WEC: Nissan withdraws from Silverstone and Spa; Le Mans debut set

Nissan has confirmed that its 2015 LMP1 car, the GT-R LM, will not run at next week’s FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue test at Paul Ricard and will not be entered for either of the opening two rounds of the series at Silverstone and Spa. Instead, the radical new machine will make its debut at the Le Mans Test Day with the full three-car entry.No official background reason is given for the withdrawal, the team opting to continue their extensive testing program, but sources close to the team have cited performance issues with the hybrid system and recent testing difficulties as having caused major concerns about the performance and durability of the car at its current point in development."We're continuing taking the time to do more testing mileage instead of racing," NISMO boss Darren Cox told RACER.Nissan will have a bigger task to accomplish as well: "We failed the monocoque crash test; the front roll hoop missed by a small margin, but we're fixing it and will have an updated chassis for [crash testing] next week," Cox added.