Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
No, I don't miss anything. If they are intended for their own lower class than they must be way cheaper than they are. What you say is that R4 is basically an overpriced gr.N replacement. But that alone is a receipt for disaster. The reason is simple - the amount of money available very much depends on where you are on the overall standings. Good luck with finding sponsors who can fund you let's say 80% of R5 budget but don't care about overall results.
The price difference isn’t just 20%, it’s about 30% (Oreca made a discount over the kit initial price) and that’s a lot of money. A R4 can be bought for 160k while a R5 costs over 230k (I bet a Polo costs much more…); running costs difference is even bigger as R4 engine is almost stock and once the cars are built locally there’s no need for expensive rebuilds on the manu official tuners, like in R5. Besides, we shouldn’t mix R4/R5 target costumers; R5 will always be used by top national and international drivers and teams, while R4 purpose is to give amateurs a change to replace their aging N4 cars and also provide R2 young drivers a more affordable option to keep their careers moving forwards.

There’s a market for R4, both in national and international series, but the FIA has made a terrible choice launching R4 through a single supplier; after all the delays and the kit initial price, Oreca is still failing to promote R4 in a proper way. That’s a shame.