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View Full Version : Le Mans 2016 (And general WEC talk)



XHawkeye
November 28th, 2015, 05:21 PM
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CU7N89AWUAEPO_n.jpg:large

New Audi LMP1 1)shaped RWEP 2)V Low deck height (https://twitter.com/ScarbsF1/status/670699851257094144) 3)raised nose tip/vane 4)undercut inner arches 5)fenced upper arches

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CU7RTkNVAAAr06v.jpg:large

A direct side by side comparison (https://twitter.com/BaronVonClutch/status/670703590508376064) between the 2016 & 2015 @Audi__Sport R18s: @RacecarEngineer @radiolemans @FIAWEC

2ndMoparMan
November 28th, 2015, 07:11 PM
Dare I say that the Daytona prototypes look better now? Scary. I'm sure it'll be fast, but god damn...

Kchrpm
November 29th, 2015, 05:26 AM
I'm more worried that it's being introduced by a Hitman.

Godson
November 29th, 2015, 10:24 AM
Wow. Audi knows how to make an ugly car.

Alan P
November 29th, 2015, 11:11 AM
Interesting that they've obviously taken a much closer look at the rule book after Nissans radical approach. Much more sculpted look than the previous car and a high nose for frontal area and downforce. As above though, it's hardly beautiful!

Rare White Ape
November 30th, 2015, 05:31 AM
Sometimes I am a very staunch supporter of purposefulness coming before looks.

Sometimes.

This is not one of those times.

The359
December 22nd, 2015, 02:18 PM
So, the Nissan LMP1 program is dead. After the cut back to Nissan North America's motorsports programs, I guess all this money is going to fund Renault's new F1 program?

Shame we never had the opportunity to see if the concept would work.

Freude am Fahren
December 22nd, 2015, 03:53 PM
I saw all the news about pulling out of WEC, but no mention of Le Mans 2016, so I just assumed they'd be doing the same thing as 2015. Then I saw they fired everyone in an email, after that press release, 3 days before Christmas :(

Really is a shame, but I guess they just couldn't make it work and the suits had had enough of the hemorrhaging.

Rare White Ape
December 24th, 2015, 04:21 AM
Bleeding money probably wasn't the problem. Bleeding money with their name on a weird car would've been the culprit.

I'm guessing and hoping that Nissan fields a semi-factory LMP2 class team next year (as far as LMP2 rules allow a factory-backed team to run) to leverage the engine that they provide which seems to do all the winning in that class.

To do well in LMP1 they'd have to go hard or go home, which means using F1 resources to develop the program. It's big business and lots of risk. They could almost do what BMW did when they hired Williams to make a car, by hiring the Renault F1 team to make their car and contract an experienced team to run it. But one activity takes focus and talent and resources away from the other, so it won't happen in a million years.

This leads me on a train of thought; how do Audi and Porsche do it? They're both owned by the same parent company, yet they compete with each other and they've got fifty bazillion outright Le Mans trophies between them what the fuck. The might of Toyota is not even a blip on their radar.

The359
December 24th, 2015, 09:19 AM
The hybrid drivetrain from the second-generation car they were developing was supposed to be coming from Renault F1.