2012 FIA World Endurance Championship

Have Audi confirmed they will be running this year? If not, then maybe a 2nd japanese victory at Le Mans this year?

nickyf1 wrote:That's fantastic for you guys, but what does it have to do with WEC?

oops wrong thread
happens to the best of us

F4H Bullet wrote:Have Audi confirmed they will be running this year? If not, then maybe a 2nd japanese victory at Le Mans this year?

jap cars will break

Can't believe Peugeot dropped out.

The Toyota on the other hand looks like the R18 and the 908 pooped out a baby. Hope its a fast as it looks.

I think Audi will race and try take a 1,2,3 at le mans again

Gonna be interesting to see if some other team can rise up to challenge in peugeot's place. I don't think it will be toyota simply because it's their first year.

And the Aston just aint quick enough.

Well, it's not going to be ''interesting to see'', Peugeot will simply be absent. If a team were to rise up and challenge simply because Peugeot have left, then why haven't they risen up already? And why can't they rise up regardless of where Peugeot are?

I think Honda would have been very near the pace last year had Highcroft made it to Le Mans, and I really hope Strakka and JRM will be near the front this year.

I do think its telling though that as soon as another factory team shows up, their car looks very very similar to the Audi and Peugeot. I think we're going to see that the problem isn't entirely diesel vs petrol, but more factory vs privateer.

narboza22 wrote:I think we're going to see that the problem isn't entirely diesel vs petrol, but more factory vs privateer.

We've known that for what.. 12 years?

The factory teams will always beat the crap out of teams using customer chassis and engines.

The majority of petrol teams don't seem to know that. They are all still complaining about how slow they are.

I just think its interesting that with all the different takes on the Lola chassis, the Oak/Pescarolos, etc all looking different, that as soon as Toyota shows up, their car looks the same as the ones winning the races.

The HPD-03 should be very interesting to watch. Honda is putting a lot more behind their cars than simply leaving it up to Acura, so hopefully they can give more of a challenge in 2012.

Audi will win everything, unless they are eliminated from a race by an accident, mechanical issues, withdrawal, or disqualification.

Or, more likely than those, a meteor strikes the Audi plant nnnnnn..........ow.

idk nicky after being at sebring and seeing that newish acura at sebring last year keep up with audi and pug with LeMans aero was very impressive and this new car will be better! fingers crossed at least 1 toyota will be at sebring so we can get a gauge of it but HPD know what they're doing with that car and i think it'll be more of a battle than everyone thinks..... not to mention they'll be 3 of those and 2 audi's

correction 4hpd's seeing how i hear strakka will have 2 cars

Toyota has the money and resources for their car to have a chance of being competitive this year. Provided that its reliable, and since its being run by Oreca, I could see them doing everything in their power to try and slip a win past Audi this year.

More importantly though, I think this year is Honda's chance. They have some very good teams running their cars, some very talented drivers who are now out of work (Pagenaud), and with some factory money behind those entries, I could easily see them winning a race or two.

I doubt either of them will win Le Mans, but I wouldn't count them out for the rest of the WEC.

well they are not running full season in WEC as far as i know there isn't going to be a Toyota at Sebring as much as I would like there to be one.

Strakka, JRM, and Muscle Milk will be though

yes they will, 4 on 2 hopefully it'll be a great race!

Its almost unnatural for it to be so noisy after years of the super quiet diesels. It also lacks the freight train-esque look of being planted to the ground that the Audis and Peugeots have had. Really looking forward to seeing it race.

wow can not wait for my vist to le mans this year

Fingers crossed they'll send a car to Silverstone too. Would love to see it.

yea they will after le mans expect to 2 cars

Any word on their driver line up? I can see a host of ex-peugot drivers headed for toyota (and going by that video Wurz already has?)

EDIT Found the answer as of now
http://www.toyotahybridracing.com/team/drivers/

They have Wurz, Nicholas LaPierre, and Kaz Nakajima. Interesting to see 2 ex peugeot drivers and an open wheel driver

Heidfeld to Rebellion

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-heidfeld-set-to-join-rebellion/