WEC Announces 2018-19 Super Season Calendar and Teams

RaceFuchs
So they changed the Fuji date only for Toyota and Alonso? And the other 9-10 drivers that wanted to compete at Petit Le Mans need to change plans now? Kinda crazy...
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20054
 
I have a feeling they may be overly ambitious when it comes to the effect Alonso will have outside of Le Mans. By the time Fuji rolls around he will have already done 4 races with the team including Le Mans so the novelty will probably be gone by than. I also don't know how many more butts will be in seats to watch him sit in the pits for 2/3 of the race.
 
I saw a tweet from someone pointing out that the new date also clashes with SuperGT. Sure enough the Autopolis round is scheduled for the same weekend and both Kobayashi and Nakajima drive for Lexus in SuperGT and Toyota in WEC. Granted the two locations aren't that far apart (about 1000km) and they could just ferry both via helicopter as long as the race times work out, but it will certainly be a nightmare logistics wise not to mention extremely taxing on both drivers.
 
05XR8
Awesome to see Matt Campbell racing with Dempsey-Proton in the RSR GTE Am.
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Yes, great news. I'm going to have to pay attention to the whole season and not just Le Mans this year. :lol:
 
That line-up is impressive, I'm excited for Le Mans 2018!

In the LMP1 field sure Toyota is the big favorite and they will most likely tune down their TS050 a bit towards reliability instead of performance. But they only run 2 cars again and so much can happen in 24 hours so that title is not yet secured! There are after all a lot of LMP1 cars on the field even though they are not hybrids, if Toyota has some troubles with their duo they will sure give them a run for their money. And the competition between all these new LMP1-L teams will be interesting as well. Ooh and then there is Alonso, good times!

I'm not too familiar with the LMP2 field but it seems Dallara is joining the Ligier & Oreca crowd, will be interested to see how they do.

The GTE Pro was massively exciting last year until the last lap so excited for sure! And I'm curious to see how the new BMW M8 GTE will be doing as well as the (finally!) new Aston Martin.
 
breyzipp
That line-up is impressive, I'm excited for Le Mans 2018!

In the LMP1 field sure Toyota is the big favorite and they will most likely tune down their TS050 a bit towards reliability instead of performance. But they only run 2 cars again and so much can happen in 24 hours so that title is not yet secured! There are after all a lot of LMP1 cars on the field even though they are not hybrids, if Toyota has some troubles with their duo they will sure give them a run for their money. And the competition between all these new LMP1-L teams will be interesting as well. Ooh and then there is Alonso, good times!

I'm not too familiar with the LMP2 field but it seems Dallara is joining the Ligier & Oreca crowd, will be interested to see how they do.

The GTE Pro was massively exciting last year until the last lap so excited for sure! And I'm curious to see how the new BMW M8 GTE will be doing as well as the (finally!) new Aston Martin.
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I wouldn't detune the car at all if I was Toyota. I'd prefer to have the fastest car on the grid that can pull around a lap an hour ahead of the competition because at least then if you do have any niggling faults they can be overcome by sheer pace.
 
I think it is not that easy as it seems for Toyota. They (ACO) have cut their range even more - Toyota will only have 35,2 kg of fuel allowed per stint compared to 44,1 kg last season. Conventional cars are allowed 53kg of fuel. AutoMotorSport estimated roughly 20 km/h top speed difference - in favor of the non-hybrid cars because they don't need to save fuel.

Anyway, excited for LeMans. I'm a big fan of Alonso and Lotterer, so I'd be happy to see them fight for the win.
 
Northstar
I saw a tweet from someone pointing out that the new date also clashes with SuperGT. Sure enough the Autopolis round is scheduled for the same weekend and both Kobayashi and Nakajima drive for Lexus in SuperGT and Toyota in WEC. Granted the two locations aren't that far apart (about 1000km) and they could just ferry both via helicopter as long as the race times work out, but it will certainly be a nightmare logistics wise not to mention extremely taxing on both drivers.
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The Super GT round is being moved back to its original date a week later.

psychoazubi
I think it is not that easy as it seems for Toyota. They (ACO) have cut their range even more - Toyota will only have 35,2 kg of fuel allowed per stint compared to 44,1 kg last season. Conventional cars are allowed 53kg of fuel. AutoMotorSport estimated roughly 20 km/h top speed difference - in favor of the non-hybrid cars because they don't need to save fuel.

Anyway, excited for LeMans. I'm a big fan of Alonso and Lotterer, so I'd be happy to see them fight for the win.
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The privateer cars also have much greater fuel flow compared to last year, so will be producing a good 700-750bhp.

https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/134262/rules-breaks-a-decent-favour-for-toyota-rivals
 
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