WEC: Nissan LMP1 project under review

[Jack Hunsley]

Multiple sources have revealed that Nissan, who made their return to the top echelon of endurance racing at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, are currently holding meetings to decide whether the company will continue with it's two-year LMP1 program.

Nissan debuted a radical front-engined, front wheel drive car at Le Mans but was well off the pace of all it's competing LMP1 rivals and failed to score a classified finish it any of it's three entries, whilst only one of the three cars actually took the checkered flag.

This news comes shortly after Nissan's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, was quoted as saying that Nissan needed to 'reassess (it's) strategy' in regards to it's LMP1 program, whilst he was attending last month's Formula E finale

Nissan's GT-R LM Nismo will be back in action later this month as the team will carry out a two day test session at the Circuit of The Americas on July 27-28 as they prepare to debut a radically updated car for the 6 Hours of the Nurburgring in late August.

 

[Andy Kettler]

It will perform better when its completed > 4WD... I dont know why they decided to participate with an "half car"...

 

[Will Mazeo]

Oh please go with a 'normal" lmp1 but stay in LMP1 please!

 

[TobiasR]

Well, if they drop the project now, this would be one the greatest blunders in racing history. At least on par with Lola's F1 disaster.

 

[the_sigman]

Well, if they drop the project now, this would be one the greatest blunders in racing history. At least on par with Lola's F1 disaster.

Lola had no money, they had an excuse, unlike Nissan

 

[Patrik Marek]

I hope they continue. Yes it was a shame they didn't get encouraging results, but it doesn't come easy. I'm sure it will get better with more development on the car

shall we do fundraising for them?

 

[Flammenjc]

No surprises here then

 

[Matt Orr]

Shocked!

Except I'm not. That's what happens when a car built to be a hybrid isn't a hybrid but rather a regular car with less than ideally placed ballast. I really just see it as karma with the whole Deltawing situation (in which everyone has been screwed IMO) - but really, what would be the point of pulling out?

They already have egg on their face, Nissan has money and if the concept was valid enough to be built in the first place why not see it through to completion at least to a decent degree? It's clear they thought the concept would beat the competition (otherwise why go so radical? simply running competitive wasn't the goal, clearly.), at least if it ends up working you still look like geniuses when that happens.

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

Reminds me of most games nowadays

Broken and/or unfinished at launch and now they are ready to not patch it


I think they rushed getting the car to Le Mans and should have waited until the start of next season before racing. I hope they won't pull the plug on their LMP1 program after just one race. That would seem like a waste

 

[Spinelli]

What's with all these teams being pussies just because they don't do good first time out? The Peugeots were awesome compared to the Audi's even though they were new and the Audi's were in it for years yet Peugeot pulls out. Same with the Honda (that one with the front tyres that were wider than the rear). They pulled out. Porsche with the LMP2 car that was sometimes even beating the LMP1 cars on certain tracks? Pulled out. What is with every goddamn Factory team (other than Audi) pulling out only after 2 or 3 seasons? Frustrating to say the least. Every Factory team should be obliged to stay for at-least around 4 years

 

[Andrew Harper]

Will be interesting to see what the car's pace is at the next WEC event. With hopefully all the systems running and the car properly functional (hopefully).

I had my fingers crossed that this would be a good concept, but even I was surprised by how much the car was off the pace. If they were say 10-15 seconds of the pace of the Audi's that would've given them some heart that they could claw the gap back. Unfortunately though the car is much slower than that (admittedly in it's half finished form) and in recent years if a car is badly off the pace it seems clawing back the gap is almost impossible.

I understand where you are coming from Spinelli but in some cases it's simply a case of money that causes the pull out. Peugeot took massive hits in car sales that year and the motorsports division was the major casualty in cost cutting (I was just as sad about this as anyone). The Honda was like the Nissan a sort of radical design idea, also it was operated by Honda North America (not Honda Japan) which had limited means, I think the money simply dried up. The Porsche Spyder LMP2 did run until 2010 (in customer form) but was then made illegal by the ACO (they wanted customer teams in LMP2) as the car was outside of the budget cap. At the time it cost as much as an LMP1 car!

One program that does come to mind is the Bentley, it would have been nice for that to have continued for a few more years Such a pretty race car as well It may have possibly been ruled out due to regulation changes though. Sometimes teams would prefer just to stop rather than spend x amount of millions redesigning a car to keep the ACO happy.

My worry now is that as Porsche have won Le Mans this year as far as they are concerned it's "job done" they'll do one more year and then stop. Hopefully not...

 

[Flammenjc]

My worry now is that as Porsche have won Le Mans this year as far as they are concerned it's "job done" they'll do one more year and then stop. Hopefully not...

I don't think that will happen. Porsche are back in the game and are super competitive and now winning races, and winning the BIG one. Porsche probably are the marque that care about tradition and their history more than any other, so they of all want more added onto their already impressive Le Mans victories.

 

[Will Mazeo]

If Audi leaves nobody will get close to Porsche number of wins any time soon so woulnd't surprise me if they leave too.
As much as LMP1 is nice it is very fragile too. Needs cheaper regs to attract privateer teams, keep depending on manufacturers like that is never good.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Well the ACO have created a "privateer" class LMP1 for next year with non-hybrid powerplants. Will be interesting to see if it's successful. It's a shame that the LMP-H cars are so damn complex and expensive, I would imagine Porsche with their heritage would only be too glad to sell customer versions of the 919 if it was a petrol engine only setup. Like Jake says they are very much a sportscar/racing supporter.

Anyway that's enough of the negatives, the whole sportscar scene is very healthy at the moment, fingers crossed for some Nissan podiums or top fives before the years out

 

[Will Mazeo]

The "problem" is that those guys want to and deserve to go for overall wins. See Rebellion invested a lot, i'm happy they'll finally have competition (but only in 2017...) but man.. if it was me I'd be out of LMP1 long time ago.

 

[P*Funk]

overall wins

I don't much like that term.

 

[dctoe]

It will perform better when its completed > 4WD... I dont know why they decided to participate with an "half car"...

I don't think I could have said it better. I was quite boggled when I heard it would be FWD of all things. From the company that gave us the R32 - R35. FWD? Really?

 

[dctoe]

but really, what would be the point of pulling out?

Do I really have to break that one down for you? OH! Just realized you were talking about Nissan. Well I guess it's the same isn't it??