Nissan will return next year

[Werner]

Why am I not surprised? 

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/08/07/nissan-to-address-technical-issues-of-lm-p1-car-before-returning-to-fia-wec.html

[Lorry]

Strangely, they haven't given up, like Aston Martin with the AMR One.   

They thought they'd do something clever, that nobody had done before (because they all knew it wouldn't work) and then did what Ferrari used to do, and blamed "minor electrical problems"

It just wasn't fast out of the corners

[Pilgrim]

They need to address one particular technical issue with their LMP1 car.

Specifically, it's complete crap.

[geoffd]

One of the biggest problems was a non-functioning hybrid system, had that been working then they would have been a lot quicker and a lot less fragile on the braking front, not sure they would have been up there with Audi and Porsche of course.  I for one would like to see them get the car fully functional before declaring that it's crap or otherwise!

Everyone moans about F1 cars all looking and sounding the same,  variety is what makes the WEC much more interesting, and the Nissans are certainly more varied!

[mgmark]

....  I for one would like to see them get the car fully functional before declaring that it's crap or otherwise!......

Ditto, and let's not forget that despite at best having a half functioning hybrid system (IIRC they had hybrid drive to the fronts but not the rears as well) meaning that they lost about 4 seconds at every chicane, they were the fastest car through the Mulsanne speed trap.

MG Mark

[aricus654]

I thought that the loss through the chicanes was the suspension setup and the basic fact that the weight distribution was too much like an Autin Metro.

That said, I really want them to get it right and bring something new into play - real innovation.

Aricus

[mgmark]

I thought that the loss through the chicanes was the suspension setup and the basic fact that the weight distribution was too much like an Autin Metro.

That was the product of the problem, which I understand was that the hybrid system designers/suppliers screwed up and failed to supply the necessary components for the rear drive.  That didn't become apparent to the Nissan team until it was too late, result being that they had to re-engineer the car to run without rear drive units and without the drive components - that's why it was withdrawn from the first 2 WEC rounds to try and buy time to get something ready for Le Mans. All things considered, it ran pretty well being so seriously compromised in terms of weight distribution and power, and they doubtless gained a wealth of useful data and experience for next year.

MG Mark

[geoffd]

I thought that the loss through the chicanes was the suspension setup and the basic fact that the weight distribution was too much like an Autin Metro.

I think there were a number of factors at play, not least that the suspension was too fragile to cope with too much kerb being taken, and that the hybrid system wasn't working at all thus the front brakes were wearing out as they weren't being used to harvest energy as they should, and without the hybrid system they didn't have the extra energy to power out of corners at all.

I seem to remember that despite being the fastest car through the speed traps they were dropping something like 8 seconds from Tertre Rouge to Mulsanne Corner!