Silverstone WEC

[loudlashadjuster]

Good day's racing sadly cut short by some awful conditions.

The Toyotas were deeply impressive, toe-to-toe in terms of outright speed with the Audis and barely putting a wheel wrong over 5 and a bit hours. In the (very) wet the astonishing additional grip they had over even the 919 was noticeable.

The Porsches were a good bit off the pace compared to the other factory LMP1 cars but I'd expect this to improve quickly, because Porsche.

Both Audis went off in similar incidents which, to these layman's eyes, looked very much like a problem with the rear locking up after lift-off/early braking. This was a shame as there was the promise of some good action in the class which disappeared with their retirement, save for a short period where Webber looked like he might mix it with the second Toyota again before an unexpected pit stop then rain spoiled proceedings.


One NCB he'll not see again.

[Monsterlime]

Bloody hell. Thats the first time I've seen a pic of what happened to it, I was at Village when Treluyer had his off. Quite impressed he even tried to get it back to the pits!

[boxedin]

[strudel]

loudlashadjuster said:

The Toyotas were deeply impressive, toe-to-toe in terms of outright speed with the Audis and barely putting a wheel wrong over 5 and a bit hours. In the (very) wet the astonishing additional grip they had over even the 919 was noticeable.

The Porsches were a good bit off the pace compared to the other factory LMP1 cars but I'd expect this to improve quickly, because Porsche.

The Audis were fantastic through Maggotts/Becketts, but the Porsches were in a league of their own from Luffield to Copse, the way they took off was phenomenal.

[OvalOwl]

Monsterlime said:

Bloody hell. Thats the first time I've seen a pic of what happened to it, I was at Village when Treluyer had his off. Quite impressed he even tried to get it back to the pits!

Whole incident here on ubend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed...

Radio LM busy arguing over the possibilities as Benoit tries to achieve the impossible.

[Nick M]

Have to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to Le Mans now !!

To see three cars with three different approaches to the regs being abke to RACE was great - I really hope the ACO don't cock about too much with the rules between now and June.

The only problem is, I'm not sure who to support !!!

- Audi - saw them in their first race back in '99, and have admired their push for 'unconventional' (in a motorsport sense) technology, and how they really upped the game to make cars reliable and quick to service

- Toyota - was a supporter back in the days of Brundle in the GT One, and was gutted they didn't win. Also have a very quick Brit in the form of Mr Davidson (who I've just about forgiven for his Peugeot tactics...).

- Porsche - pleased to see them back in the top class at Le Mans, and hoping they can win the event at some point. Was there when McNish won with them back in '98, and the 917 is without doubt my favourite race car of all time (I blame seeing 'Le Mans' at an early age).


So, I'll probably root for Porsche, but wouldn't mind who won (provided they did it in the right sportsmanlike manner of course).

[Fordy Bob]

loudlashadjuster said:

Good day's racing sadly cut short by some awful conditions.

The Toyotas were deeply impressive, toe-to-toe in terms of outright speed with the Audis and barely putting a wheel wrong over 5 and a bit hours. In the (very) wet the astonishing additional grip they had over even the 919 was noticeable.

The Porsches were a good bit off the pace compared to the other factory LMP1 cars but I'd expect this to improve quickly, because Porsche.

Both Audis went off in similar incidents which, to these layman's eyes, looked very much like a problem with the rear locking up after lift-off/early braking. This was a shame as there was the promise of some good action in the class which disappeared with their retirement, save for a short period where Webber looked like he might mix it with the second Toyota again before an unexpected pit stop then rain spoiled proceedings.


One NCB he'll not see again.

Must have been stood beside you when you were snapping away,we watched as he reconnected his coms to speak to the teamm,only to eventually give up and go off in a mini van.How wet did you get at the end,thankfully I had a dry set of gear as setting off on a 360 mile drive soaking wet didnt appeal

[airbusA346]

Nick M said:

Must confess I was shouting at the TV on a couple of occasions - just made no sense what they were doing, or trying to do...

Audi have history of dragging the cars back to the pits to fix them. They did it a couple of times at LM 2012, and I bet if one of the front wheels was still steerable, he would have dragged it back to the pits.

Even though it later turned out that it is a write off like the other R18.

[Kenzle]

Edited by Kenzle on Monday 21st April 19:24

[Nohedes]

loudlashadjuster said:

Good day's racing sadly cut short by some awful conditions.

The Toyotas were deeply impressive, toe-to-toe in terms of outright speed with the Audis and barely putting a wheel wrong over 5 and a bit hours. In the (very) wet the astonishing additional grip they had over even the 919 was noticeable.

The Porsches were a good bit off the pace compared to the other factory LMP1 cars but I'd expect this to improve quickly, because Porsche.

