WEC: Strakka Racing announces 2017 LMP1 program

[Jack Hunsley]

Strakka Racing have announced they will be making the step up to LMP1 from the 2017 WEC season as the team looks to join the growing LMP1 Privateer's category.

The Strakka team, which currently competes in LMP2, announced their intention to switch categories on Friday morning with team principle Dan Walmsley being quoted as saying that "the LMP1 Privateer's category now offers the best arena to create our own car," and that, "Strakka Racing is continuing to develop and this will be another step forward to becoming a true sustainable motorsport business."

Interestingly, the team has pointed towards the new restrictive LMP2 regulations, which are due to come into effect in 2017, to be the reason for the switch as they forced the team "to evaluate (their) current business strategy and seriously look at projects that would enable us to draw on the experiences we have from our LMP2 car."

In addition the team also revealed they will complete the remainder of the 2015 WEC season using a recently sourced 2015-specification Gibson chassis. The reasoning behind this decision is that the team's original S103 2015 chassis is set to become the development car for the LMP1 project.

The team intends to have the new Gibson chassis ready to go for the Nurburgring test at the end of July.

 

[TobiasR]

Great news!

 

[Nox]

Really wish the ACO had left LMP2 alone. If it isn't broken...
Hope Strakka do well though. Will be nice to see someone actually race Rebellion.

 

[ENDR]

And what exactly are those restrictions for 2017?

 

[Otune]

And what exactly are those restrictions for 2017?

LMP2 will be restricted to four chassis manufacturers in 2017 (Onroak, Oreca, Dallara and Riley/Multimatic). Strakka every other manufacturer in LMP2 at the moment is being forced out.

 

[ENDR]

LMP2 will be restricted to four chassis manufacturers in 2017 (Onroak, Oreca, Dallara and Riley/Multimatic). Strakka every other manufacturer in LMP2 at the moment is being forced out.

Oh... Seems legit.

Wait, no, what? And the point of that is... ... ?

 

[Nox]

Oh... Seems legit.

Wait, no, what? And the point of that is... ... ?

Probably to increase the numbers in the privateer LMP1 class. It also has to do with IMSA (where LMP2 is the highest class) and the ACO finding some cooperative ground on regs, but that is a whole can of worms in itself. They say it is to reduce costs, of course.

See here for a little info. This article is also worth a read.

 

[Andrew Harper]

The ACO have always wanted in the last few years LMP2 to be a privateer team category. It was probably started way back when we had LMP675 which on occasion was embarrassing the LMP900 cars. All of a sudden you had big manufacturers makings cars for the "lower" class. The Porsche Spyder is probably the first one that comes to mind.

On one side I kind of like the idea, better for small teams to buy a chassis and engine off the shelf and away you go, but we will also have that in LMP3 as well. It could end with 15 or 16 Nissan LMP engined prototypes going round and from an enthusiasts perpesticve variety is the beauty of sportscar racing. Maybe more engine suppliers would be a great idea.

My view on Strakka is mixed, I wish them all the best but since they started this LMP2 program it simply hasn't worked. The car either hasn't started, or it's broken down on the first lap, or they spend half the race in the pits. Even when the car is running it's not on the pace. The fact they are using it as a base for the LMP1 car concerns me. Rebellion are a very organised squad and they did an amazing job making the new engine work with their car in time for Le Mans. Fingers crossed they make a great LMP1 car

 

[Nox]

The problem is though that they're adding cars to a category where they have no chance of ever winning. Strakka, Rebellion, Kolles, etc etc will never beat the manufacturers of Audi, Toyota, Porsche, etc, so why even bother? LMP2 at least was competitive; in fact it was/is one of the best classes of racing in the WEC and other endurance series. The ELMS today was fantastic, for example. I get what the ACO want to do, but in my opinion they had a good thing in LMP2 and they're spoiling it. I think that's the general opinion for most fans, actually.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Yes I agree, when the ACO scrubbed the non hybrid LMP1 class this year I was a bit puzzled to say the least. At least last year Rebellion were being recognised in their own category.

If we have 8 LMP1-H and say 10 LMP1-P I won't complain but there is only so much money to go around these days and like you say why mess with something that isn't broken.

Oh damn, missed the ELMS, knew there was something good on!

In my view (and yours as well) keep LMP1 for the works teams and keep LMP2 for the customer teams, that works fine thank you very much

 

[Anthony Offen-james]

The ACo should never have messed with the rules .The current regs require there to be 6 of each chassis.all they had to do was enforce the regs that were in place