‘Misleading’ privateers could pay price against Toyota
PRIVATEER LMP1 CARS THAT outperform Toyota in the 2018-19
World Endurance Championship will be penalised. Exactly how, we don’t know yet, but the philosophy is based on the promise from the rulemakers to give the non-hybrid P1s lap time parity with the factory hybrids – and nothing more.
The procedures are being put in place because the majority of the privateer P1 cars racing in the WEC in the superseason are new: the Ginetta-mecachrome G60LT-P1, the BRE Engineering BR1 with both AER and Gibson power, and the Oreca-built Rebellion-gibson R-13 will all race for the first time at the WEC opener at Spa at the start of May. That means the rulemakers have been reliant upon data supplied by them while they were formulating the Equivalence of Technology between hybrid and non-hybrid cars.
The message from the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’ouest, which jointly formulate the regulations, is a firm one.
“We are saying that we have given you a certain level of performance and if you are above this level, you have misled us,” said ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil. “There will be a penalty system, of which we will release details later, in case a non-hybrid car is faster than a hybrid.”
He said the system was “quite clever” and “would not disrupt the racing”.
The principle of the new system is laid down in the sporting regulations for the 2018-19 WEC superseason.
It states: “All competitors and manufacturers that deliberately provided misinformation, tried to influence the EOT process, or whose level of performance is higher than the expected result may be sanctioned with a penalty before, during or after a race.”
The rules allow for a minimum penalty of a five-minute stop-go and state that a one-lap penalty can be awarded at the end of the race.
The penalty system has been deemed necessary because the EOT cannot be modified prior to Le Mans, after which it can be changed if necessary based on the data collected during the opening races. It is then set in stone until after the 24 Hours the following season, as per previous years.
Beaumesnil stressed that the privateers would not be given any performance breaks after Spa should they prove substantially slower than the Toyota TS050 HYBRIDS.
The outright performance of the Toyota TS050 HYBRID has not been reduced on last season’s levels, only its fuel allocation to reduce the length of stints between pitstops.
For the 8.47-mile Le Mans circuit the Toyota will now have a fuel allocation of 35.1kg, down from 44.1kg in 2017. This is designed to reduce the stint length for the TS050 HYBRIDS from a potential 14 laps to 11 laps, one more than the privateer cars.