WEC Spotter Guide for Fuji
Discussion
After the Texas race, WEC has now arrived at Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan, west of Tokyo. This track, owned by Toyota, has been part of the WEC series since its inception in 2012
My ‘Spotter Guide’ is for the 6-hour race, which takes place on Sunday (28 September).
The pictures shown below are lower resolution screengrabs. If you want a better quality for printing, I include a Dropbox link to a PDF version with higher resolution.
PDF LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hybuxbkrvgj3r6wvskd...
REDDIT LINK: https://www.reddit.com/r/lemans/comments/1nqkp4q/s...
Hypercars, built to the LMDh regulations i.e. Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche have a red frame around the car picture.
My ‘Spotter Guide’ is for the 6-hour race, which takes place on Sunday (28 September).
The pictures shown below are lower resolution screengrabs. If you want a better quality for printing, I include a Dropbox link to a PDF version with higher resolution.
PDF LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hybuxbkrvgj3r6wvskd...
REDDIT LINK: https://www.reddit.com/r/lemans/comments/1nqkp4q/s...
Hypercars, built to the LMDh regulations i.e. Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche have a red frame around the car picture.
RL17 said:
First/oldest car is also an issue for them.
As is the ACO saying "We want to go Hydrogen", Toyota saying "Sounds actually interesting and innovative, we're on board.", then the ACO constantly going "Umm, maybe another year down the line?...".Toyota don't want to spend a shed load on a new, been there/done that LMH car when they want to do something [u]interesting[/u]. Oh and of course with the significant risk of LMH being canned/moved much closer to LMDh in 2030, so if you started designing a new LMH now it might only get to race for 3 years.
Thankfully even the FIA/ACO seem to have accepted that the current BoP formula hasn't worked and has clearly favoured teams like Ferarri/disadvantaged teams like Toyota and (if I remember correctly) Alpine. I'm not suggesting that favouritism was intentional, just how the dice rolled based on where different car designs made their lap time/where the BoP cut into that.
I personally think a lot more could be done with bop, you only have to look at the ridiculous Brazil race to see that, it was a huge anomaly compared to the last 2 years. The issue with Ferrari is that we know they have been favoured in F1 for decades, this does not travel well to WEC, and sadly this years LM annoyed a lot of fans it was so obviously one sided.
It is clear the rules favour some cars and chassis, and no matter what is done with some that cannot be pared back.
The world is slightly moving away from an all milk float world too, which changes things a lot
It is clear the rules favour some cars and chassis, and no matter what is done with some that cannot be pared back.
The world is slightly moving away from an all milk float world too, which changes things a lot
RL17 said:
First/oldest car is also an issue for them.
Looks like something they are going to address for next year - https://www.dailysportscar.com/2025/10/01/toyota-t...Apologies for a slight rant but FFS how hard is it to manage pitstops under FCY and SC conditions?!?!
I can't help thinking it spoilt the race in Fuji as, through no fault of their own some teams got a massive penalty/others a massive advantage so the race order coming out of an intervention period was nothing like the one going in - and isn't the theoretical point to try and make the circuit safe for marshals with minimal impact on the race?
No, it's not fair to leave the pit lane wide open when everyone's running at a fixed speed under FCY - but neither is it fair that when an intervention happens around a pit stop window one car gets a massive advantage as they happen to stop on lap X while another gets a massive dissadvantage by needing to stop on lap X+1, only to find the pit lane closed, so only being able to get 5 seconds fuel under FCY and having to make a mandated second stop after the FCY is removed (or forgetting and picking up a penalty a-la Toyota). Speaking of Toyota it also seem unfair that (if I remember correctly) someone drives into you, giving you a puncture and triggering a FCY...which means not only does the innocent party lose time limping to the pits to change a tyre then then end up losing more time as that stop was under FCY, when the pit lane was closed, so they have to do a mandatory second stop as soon as the track is cleared.
Certainly with respect to FCY is it really that hard to take an average class pit in/full service stop/out time and see the average distance travelled by a car in that class, then look at the time taken to get to that point under FCY and turn that into a minimum pit stop time under FCY?
