2020 Hyper cars Regulations Le Mans, ACO, FIA, and others

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09-27-2018 | 06:26 PM

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senor honda

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2020 Hyper cars Regulations Le Mans, ACO, FIA, and others

'Hypercar' regs could herald new Le Mans golden era – Brown

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By: Stephen Kilbey | September 26, 2018 6:26 AM McLaren’s decision as to whether or not it will sign up to the 2020 as yet unnamed Hypercar regulations is set to come soon, and that with the regulations almost finalized, McLaren’s Zak Brown feels they could bring “glory years” back to Le Mans in the near future.Speaking during last weekend’s ELMS round at Spa, Brown explained that there’s a two-stage process to green-lighting the project.“I have a meeting tomorrow [last Sunday] at my office with Pierre Fillon, Gerard Neveu and Richard Mille and I know we are now very close to seeing the final regulations and rules. Tomorrow is a day for us to respond to what they presented to us,” he said.“It’s a two-step process, one step in October, and another in early December. It’s a project we’re definitely interested in, we like the direction of it. The WEC is a great series, McLaren has a great history in it, and our automotive business is going great, so the model they’re going with, with ‘hypercars’ and budget-sensitive racing, is attractive to us.”

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Brown also insists there’s still plenty of interest from other manufacturers in the incoming rules and that believes the direction which the ACO and FIA are heading is the right one to attract multiple manufacturers, despite reports to the contrary.“I think there’s a lot of interested parties,” he said. “The direction it’s headed, I think will be very successful. I could see five to six manufacturers. Maybe not on day one, but once a few commit, others will come. I think we’ll see the glory years at Le Mans, and with that will come big drivers and sponsors.“I think we’ll see five or six manufacturers involved. Perhaps not all of them from the very start, but I think they have got this right; there is real appeal for manufacturers at the price and technology level that is being set.“If things progress in the way I think they are going, I think we have some really exciting, real new golden-era times coming at Le Mans and in the WEC.”Should McLaren sign up, Brown confirmed that his sports car team United Autosports, which he runs alongside Richard Dean and is planning to take to the WEC, will not be involved. The only tie-up between his two companies would be if United Autosports considered running a customer car designed and built by McLaren.“I will never combine United Autosports and McLaren in any way shape or form,” he said “I don’t know if it’s a conflict of interest, but people will say it is so I won’t go there. With drivers, like bringing Fernando or Lando over? Sure, that’s fine. But United will never be a McLaren team.“In the instance though, were there would be a McLaren customer program and United was racing and McLaren was an option, then of course.”

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11-15-2018 | 06:05 AM

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INSIGHT: A nearly-full LM24 entry list means some tough decisions for the organizers

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By: Stephen Kilbey November 5, 2018 11:46 AM At the ELMS and Le Mans Cup finales at the end of last month, a further five automatic entries were handed out for the 2019 running of the Grand Prix d’Endurance.As a result, more of the Le Mans entry list is locked in than ever before at this point in the calendar year, with most of the automatic entries having already been handed out, and the entire current 2018/19 WEC field due to take up their slots.And for many potential entrants outside of the WEC grid, that’s a little concerning, as between 44-47 of the 60 allotted grid slots are all but taken at the time of writing.It means two things: that the upcoming Asian Le Mans Series season over the winter will be more important than ever for some of the key players, and that any potential IMSA or ELMS teams looking to make a trip to Le Mans – outside of the allotted automatic entries – will be fighting over a very small allocation.So, who’s already on the list?Currently, the entire FIA WEC full-season 36-car field (though two of them, the CEFC TRSM Racing AER Ginettas, are a question mark at this point), plus all the automatic entries already spoken for.

G-Drive has booked its place at Le Mans through its success in the ELMS. Image by LAT

Those automatic entries are as follows:

Michelin Le Mans Cup – GT3 class winner: Kessel Racing (GTE-Am)
European Le Mans Series – LMP2 and overall winner: G-Drive Racing (LMP2)
European Le Mans Series – LMP3 class winner: RLR MSport (LMP2)
European Le Mans Series – GTE class winner: Proton Competition (GTE Am)
European Le Mans Series – GTE runner-up – JMW Motorsport (GTE Am)
IMSA *– Bob Akin Trophy: Ben Keating (GTE-Am) Risi Competizione/ Keating Ferrari
IMSA – Jim Trueman Trophy: Misha Goikhberg (LMP2)
Le Mans 24 Hours – LMP1 winner: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Le Mans 24 Hours – LMP2 winner: Signatech Alpine
Le Mans 24 Hours – GTE Pro winner: Porsche
Le Mans 24 Hours – GTE Am winner: Dempsey Proton

