World Endurance Championship 2015

Please discuss here all your remarks and pose your questions about all racing series, except Formula One. Both technical and other questions about GP2, Touring cars, IRL, LMS, ...
Just_a_fan
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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Artur Craft wrote: Concerning Pirelli, everytime they were in tyre wars, they were trashed by Michelin, GoodYear... And their street tyres, usually, don't do well on reviews.
Tyres that will handle off road conditions as well as having good on road manners aren't that common. Continental's SUV tyres have been known to wear out the outer shoulders quite quickly on one particular vehicle, for example. They're also not that great off road. The Pirelli Scorpion ATR is well regarded in the UK for being tough in off road conditions but still a decent road tyre too. The competition from Michelin, Continental etc. can't say the same. As I said before - buy the tyres that give the best performance for your needs. In my case that will be the Pirelli. I might buy a set of Goodyear Duratrac tyres too for more serious off road and winter use because in the UK we get lots of mud off road in winter and the Duratrac will handle that better than any other tyre in the size range available to me. The Pirelli, like most all-terrain tyres, isn't that good in mud but is good everywhere else.

Anyway, I'm aware that this is off topic so will desist henceforth. :)
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Tim.Wright
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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djos wrote:
It's really simple, Pirelli tires in F1 leave me with a "bad taste in my mouth" so I automatically exclude them when shopping for new tires.
C'mon, you have got to be kidding...
Not the engineer at Force India

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djos
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World Endurance Championship 2015

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Tim.Wright wrote:
djos wrote:
It's really simple, Pirelli tires in F1 leave me with a "bad taste in my mouth" so I automatically exclude them when shopping for new tires.
C'mon, you have got to be kidding...
Quite serious, they didn't have to make tires that degrade the way they do. I'd buy Michelin over Pirelli every time because they strive for excellence in WEC and did the same when they were in F1.

If Pirelli where a better tire maker they'd make tires that last for 1/3rd the race but could still be driven hard on for the entire stint.
"In downforce we trust"

markp
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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djos wrote:
Tim.Wright wrote:
djos wrote:
It's really simple, Pirelli tires in F1 leave me with a "bad taste in my mouth" so I automatically exclude them when shopping for new tires.
C'mon, you have got to be kidding...
Quite serious, they didn't have to make tires that degrade the way they do. I'd buy Michelin over Pirelli every time because they strive for excellence in WEC and did the same when they were in F1.

If Pirelli where a better tire maker they'd make tires that last for 1/3rd the race but could still be driven hard on for the entire stint.
Awesome...whats the way to do that? If they last a stint teams will drive slower to make them last longer so they can last longer and make 1 stop less. 2 stops instead of 3 in your idea. Basically unless they are like Bridgestone 2010 and last a race teams will not push flat out. In years past they did not need to due to refuelling but then we ended up with everyone seconds apart. Please do not drive your Michelin shod road car on the last turn of the Indy road coarse final corner. Pirelli are doing what has been asked of them if they wete told to just make tyres that can be pushed I am sure they can manage it. Exyreme road cars of the moment P1, La Ferrari etc use Pirelli so might handle your roadcar also.

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djos
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markp wrote: Awesome...whats the way to do that? If they last a stint teams will drive slower to make them last longer so they can last longer and make 1 stop less. 2 stops instead of 3 in your idea. Basically unless they are like Bridgestone 2010 and last a race teams will not push flat out. In years past they did not need to due to refuelling but then we ended up with everyone seconds apart. Please do not drive your Michelin shod road car on the last turn of the Indy road coarse final corner. Pirelli are doing what has been asked of them if they wete told to just make tyres that can be pushed I am sure they can manage it. Exyreme road cars of the moment P1, La Ferrari etc use Pirelli so might handle your roadcar also.
Back when F1 had Bridgestone's most races where flat out sprints, just like LMP1 is on the Michelin tires.

The fact remains tho, participating in Motorsports is supposed to enhance a companies image (see Bridgestone, Michelin, Continental, Firestone etc), to many hardcore F1 fans Pirelli now has a seriously tarnished image.
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J.A.W.
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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Yeah, & a similar situation seemingly applies in WSBK for Pirelli too..

The price to be paid by using dumbed down/cheapo "spec" series-type rubber - in "glamour" events?
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Cold Fussion
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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djos wrote:
markp wrote: Awesome...whats the way to do that? If they last a stint teams will drive slower to make them last longer so they can last longer and make 1 stop less. 2 stops instead of 3 in your idea. Basically unless they are like Bridgestone 2010 and last a race teams will not push flat out. In years past they did not need to due to refuelling but then we ended up with everyone seconds apart. Please do not drive your Michelin shod road car on the last turn of the Indy road coarse final corner. Pirelli are doing what has been asked of them if they wete told to just make tyres that can be pushed I am sure they can manage it. Exyreme road cars of the moment P1, La Ferrari etc use Pirelli so might handle your roadcar also.
Back when F1 had Bridgestone's most races where flat out sprints, just like LMP1 is on the Michelin tires.
That's viewed with some very rose tinted glasses. On the Bridgestone spec tyres, the pace would be set by the leading car with all others following until they were able to push or a lap or two when space opened up as a result of the different refueling strategies. 2007-2010 will forever be remembered for producing some mind numbingly boring races.

