Hypercar theme for top Le Mans class
WEC
Strict limits on aerodynamic performance lie at the heart of the new regulations announced for the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2020-21. They will allow for a range of lookalikes based on the styling of manufacturers’ super-sportscars or hypercars to compete against each other, at the same time as capping costs.
Maximum-downforce and minimumdrag figures will be laid down in the Lmp1-replacement formula, which was announced in outline form last week ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours. This will allow for the lookalike styling over pure-bred racing chassis that the rulemakers – the Automobile Club de l’ouest and the FIA – believe is necessary to attract manufacturers to the highest level of endurance racing. It will also draw a line through the expensive windtunnel and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) development that has traditionally defined the shape of P1 machinery.
“The idea is that if you define the values then there is no reason to spend money on windtunnel development because you will get no reward,” said ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil. “This will be a new process in which we will measure the cars in the windtunnel and make full body scans of them. This way we can make sure that the cars can go up to the point we lay down, but not go over it.”
Toyota Motorsport Gmbh technical director Pascal Vasselon described the principles behind the aero rules as an “interesting innovation”.
“Instead of micro-managing the regulations by banning this winglet or that one, where the regulatory body is always behind the engineers, here the actual aerodynamic performance is set,” he explained. “The target is to set the aero efficiency at an achievable level, not at a level that requires 30 people over three years. It should be achievable by a team with a few good CFD engineers.”
Active aerodynamics will be permitted in a class that is aimed at both manufacturers and constructors – there are no plans for a separate privateer subclass. This is also a cost-saving measure that will do away with the need to develop separate low and high-downforce configurations for the Le Mans 24 Hours and the six-hour
“IT STILL REPRESENTS A BIG INCREASE IN COST FROM WHERE WE ARE WITH DPI”
WEC races held on Formula 1 circuits.
FIA technical director Gilles Simon explained that this would allow for “greater efficiency at lower cost” and made sense at a time when active aero was increasingly becoming part of road-car design.
The new breed of WEC prototypes will be hybrids like their predecessors, but the level of energy-retrieval will be downscaled in the name of cost-reduction. Just one system, a front-axle KERS, will be permitted rather than the current two, and the maximum power output of this has been reduced from 400bhp to 270bhp.
Any manufacturer developing its own system – both the battery and the motor-generator unit – will have to make it available to other entrants at a price yet to be laid down.
The rulemakers believe that the cost-saving measures will mean that budgets can be reduced to just 25% of current levels. A figure of €25-30million has been suggested for a two-car team competing in the WEC.
This does not appear to be enough of a reduction to make the new formula attractive to the IMSA Sportscar Championship, which the ACO has been lobbying to adopt the 2020 rules.
“Even with the significant reductions announced it still represents a big increase from where we are with the DPI [Daytona Prototype international] and LMP2 formula that is working well,” said IMSA series boss Scott Atherton. “We have spoken to several manufacturers who share our opinion that, even with what has been achieved in terms of cost reduction, it is not yet to a level that would enable them to participate.”
Atherton said that IMSA would be working with the ACO and the FIA to try to further reduce costs prior to the publication of the full rulebook before the end of this year. The first Technical Working Group meeting that will start drafting the rules meets in early July.
The larger cockpit dimensions of cars that will be true two-seaters will allow the introduction of the safety upgrade that was first planned for 2018. There will be greater space around the driver’s head, and the seating position will be more upright.
The new cars will be slightly slower than the twin-hybrid LMP1S that have raced in the WEC since 2014. The target is for the new cars to be able to achieve a qualifying lap time of 3m20s around the 8.47-mile Le Mans circuit. That’s only 5s slower than pole position for last weekend’s race. The new cars will be heavier – 980kg rather than 870kg – and have less downforce, but the rulemakers believe that an additional 200bhp from the cars’ internal-combustion engines make that a realistic target.