WEC 2015 gets off to a flying start!

MotorsportCalendar.com were able to soak up all the scintillating atmosphere served up at Silverstone.  We attended all three days enabling us to take in all 3 championships.

The weather conditions were kind, if a little blustery and chilly.  But they were far, far better than the previous two seasons where races were either red flagged or ended under the safety car due to heavy rain.

On the Friday we managed to catch all of the Free Practice sessions of the WEC and ELMS championships.  Of note there were the new LMP3 cars making their first public showing at a race weekend.  Ginetta had supplied all of the LMP3 cars (Ginetta-Juno chassis with a Nissan engine).  In the first FP session they gingerly tip toed around the circuit getting in some needed running.  In FP2 they started to stretch their legs and make use of the rev range available.  They just got better, quicker and more assured as the weekend went on.  They looked great and sounded better!  As usual, or so it seems, a few ELMS stalwarts took to the track, the Krohn racing entry, TDS by Thiriet entry and Murphy Prototypes entry. The Krohn car looked stunning - they have usually run in GTs but this year have stepped up to an LMP2 closed car, which looked sensational in the Krohn green.  All three of these cars looked good on track and purposeful.

The WEC cars took to the track and we got to see how the updated Audi and Porsche entries would perform in racing trim.  All of the factory LMP1 cars looked quick and determined.  The ByKolles car seemed slightly delicate and unsure of itself, often circulating at times more befitting of the quicker LMP2 cars.  In the LMP2 cars there was a good mix of open and closed cars, although of course the open cars are soon to be out-of-date and no longer eligible.  They all looked good, although the French Air Traffic Controllers Strike did lead to some issues with drivers not being able to get to the UK on time!

In GTs, the Pro and Am cars mixed things up and it was good to see a Corvette mixing it up with the Astons, Porsches and Ferraris.  The Astons sounded great and the Corvette added a further, welcome, baritone rumbling to the proceedings.  The Am Porsche entries seemed to struggle for pace and maybe set up hurt them.

For all of Friday most of the cars just seemed to be running their programme.  They all seemed to be circulating at their own pace and almost independent of each other.  Porsche kept on topping the time sheets and you felt that they were confirming their one lap pace which is certain to keep them near the front in Qualifying.

On Saturday there was the final FP session for the WEC and then ELMS Qualifying, WEC Qualifying and then the ELMS 4 hour race to finish off with along with a sprinkling of 2 International F3 races.  The teams were obviously getting in to their respective grooves and circulating ever faster. As with last year (although thankfully simplified) the WEC qualifying sessions split between the LMP cars and GT cars and that two drivers' fastest laps would be taken in to consideration.  The sessions were fairly short bearing in mind out laps, flying laps and in laps (double) for two drivers having to be figured..  Phew!  but at least it was less mind boggling than last year with the two best laps from two drivers being used..!!!  Porsche put their stamp on qualifying and looked super quick.

The ELMS race was great!  Lots of overtaking and the new (really, really new!) LMP3 cars ran well.

The F3 races were superb - helped with a dollop of rain just before the first race, the drivers had to contend with this..  They ran around behind the SC for a couple of laps before they were let off the leash and then promptly skidded and slithered to a bit of a halt.  Cue another SC period, gathering up of the carnage, all calm and collected and then wham!  More carnage although a little less dramatic..  A slightly depleted field ran to the flag.  Race 2 would be mixed up in terms of grid slots and so this served up quite an interesting race again, with some hard charging drivers carving their way through the field.

As we're part of the Brabham Project, we met up with David Brabham and various members of the Brabham Racing Team.  This was a bit of an informal meet and greet, but it did allow the team members to connect directly and in person with those who had supplied some of the kickstarter funding.

On Sunday we caught the F3 race in the morning - but it was bitterly cold and very windy (at Silverstone!!).  There was quite a bit of good racing and we caught the action as the cars entered the final corner.  It was interesting to see them coming off the previous corner and see who was able to get a good entry and exit from there and then take advantage in to the last corner.  Some of the overtaking moves were a little on the ambitious side!!

In terms of WEC, we had tickets to the pit lane and so queued up.  We got to see and meet a few of the drivers, although as per last year a few were harder to meet than others!!  At this point (due to the short sightedness of the Wing layout and access) you would have used a bus to get to the outside grandstand of the circuit opposite the Wing, well certainly you would have last year...  The organisers took an excellent decision to allow spectators to make their way across the circuit or stay inside the circuit.  This helped to get people to where they wanted to be and showed some joined up thinking.  :)  Garage 40 also housed two examples of the Nissan LMP1 cars, although they wouldn't be taking place over the weekend.  The new Nissan LMP1 cars are not due on track in the WEC until the Le Mans Test Day.

