The 24 Hours of Le Mans and the series surrounding it are featured in major changes in some point of the regulations, and the top class is going to have some of it as the LMP1 cars as they are known will give place to the new “hypercars” as their regulations were ratified by the FIA.
The confirmation came during the World Motor Sport Council meeting at St. Petersburg in Russia, and things seem to be geared to big involvement of the manufacturers, maybe at the expense of the constructors like Onroak Automotive, Oreca and Dallara, to name a few.
The homologation of the class will last five years, with manufacturers being allowed to use 5 EVO jokers to evolve their current kits in order to save costs and extend the competitive life of the cars, without having to resort to a new model. The homologation process also includes that the manufacturer has to produce 25 road cars in the first competitive year of the car and 100 in the second year, with the road cars needing to share the combustion engine and ERS of the race car.
Power limits were also strictly established, with the combustion engine having a maximum of 508 kW while the ERS will have a max power of 200 kW, so the combined power can’t exceed 708 kW or 950 HP, which stays just around of the power of the current LMP1 hybrid cars.
What seems to be the real game changer in the new class is the addition of movable aero, an idea that was initially intended for the LMP1 privateer cars in order to close the gap to the LMP1 hybrids, but will in fact be part of the revamped class. Two movable aero devices can be used in a car, although the two parts composing them must remain symmetrical at all times and must have only two adjustable positions, which can be changed only by driver input, and the homologation of movable aero is subject to ACO’s criteria under wind tunnel testing.
The class still needs to be properly named, which will occur by popular voting, and for the moment only the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus confirmed participation in the formula with two examples of the new SCG007.
IMAGE: Automobile Club de l'Ouest
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