the 'same looking car, but slower' formula. LMP2 looks like LMP1, but slower. GTE Am looks like GTE Pro, but slower. All these classes should look very different from one another. Make GTE Am GT3 cars that dont run in the GTE Pro class. And replace LMP2 with LMP3
Agree only in the GT part,they could easily go back to the GT1-GT2-GT3 categorization, happy with the LMPs as they are, for now at least.
 
I dont like the NASCAR-esque recycling of the schedule.

What?

And I dont get why your introducing a LMP3 class when LMP1 and LMP2 both struggled to get numbers.
So the biggest works LMP1 entry perhaps ever this year and even bigger in 2015 is small? LMP2 had one team with financial issues, and another with delays testing.

Recently I've started to dislike the 'same looking car, but slower' formula. LMP2 looks like LMP1, but slower.

Are you sure you are watching the championship? LMP1 cars all have roofs now.


GTE Am looks like GTE Pro, but slower. All these classes should look very different from one another. Make GTE Am GT3 cars that dont run in the GTE Pro class.

What is the point of that apart from splitting


And replace LMP2 with LMP3

The most popular LMP class worldwide gets replaced? Why?
 
I'm just wondering, what effect are G-Drive and SMP Racing suffering from the Russian economy freefalling?
 
Not embarrassing in the slightest, just kind of ironic. Didn't see Olly getting a drive, good for him. What about Audi's 2014 reserve Marc Gene?

Ok, not embarrassing...humorous. Made me laugh anyway.
 
Not embarrassing in the slightest, just kind of ironic. Didn't see Olly getting a drive, good for him. What about Audi's 2014 reserve Marc Gene?
If I recall correctly Marc Gene wanted an LMP 2 win. He tried this year, but got call in to Audi.
 
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