The interest and expectation before the race was very tangible.  Would Porsche be quick?  Were they hampered by the shortness of the circuit or would 8MJ prove to be too much power (if there is such a thing??!?)?  Had Audi made enough of a step up moving to 4MJ?  They were ultra conservative last year, but of course triumphed in the jewel in the crown race at La Sarthe.  Toyota had re-jigged their driver line-up with Kaz Nakajima moving the the number 1 car.  They had stuck with their Super Capacitor solution and were now the defending champions..  They seemed to get their tyres wrong last season, would they be left wanting again?

The race was amazing.  Superbly poised and ultimately very satisfying to watch, whoever you supported out of the 3 manufacturers taking part.  Mark Webber in the 17 Porsche drove an almost unbelievably quick first stint until a terminal drive train issue halted their race.  There then ensued a battle royale between the number 18 Porsche and one of the Audis.  They traded places at almost every corner for an astounding number of laps.  It was a real treat which kept everyone at the circuit on the edge of their seats.  The Audi eventually made a really intelligent pass on the lone Porsche and then managed to just eke out enough of a gap to allow it to run at it's own natural pace.  There were a lot of finishing cars and even though the top three were split by around 10 seconds it was an exciting endurance race and testament to the quality and expertise being employed here.

Overall it was a great weekend.  The village/fan zone part of the set up maintained and improved on previous years.  The WEC itself was well promoted and a number of free areas and items were on offer.  There seemed to be more food stalls open and more choice.  More things to do and see and the Wing was also partly open and helped when the wind conspired to dampen spirits.  It helped that the racing was superb and of a really high quality and it also helped that the weather was eminently better than it has been for the previous two years.

Make no mistake this year's Le Mans 24 hour race is going to be one of titanic proportions.  The quality of the teams, the quality of the drivers and the engineering decisions that have been made all seem to have aligned themselves in perfect harmony.

The first 2015 Dates have now been added to the Motorsport Calendar App

From today the F1 and WEC dates have been added to the App.

Rest assured we will continue to add dates for the current series' we cover and add more as and when we can.

We are looking into synchronising the dates with the Calendar on your devices.  This should come in 2015.

WEC 2014, 1st round, Silverstone

A great weekend of racing!

Friday's conditions were dry but chilly.  Track action comprised International F3, ELMS and WEC free practice sessions.

As ever the radio le mans team were on hand to give information and interviews with the drivers and team personnel.

The LMP1 cars were quick, phenomenally quick on both entry and exit of corners.  The main LMP1 manufacturer teams traded times as each one went through their testing programmes.  FP1 and FP2 allowed the teams to run through their programmes and ensure that drivers got enough time in the cars.  The 3 manufacturer teams were obviously watching each other and interested in the relative performance of their competitors.  Initially the teams were all running line astern, two by two.  The LMP1 teams had a few driver changes over the closed season and of course Porsche had re-entered the LMP1 fray.  Rebellion had a largely unchanged driver line up, but were using their old car due to delays with their new car.  It's hoped that both of the new cars will be racing at Spa, which is the next round of the WEC for 2014.

The Toyotas looked strong and quick and seemed to have a real urgency about them.  The cars look purposeful.  The LMP1 Porsches looked purposeful and almost as quick as the Toyotas.  The Audis are always impressive, but seemed to lack the edge of the other two manufacturers.  It's thought that Audi may well have made an incorrect selection on the combination of Hybrid Power vs. Traditional Power that they have chosen for their car.  Of course it's still very early in the season, the cars have had a lot of changes, both in terms of power plant and deploying the hybrid power, so only time will tell and that time may well only be 6 or 8 hours into the 24 hours itself.  You can't discount Audi, especially with 3 entries, but Toyota seem to be determined.  Porsche will probably be happy with completing the 24 hour race, to gain as much current information as possible about their package.

There were a number of interesting things to do in the Fan Zone.  The WEC had an area where race attendees could drive 3 laps of Silverstone.  Popbangcolour was completing an installation, quality as always and also interested in talking to fans.  The accessibility is something that the WEC has really done well.  Unfortunately the same can't be said of Timing - the WEC have locked down the timing data and either you have to pay for access to the information and also get a little information from a free App (Android and iOS).

Qualifying saw the number 7 Toyota take Pole Position.  The makes were evenly mixed up, with Audi in 2nd and Porsche in 3rd.

Race day, it was going to be cold, overcast and there was always a threat of rain.  The main question would be how much, when and for how long...  Audi certainly employ one of the best firms to supply a weather prediction service, would that make the difference for them?  Of course the main thing is to look at the circuit conditions you are actually racing in, you can't second guess the weather.

