Le Mans Hypercars Confirmed: FIA and ACO Agree New Rules for 2020

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Le Mans Hypercars Confirmed: FIA and ACO Agree New Rules for 2020

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on December 6th, 2018 in the FIA WEC category.

 

[-Fred-]

So basically a Glickenhaus with less restrictions?

 

[Famine]

So basically a Glickenhaus with less restrictions?

The SCG007 is pretty much confirmed as a competitor already.

I suppose we could ask him, as he is a GTP member

 

[GTP_Versatile]

Can't wait to see what the grid will look like.

 

[Disco_Volante]

The unspecified limits of the engine configuration bit, does it mean that there's no rules for that yet but that there will be, or that you can run anything as long as it fits within the power and weight limits?

If it's the second, is it required that the engine has (inefficiently reciprocating) pistons?

I'm very excited to see what the actual cars look like. I'm not expecting crazy things like the CLK GTR which looks like a normal CLK except for the proportions, but I sure am hoping for it.

 

[lesgeaux]

This completely justifies the cars that GT Sport has in GR.1 now. In a couple of years we are going to see cars exactly like the peugeot l750r gr1 and the tomahawk x gr1! Kaz's vision really did become reality in this one... almost as if he predicted the future

 

[G.T.Ace]

This all sounds so promising, cannot wait for 2020.

 

[05XR8]

I can smell Mazda jumping in on this.
Also, a worthy "GT-R" LM this time.

 

[sangdude82]

Yeah, I hope the new regulations will attract a lot of manufacturers in likes of Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche, Nissan, etc to WEC.

 

[CarreraGT]

This is great news. Can't wait to see manufacturers battling it out again in cars that even vaguely resemble road cars

 

[AlanH49]

The unspecified limits of the engine configuration bit, does it mean that there's no rules for that yet but that there will be, or that you can run anything as long as it fits within the power and weight limits?

If it's the second, is it required that the engine has (inefficiently reciprocating) pistons?

I'm very excited to see what the actual cars look like. I'm not expecting crazy things like the CLK GTR which looks like a normal CLK except for the proportions, but I sure am hoping for it.

Something like the CLK-GTR is exactly what these cars will look like. And yes, engine configuration is completely free, other than no rotary.

 

[CSMDuty11]

All of the FIA WEC hypercars will be hybrids. The new rules will limit this to a 268hp motor operating the front wheels only, with a minimum motor weight of 110lb and a minimum battery pack weight of 154lb.

In addition, there’s a cost cap to the hybrid system, of €3m; all competitors must field a hybrid system that they have either developed or rented from a supplier for €3m for two cars over a season, while every constructor that develops a hybrid system may make it available to private entries on the same basis.

There’s no specified limits on the fuel or configuration of the car’s conventional engine, but it’s limited to a maximum power of 697hp and a minimum weight of 397lb. The whole car must weigh a minimum of 2,293lb, so with both power units operating to maximum, potentially these hypercars could produce 943hp/ton.

The new category also features an aerodynamic efficiency regulation. This will restrict the amount of downforce a car can produce, but also limit the drag coefficient, to prevent an expensive development race. The limits also mean manufacturers can create vehicles that fit in with their existing road car design language, making for a distinctive grid. The homologation process will measure the cars in a wind tunnel to check they meet the regulations.

Now let's drop just about most of that, eh?

 

[Nielsen]

Hopefully there won't be BOP.

 

[PSN offapple]

Going to miss the current generation of cars (LMP's) of course, and I was originally quite skeptical about the new hypercar idea. Now though I'm starting to really look forward to this new era!

 

[Dsavage27]

It sucks that every car MUST have a hybrid powertrain, I was looking forward to see cars like the brabham bt62, Aston Vulcan, Pagani, and Apollo pop up...maybe they can use privateers engines or come up with their own within 2yrs?

 

[CodeRedR51]

I can smell Mazda jumping in on this.

They won't even give us a new Mazdaspeed3, doubt they will spend the money on this.

 

[FoRiZon]

Does I heard that news right?

GT1 class is back!

 

[Clean Racer]

"All of the FIA WEC hypercars will be hybrids. The new rules will limit this to a 268hp motor operating the front wheels only, with a minimum motor weight of 110lb and a minimum battery pack weight of 154lb."

Electric power limited to the front wheels, eh? What do you guys make of this?

 

[Dsavage27]

Electric front driven, combustion rear driven...awd..ish? It's interesting.

 

[ivann]

If downforce gets too low with almost 1000hp, that will be very dangerous and huge accidents may happen.

 

[TeamCZRRacing]

If downforce gets too low with almost 1000hp, that will be very dangerous and huge accidents may happen.

They've probably taken that into account. But when it gets really dangerous is when there's a huge difference in downforce between the ends of the car. I expect, or at least hope, we don't see that. But last time we had a class like this - LMGTP, essentially - incidents where the front of the car would come up and send the car into a violent cartwheel were a concern. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen again.