Of those, we know that Toyota is unlikely to field a third car at Le Mans. Beyond that though, there’s are no apparent reason to doubt that the others will take up their entries, with the commercial potential for a lot of the private teams on the list too enticing to turn down.That leaves just the Asian Le Mans automatic entries to complete the set. The final automatic entries will be handed out in LMP2 for the overall champions and for the winner in the LMP2 Gentleman’s Trophy (for crews with only Silver and Bronze rated driver line-ups), in GTE Am for the GT class winners, and in LMP3 for the class champions. So, by the end of the Asian LMS season, between 48 and 51 of the 60 grid slots may already be taken.This leaves very few spaces, and some big decisions to make. For instance, should Jackie Chan DC Racing win another two entries with its Asian Le Mans Series effort, the team will have the potential to enter four cars at Le Mans again, leaving around 10 spaces open if everyone else that’s already confirmed makes the trip.

Might some IMSA teams find themselves squeezed out of Le Mans next year? Image by LePage/LAT

And make no mistake, this sort of situation could very well catch out bigger teams outside of the WEC that haven’t yet made the cut. There is such a huge collection of prospective teams, and so many potential scenarios, but none of them result in everyone that’s looking to race at Le Mans receiving a place on the grid.Just two years ago, almost the entire ELMS LMP2 field received a Le Mans entry. This time around, if all of the 17 full-season cars were put forward, it is unlikely that half of them will make the cutWith so few spaces left there are some difficult decisions needing to be made by the Selection Committee, which cannot please everyone. Does a set of IMSA teams, many of whom are likely to be factory cars from Corvette, Porsche, Ford and/or BMW, receive invitations? Or will those in charge favor the ELMS LMP2 and GTE teams based closer to the organizer’s home? Or will we see a selection from both camps?When those questions are answered, and the full 60-car field is announced, we will get an understanding of where the ACO’s priorities lie, and how the balance is drawn between the commercial advantages of inviting more factory cars, and the perhaps more medium-term advantages of encouraging privateers from its own continental championships.

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06-19-2019 | 03:58 AM

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INSIGHT: Hypercar Prototype gets rules, first cars...now what?

INSIGHT: Hypercar Prototype gets rules, first cars...now what?

Image by FIA WEC

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By: Stephen Kilbey | June 14, 2019 8:27 AM

Today was a huge day for the future of international sports car racing.

At its annual conference in the Le Mans paddock, the ACO confirmed the adoption of its ‘Hypercar Prototype’ rules which will take over as the top class in the FIA WEC from the 2020/21 season onward. Then, it left it up to the factories to announce programs.

How many are in right now? Two.

Unsurprisingly Toyota Gazoo Racing has bought in and confirmed its program. The Japanese manufacturer has been clear for a long time now that should the rules include the chance to develop its own hybrid system, and race at a sensible cost, that it would carry on racing. And so it is, with a hybrid-powered, prototype version of the GR Super Sports Concept, that Toyota will continue its longstanding WEC program which has been active since 2012.

GR Super Sports Concept. Image by Toyota

“We have been involved with the regulation process for a long time and initially, in fact until February, the prototype route was the only one,” said Toyota Gazoo Racing’s technical director Pascal Vasselon at the conference. “So we have been moving forward in this direction very logically and then logically we have been working with what we have.

“We have passed several deadlines already (because the rules took longer than expected to be finalized), so according to our usual development schedule we are late. The car will be running somewhere in the middle of next year — it will be a very short gap before the first race.”

It’s going to be tough to get a program together for Year 1, but Toyota has proven in the past that it can deliver the goods on a short time frame.

How many cars will Toyota bring? There’s no clear answer yet, though two is the most likely outcome.

Will it supply its cars to customers? Program boss Rob Luepen told RACER the brand hasn’t considered it yet, as it has only had the final set of regulations for just over two weeks. He did say a third car for the 2021 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours could be possible, however.

Who will Toyota be racing? Aston Martin. The British marque has been bold and green-lit a program to race a non-hybrid V12-powered Valkyrie, based on the extreme road car designed by Red Bull racing’s aero guru Adrian Newey, with input from Aston Martin design chief Marek Reichmann.