There was an opportunity to meet and greet a lot of the drivers at 10 am on Sunday.  The pitlane walk was busy.  There were two long queues snaking back from the top and bottom entrances to the pits..  We managed to get close to most of the cars and drivers, but the Porsche LMP1 drivers and cars were mostly impossible to gain access to.  In fact at one point the crowd passing the Porsche garages were at a standstill, literally no one could move!!  The Porsche team created a real buzz about the race and interest.

The race started at 12:00, prompt.  The Audis pushed the Toyotas, with the Porsches taking up a grandstand seat behind those 4 ahead of them and looked to ensure that they completed the 6 hours race with as much data as possible.  Audi and Toyota both seemed determined to stamp their authority on the 2014 WEC, neither giving an inch.  The two Rebellions ran together and unfortunately looked slow (comparatively).  LMP2 seemed to lack a real edge to it, which was a shame, they mostly ran around anonymously.  GT Pro and GT Am generated some great battles and there was a real ebb and flow to them.  Initially Ginmaria Bruni led the two factory Porsches, but eventually both Porsches found their way past the Ferrari and started to pull away from it.  Back in Am, the battle was more evenly spread between the manufacturers, with Aston looking quite decent, but also Ferrari and Porsche featuring.

The Astons didn't perform well and much of the 5mm ride height increase was made, but we're led to believe that the Astons were also quite detuned over the weekend, so maybe a certain amount of brinkmanship is being played out, to ensure that they can surprise their competitors when they get to Le Mans in June...

The race seemed to settle down into a rhythm in the first hour, but as the rain started to fall quite a few events suddenly meant that the Audis lost their lead, in quite dramatic fashion, at what was the penultimate corner before the circuit was reconfigured.  The number 1 Audi had a fairly big shunt and as most teams will tell you if the conditions are wet the cars don't lose much speed before impacts and they can be quite heavy.  The car was removed and got back to the pits, but the car was retired due to the damage suffered.  The lead running Porsche also suffered an odd issue where it seemed to lose one of it's wheels and had to limp back to the pits.  This car was eventually retired.  Later on in the race the number 2 Audi had a similar incident to the number 1 Audi and was also retired.  This is the first double non finish for Audi since 2011.  The Toyotas briefly fought each other for the lead of the race, whilst the sole remaining Porsche tried to get on level terms with the Toyotas, but it was never quite on the same pace.  The single remaining Rebellion LMP1 managed to hold on to 4th and the top ten was rounded of by a number of the GT runners, the LMP2 cars seemed to quietly fall away from the race and also suffered when running in traffic.

The rain started to fall quite heavily with about 1 1/2 hours left to go...  With about 45 minutes left to run the Safety Car (SC) was deployed, but the rain got heavier and heavier with the race eventually being red flagged.  Toyota triumphed with a 1-2 and Porsche posted a 3rd place finish in their first WEC race of 2014.  Both teams will be happy to have completed the races, gaining lots of data that they can use to further understand their packages and hopefully improve their setups.

Toyota looked dominant.  Audi seemed flustered.  Porsche quietly studious.  The 2014 WEC got off to an excellent start!

Le Mans Live Timing Android App has been succesfully launched!

Just in time for this years race, Torque Soft are proud to announce that they have launched an eagerly anticipated and much requested App, a Live Timing one.  It was Beta tested over the Test Day weekend 2 weeks ago.  Some fine tuning and tweaks were made and now it's ready for public consumption.  It has been launched on Google Play and the Amazon App Store.  It should launch on Slideme.org once they've completed their approval process.

:)

More updates to come from trackside, once we're at La Sarthe.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=torquesoft.lemanslivetiming

Enjoy!

Monaco

Thoughts from FP1 and FP2... We were seated at the grandstand at Casino.

Both Saubers were always out on track first. The RBRs are unbeatable around that twisty part of the circuit, although that's obviously not the case elsewhere. Mercedes are obviously able to do stunningly quick laptimes. With Alonso tracking just behind them... It Raikkonen as though Alonso was lining up his race strategy for both sessions.. Raikkonen also, but not quite as close.

On Super Softs, whilst on long runs the Mercs were slow.. on Softs they were quite quick. The Ferrari looked quick on both and Raikkonen was super quick on Softs. These were whilst doing long runs.
I think the difference between Mercs and Lotus was a second or even two seconds a lap..!

Alonso seems to be working out how to get his best grid slot possible, whilst having a lot of focus on race pace.. He must be thinking about making up one grid slot place in the race and looking to nick another if the opportunity arises. Q3 is going to be highly entertaining!

Le Mans 24hrs App updated for 2013

Our popular Le Mans App for the 24 hour race at La Sarthe has been updated for 2013.  This includes all Runners and Riders (some still TBC) and photos of the cars who entered the Silverstone round of the WEC.  The remaining details will be updated before and just after the Official Le Mans test day, capturing all of the missing photos.

