Ferrari LMP1 @ Le Mans

I don't know... I love the series,... but it seems over regulated for me to get too excited about it. If your car is too fast they slow you down. It seems the results are decided by those regulating the series.

 

IMHO, Ferrari shouldn't participate in LMP1 as long as the rules are so bias towards Diesel engine.

Written by the ACO (Le Mans) in an attempt to have major manufacturers onboard, the present WEC technical rules and equivalency were destined to bring an keep AUDI and Peugeot onboard by giving them huge advantage.

Diesels, which benefit from an unfair capacity advantage in the WEC rules, should really be banned, to entice other factories to come back in the series.

 

Every year this subject comes up and every year is stricken down again.

At Sebring, Giuseppie Rissi explained Ferrari's position regarding sports car racing and
how the GT cars are virtually prototypes already and they don't feel as though moving
up to P1 would suit them.

Each of the P1 cars feature hybrid technology of one sort or another and de Montemezolo
came out last year and said flat out that Ferrari would never build a hybrid or electric car.

All well and good but will that eventually leave Ferrari behind in the market place in
the future?

BHW

 

just like every year there's a rumor that Ferrari will leave F1 or start a rival series

that means they're already working on one

 

Did he really say that?

His hand may be forced by future legislation FORCING all car manyfacturers to produce hybrid cars with ZERO carbon emission in town.

 

I think it would be counter-productive for Ferrari, and damaging to its image to enter the WEC and Le Mans at the moment.

Diesels have an inbuilt advantage with the present technical regulations.

 

Uhm, what? They're already building a hybrid.

 

It will be great if Ferrari come back in the series.

 

You guys haven't been paying attention!

Perhaps a quick refresher course in the supercar section is in order.

 

Or their F1 cars?

 

I assumed he was referring to a P1 car. (given the context of Barton's post)

 

I was more referring to the LdM quote that's obviously proven false - they're building two hybrids already so no reason to think they wouldn't build a hybrid P1 car if they went down that road (which I don't think they will).

 

I assumed the LdM quote was in reference to competing in P1/ACO/WEC...I would hope he knows that both the F1 car and one road car are already hybrids

 

Maybe he did say that but the quote makes zero sense either way. Why take a hard line on hybrids in endurance when they're already building both a racing and street hybrid? I have a feeling that's an older quote and was generic as LdM has been known to make hard line statements of that sort only to pull a 180 not long after...

 

If they can compete, they should do it. I agree about the diesel rules, must change.

I'm a big F1 fan, but I really want to see Ferrari in sports car racing. I reject the idea that the street cars are close enough to a prototype (or whatever was stated) - the Ferrari 333SP was a** kicking and they should do something like that again.

JMHO.

 

Considering what Audi is spending on their P1 program ("Space shuttle money", I'm told), I would think that to be competitive, SpA would need to spend a considerable sum just to be competitive and on the same lap. To win, even more.

To some extent, perhaps, there can be some transfer of technology from F1, but with the different Rules & Regulations, it may be necessary to start from a clean sheet. Certainly, for the tub at least. And, with the different body style (closed wheel open or closed cockpit), more wind tunnel time. Engine configuration and displacement (as well as fuel) is also something that needs to be analyzed. All of this costs, and the sub-contractor vendors (like Michelotto and Dallara) can't outspend VAG alone.

I think it takes needed $ away from their F1 program, and I, therefore, think it's unlikely that we'll see a serious P1 effort from Ferrari, no matter how much I'd like to see it happen.

They could farm the racing out to privateer teams, but I don't think they'd be all that successful against the factory works Audis with endlessly deep pockets. And, Porsche will up the ante. So, if they're not there to win, why bother spending on it at all?

CW

 

I've heard that the Audi program is $300mm for the full WEC season, so roughly what an F1 budget is at the front of the grid (correct me if I'm wrong on either data point).

so yes any manufacturer wanting to do F1 and P1 WEC will be spending roughly half a BILLION dollars a year on racing. that's a big pill to swallow.

I don't see any way Ferrari can be truly competitive at both series at once, not just budget but engineering staff, resources/buildings/wind tunnels, etc. so we can dream but I'd rather have Ferrari do one thing well than two things poorly.

 

except for 09 when they finished 4th (odd year for lots of reasons), they've been in the top 3 in constructors points since 1994. I would consider that to be consistently competitive, within the F1 environment.

I think it's fairly easy to say they wouldn't have that track record if they had been trying to simultaneously go head to head with Audi since 2000.

 

FWIW, directly from inside Audi Motorsport I heard that they're acutally not spending a noteworthy sum on Le Mans, nearly all of it is covered by sponsors. They say.

 

I call BS for a few reasons:

1) that's got to be a silly expensive car to develop and campaign

2) this is a pic of the R18 in action at LeMans this year. primary "sponsor" is....Audi. so maybe some accounting tricks in the Audi family? (ie motorsport is "sponsored" by the road car division)? the rest of their sponsors are technical sponsors (Castrol, Bosch, Akropovich (sp?) and so forth). I doubt they're raising full season P1 budget levels of sponsorship off that.
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