Aston Martin Valkyrie. Image by Red Bull

The car, RACER believes, will be built by Multimatic with Swiss concern AF Racing — already active in GT3 and DTM racing — forming part of the commercial package to support the program.

Aston Martin — which last attempted to race in an ACO top class back in 2011 and since then has been racing in GTE, a program that won’t be affected by this effort — will run “at least two” cars in season one and bring back a manufacturer battle at the top of the FIA WEC, after two seasons of Toyota racing against privateer teams in LMP1.

“We have always said that we would one day bring Aston Martin back to Le Mans with the intention of going for the outright win when the time was right — now is that time,” Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO Andy Palmer said. “David Brown came here (Le Mans) in 1959 with a car and a team of drivers capable of winning. We intend to do the same in 2021.

“The Aston Martin Valkyrie is primed for such a challenge and sits perfectly within the ACO’s new ‘hypercar’ rule framework. Bringing to bear all of our previous experience and knowledge of competing at the top levels of motorsport, we embark on this most ambitious project with the necessary ingredients for success. What could be more evocative than the wail of an Aston Martin V12 leading the charge into the night on the Mulsanne straight?”

Who else will join? For season one it isn’t yet clear, though both Glickenhaus and ByKolles have publicly announced that they are working on bringing privateer entries to the category. Beyond that, there’s clearly the potential for the likes of Rebellion Racing and SMP Racing, who are currently racing in LMP1, to join in. But manufacturers are being targeted — and heavily — for Year 2 of this concept.

“We expect more than two manufacturers,” FIA WEC CEO Gerard Neveu told RACER. “You never think for Year 1, you think that for the first year it’s reasonable two will be ready. But many more should come for the following season. Maybe more Year 1? That’s not my job — I have to manage the championship. I’ve just released the grid for season eight, I don’t know the grid for season nine yet!”

2019 Le Mans field. Image by Alexander Trienitz/LAT

What prospective manufacturers will be eager to see is whether or not the FIA and ACO can balance such a variety of technologies. There will be hybrid-powered prototypes racing against non-hybrid road car-based entries from factories off the bat, so Balance of Performance (in a similar fashion to GTE Pro) will need to be managed carefully to prevent one factory from dominating and putting off potential newcomers.

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06-19-2019 | 03:58 AM

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part 2

Both Toyota’s Rob Leupen and Neveu are bullish about the effectiveness of BoP at the top in the WEC going forward. It’s being lauded as a positive, and will replace the current Equivalence of Technology system which has failed to produce good racing between hybrid and non-hybrid prototypes during the ‘Super Season’.

“I’m as confident as I was confident for the BoP in GTE,” Neveu continued. “Who can complain about that? When we introduced the current BoP two years ago, people were skeptical for that. Then I see the qualifying times at Le Mans this year. That’s my comment.

“I think it will be a huge task, but we have established clear rules. There is a job to do, but they did well with GTE, balancing very different cars. I’m confident it will be as good as in GTE.”

“The minimum time for the Hypercars (at Le Mans) is 3m30s, that’s the mandatory target” – Gerard Neveu

Other things must be considered too, which is that the performance window for the new ‘Hypecar Prototypes’ is similar to that of the current LMP2s. Ensuring that the new top class beat LMP2s on pace — and that LMP2 teams are content with being slowed — is another issue to navigate.

Again, Neveu is confident, and almost shrugged it off as a potential pitfall.

“The minimum time for the Hypercars (at Le Mans) is 3m30s, that’s the mandatory target,” he said. “We feel comfortable that we should be a little bit quicker at the end. We will see how it goes. We have to see the car running in the winter to work it out. If we have to reduce LMP2s by 50 horsepower, for example, it won’t be difficult and it won’t change the structure of the grid. It will be what we have now.

“What we have to be careful is what exactly the performance level is for Le Mans Hypercar Prototypes.”

ORECA head Hugues de Chaunac also believes that slowing down LMP2 cars won’t pose a problem. “They are new regulations, teams will have to accept this,” he told RACER.

One thing is for sure, though: the blistering pace from the current LMP1 pack will not return anytime soon at La Sarthe. This could be seen as a disappointment, but if it creates good, hard racing, then doubters will be hard to find.

