Review: WEC & ELMS 2013 Review

The 2013 Season of the FIA WEC showed that the now 2 year old championship is here to stay with its 8 Round structure, as it exceeded its first year in almost every way and things are looking to get better in 2014. The revised 5 Round ELMS had a good 2013 season with solid grids and a new format that worked very well, 3 Hour long races with no full pro teams, sharing weekends with the FIA WEC, Renault World Series and FFSA GT Tour. Check out the WEC round highlights below along with the Overall 2013 FIA WEC & ELMS results and a little look at each class in both championships.

WEC

LMP1

The LMP1 Class was a manufacturer only battle between Audi and Toyota, with privateer’s Rebellion and part time entry Strakka not been able to battle with the top two. Audi had the upper hand from the start over Toyota who didn’t bring there new 2013 car out till the second round of the championship. It was not until Le Mans that we saw the real performance of the Toyota shine, when they took the fight to Audi, but the big German team was just too much this time, with them winning after 24 Hours. The WEC drivers and LMP Manufacturers went the way of Audi and the #2 car, with Toyota only been able to win races towards the end of the season, most of Audis work was done at the start. Rebellion and Strakka had a good duel while it lasted with the Rebellion been the slightly faster car over a lap, Strakka pulled out after Le Mans to concentrate on there 2014 WEC attack while Rebellion continued they have also sorted there 2014 program out as well.

LMP2

LMP2 was dominated with Nissan powered chassis, but was always a thrilling race no matter which event it was. Towards the end of the season the championship run was between both Oak Racing cars and the G-Drive Racing car, with Pecom Racing just loosing touch. Greaves and Delta-ADR had good pace through out the season but didn’t always seem to have the best of luck while Lotus showed pace but not consistently. This is a class to keep an eye on in 2014 but more on that son.

GTE-PRO & AM

GTE-PRO was a brilliant class to watch all year, Aston Martin Racing had the early advantage winning the first race but things didn’t always stay that was as at Le Mans they unfortunately had the death of Allen Simonson in the early stages of the race. Ferrari took a win at spa but at Le Mans could only manage a best of 4^th. Porsche with the new 991 911 GT3 RSR didn’t have the best of starts to the season, but at Le Mans they crept up the field finally finishing 1&2 after 24 Hours. AMR came back strong after Le Mans but had some bad luck along the way but entered the final race top of the GTE championship but things didn’t end that way. Ferrari kept them self’s in the run for the number 1 spot in GTE and with a win at the final race claimed the number 1 spot. Porsche had to bring out a Evo version of the 991 911 GT3 RSR for the final race which was more competitive then the earlier car, so for next year expect them at the front along with AMR and Ferrari. In GTE-AM AMR claimed the number 1 spot in the drivers championship after a competitive year, they should have ha a 1-2 in the championship but the Young Driver AMR car had bad luck through out the year. 8 Star Motorsport had a solid year in AM class to claim the number 1 spot for Ferrari in the team’s championship while Labre had a disappointing year.

ELMS

LMP2

LMP2 in the ELMS was a strong hard fought battle with any number of teams been able to take the top spot, Jota sport had the one lap pace but some unlucky races which meant they added up third, Thiriet by TDS Racing had some good results but were let down with to poor races towards the end of the year. Signatech Alpine had a strong year but didn’t win till the last race of the year but due to there solid run through out the year earned them the top spot in the championship in the first year of the Alpine name to motorsport.

GTE-AM

GTE was dominated by the newly founded RAM Racing with there Ferrari 458 GTE’s winning 3-5 races, with the only real competition coming from Proton Competition with there 911 GT3 RSR GTE which won the other 2 rounds. AF Corse had a strong showing with the Ferrari 458 GTE as they were the best of the rest after RAM and Proton.

GTC

GTC started slowly with only three cars present at Silverstone for round 1, but from round 2 on there where healthy grids unit the end of the year. SMP Racing from Russia won all the races from Iomla on which is also when they joined the championship. AF Corse had a decent run of second and third place finishes with Ecurie Ecosse with there BMW Z4 GT3 getting a win and 2 second places to end up third in the GTC Teams championship.

Overall 2013 FIA WEC results can be seen here: 2013 FIA WEC Results

Overall 2013 European Le Mans Series results can be seen here: 2013 ELMS Results

www.fiawec.com

www.europeanlemansseries.com