Both Audis went off in similar incidents which, to these layman's eyes, looked very much like a problem with the rear locking up after lift-off/early braking. This was a shame as there was the promise of some good action in the class which disappeared with their retirement, save for a short period where Webber looked like he might mix it with the second Toyota again before an unexpected pit stop then rain spoiled proceedings.

Excellent summary! I enjoyed the day, despite the weather - great result for Toyota and I hope Porsche find some extra pace before LM (I'm sure they will). My thoughts on it are ABBA - Anyone But Bl**dy Audi! Nothing against them, just keen to see some close racing and competition at the top.

[LeMan]

Great news! I've stopped shivering after spending all day on a windswept airfield yesterday. Noticed that the Slush Puppy sales were a bit slow.

Was a great day though. Toyotas were impressive, but had the Audis not stuffed it into the barriers it could have been a close race. Great to see Porsche back on track (mostly with 4 wheels attached) and make it to the end of their 1st return race.

A few pics (I particularly like the professional marshalling display in the 2nd pic)...

Edited by LeMan on Monday 21st April 20:57

[MEVILAZY]

Motors TV has the highlights now on for those wanting to see MORE! :-)

[alistair1234]

A selection from yesterday.

IMG_0440 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

Untitled by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_0380 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9977 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9971 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9954 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9941 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9934 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9930 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9896 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9876 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_9821 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_0360 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

IMG_0368 by alistair.carruthers, on Flickr

[Nick M]

airbusA346 said:

Nick M said:

Must confess I was shouting at the TV on a couple of occasions - just made no sense what they were doing, or trying to do...

Audi have history of dragging the cars back to the pits to fix them. They did it a couple of times at LM 2012, and I bet if one of the front wheels was still steerable, he would have dragged it back to the pits.

Even though it later turned out that it is a write off like the other R18.

I know, but it does seem better to try and avoid that in the first place - staying out on slicks when you're about 25 seconds a lap slower seems daft, because the rain was clearly going to affect the circuit for more laps than you'd lose doing an extra pit stop to change to / from wets.

Easy to sit on the sofa and wonder what they're up to, but it just seemed like there were a few odd calls from the pit wall.

[Printertosh]

I'm sure I heard radio le mans say at the weekend that Porsche only have a low down force package for the car at the moment which I think was losing them time at Silverstone. Hopefully with the longer straights at Le mans it should even the top 3 teams up a bit more. Looking forward to seeing them all on circuit at Le mans after the action packed 1st hour at Silverstone.

[Nick M]

Printertosh said:

I'm sure I heard radio le mans say at the weekend that Porsche only have a low down force package for the car at the moment which I think was losing them time at Silverstone. Hopefully with the longer straights at Le mans it should even the top 3 teams up a bit more. Looking forward to seeing them all on circuit at Le mans after the action packed 1st hour at Silverstone.

You heard correctly - I think Audi were running their high downforce configuration at Silverstone, but didn't catch what Toyota were running (but I'm guessing high downforce).

[eps]

Nick M said:

Have to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to Le Mans now !!

To see three cars with three different approaches to the regs being abke to RACE was great - I really hope the ACO don't cock about too much with the rules between now and June.

The only problem is, I'm not sure who to support !!!

- Audi - saw them in their first race back in '99, and have admired their push for 'unconventional' (in a motorsport sense) technology, and how they really upped the game to make cars reliable and quick to service

- Toyota - was a supporter back in the days of Brundle in the GT One, and was gutted they didn't win. Also have a very quick Brit in the form of Mr Davidson (who I've just about forgiven for his Peugeot tactics...).

- Porsche - pleased to see them back in the top class at Le Mans, and hoping they can win the event at some point. Was there when McNish won with them back in '98, and the 917 is without doubt my favourite race car of all time (I blame seeing 'Le Mans' at an early age).


So, I'll probably root for Porsche, but wouldn't mind who won (provided they did it in the right sportsmanlike manner of course).

Snap on all fronts!

[RobGT81]

Nick M said:

You heard correctly - I think Audi were running their high downforce configuration at Silverstone, but didn't catch what Toyota were running (but I'm guessing high downforce).

Yup, Porsche were the only team to run in Le Mans configuration.

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/silverstone-sat...

[Polariz]

We were told over the radio that the Toyota's were split, with one running HDF and the other in LMS trim. We weren't told which was which though! On visible inspection it did look like both were identical. A keen eyed Japanese photographer at the final turn said there didn't seem to be any difference, so wouldn't be surprised if they were both running HDF, despite RLM reporting otherwise.

[eps]

Polariz said:

We were told over the radio that the Toyota's were split, with one running HDF and the other in LMS trim. We weren't told which was which though! On visible inspection it did look like both were identical. A keen eyed Japanese photographer at the final turn said there didn't seem to be any difference, so wouldn't be surprised if they were both running HDF, despite RLM reporting otherwise.

I thought we were told they were both running HDF, but split on tyre strategies? But that they have some funny front wing that isn't a front wing...