Some key players in the IMSA camp, including the sanctioning body’s president Scott Atherton and Mazda Motorsports boss John Doonan, were also on hand for the ACO’s press conference. IMSA’s DPi formula was considered for the FIA WEC during the negotiations, potentially creating a global formula for prototype racing, but it didn’t happen. Thus, Atherton and Doonan are both left in a rather odd position.

“We heard a lot about it (Hypercar) over recent months,” said Doonan. “From a Mazda standpoint we’re committed to the championship in IMSA, and DPi. We’re very committed to the DPi project currently and as IMSA discusses, DPi 2.0.

“Unfortunately, resources are resources — I couldn’t commit anything to the top category (in the WEC). Mazda has a huge history at Le Mans, you never know what will happen in the new handful of years. But now we continue to work with our IMSA project.”

Atherton, meanwhile, stressed that despite the split in rulesets between the WEC and IMSA, the dialogue and relationship between the two sanctioning bodies “has never been stronger.”

So, here we go. We have one more FIA WEC season to run before ‘Hypercar Prototype’ takes over at the top of the shop, and two factories that are now left with a huge task in getting their programs ready for the start of the 2020/21 season.

Will this be a success? While there has been a significant amount of positivity injected into this formula in the past 24 hours, the jury is still out. But Neveu, and everyone with a hand in making the FIA WEC a success, is desperate for this to work.

“The idea is to make the fans, the people, happy about this sport,” said Neveu. “We have a huge community behind us and our job is to make them happy. There’s no better way to do that than to produce a spectacular race in each category. The only thing people want is a battle — fighting and a story. We have to make this work.”

Aston Martin, Hypercar, Toyota, Insights & Analysis, Le Mans/WEC

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06-19-2019 | 04:00 AM

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Toyota joins Hypercar class in WEC

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By: Stephen Kilbey June 14, 2019 4:53 AM

Toyota Gazoo Racing has confirmed it will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship after next season in the new top class ‘Le Mans Hypercar Prototype’ category which will kick in for the 2020/21 season, confirmed today by the ACO at its annual Le Mans press conference.

The announcement means the Japanese marque will continue to race in International prototype racing, extending its program which began back in 2012, during the inaugural FIA WEC season.

With Toyota and Aston Martin (announced earlier today) on board, the new ‘Hypercar Prototype’ regulations have attracted two major manufacturers for Year 1 of the ruleset, which includes the 2021 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Week In Sports Cars, June 18, with Graham Goodwin

Le Mans GTE-Am-winning No.85 Ford disqualified

No.68 Ford disqualified after Le Mans; GTE-Am in question

“I am pleased to confirm that Toyota Gazoo Racing will continue its challenge in endurance racing beyond the current regulations,” Shigeki Tomoyama, Gazoo Racing president, said. “Thank you to the ACO and FIA for their hard work in finalizing these regulations, which we hope will bring about a new golden age of endurance racing, with several manufacturers fighting for Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

“For Toyota Gazoo Racing, this new era of competition is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate our credentials not only as a race team against some of the best in the business, but also as a sports car manufacturer. I am sure I join fans and competitors in welcoming the new regulations and looking forward to an exciting era of competition in WEC and at Le Mans.”

The Toyota team will enter a racing version of the GR Super Sports Concept into the top FIA WEC category. Driver Kamui Kobayashi is among those working directly on the development of the car, a road-going version of which was shown at the conference in a video, running at Fuji Speedway.

Track testing of the new race car, the name of which will be revealed at a later date, will begin next year prior to the start of the 2020-2021 season while further details of the GR Super Sport road car will be issued by Toyota Gazoo Racing in due course.

“It’s a great announcement,” Toyota driver Sebastien Buemi told RACER. “We had been informed some time ago about it. We are just happy that the new regulations are official now. We are hopeful that things are now headed in the right direction and that these regulations will attract people. It’s a new start.”

“Kamui was the only driver to test the prototype in Japan. I haven’t. (Jose Maria) Lopez has done a lot of work on the simulator. It’s probably the best way to test it so far. We are in the early days of the project and some setup options aren’t finalized yet on this car. What we know is that we will get to start testing (the final product) quite late. Probably no sooner than July 2020.”

