Of course it is a big success for Ferrari, and for Ferrari as a brand. Well, how the perception of things changes with circumstances. Nobody seems to complain now about electrified, twin-turbo V6 hybrid, AWD Ferrari *** I wish they went more original with the styling. Not much different than Cadillac-s if not the livery. (Cadillac uses Dallara LMP2 licensed chassis, so that could confirm the coincidence) *** LMDh-s are also hybrids but RWD only, Glick & ByKolles (Vanwall) are ICE only. For me, the road car based racers count more, ICE & RWD only.
Ferrari and Toyota have there own Chassis design (Not sure who they had make them but they are non standard) all the other teams use the same WEC approved Hypercar frame (Not sure who makes that frame design). F and T do take on extra weight I think it is for not going with the standard frame but clearly it helps the performance a lot for both.
Well, GT3 cars will be at the core of many national and international series, not only IMSA or WEC. They are supposed to be available to any team that wants one, not only "chosen" ones. At the moment, any private team can buy a Porsche 911 GT3R, a Ferrari 296GT3, an Aston Martin Vantage GT3? or a Lamborghini Huracan GT3, etc ... I hope Chevrolet will adopt the same policy.
I won't miss LMP2 anyway; I never liked a specs category in endurance. Endurance is about marques. LMP2 should be replaced by non-hybrid Hypercars, like Vanwall and Glickenhaus that are by design cheaper to built.
Agree in that allowing the blankets avoided a lot of crashes during the night but ACO said they wouldn't change the BOP for Le Mans to avoid sandbagging in the first races. They lied. I guess that they didn't want a snoozfest in the centenary. Even Peugeot suddenly became quite competitive. Toyota complained in public but they probably agreed because they thought they'd win anyway. And they'd do if not for some mistakes.
Chevy needs to be able to support the customers running the cars so I am not surprised it is limited at first. They don't have the same logistics in place as Ferrari, Porsche and others that have been doing customer racing for ever. This is new territory for Chevy.
Le Mans has always had it's own BoP. That isn't new. Just like in IMSA Daytona has a specific BoP since it is such a different track from everything else. Oh and...everyone complains about BoP.
In the WEC rules regarding Hypercars, there is a clause forbidding the teams to criticise the BoP in public. That's something the teams agreed when they apply to participate. If Toyota doesn't observe it, they could be sanctionned.
Well, in the past, Rees Callaway used to handle the Corvette GT3s for Chevrolet. So I don't see why it is suddenly a problem, nor why Chevrolet is making it a big issue.
Might be wrong but the think the Callaway cars were built by them. Chevy allowed the to do the project and run it as a Corvette but I don't think it was a Pratt & MIller car. I believe Corvette Racing had only built and run factory cars prior to the C8. Even i think the Larbre C7 they ran in WEC and ELMS were different. Gonna have to do some googling to confirm.
AFAIK, Pratt&Miller were only involved with the GTE, not the GT3. Most of the Corvettes GT3s that ran with private teams in Europe came from Callaway in Germany, which had an agreement with GM (according to their site). They ran in WEC and several national championships.
Larbre ran used P&M factory cars in GTE-AM (both C6 and C7). the GT3 cars used in various European series were Callaway cars. they had decent success in GT Masters. at one point they were going to sell C7 GT3s in the USA, but GM cock blocked it.
Is this safetycar format going to be used is the other WEC races aswell, because then I know I won't be watching them. 1 hour plus SC situation is beyond crazy. (Shorter circuit and less cars will shorten it obviously but still)
I don't see the need for this method myself. The organisers invoke safety at the time of restart. I think the "pass-around" is simply manipulating the order, and that will put the public off.
I get a kick out of the people that are proclaiming 'Ferrari Is Back!!!'. One win in 60~ years does not equal 'back', LOL
A shout-out to the F-Chat community on the main page of www.motorsport.com "FerrariChat community celebrates historic Le Mans 24 hrs victory". Are we so entertaining? Maybe. Sometimes
I think Ferrari is there to stay. We are not in the 70s, now they can afford to be in 2 different world championships. F1 and WEC are the 2 series that correspond most to their image and tradition. It's also wise not to put all their eggs in the same basket, mostly because nobody knows the direction F1 will take in future.