OK still not perfect, nothing will be, but means if you need__ to stop your only loss might be the time for a 4 tyre change you're not doing as you're double/tripple stinting - and there's also no advantage to stopping if you don't __have to stop.
I can't help thinking it spoilt the race in Fuji as, through no fault of their own some teams got a massive penalty/others a massive advantage so the race order coming out of an intervention period was nothing like the one going in - and isn't the theoretical point to try and make the circuit safe for marshals with minimal impact on the race?
No, it's not fair to leave the pit lane wide open when everyone's running at a fixed speed under FCY - but neither is it fair that when an intervention happens around a pit stop window one car gets a massive advantage as they happen to stop on lap X while another gets a massive dissadvantage by needing to stop on lap X+1, only to find the pit lane closed, so only being able to get 5 seconds fuel under FCY and having to make a mandated second stop after the FCY is removed (or forgetting and picking up a penalty a-la Toyota). Speaking of Toyota it also seem unfair that (if I remember correctly) someone drives into you, giving you a puncture and triggering a FCY...which means not only does the innocent party lose time limping to the pits to change a tyre then then end up losing more time as that stop was under FCY, when the pit lane was closed, so they have to do a mandatory second stop as soon as the track is cleared.
Certainly with respect to FCY is it really that hard to take an average class pit in/full service stop/out time and see the average distance travelled by a car in that class, then look at the time taken to get to that point under FCY and turn that into a minimum pit stop time under FCY?
OK still not perfect, nothing will be, but means if you need__ to stop your only loss might be the time for a 4 tyre change you're not doing as you're double/tripple stinting - and there's also no advantage to stopping if you don't __have to stop.
I have not watched Fuji yet
But the rules are designed to try and prevent safety cars and yellow flag lap advantages, especially at LM with multiple safety cars spread over the course.
I don't know a solution, N24 uses slow zones, it sort of works, but can cause problems still and also needs huge co-operation from drivers, and also you don't have a prototype, gt split at N24, but still have huge speed discrepancies.
Imsavis different again, but sorting the grid out takes an eternity, one yellow for a lapbwith SC can be a half hour lost, fine in an endurance length race like Sebring, Petit, but in their short races it really ruins the spectacle
But the rules are designed to try and prevent safety cars and yellow flag lap advantages, especially at LM with multiple safety cars spread over the course.
I don't know a solution, N24 uses slow zones, it sort of works, but can cause problems still and also needs huge co-operation from drivers, and also you don't have a prototype, gt split at N24, but still have huge speed discrepancies.
Imsavis different again, but sorting the grid out takes an eternity, one yellow for a lapbwith SC can be a half hour lost, fine in an endurance length race like Sebring, Petit, but in their short races it really ruins the spectacle
Full race up on youtube now.
For Toyota (which did lift a bit early and had been moving alot down the main straight in prior laps) it was a FCY (temporary incident)- when it went into pits FCY stayed for another 3 mins or so -seems odd. (Minor debris)
Number 12 had big disadvantage following big off for BMW (99 Porsche faulty?) - went to VSC (allows two laps minimum with free pitstops!) before lengthy SC procedures. Big off maybe straightbt to SC.
The free pitsstops/pit open VSC is just there because the SC procedures take way too long especially at LM.
Surely it would be better to exclude cars damaged in FCY causing incident to be allowed to pit under FCY (minimum fuel only if also required). And also go back to green asap when they've pitted/passed pit entrance.
For Toyota (which did lift a bit early and had been moving alot down the main straight in prior laps) it was a FCY (temporary incident)- when it went into pits FCY stayed for another 3 mins or so -seems odd. (Minor debris)
Number 12 had big disadvantage following big off for BMW (99 Porsche faulty?) - went to VSC (allows two laps minimum with free pitstops!) before lengthy SC procedures. Big off maybe straightbt to SC.
The free pitsstops/pit open VSC is just there because the SC procedures take way too long especially at LM.
Surely it would be better to exclude cars damaged in FCY causing incident to be allowed to pit under FCY (minimum fuel only if also required). And also go back to green asap when they've pitted/passed pit entrance.
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