It's the 90th Anniversary of the 1st ever race at La Sarthe.  Whilst the Toyota challenge looks to be a little muted at the moment, you can be sure that the inter-team rivalry at Audi will keep things interesting.  The number one and number two cars both really want the win.

In LMP2 there is a dazzling array of machinery and a number of entries, so the action should last for the whole weekend.

GT (Pro and Am) sees the return of the Vipers!  All of the manufacturers seem to have upped their commitment here.  For us the Aston Martin team look the strongest, but you never know...!

The Motorsport Calendar Team are off to Monaco this weekend to partake of the F1 race there!  :)

Start to the 2013 Sportscar season

The Motorsport Calendar team made the trip to Silverstone over the weekend, to see the ELMS and 1st round of the 2013 WEC Championship.  In addition to this, there were two races for the 2013 Euro F3 Championship.

Friday, mainly for Testing and Qualifying (Euro F3 only), was a little wet and windy, as Silverstone always can be!!  The newer International Pits were used by the WEC cars, with the ELMS and F3 teams based in the National Pits.  However it should be noted that the Start - Finish line for all of the races was in fact on the International Pits straight.  There was a lot of action on the track and so it was quite an interesting day, all cars took the track apart from the (only) new Aston Martin, number 97, due to some sensor settings indicating an engine issue, which meant that it had to be changed.  The LMP1 cars looked imperious on track, quick and purposeful.  Of note, the new Porsche cars looked good, but were actually a little slow overall.  The Astons looked quick, mighty quick.  We also noted that the Rebellion cars looked and sounded awesome, with the G Drive cars also looking like they were going quicker than they should have been.  The WEC cars were the last session on the track and after a short downpour all of the cars returned to the Pits.  We took the tactical decision to go back home then, as it was felt that with about 20 minutes left, it was unlikely that too many cars were going to return to the action and even then, wouldn't improve.

The whole circuit was busy, with a single decker bus running from the rear of the International Pits up to the National Pits Scrutineering area, just inside Copse.  This was handy, as access to the rear of the International Pits is a bit limited and quite a trek.  Why didn't they build a pedestrian tunnel or bridge from the outside to the inside of the track, when constructing the International Pits complex?  Surely a big oversight.  To the rear of the Pits, there was of course the Paddock area, which was open to all and a FanZone, which whilst a little underwhelming was a welcome area for those with young children.

Saturday, the WEC cars took to the track first and the Motorsport Calendar team were able to get some good photos for their Le Mans App, which is in the process of being updated.  The cars all used the circuit to good effect, whilst it was dry and pumped in a good number of dry laps.  The F3 races were interesting to see, with some good battles and a little sprinkling of rain to spice things up!  Josh Hill had a disappointing race, posting a DNF.  The 3hr ELMS race was an entertaining one, again the elements helped in making things a little more interesting.  Brendan Hartley drove an excellent first stint, but then wasted all that good work and effort by visiting the kitty litter.  There were a number of changes at the front of the race while drivers attempted to gain an advantage over their rivals, but in the end those that exercised a little caution in the conditions managed to prosper.  Whilst the rain came and went and came back again (and again!) the amount of rain wasn't particularly of note, but the track surface just never fully dried out.  A Safety Car session then meant that the racecars weren't clearing the track of water and so it just kept on being wet and slippery.  The race was eventually allowed to run, under the Safety Car to 75% and then halted by the Race Director.

Sunday, the WEC 6hrs race was an entertaining one, especially in the final few laps.  The Number 2 Audi being driven by Alan McNish overhauled the Number 1 car and won.  Admittedly whilst it looked very impressive, the Number 1 car had, had a front drive issue, which meant that the supplemental Hybrid Power didn't work.  Toyota completed the podium.  The Astons took a clean sweep of the GT classes, winning both Pro and Am classes.  In LMP2 the G Drive car of Tor Graves, Pizzonia and Walker took the top step of the podium.

Alledgedly the Toyota cars (2012) made the wrong Tyre selection, which hampered their race pace early on.  The Audis were incorrectly set up, so used a lot more fuel than they should have and were slowed down.  The 2013 Toyotas will be much more tightly focussed in their design, as the 2012 cars were designed to accept Hybrid power being delivered to the front or rear wheels.  The 2013 car only puts the extra power generated by the hybrid system to the rear wheels.

As ever the Radio Le Mans team gave excellent coverage and banter, keeping the spectator updated and informed of what was occurring and why.  They were joined by some guest commentators who took over the reins during the F3, single seater, races.

Spa next and of course the Le Mans 24hrs to look forward to!  The Motorsport Calendar team will be attending the race at La Sarthe.