Understanding The Rules And Regulations Of Endurance Racing – The Le Mans hypercar category will reach new heights in 2024, with nine manufacturers and 23 cars at the Le Mans 24 Hours – ushering in a new golden age of endurance racing.
The hypercar is the premier class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which also includes the slower LMP2 and LMGT3 cars. These race at the same time as the hypercars, but have no real chance of winning and compete for the win in their own category.
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Most hypercars look capable of challenging for the championship at Le Mans in 2024 – unlike in previous years under different rules where there was often a dominant manufacturer. The competition is thanks to the performance balance system, where officials adjust power and weight for each manufacturer to prevent close competition and cut costs so teams can’t benefit from expensive development.
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Ferrari, Toyota and Porsche – with 34 Le Mans victories between them – are once again competing in hypercars at Le Mans, along with Peugeot and Cadillac, who raced last year. This year, hypercar newcomers Alpine, BMW and Lamborghini join them, along with the new Isotta Fraccini.
The hypercar category replaced the more expensive LMP1 class in the World Endurance Championship (which includes the Le Mans 24 Hours) in 2021, but confusingly, the category is made up of two car types: one called the LMH (Hypercar Le Mans) where manufacturers build their cars from scratch and another called LMDh which is cheaper because teams have to use several off-the-shelf parts. What about the latter in LMDh? Article.
All hypercars have similar features that enable them to compete on a level playing field, giving each manufacturer ample opportunity to style their cars in their own brand style – for example with headlights, taillights and grilles.
Most teams are run by manufacturers, but Porsche also has customer teams that buy its 963 hypercar and run the cars themselves.
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Officials adjust the power and weight of the cars to ensure similar levels of performance and close racing. This is usually based on simulation data, to reduce the chances of teams sandbagging – masking their actual performance to avoid an unfavorable decision before a big match.
After the 2024 Six Hours of Spa, the race before Le Mans and often as a performance indicator, the FIA and ACO announced BoP changes for the Blue Rebound race in the form of weight gain or loss as well as a new power boost system. , which dictates the amount of power available to each car above and below a certain speed, which is currently set at 250 km/h.
Porsche, which has won two of the three WEC races held this season, has increased its minimum weight by 5kg but can run with 4kW more power. The Ferrari and Toyota hypercars shed 10kg and 9kg respectively, but while the Maranello cars had 2kW, the Toyota dropped 7kW.
The Peugeot 9X8 was allowed to shed 18kg, meaning it will no longer be the heaviest car in its class, and although its power limit remains unchanged below 250km/h, the French outfit will receive a net gain from almost every other car. . On average, they have 2 kW less.
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The BoP system is only intended for speed change and is applied to Hypercar and LMDh cars. Given the uncertainty over the leading contender at this year’s Le Mans, the race is considered a success, although many fans consider it too artificial.
Teams are prohibited from publicly commenting on performance levels to avoid regular complaints from teams who feel they have failed, which is feared to undermine the system.
Three factory hypercars run by Penske Motorsport. Two customer cars with Jota; And another customer car with Proton
While the LMh and LMDh cars are both classified as hypercars, there are still differences between them without immediate differences in badge or performance.
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In deciding what type of hypercar to race, manufacturers must decide whether they want to invest their money in developing everything, potentially using what they learned in road cars and in other racing series. Or take the cheaper LMDh route. Car off the shelf
One element that could give LMH cars an advantage is that front-axle hybrid systems offer four-wheel drive, with a combustion engine driving the rear axle and an electric motor at the front. LMDh vehicles are rear-wheel drive only.
If it rains – as it is predicted to in 2024 – LMH cars will be technically at an advantage. In an attempt to negate this, the ACO has made it so that LMH cars cannot engage their electric drive under normal racing conditions when running below 75 mph.
While teams are free to develop LMH cars from road models, all current teams have developed their cars from the ground up.
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Instead of endless rules dictating the specifications and dimensions of every single component like in Formula 1, designers are relatively free to choose their solutions based on performance windows.
That’s why hypercars have a wide range of V6, V8. Hybrid and non-hybrid engines are set to reach a maximum of 500 kW (671 hp). Aerodynamic simulations are carried out to ensure similar levels of downforce, which led Peugeot to open its hand to a car without a rear wing in 2023, relying on ground effect to create downforce. Peugeot has since returned to a more conventional rear wing.
LM stands for Le Mans, indicating the ACO’s (Automobile Club de L’Ouest) use of the rules as well as its adoption for the WEC, while H stands for Hypercar.
A bit confusingly, in the WEC, competitors are placed in a class called “Hypercar”, which includes LMH and LMDh cars.
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First published in 2021, the WEC’s sporting regulations for the hypercar class remain largely unchanged, specifying that “main components of newly developed cars cannot undergo further revision for a period of five seasons”. This is known as an equalization cycle, which aims to ensure a consistent level of performance across the field, regardless of when each team joins the lineup.
While LMDh teams must purchase a pre-specified LMP2 chassis from Ligier, Oreca, Dallara or Multimatic, LMH teams can create their own chassis to the dimensions listed above, which can be based on a road-going hypercar or a specialized prototype. be
While the road rule was introduced to accommodate Aston Martin and the now-discontinued Valkyrie project, due to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025, hypercar makers have so far built their cars from scratch and out of production. No road version has been designed.
Participants are free to choose the power unit, the only condition is that it should not have diesel fuel.
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While in LMDh a hybrid system is mandatory, LMH participants can choose whether to run a hybrid system. If they do, the combustion engine must drive the rear axle and drive the front electric motor.
If an LMH team chooses a hybrid system, the maximum output should be 200 kW (268 hp). Hybrid vehicles are limited in land deployment, as the electric motor does not drive below 120 km/h (75 mph). In wet weather, this limit rises to 150 km/h (91 mph).
Hybrid engines should have an advantage over non-hybrid engines in terms of power transmission speed and fuel consumption.
The appeal of LMH is that designers have much more freedom in terms of body design compared to LMDh, which is a potential bonus for manufacturers’ marketing opportunities, in addition to the freedom it brings in vehicle packaging and tuning.
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Ferrari’s hypercar took pole at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans with a lap time of 3 minutes and 22.982 seconds, which is now 7 seconds faster than predicted before the category was introduced.
However, it is still slower than Kamui Kobayashi’s current lap record for Toyota, set in 2020 qualifying at 3 minutes 14.791 seconds.
While a series of measures have been taken as part of the effort to reduce costs, mainly centered around the BoP and the restrictive aerodynamic package. The reality is that there is no hard and fast cost cap for LMH.
As a result, the costs of developing the class, through the use of its own chassis and engines, are much higher than the LMDh.
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However, it is unlikely to reach the peak cost levels of LMP1. For example, Porsche’s 919 LMP1 program, which ran from 2014 to 2017 and was only eligible to race in the WEC, is said to have cost $200 million. The new rules are designed in part to negate anything close to that kind of cost.
Toyota first unveiled its new Le Mans hypercar, the GR010 Hybrid, in 2020 and has been racing since the LMP1 circuit gave way to hypercars in 2021.
The powerful machine has since won every World Endurance Championship, scored five of a possible six WEC victories in 2023, and started 2024 on a strong note: winning the 6 Hours. Imola.
Following its recent dominance, Toyota itself admits it has found little to improve on the GR010 – although under WEC sporting regulations,