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djos
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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Cold Fussion wrote: That's viewed with some very rose tinted glasses. On the Bridgestone spec tyres, the pace would be set by the leading car with all others following until they were able to push or a lap or two when space opened up as a result of the different refueling strategies. 2007-2010 will forever be remembered for producing some mind numbingly boring races.
Because tip-toeing around on needlessly fragile tires has been really exciting? Melbourne this year was run at a pace ~1.5 seconds per lap slower than in 2014, how is that exciting?
"In downforce we trust"

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hollus
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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You mean Melbourne 2015 was about 1.5 seconds per lap faster than Melbourne 2014?
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/03/16/2 ... test-laps/
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/03/15/c ... an-anyone/
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Tim.Wright
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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djos wrote:
Tim.Wright wrote:
djos wrote:
It's really simple, Pirelli tires in F1 leave me with a "bad taste in my mouth" so I automatically exclude them when shopping for new tires.
C'mon, you have got to be kidding...
Quite serious, they didn't have to make tires that degrade the way they do. I'd buy Michelin over Pirelli every time because they strive for excellence in WEC and did the same when they were in F1.
That is ignorance/naivety in the extreme. Anyone who thinks any road going product has anything to do with the companies race products have simply fallen for the good old "race technology feeds down to road cars" marketing BS.

Honestly, the number of non-gimmik systems on road cars today that have a genuine root in motorsports can be counted on one hand.

WEC is the perfect example of this. The endurance rules allow diesels and hybrids because the manufacturers already had this stuff in their road cars and they wanted a marketing link back to motorsport. The actual flow of technology is currently from the road to the racetrack - not the other way around like the marketing would have you believe.

But it seems that their marketing efforts are quite successful are you have demonstrated.
Not the engineer at Force India

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AnthonyG
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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Pirelli tires do have a tendancy to go off faster than others in my experience.
Michelins, the ps-stuff might be great, but I'm not a big fan of the grip of their other tyres. They do last a very long time normaly.
The RFT Beidgestones I now have are about the best tire I've driven so far, stiff and grippy withquite a sudden transition between grip and no-grip.

So somehow, road use has some resemblance to raceperformance.
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Jonnycraig
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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djos wrote:
Tim.Wright wrote:
djos wrote:
It's really simple, Pirelli tires in F1 leave me with a "bad taste in my mouth" so I automatically exclude them when shopping for new tires.
C'mon, you have got to be kidding...
Quite serious, they didn't have to make tires that degrade the way they do. I'd buy Michelin over Pirelli every time because they strive for excellence in WEC and did the same when they were in F1.

If Pirelli where a better tire maker they'd make tires that last for 1/3rd the race but could still be driven hard on for the entire stint.
At the risk of dumbing down too much for you, Pirelli came into the sport with a statute from the teams & FOM to provide tyres that fell apart like Canada 2010. The teams & FOM want tyres that provide an engineering challenge and produce unpredictability. Pirelli provided that.

Pirelli are only still the tyre manufacturer for F1 because they provide tyres that the teams & FOM want.

Pirelli can and would happily provide tyres that could be pushed flat out for an entire F1 distance without the need for any pitstops, but those who actually have a say in the matter dont want that.

On a sidenote, if Pirelli provided the tyres you requested that could be driven for a flat out 3 stopper, teams would still try and eke them out for a two stop race :wink:

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Tim.Wright
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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AnthonyG wrote:So somehow, road use has some resemblance to raceperformance.
I think its a big mistake to imply any direct relationship behind this trend.

Or in fact any trend where you don't know the inner workings of it:
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FW17
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Re: World Endurance Championship 2015

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Cold Fussion wrote:
djos wrote:
markp wrote: Awesome...whats the way to do that? If they last a stint teams will drive slower to make them last longer so they can last longer and make 1 stop less. 2 stops instead of 3 in your idea. Basically unless they are like Bridgestone 2010 and last a race teams will not push flat out. In years past they did not need to due to refuelling but then we ended up with everyone seconds apart. Please do not drive your Michelin shod road car on the last turn of the Indy road coarse final corner. Pirelli are doing what has been asked of them if they wete told to just make tyres that can be pushed I am sure they can manage it. Exyreme road cars of the moment P1, La Ferrari etc use Pirelli so might handle your roadcar also.
Back when F1 had Bridgestone's most races where flat out sprints, just like LMP1 is on the Michelin tires.
That's viewed with some very rose tinted glasses. On the Bridgestone spec tyres, the pace would be set by the leading car with all others following until they were able to push or a lap or two when space opened up as a result of the different refueling strategies. 2007-2010 will forever be remembered for producing some mind numbingly boring races.
But we knew that the drivers were on the limit so even though it was mind numbingly boring, it was spectacular.

DRS with refueling would have been good, but DRS with bad tyres are not so good. (I am always for refueling)

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FW17
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markp wrote: Pirelli are doing what has been asked of them if they wete told to

I wouldn't jump off a cliff even if my contract asked me to