Photo: Nissan
Nissan has made the decision to withdraw from next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) LMP1 because it reached the conclusion that the project would never be competitive enough, and it decided instead to turn the brand's attention to developing its longer-term racing strategies.
This very unexpected move comes after Nissan returned to WEC earlier this year with the front-engined and front-wheel-drive GT-R LM NISMO and it even underwent some vehicle testing this month.
On the other hand, maybe some of us were expecting this to happen. The Japanese carmaker had announced that it would do a full season this year but skipped the first two rounds to prepare better for the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.
That didn’t prove to be a good idea because the GT-R LM NISMO couldn’t keep up with its competitors and qualified 25 seconds slower, with no car on the podium at the end of the race.
This turned out to be a huge disappointment for Nissan, which retired from the rest of the WEC season. More than that, the project’s architect, Darren Cox, left the Japanese company.
Although some testing has been done this month and the team worked hard to bring the car to the desired performances levels for next year's race, the company has made an instant decision after realizing that the race car would never ever be capable of matching the performances of Porsche, Toyota or Audi.
Even if it retired from the World Endurance Championship, Nissan assures fans that the company’s commitment to motorsport remains strong and will continue its support of WEC through various engine programs, including the recent introduction of the LMP3 power unit.
Even though the carmaker hasn't had any luck in the World Endurance Championship this year, the Yokohama-based company can still brag about being the overall winner of Super GT two years in a row in Japan or about winning the Blancpain Endurance Pro Class, Bathurst 12 Hours race with the GT-R in GT3 spec.
On the other hand, maybe some of us were expecting this to happen. The Japanese carmaker had announced that it would do a full season this year but skipped the first two rounds to prepare better for the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.
That didn’t prove to be a good idea because the GT-R LM NISMO couldn’t keep up with its competitors and qualified 25 seconds slower, with no car on the podium at the end of the race.
This turned out to be a huge disappointment for Nissan, which retired from the rest of the WEC season. More than that, the project’s architect, Darren Cox, left the Japanese company.
Although some testing has been done this month and the team worked hard to bring the car to the desired performances levels for next year's race, the company has made an instant decision after realizing that the race car would never ever be capable of matching the performances of Porsche, Toyota or Audi.
Even if it retired from the World Endurance Championship, Nissan assures fans that the company’s commitment to motorsport remains strong and will continue its support of WEC through various engine programs, including the recent introduction of the LMP3 power unit.
Even though the carmaker hasn't had any luck in the World Endurance Championship this year, the Yokohama-based company can still brag about being the overall winner of Super GT two years in a row in Japan or about winning the Blancpain Endurance Pro Class, Bathurst 12 Hours race with the GT-R in GT3 spec.
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