Hypercar, Le Mans, Toyota, Le Mans/WEC

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06-19-2019 | 04:08 AM

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ACO confirms Hypercar regulations for 2020/2021 season

ACO confirms Hypercar regulations for 2020/2021 season

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By: Stephen Kilbey | June 14, 2019 1:47 AM

The ACO has confirmed that the newly-dubbed “Le Mans Hypercar Prototype” formula will be used for the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship from the 2020/21 season.

This means that the current LMP1 class will be replaced with this revamped ruleset for the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours, as forecast by RACER in recent weeks.

Now gone from reckoning are both the GTE Plus and DPi ‘Plan B’ options, with both Toyota and Aston Martin due to announce Hypercar Prototype programs as early as today. RACER believes that other major manufacturers are close to committing after privately expressing their interest in the new formula should the regulations prove capable of applying effective BoP and cost control.

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Week In Sports Cars, June 18, with Graham Goodwin

Le Mans GTE-Am-winning No.85 Ford disqualified

No.68 Ford disqualified after Le Mans; GTE-Am in question

Under the new rules, the cars will have a minimum weight of 1100 kilos, with around 750hp engines. Both hybrid and non-hybrid cars are allowed, with the hybrid systems capable of producing 250hp.

In order to help equalize performance between hybrids and non-hybrids, hybrid vehicles will not be permitted to deploy their boost below 120 kph (75 mph) on slick tires, with a speed between 140-160 kph (87-100 mph) set to be defined for deployment in wet weather.

In addition, there will be BoP (based on GTE’s auto BoP) for road car vs prototype chassis, as well as the various drivetrains. Underfloor aero is open.

There will be strict safety parameters, too. Safety standards for the road car-based chassis for this formula will be “similar to LMP1,” according to the ACO.

To be eligible for competition, manufacturers of a Hypercar based on a road-going model must produce a minimum of 20 road-going versions over a two-year period.

There will be a single tire supplier.

RACER also believes that the initial rule provision that OEM hybrid systems must be provided for sale to other competitors has not made it into the final draft of the regulations.

ACO, Hypercar, Le Mans, Le Mans/WEC

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06-19-2019 | 04:10 AM

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Aston Martin first to confirm WEC Hypercar program

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By: Stephen Kilbey June 14, 2019 2:39 AM

Aston Martin has formally confirmed that it will compete in the FIA WEC’s top class in the 2020/21 season, which includes the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hours.

The British marque will enter at least two works non-hybrid Valkyrie race cars for the championship as it bids for overall victory at Le Mans once again in the new Le Mans Hypercar Prototype Class, which will replace LMP1.

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Week In Sports Cars, June 18, with Graham Goodwin

Le Mans GTE-Am-winning No.85 Ford disqualified

No.68 Ford disqualified after Le Mans; GTE-Am in question

The Valkyrie base model is the brand’s most extreme road car, designed by a combination of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, Aston Martin EVP and Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman and Aston Martin VP and Chief Special Operations Officer David King.

It was created as a result of a technical collaboration between Aston Martin, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and project partner AF Racing.

The new car will feature a race version of the Valkyrie’s bespoke normally-aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine. Placed within a lightweight carbon fiber structure, and featuring F1 inspired aerodynamic technology, it forms a fully competitive platform capable of challenging for outright race wins.

“The FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans represent the ultimate challenge for the Aston Martin Valkyrie – the world’s most extreme hypercar,” said Aston Martin Vice President and Chief Special Operations Officer David King.

“Designed and built with the purpose of pushing boundaries on the road, it’s natural to conclude that the next stage in its development would be to measure its capabilities on the track. I can think of no better way to do that than to compete in a world championship, and the most prestigious and famous race of all.”

Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO Andy Palmer added: “We have always said that we would one day bring Aston Martin back to Le Mans with the intention of going for the outright win when the time was right – now is that time. David Brown came here in 1959, with a car and a team of drivers capable of winning. We intend to do the same in 2021.

Aston Martin’s sole outright Le Mans win came in 1959, when Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori led a 1-2 in their DBR1. Image by LAT

“The Aston Martin Valkyrie is primed for such a challenge and sits perfectly within the ACO’s new ‘hypercar’ rule framework. Bringing to bear all of our previous experience and knowledge of competing at the top levels of motorsport, we embark on this most ambitious project with the necessary ingredients for success. What could be more evocative than the wail of an Aston Martin V12 leading the charge into the night on the Mulsanne straight?”

RACER believes that race cars will be built by Multimatic to Newey’s designs.

Aston Martin, Hypercar, Le Mans/WEC