A Rival For F1?

Hmmm, this is an interesting thought, and sort of one that resurrects and old idea (or perhaps a fear) from the 1980s, when F1 was controlled by a fellow with a shady Nazi past who seemed hell-bent on doing things his way or not at all, and with Bernie Ecclestone whispering in his ear.

Today that's all gone though. Jean-Marie Balestre is no longer running this, Max Mosley is, or was until a couple of months ago and Bernie is ... oh, wait. Anyway, so what's the story here? The story is about something called the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup that has been started by The Automobile Club de l’Ouest. Yes, the same guys that have kept Le Mans running without much outside influence since the 1920s.

Although the new series will be administered by the FIA, the same guys that are running F1, a world sportscar racing championship could provide both very interesting racing, and a challenge to F1 on a bunch of levels. For one thing, the ACO boys know how to run an equivalency formula. This means that you see all different types of cars run at Le Mans, where as from a technological standpoint, F1 cars are a little on the same-same end of things.

F1 bills itself as the technological pinnacle of the racing world, and by and large it is. It is because of this that auto manufacturers dump enormous amounts of money into it. The last figures I saw for Toyota's F1 program (as an example) had them spending far in excess of 400 million dollars a year on the sport.

The problem with F1 from a manufacturer's perspective is that the regulations are so tightly controlled, there is little to no room for technological innovation. This is not so with Le Mans-style racing, which will soon have more than just one (very impressive) race on it's European calendar.

Last year's Le Mans 24 hours saw amazing cars from Audi, Peugeot, Aston Martin and others in the top line LMP1 category, and they were very dissimilar. Gas engines, diesels, next year Peugeot will be bringing a bio-diesel fueled hybrid to the track. You don't see stuff like that in F1.

So, the story goes, the newly announced Le Mans Intercontinental Cup could siphon off manufacturers interest from F1. In 2010 the Intercontinental Cup will run one round from each of the three major sports car championships: the Le Mans Series in Europe, the American Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series, with the first two races will be the Silverstone 1000km (September 13th) and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta (October 2nd).

The series will expand in 2011 to six rounds at least, forming a true world championship. The ACO are talking about offering a title for manufacturers and one for teams, but there's no mention of a drivers’ title.

Source: F1Fanatic. Photos from Alex C Jones, Frank van de Velde, Fabio Aro, Mulsanne and fklv.