Audi will be front runners |
Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler return to the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro prototype after a victorious 2012 campaign where they claimed victory at Le Mans, Silverstone and Bahrain. They will be joined at Audi by the experienced duo of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen in addition to Loic Duval, Marc Gene and Lucas di Grassi. Audi's main threat comes in the shape of two Toyota TS030 Hybrids and a strong driver lineup brimming with F1 experience. Alex Wurz, Nicholas Lappierre and Kazuki Nakajima return to the No. 7 car whilst Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin will once again pilot the No. 8 P1 entry.
Best of the rest? Rebellion Racing |
In LMP2, expect to see the main battle between OAK Racing's Morgans and Kodewa's Lotus team. OAK will enter Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier Hansson in the No. 24 car and Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzalez in the No. 35. Meanwhile Lotus field two new T128s. Kevin Weeda, Christophe Bouchut, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Jame Rossiter will share driving duties in the No. 31 with Thomas Holzer, Dominik Kraihamer and Jan Charouz in the 32.
Porsche have a new car for 2013 |
AF Corse will be strong again |
GT Am also includes two Chevrolet Corvettes courtesy of Labre Competition, whilst American squads Krohn and 8Star Motorsports will campaign Ferrari 458s. Porsche will be represented by IMSA Performance Matmut and Proton Competition (No relation to the Malaysian manufacturer).
What is the WEC?
The WEC is one of the FIA premier racing series, alongside F1, WRC and the WTCC. As the name suggests, it is a world championship series with drivers from all over the world competing in eight events in four different continents.
Cars
There are 4 separate classes of cars too, LMP1, LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am -LMP1 - The premier class. LMP1 cars are prototype cars with around 550bhp and weighing approximately 900kg. LMP1 cars are also allowed to have hybrid systems.
LMP2 - One step below P1. Again, prototype cars, however despite sharing the same weight limit, the horsepower is lower at 440bhp.
Both GT classes are hotly contested |
LMGTE Am - Exactly the same as the Pro category except only one professional driver is allowed per car.
Points
Besides the 24 Hours of Le Mans, points are awarded in the same way as the other FIA World Championships, from first to tenth, 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1. Every driver outside the top ten who completes the race is also awarded half a point. Teams and manufactures are also awarded in this way in every classFor Le Mans, the points system changes to 50, 36, 30, 24, 20, 16, 12, 8, 4, 2 with a point going to every driver outside the top ten who completes the race.
Changes from 2012
As with every international racing series, the WEC has introduced some changes to the regualtions for this season.First of all, with qualifying, now two drivers per car must set two timed laps each, with an average time being taken from the four laps to determine the qualifying time. Pre-race warm ups are now a thing of the past unless a situation arises where stewards see extra practice time as necessary.
Lotus have constructed a new P2 car |
An additional World Cup will be awarded to the GT drivers as well as the P1 class this year and P2 and GT Am drivers will also be awarded FIA trophies for the first time.
The calendar has also been changed in order to maximise the use of sea shipping and to reduce costs, hence the 6 Hours of Silverstone's change to an April date from an August one last year.
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