2012 FIA World Endurance Championship

2nd February 16h00: Thanks to Dunlop and lemans.org follow the press conference and the presentation of the 56 cars selected for the 80th Le Mans 24 Hours plus the entrants for the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship live.

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest has decided to boost its live broadcasts and official presentations, and it will once again set up a live streaming programme of its press conference on 2nd February 2012 in partnership with Dunlop.

Surfers the world over will be able to follow this private conference reserved for journalists live. It will also be attended by several manufacturers’ representatives including team managers and drivers.

What’s more, thanks to this system, endurance racing fans will be able discover by video live the entries for the FIA World Endurance Championship, which has already attracted a big field.

The deadline for entries was 18th January. Wednesday 25th January, the Selection Committee met to choose the entries from among the many information-packed forms sent to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s sports management department. After the choice has been made and the usual checks carried out the eagerly-awaited announcement will be made on Thursday 2nd February.

Just a little more patience. The suspense will reach its climax in a week’s time live on www.lemans.org with Dunlop!

http://www.lemans.org/live-streaming/press-conference/24-hours-of-le-mans-2012.html?utm_source=http://www.lemans.org/en/news/Discover_the_entrants_of_the_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans_and_the_WEC_2012_live_6084.html


UK time 2.50 PM cant wait, -

Dome are back with pesco
BMW privater entry for lemans and WEC maybe due to ltd factory support
36 - 38 cars for WEC
special mention of delta wing for le mans?

http://www.dailysportscar.com/viewArticle.cfm?articleUID=3B7DCE45-1143-FDC9-351D65487BC1873A

Thanks to daily sports car

AMR One may be back....under pesco wow

Provisional Full-Season Entry List:
http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/1/1/ressources/Pdf/2012/wec/FIA_World_Endurance_Championship_2012-Provisional_Full_Season_entry_List_310112.pdf

Audi will run the hybrids at Sebring!

Pescorolo in a dome chasis. Liked the Dome Car from 2008.

The Dome was pretty quick actually for a reasonably untested and did well at Le Mans in 08, so with Pesca backing and some decent development time i can see them doing rather well!

P1's going to be wierd with no factory Aston Martin and no Peugeot's!

Also what suprised me looking at the entry list, why are there 13 GT-Am cars and only 9 GT-Pro cars i think that's a big shame as the top GT class is normally where the best racing happens gutted there's no BMW's this year

I cannot fathom why Pescarolo would want to run the monstrosity that was the AMR-One. Oak is running an Oak Pescarolo, which presumably means there is a new 2011+ spec car, so why wouldn't Pescarolo himself run that?

Lots of Nissan's in P2, interesting to see no Level 5, but at least Starworks is there with an HPD.

GTE is very sad. Wish the ACO/FIA had done more to get some more factory teams interested. It would appear that the 458 has replaced the 911 as the car that is now standard for filling up grids.

I believe Henri Pescarolo said something to the effect of "there will be a lot of changes to the car." Think of it in the same light as the Deltawing being based around the AMR-One, except the modifications are a lot more obvious. Besides, AMR has to make SOME money back on that program.
I don't think there was a P1 Pescarolo (Oak or not) that ran with the shark fin last year. So this is the first time one's ran with it.

lol, I'm not expecting the Deltawing to be all that fast either.

Because the AMR-One was apparently a fantastic handling car it just had no straightline speed and too much drag, so if Henri can iron out some of those issues i'm sure it could be a decent car

Exactly Nick its a different power plant - Judd no stupid single turbo

They were saying on RLM that the AMR-One had shoddy CFD work and that its problems were more than just engine reliability. They cited a racecarengineering article or something, but I haven't had a chance to look for it. It was also very ugly, but in fairness, I'm mainly comparing it to the Lola Aston.

RLM confirmed last night Ant Davidson for Toyota

Hope he gets Nakajima's seat in the first car.

New rule announced, worst 2 results don't count towards the championship. Stupid rule in my opinion.

Reason for the new rule is because Toyota (the only other works team) can't make Sebring. So it would give Audi an unfair advantage in the series.
As the Championship requires there to be two manufacturers active in it the this was the only way to ensure Toyota's support in difficult circumstances. They could well have said sod it we're only doing the races we set out to do and no more but they've decided to back the series which is great.
Remember the team that demanded this series even exist chose to withdraw which potentially put the WEC at risk before it even began. It shows what good sports Audi are that they've not challenged the changes.

FIA bull all over this now, but hey got to keep the manufactures happy lol

It's not 'bull', it makes perfect sense. Without the backing of Toyota the series would have been in dire straights before it even began.
The FIA/ACO are simply accommodating them and ensuring the future of the series. You might find that rule disappearing next year...

LOL

So why not open it up to privateer entrys? would of made more sense but no should be sorted out next season.

Plus its only for P1 manufacture entrys.

Matt it would not of been in dire straights without Toyota backing, Porsche are back in 2014 and there is no bigger manufacture at Le Mans than Porsche, Jag (still working on P1), Nissan, Honda .....

But any 1 way roll on Sebring

If Toyota had not entered as a full season entrant, then there could be no World Championship, since there would be only one constructor. For there to be an FIA world title, there has to be at least 2.

The reason that they can't open it up to the privateers and count Honda as a manufacturer or something is because the entry fee per car to register for the championship is like 300k euros. I don't see Strakka, JRM, or Honda coming up with that.

Peugeot dropping out screwed the ACO, because they either had to get Toyota on board full time, as they have, or they would have had to refund Audi their entry fee because they couldn't have awarded them a World Championship at the end of the year when they had no competition.

THE SOUND

I genuinely cant wait for AMR vs Corvette Racing pt 2!