Nissan LMP1 car to miss first two WEC races, set for Le Mans debut
Nissan announced Tuesday that it has delayed the debut of its new LMP1 challenger until the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
The Japanese manufacturer, which took the wraps off its Nissan GT-R LM NISMO last month, was scheduled to make its public debut in next weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue test at Paul Ricard.
Instead, the car will miss the pre-season test, as well as the opening two rounds of the season at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, after it failed a recent crash test that was required for its homologation.
“As we said, this has always been a focus on Le Mans,” Nissan's Darren Cox told Sportscar365. “We’ve had some challenges, one of those being a crash test failure, which is not unusual. Lots of people fail crash tests.
“But it’s meant that we couldn’t homologate the car in time for Silverstone. So we’ll refocus and carry on testing in the U.S.”
The revolutionary front-engined, front-wheel driver car is scheduled for another crash test on March 26 which, if it passes, could have put it on the grid for the second round of the season at Spa-Francorchamps.
However, Cox said the decision was made to focus on further testing prior to a debut at Le Mans, which is still slated to see a three-car factory entry in LMP1.
“While we’re based in the U.S., to come over for one race, effectively a month before Le Mans didn’t make any sense,” he said. “And we don’t know at the moment if we’d be homologated in time. It’s was a relatively straight forward decision.”
The Indianapolis-based team will be testing at the GM-owned NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Ky., which was built with a number of characteristics similar to the 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe.
“The fact that we can run at Bowling Green, obviously Corvette has a lot of experience there and they haven’t done a bad job at Le Mans! It’s only three hours away from our facility,” Cox said.
“As they say, it’s all in the recovery. I think we’ll have a new plan in place that will set up for our main objective this year, which is Le Mans.”
The car has struggled in pre-season testing, with it reportedly more than 10 seconds off the pace from the 2015-spec Audi R18 e-tron quattro in a recent test at Sebring, where Nissan was forced to end early due to a broken carbon fiber component.
Cox said they have already finalized what hybrid subclass the car will run in this year, which is expected to be announced alongside the other LMP1 manufacturers next week at Paul Ricard.
“It’s unfortunate but we’re pushing the boundaries here,” he said. “It’s one of those things. We’re happy that we’ll be ready for Le Mans.
“It’s great to be able to make our debut at Le Mans, as Toyota did in 2012. And they went onto win the championship in 2014.”
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