FIA WEC / World Endurance Championship

lol! yeah, good guys. them working together with ginetta is an added bonus.

Ginetta... I do want them to do well but it’s through gritted teeth... because the owner of Ginetta described all modern Lotus as “understeery pieces of shit”

:smiley:
 
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Just heard on Eurosport coverage that the bmw m8 was given extra weight due to being new?!?! Wtf. The ACO are reviewing the BoP tomorrow morning so hopefully bmw and Aston Martin will be quicker on race day. And I thought f1 was farcical...
 
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Just heard on Eurosport coverage that the bmw m8 was given extra weight due to being new?!?! Wtf. The ACO are reviewing the BoP tomorrow morning so hopefully bmw and Aston Martin will be quicker on race day. And I thought f1 was farcical...

I'm trying to remain trusting of the ACO I really am but it's difficult.

If I was being cynical, it's pretty easy to see the 70 year anniversary and the HUGE advantage Porsche have, put two and two together and come up with a clear and unpleasant 4...

Look at 2016. Ford's big return to Le Mans... What a fairytale it would be if they won on their first time back... ooh look they're suddenly MUCH faster...

Whole thing looks a bit shady.

I hope it's just down to Porsche making a massive push and spending a shed load of money on R&D. Buying a win is one thing, being given an unfair advantage by the organisers is something else.

Hoping for some positive news about BoP adjustments today.

Although, there were a few moments last night where the commentators alluded to some sand bagging going on too. That would be funny.
 
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Balance of Performance adjustments made. It's not much but hopefully it has the effect it's supposed to.

From Autosport:

"Porsche and Ford have been hit with weight increases for the Le Mans 24 Hours in the final Balance of Performance issued for the GTE Pro category.

The Porsche 911 RSR will race 10kg heavier than it did in qualifying, after the two retro-liveried Manthey cars locked out the front row in class, while its nearest challenger the Ford GT will be 8kg heavier.

Corvette, BMW and Aston Martin have been handed weight breaks, with the C7.R losing 5kg and the two new cars in the class, the M8 GTE and the Vantage GTE, both shedding 10kg.

Aston Martin, which said it anticipated further BoP help after its cars were both five seconds off the pace in qualifying, has also been handed another minor power boost.

The Ferrari 488 GTE Evo is the only GTE Pro car that will race at the same weight it qualified, but the Italian marque has been given a modest 1kg increase in fuel allocation.
"
 
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Great race as always. Tailed off a bit towards the end.

Usual stories of heartbreak. SMP had the worst of it I think! GUTTED for Jenson.

Missed 6 hours due to sleep. Enjoyed it all.

Pleased Toyota finally managed to get it over the line and pleased for Alonso. His drive in the night was genuinely world class I thought. Was also glad they didn't cruise. They were on proper pace all the way through. They did it with honour.

Sad it's over, can't wait for next year.
 
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Afraid I disagree Mes @///M LMP1 was a waste of time, Toyota had it handed to them on a plate with ridiculous EoT rules, no doubt to stop them pulling out of the WEC. The privateers had no chance of ever competing for the win. GTE was good but I can't help but think the odds were heavily balanced in Porsche's favour for the fairytale anniversary win. The ACO got the BoP massively wrong. If they must insist on having BoP, you can't have cars with no issues finishing laps behind the winners.
Certainly not a race to remember. Roll on the hypercar rules.
 
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@Sean197 All about finishing for them mate! :smiley: Think they've only managed to cross the line 6 times ever. We always knew it was going to be theirs for the taking but I think they did it in a good way. I also think that given their pace, even if Porsche and Audi were still there, they've have been very tough to beat.

As for EoT it's all a bit moot for the moment given the new regs. It's going to be all change. Which is a shame as I think the LMP cars are incredible from both a visual and a tech standpoint.

Agree about Porsche but the pig was driven very hard and very well all race. But yeah, BoP is a bit of a joke. I don't see how they can ever get it right given that no one is ever going to tell the truth.

I've been thinking about this the last few days. I think the only way to get it right is for an FIA/ACO representative to drive the cars on the Friday (screw qualifying, it's only a test run anyway) and for them to take all the laptimes set by the same driver at the same time in (hopefully) the same conditions and then balance it out from there. Then the cars go in Parc Ferme until the race.

It's the only way I can see of it actually working and even then it's going to be difficult to be sure. It's just a very very hard thing to get right. The adjustments they made prior to the race obviously helped a lot, just not quite enough. Or not at all if you're in an Aston!

Wasn't a classic but I enjoyed it a lot, more than last year for the most part. Just that last year had an amazing finish.

What was your take on the Porsche weaving and pushing the Ford out wide into the hard shoulder?
 
@///M or my preference is to just scrap BoP altogether and let the teams go at it.

I think the Ford-Porsche weaving was borderline. Not sure it was worthy of the amount of whinging Bourdais gave it though. Eduardo Freitas is usually very good when it comes to making decisions as the race director so I'm inclined to go with him tbh.
 
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... but I can't help but think the odds were heavily balanced in Porsche's favour for the fairytale anniversary win.

just like it was for ford two years ago, to mark their 50th first win anniversary. i really wonder if it's so hard to come up with a power-to-weight figure and a maximum amount of downforce number, and it doesn't matter how those are achieved.
 
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@///M or my preference is to just scrap BoP altogether and let the teams go at it.

I think the Ford-Porsche weaving was borderline. Not sure it was worthy of the amount of whinging Bourdais gave it though. Eduardo Freitas is usually very good when it comes to making decisions as the race director so I'm inclined to go with him tbh.

Totally agree mate. Forces them to develop to be fast enough. But while we have it, it would be nice if, you know... it worked!

I'm in two minds about the weaving, it was more to break the tow than to stop a pass. But the pushing wide was unnecessary I think. I agree Freitas is a total legend. So SO often Mrs M and I have said "why can't we have this sensible thinking in f1?" But I think he got that wrong. Or ignored it.

Was funny listening to the guys in the commentary booth, two commentators and two racers. The commentators thought it was all great but both racers thought it was out of order. Really like Sam Hancock by the way, what a life he has, his Instagram is amazing.
 
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