If I've got this right today's testing lap times would have put Audi in 15th position on last year's Silverstone F1 GP grid. That would be amazing for a diesel built to run 24 hours straight.
I would argue that open wheel in the US suffers a similar problem, albeit from a different angle. Spec chassis / engines in IndyCar are mandated, but the overabundance of rules in F1 has essentially yielded the same thing. To get F1 / open wheel racing back on track, the regulations must be relaxed. No other way around it.
So you are saying that the gap between Merc and Marusia is similar to the gap between leading Indy car and trailing Indy car? In Indy car, it is whether the team knows how to tune the car up and whether the driver knows how to drive. In F1 may teams never figure out how to tune the car up, what is wrong with it, and how to make a better one next year. We call these back markers.
To properly compete in LMP1 and win, team budgets have grown ever nearer F1 budgets and the more car manufacturers that join the more competition and the bigger still the budgets will grow (essentially what F1 has problems with). Teams can't offset those costs with large sponsors because WEC struggles to attract them for two reasons, the series simply isn't popular enough and two, the television revenue and payouts to winning/competing teams are measly. A competitive privateer team in LMP1 is now unheard of because of that trend. In terms of tech WEC isn't quite the free for all intellectual haven of the engineer the article would have you believe. In fact technology advancements are frequently banned and limited by the FIA for LMP1 cars. The article also leads one to believe that racing fans have an intense interest in whatever tech is on show. That simply isn't true. Most F1 fans moaning about noise would happily give up those cutting edge hybrid engines. If WEC hopes to attract more fans to its series with hybrid engines and fuel/tire conservation they should take note of the dwindling fan interest in F1 since they embraced that 'green' approach. The lack of drama and spectacle turns away fans, not draws them in. WEC will always be the ugly stepsister to F1 for the same reasons it always has been for the majority of motorsport fans. Nothing has changed. Lewis Hamilton's hair gets more media attention than any Lemans winner in recent memory. That's tells you everything about the interest in the series to anyone other than die hards.
If LMP1 cars were allowed to run at lighter weights they would leave F1 cars for dead! They are putting out over a combined 1200 HP with monster downforce and aero tricks
But WEC has no gridgirls anymore. ...Just one more attempt to demanify man sports. That high horse prius mentality makes me not want to start watching WEC.
And if F1 cars were allowed to run twin turbo's and a 1000bhp output then they'd p:censored:ss all over LMP1 cars! The fact of the matter is though, the LMP1 cars are not allowed to run lighter and the F1 cars are not allowed to run 1000bhp so it's a completely pointless argument!
LMP cars are designed to race over long distances. F1 has for some time been relatively short events, 300 plus a few odd kilometers. It's not relevant to compare them. That said, what F1 has been serving up has been turning fans off in their droves, that's a fact. The new PU format has accelerated the downward trend, another fact. My opinion is it won't reverse until creativity is enabled and variety is encouraged. To do that you need to get rid of mountains of regulations
The solution is at hand.... Bernie play Oprah... "You get a Merc PU, you get a Merc PU..." Ecclestone wants Mercedes power for entire grid :: PaddockTalk :: F1, Formula 1, NASCAR, IndyCar, MotoGP, Le Mans, And More! Ugh, at this rate, F1 will be the forgotten series.
Not enough publicity about this, clearly; FOX will be showing all the races! WEC announces FOX broadcast deal | WEC news | Motorsport.com The six hours of Silverstone last weekend was an amazing can't-turn-away race hour after hour!
If f1 has good noise, varied constructors, a full grid and relatively close competition then I'm happy. Don't care the route taken to achieve it and don't care for technological marvels. If regulations can be made that are sufficiently broad but can allow poorer teams to still be competitive then that would be nice
Silverstone laps Andre lotterer fastest lap 1:40.836 Lewis Hamilton fastest lap 2014-1:37.176 Amazing how far enduro has come in terms of pace. Fastest lap differences is 3.7 seconds on a car that runs for 6 hours and takes a beating. Impressive. 210mph
The audi would have probably finished in the points given all other cars had at least 2 seconds deficit to Mercs last year Lotterer himself wasn't too impressd with last year's f1s and said the braking performance was their only big advantage IIRC but LMP1 can corner faster
