What to ask ACO principal Jean-Claude Plassart?

[Kiwieb]

Maybe it is time to take a step a bit back from the result of the regulations and take a look at the cause. When the ACO established the equivalency for diesel engines, they simply copied the FIA suggestions. These had worked well, where they were used like in the Rallye Raids. Unfortunately for the ACO and also the FIA, Audi, Peugeot and Seat sped up development, rendering the equivalency obsolete. It is hard to deny that diesel engines have an advantage right now, but it would be rather harsh on Audi and Peugeot to drastically change the regulations just because they did their job better than expected. Over the last two years, detailed changes were made and the gap between the factory diesels and the privateer petrol cars has closed a little. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance a factory non-diesel will do. Only then we can really see just how big the advantage for diesel engines is. I seriously doubt it is as big as it looks right now. Remember that privateers could not touch the Audi R8 either.

thanks Wouter, I was unaware of the cause and as you and henk4 suggest, the factory teams' bigger budgets produce performance the privateers cannot match so I guess the ACO has to tweak the regs somewhat to encourage more entries.

[henk4]

good point henk4 - my simple answer is no, but how do we get more entries from factory teams and are the present regs in some way actually inhibiting big budget players to enter LMP1?

Aston Martin is trying to get a factory team running, and in a way is Dome. Both showed the same speed that the Audis and the Peugeots had during their first appearence.

[Kitdy]

Was the interview with Mr. Plassart posted on speedtv.com yet?

[MPME]

Was the interview with Mr. Plassart posted on speedtv.com yet?

It will be next Monday, a week in advance of their rules announcement.

[Kiwieb]

Aston Martin is trying to get a factory team running, and in a way is Dome. Both showed the same speed that the Audis and the Peugeots had during their first appearence.

thanks henk4 - I do hope both AM and DOME do so; the DOME in particular is a really exciting car and showed exceptional straight line speed in this years' race.

Will be great to see both marques developing their latest offerings.