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Judge LMP1 on its glorious high not its fall

The beginning of the 2019/20 World Endurance Championship season this weekend is the beginning of the farewell tour for what remains of LMP1. And it deserves proper respect from sportscar historians

Silverstone this weekend isn't the end of an era, but it is the beginning of the end. It's the start of the last season for the LMP1 class, and I'll be shedding a tear or two over the course of the division's farewell tour through the 2019/20 World Endurance Championship.

It's not that I'm uninspired by the prospect of what's to follow in a year's time, when a new breed of top-flight sportscar comes on stream with the WEC's hypercar category. I'm hoping for a run of announcements from manufacturers big and small over the next 12 months to make me ever more enthusiastic.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.