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Why where Lamy and Gene fired from Peugeot after Le Mans? Refresh my memory please. There were rumors that one of them was fired because he refused to block the Audi...?

Was Gene I heard that refused to block the Audi.

And Lamy was just plain slow before he was removed from the driver rotation mid-race. He wasn't any better at Sebring either. I think his time in that team was just done.

- Lucas di Grassi also tested the Peugeot 908 at Estoril.

- Gulf Racing (formerly Team AMR Middle East in last year's ILMC GTE-AM) has announced a 2-car LMP2 effort for the WEC next year. They'll run Lola Coupes apparently with Nissan engines - not a bad combination!

- Greaves Motorsport will enter two cars for next season - one in the WEC and one in the LMS, and then two cars for Le Mans. They'll continue their Nissan partnership by using their engines but are undecided on their chassis. Remember that Karim Ojjeh owned the Zyteks and with his retirement, the team no longer has access to his chassis. Interviews with Tim Greaves suggest that the Zytek and the Lola are the top two contenders, him having rather written off the Oreca 03 based on reliability issues.

One wonders where the LMP2 expansion leaves Sebring next year. It's been limited to 60 cars - 30 each for ALMS and the WEC. Definitely feeling a bit tight at the top, it appears, particularly with the challenge cars.

Rahal is restarting his Indycar team full time; what does that mean to the ALMS project?
Same thing in Europe; will DTM hinder the cars from running Le Mans?

I don't see a lot of future for the current Le Mans GT-project of BMW (unless I've missed a recent announcement, I'm not 100% up to date). IF they're going to be involved heavily in something GT-ish, it'll most likely be the Z4 GT3. This year's semi-factory runnings at various 24 Hours were basically a preparation/test of 2012, to see if a factory-entry is worth it.

RBM was supposed to run the Z4 at Spa this year as a factory-effort with Priaulx/Farfus/Muller, but they had to drop out because Münich ordered them to be focusing 100% on the DTM-development.

The situation seems rather confusing, also for Atherton himself...


Week 40 Autosport.

EDIT: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... t-sebring/

De Chaunac @

Autohedbo (http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showpos ... tcount=469):


Good.

LMS introduces GTC class for 2012, reserved for Lotus Evora GT4, Ferrari 430 Challenge and Porsche 911 Cup. Driver lineups to be determined with the gold/bronze/wathever thing.
Can't say I'm excited. I hope LMS doesn't need too many grid-fillers.

_________________
"IT'S CHAOS! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!"

Wurz to race Toyota's new LMP1

http://t.co/7qwp98m3

Lotterer is probably another sure choice because in SuperGT and F.Nippon he is Toyota driver. "'It is looking unlikely that Lotterer will be part of our programme next year' explained an Audi insider."

They might replace Lotterer with Mortara...

Is Capello doing another year? We know that he told dr. Ullrich that he wanted to run in a world championship before he retires.

Official PR: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/groups/endur ... -wec-team/



ps. Lotterer stays with Audi then?

I've read that they will be doing a three car effort in Le Mans 24 hours... Lotterer, Gene and Minassian are a possibility trio at the moment. And, an all Japanese trio for the third car...

Can't wait to hear Peugeot drivers now.

Toyota announce Wurz, Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima as drivers entered in both WEC and LM.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95979

So Wurz and Lamy (and Gene as well) out of Peugeot. I'd say Pagenaud gets a regular seat then.

As for Audi: Bonanomi is their official reserve driver, so they might bring him instead of Lotterer or Capello, if he retires. We already know for sure they won't be signing Montagny

_________________
"IT'S CHAOS! ABSOLUTE CHAOS!"

Hakkinen will probably be back for next year after Zhuhai

Read = https://twitter.com/#!/specutainment/st ... 3062067200 ?

The wich has got Nakajima will never make 24 hours

Hindy has been literally the only one talking about three cars for Le Mans... Honestly if they won't commit to a second car for data gathering purposes for the rest of their races I can't see them making the investment for the third car for LM. I understand it's a big deal obviously but with limited race running for the car I don't know that they could justify entering three unproven cars for a 24 hour race and then scaling it back to 1 for the rest of the season...

In any case, George Howard-Chappel confirmed this morning via an ACO press release (ish) that Aston Martin is continuing in the WEC for 2012... With the lack of confirmation as to LMP1 or GTE, I'd say that confirms the suspicion that it'll be a 2-car GTE Vantage effort... Though I'd love to see them in LMP1, the Vantage is a fine car with loads of potential!

Johnny Mowlem has joined last year's one-off LMPC squad Woodard Racing as a driver and driver coach... That sees his departure from Lotus' Evora driving squad... I've heard from a friend within the team that Lotus will run a full 2012 schedule. Wonder if Johnny just got tired of running an underperforming car... Certainly there are big gains to be made in their engine department though admittedly the car looked all kinds of a handful at Petit.

Peugeot will be taking 2 updated/optimized cars to Zhuhai, though I'm not sure exactly what that entails. The hybrid will also be making an appearance at the circuit though it won't be competing.

As far as a full WEC for next season, we're due to get some detailed announcement on Saturday including, hopefully, a calendar. Conjecture is that perhaps we'd see an extra event, and that the schedule could include three races in Asia. Here's what I'd expect, in an order resembling this:



Looking towards the grid, again here's what I can see... The ACO's been looking for 30 cars for the full WEC and that will likely not include Toyota... Though I'm not sure the ACO will allow non-WEC entries to non-WEC events outside of Le Mans, which is of course invitation only.

A note about LMP2... There were rumblings on Midweek Motorsport from Le Mans aficionado/Dailysportscar editor Graham Goodwin that LMP2 constructors would be required to have at least one car in the WEC. Not sure what the status of that is, but that could pose issues...

LMP1:
2x Audi R18? R18+?
2x Peugeot 908 (Hybrid?)
2?x Rebellion Lola-Toyota
2?x OAK Pescarolo - could be one car, though it'd be a shame, as in the right hands this car is probably one of the quickest cars out there...
1x Strakka HPD ARX-03a
1x Pescarolo Team (needs a new engine)
1x Hope Oreca-Hybrid (confirmed, though we'll see if the ACO accepts their entry based on last season)
- Toyota seem unlikely for Sebring it seems, but will likely be in by Spa with a single car

LMP2:
2x Gulf Racing Lola-Nissan
1x OAK Pescarolo (could be fielded by DAMS, OAK is keen to ramp up their LMP2 customer base)
1x Greaves ???-Nissan (Need to purchase new cars after Karim Ojjeh retired and took the Zyteks with him, Zytek would satisfy constructor requirement)
1x? Level 5 HPD ARX-01g
1?x Signatech Oreca-Nissan

GTE (Pro only):
2x AF Corse F458
2x Corvette (Larbre?)
2x BMW M3 (?)
2x Aston Martin Vantage
2?x Lotus Evora (Jetalliance? Factory?)
2x? Luxury F458
1x Felbermayr Porsche?
1x? Lambda Ford GT?

BMW pulled out of WTCC about the same time they entered with the M3 right? Doesn't their DTM effort mean that in 1 or maybe 2 years time they will pull out of LMS/ALMS?