 

[-Fred-]

They've probably taken that into account. But when it gets really dangerous is when there's a huge difference in downforce between the ends of the car. I expect, or at least hope, we don't see that. But last time we had a class like this - LMGTP, essentially - incidents where the front of the car would come up and send the car into a violent cartwheel were a concern. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen again.

Did we watch the same races? The only LMGTP car I remember flipping due to poor aerodynamics was the Mercedes CLR. Unless the last 20 years of Indycar were classified as LMGTP...

 

[C-ZETA]

Did we watch the same races? The only LMGTP car I remember flipping due to poor aerodynamics was the Mercedes CLR. Unless the last 20 years of Indycar were classified as LMGTP...

Not actually an LMGTP, granted. And probably a more isolated incident, seeing as it won Le Mans that year rather than flipping out of it. But then it is fair to say the 911 GT1 was in the same bracket then as these will be now.

 

[Betty blue]

With the Lemans Hybercars supposedly replacing the LMP1's & and the high focus on low cost racing, does this mean fewer cars on the the grid and no Lmp2?

 

[vinz7531]

With the Lemans Hybercars supposedly replacing the LMP1's & and the high focus on low cost racing, does this mean fewer cars on the the grid and no Lmp2?

The idea is to have more 'LMP1' on the grid.
The LMP2 will be slowed to compensate for slower LMP1. This may explain why IMSA chose to put LMP2 in a separate category than DPI.

 

[Dexter249]

LMH is looking to be a new GT1, That 697HP figure means that the engines will most likely be the Class One 4-Cylinder Engines which means that with Honda already developing a Hybrid System for the NSX-Concept-GT, We may see a NSX in this series. Another Possibility is Toyota, which will probably be a Modern-day GT-ONE. The big Thing though is that many big manufacturers won't dive in and with GM going further towards Hybrids a Corvette C8 GTP might be in the class as well.

 

[Northstar]

I'm not quite ready to jump on the bandwagon, but hopefully we get more manufacturer interest than we currently have in the top class.

 

[LongbowX]

The lack of manufacturer involvement in discussing the rules for this class was not encouraging in terms of the amount of participation. I believe it was only Toyota and Audi in the end.

I mean, if it produces good racing and manufacturer interest, I'm down for it. We'll see if that actually happens.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

The lack of manufacturer involvement in discussing the rules for this class was not encouraging in terms of the amount of participation. I believe it was only Toyota and Audi in the end.

I mean, if it produces good racing and manufacturer interest, I'm down for it. We'll see if that actually happens.

That's a bit confusing, there wasn't any participation because of direction by FIA, hence the lack of involvement from manufactures in discussing these rules. ACO/FIA seems to think if they limit the class to the point it is nigh-spec in some regards, while limiting the open areas (engine, position of engine and such), that manufactures will be happy. As if manufactures don't want to race in WEC currently because it's too expensive...? That this is what will cause manufactures to come back. So I too have the same worries I feel you have and probably even more so.

I'd say Audi would still be there if VAG didn't do clever yet stupid backhanded regulation violations that cost tons of money hence needing to cut in areas that weren't essential. Which tells me money wasn't a big issue. Same for Porsche. Toyota complained but if they really felt that way about it why aren't they yet to spend (supposedly) in the ballpark the FIA has suggested teams will spend at? I've not seen anything from the actual break down (not these synopsis) of the rules that show how they plan to audit and ensure quality control over the spending and use of resource that don't go beyond the "budget". Looking further you have other former sports car teams like Mercedes who spend a ton of money in F1 and may utilize this series but they really don't need to considering again...they have F1. This same argument could be made for Honda and Ferrari. BMW seem to be on a more limited motorsports effort that helps push their electric initiative as well as their general sports car effort. Nissan are on an even more limited effort than BMW it could be argued. And Peugeot who have claimed for some time they'll return if the budget is right, still don't seem interested, even with the promise of a very lower cost series than it has seen in decades if this does work.

That tells me that there is a chance manufactures were never going to be listened to, and yet the FIA/ACO wants 7-9 at the peak with at least 3 on the lower limit? How does one expect this if you are A, limiting their voice in initial meetings hence why so many left before the finalized meetings even happened. And B, also eliminating your much larger and dedicated privateers. There is a reason I feel manufactures aren't going to join any time soon when this kicks off, simply because there are going to be too many early issues, and they rather someone else have to deal with ironing out those problems first. So if this model is to be the trend for the next several years, I could see manufactures joining slowly, especially if the regs evolve in a way that allows more open designing and perhaps a slight increase to the budget with it.

 

[TeamCZRRacing]

Did we watch the same races? The only LMGTP car I remember flipping due to poor aerodynamics was the Mercedes CLR. Unless the last 20 years of Indycar were classified as LMGTP...

There was also the Porsche GT1-98 incident at Road Atlanta during that time. But maybe my tired mind was exagerrating the problem.