WEC now the championship of choice for manufacturers, not F1

F1 is for Drivers Championship.

WEC/endurance is for Constructors Championship.

Agreed.

 

I love WEC, but the coverage sucks in the US most times, the interest is low and its not exciting. People dont have the attention spans to watch 6 or 10 and 24 hour races. It's all about instant gratification.

 

I really like the WEC. But, I wish they had a series more like NASCAR or F1 where they raced pretty much flat out for 2-4 hours on a course that was TV friendly. The racing part should be pretty easy since the run pretty much flat out now. All they need are the circuits and TV coverage.

 

Pirelli World Challenge is a fun to watch growing series.

 

NO. totally disagree. both should have a drivers and constructors championship.

F1 constructors championships have been around longer then The Makes world Championship....

 

The stupid path F1 is being railroaded down leaves a vacuum which championships like WEC are well positioned to fill.

GP2 was a better spectacle than F1 in 2014. We even had GP2's doing better times than some F1 cars and sounding way better with "real" racing.

F1 is so lost ATM and yet somehow the very few are listened to as millions are walking away and turning off.

 

I think you might misunderstand him. In WEC there is more attention given to a winning car as compared to F1. The last seasons have been easy to recall but when you think further back (years and decades) it is much easier to remember the WDCs as compared to the WCCs.

In F1 discussion lends more towards driver skill while in WEC it leans more towards car development.
That is my feeling and I thought along those lines is what william tried to say.

 

F1 gets more viewers per weekend than WEC gets through an entire season and they draw about a third or less of the crowds to their race weekends.

WEC only has road relevancy attracting companies because it has little appeal beyond that. Crowds? No. Much cheaper than F1? No. More media attention? No. Bigger sponsors drawn to the series? No.

It will always be the little brother of F1 and fans of it will always ignore the facts and protest that it is the better series. Nothing new here.

 

+1

 

+1

And we shouldn't forget that if you come up with a quicker car the powers will increase your weight, or reduce your gas allowance, or reduce the amount of air you can use. ("Breathing thru a hummingbirds sphincter", Jack Brabham IIRC)

It's maybe the most artificial form of racing there is. Its nonsense. Who cares? Certainly not many fans, at least outside of Le Mans anyway.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Do you know who actually writes the rules? Who actually decided that having two (sometimes three) dedicated test teams was too expensive? Who came up with the 'tokens' for engine development in an attempt to contain costs?

The WEC is played out on the most corrupt playing field there is. It will never, ever, even approach the global popularity of F1. It's irrelevant.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out..... Bye....

Cheers,
Ian

 

If F1 continues this trend it will dethroned as king of racing soon.

But even in a state of decay as it´s now, F1 is less relevant than sports cars only for the brands that not have the funds or the guts to do F1. The reasons already have been expressed above: less spectators, BOP everywhere (and we complain about Charlie Whiting´s arbitrary "clarifications", ha), overall popularity...

And yes, I´m a sports cars lover, but we´re just a bunch compared to the F1 fans. And this is the proof:

After spending millions to win Le Mans, Audi had to spend more to make people know that they had won Le Mans. In F1, Bernie Ecclestone opens his mouth to say some BS and it´s in the news.

 

... F1 having grown well beyond scale, the greatest axiom for growth in contemporary organized motor sport is, WEC. The 64 thousand Dollar question is, how does FiA expand WEC, without atritting F1?

Imposing customs rules a complicated chore, as of this writing, when they should otherwise compete, directly, with Volkswagen, Toyota in direct competition with Porsche and Audi is awkward. Can FiA sort it out, funnel its large automakers into F1, leaving WEC for specialty automakers? Or, perhaps vice versa?

I'd prefer it the other way around: F1 dedicated to specialty-boutique-luxury nameplates; WRC and WEC a proving ground for Peugeot, Renault, VW, FIAT-Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford.

Problem FiA faces is: leadership and vision. As aloof and detached as he is, utterly clueless, somehow Jean Todt rose to high position he does not merit, through discipline, temperament or skill. His leadership of FiA is an abomination. Biggest impediment to WEC's growth is, IMSA and NASCAR (e.g., the Don Panoz Motor Sport Group, and the International Speedway Corporation). I'd favor Nick Craw stepping up to the plate, stripping IMSA & NASCAR, reintegrating Sebring and Daytona into the WEC - asj.

 

In the old days it was race on sunday sell on monday. That was a big reason for manufacturers to get involved. WEC cars even the LMP1 is closer to a streetcar and would have more applicable trickedown technology to streetcars than what is going on in F1. A GTEam car I could almost build in my garage. So there is a lot of connection to the people and people's cars and how they are driven.

 

So why are a fraction of the people that are interested in F1, interested in WEC given that greater connection to what they have in their garages?

The only people greatly concerned with that link in technology are the boards cutting the cheques for their WEC teams.

 

For sure WEC has more variety, they even got the batmobile:

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/news/first-look-at-nissan-lmp1-car

 

the weirdest thing I have since asjosephs's tyre pressure calculation

 

+1. PWC is great.

 

Does it matter who actually penned the stupid rules?

If you can't handle reading my opinion or thoughts here on the forum, I suggest you put me on your ignore list, because I'm not going anywhere. Here's >>here's a direct link to your ignore list<< just add my name

 

It was a serious question....

IMHO, it matters a huge amount who wrote the rules. I'll give you a clue; All the stupid teams themselves. They're the 'stakeholders', it's their ball, and they developed them. It's what they wanted.

No need to take offense! It just reads that F1 makes you completely miserable and that you were off to join the handful of people who follow the WEC and its 'made up as they go along' rules.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

This makes me think that having the "stakeholders" (God I hate that term) write the rules might be a bit like the inmates running the asylum. The stakeholders are far more likely to arbitrarily change the rules when they are being disadvantaged or overly advantaged.

Seems to me that a board of unbiased (the opposite of stakeholders) governors should write broad rules and then let the stakeholders work it our, or not, within the rules.

 

Stupid rules are stupid rules and I'll call them out whoever wrote them. BTW you're factually wrong, the rules of F1 are not written by the teams. They contribute though.

I wasn't before and I'm not now.

I've not said that, but I don't care if you want to jump to that conclusion

Handful, lol.

I found a lot of the WEC fabulous racing - really enjoyed it. I also enjoy watching GP2 and V8 Supercars with their "handful" of fans as well.