One of the decisions out of the latest FIA World Motor Sport Council was to extend a 2 point bonus to Super License holders (which now required for Formula E and V8 Supercar) if the drivers complete a season without any point penalty.
With apologies to Dennis Haysbert,
Other decisions include the exploration of FIA sanctioned Formula Drift Events, easier Historic Car technical certifications, Safer Formula 3 and faster LMP1 private team, non hybrid cars.
Wet qualifying for the WEC 6 hours of Silverstone. Not too crowded on the stands but some great action on track with the cars fighting for grip.
I won't publish results in case you want to watch the whole thing but the fight between Ferrari, Porsche and Ford in LMGTE is the highlight for us rather than the scramble between 4 VW and two Toyotas in LMP1.
Before Ford revealed its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans to the world, it was already secretly testing the vehicle it would use to compete on the track.
Ford Performance is giving fans around the world an exclusive look at the Ford GT race car’s first shakedown test.
Four Ford GTs will compete next year under the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates banner – two in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (United States) and two in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
This first official test kicked off the “Road to Daytona” – the seven months Ford and partners Multimatic, CGR and Roush Yates Engines would have to prepare for the GT’s first 24-hour race, the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The beauty of highlights is that they include only the good parts...and dramatic music!
It has become fashionable of late for journalists, pundits and fans on the internet to slam F1 while proclaiming Endurance racing, WEC specifically, as the saviour of all motor racing.
F1 is boring, nobody can pass, the tires are garbage, the cars sound like crap, there is no technical innovation, one team dominates, rules are arbitrary. Those are the usual complaints, some quite valid.
This past week end we watched the amazing spectacle that is the Le Mans 24 Hour. What an event it is, huge crowds, big manufacturers, tons of guests, the pomp, the circumstance, the ACO really puts on a great event.
But can we talk?
The race itself... not so exciting.
This year's highlight reels is mostly cars being serviced and a couple of crashes.
There were very few, if any, on track passes for the lead over the whole 24 hours. The GTPro class saw good action but fans were robbed of any excitement at the end when the leading Ferrari's gearbox broke. The race was decided mostly by crashes and failures.
Of course that is generally what happens in endurance racing, it's normal. Apples are Apples.
But if we look at it in terms of it being what F1 is not, then one would would point out that even at what was generally considered a particularly boring Grand Prix of Canada, we saw Massa and Vettel make more passes in an hour and a half than happened in the totality of the 24.
For sure the recent WEC race at Silverstone had an exciting ending but the 24 was, from an action point of view, a bit of a let down.
All the talk of endurance being "better" than F1 is silly, apples and oranges.
WEC is followed by a comparatively small number of hardcore endurance fans, if anything because few have the patience or time to sit through watching a six hour race, much less a 12 or a 24. A majority watch edited highlights. It's a measure of how badly F1 is doing its fan relations that comparisons are even made.
Let's take some of the common points of contention:
WEC is technically superior? Indeed WEC currently has a variety of different hybrid technologies and its regulations allow different approaches to get to a specific power/emissions compromise.
It's interesting how this year's winning Porsche's power unit was conceptually identical to the current F1 engines, with and MGU-H helping spool the turbo and MGU-K driving not the rear but the front wheels.
As for technical innovations, you could make the case F1's been there, banned that, From active suspension, 4wd, traction control, bizarre aero, turbos, small engines, big engines. To say one is way ahead of the other is unfair to both, at best.
Another complaint against F1 is sound, do I really need to go there? Audi's turbo diesels shut that down.
But WEC has more passing you say, their drivers can push full tilt from start to finish.
It's true drivers in WEC can afford to push longer but this is doe mostly to tires which are designed to last for hours.
Still, this does not guarantee on track action, even on a track as wide as Le Mans.
F1 runs on much softer, less durable tires by design which is one of the reasons why it's considerably faster. When F1's had to run on a single set of tires, racing was mostly terrible.
Another complaint against F1 has been that cars are both too complicated and too easy to drive. Bipolar nature aside, how come nobody complains about WEC cars with 4WD and traction control?
Finally let's address the complaint of one team dominating F1.
Not to single out Audi again, but....Audi. The Volkswagen group has won 13 out of the last 14 editions of the 24. The have essentially outspent the competition into submission. Sound familiar?
Does this mean WEC is worse than F1? Absolutely not, F1 has much to learn certainly in terms of content distribution, social media and especially ticket pricing. A top of the line VIP hospitality ticket for the upcoming WEC Lone Star Le Mans week end at COTA cost $799 and includes food and drink. A similar package for the USGP is about $3000.
But let's drop the snob pretensions of WEC having the only "real" race fans. You may prefer the taste of one over the other but apples and oranges don't really compare.
The 24 Hours of LeMans is more than just a race, it's an experience everyone should try at least once in your life.
If getting to France is not possible you have several options to follow all the action on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
In the US, your worst option will be broadcast TV.
Fox Sports will carry 12 hours of the race on cable, only 5 and 1/2 of those hours on the widely available Fox Sports 1 channel with the remainder on Fox Sports 2 which many providers do not carry in HD if at all.
However, Fox will be showing the entirety of the race on the Fox Sports Go App and web site.
In addition to the world feed and commentary by the team lead by Bob Varscha, you will have access to onboard cameras on the two Corvettes and one for the pit crew.
You have to be a subscriber to their service via your cable package to have access, if your provider does not carry Fox Sports you are out of luck.
I suspect that most fans automatically expect the booming, indefatigable voice of John Hindhaugh commenting any race lasting longer than two hours.
We will be tuning to hear him and the team on the Radio Le Mans web site. Hindy will also be commenting on the Porsche, Audi and Nissan web sites where you will find onboard cameras from their respective racers. Also here on YouTube
Your best option is the official WEC app. The basic app will provide you with timing and scoring info for free but for $9.99 you can purchase full access to the Le Mans race.
That premium subscription will give you live video, multiple camera feeds, driver bio, highlights...the works. Unlike the F1 app, WEC was able to link the app subscription to their web site so for the same ten bucks you can have the main feed up on your laptop and follow the extras on your mobile device.
We selected the best from press photosof the 2015 WEC 6 hours of Spa distributed by the FIA, WEC, Michelin, Audi, Porsche, Toyota, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Alpine, ESM, G-Drive, and Red Bull.
Follow the link below and click on any picture for a fullscreen slideshow.
Every year, around this time, teams will hire the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza for some special high speed testing ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Check out the 2015 AUDI R18 E-TRON Quattro woosh around the Curva Biassono at the end of the main straight. The chicane is not used and the car turns in flat after accelerating all the way from the apex of Parabolica, the only thing slowing it the scrub of its tires.
Yes, the sound is awful but that's 220 mph + around a flat corner!
The 2012 World Endurance Championship will be at Spa- Fracochamps Saturday but sadly it will likely be another Audi steamroll, the Toyota TS030 having crashed testing a Paul Ricard and not ready to fight this week end in the Ardennes.
Challenging the Audi who will occupy the front two rows at the start will be the Lotus branded Lola Toyotas of Rebellion Racing. You can cheer them on and watch a LIVE STREAM of the race HERE
