[Auto] Le Mans 2021: How new hypercar rules are shaking up the grid

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Even before the opening round of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship in Portugal on 4 April, it’s tempting to call the new hypercar era a smash hit. Why? Well, Toyota, for starters. Alpine, sort of. Peugeot, at least from next year. Later, Audi and Porsche. Acura, too. And very definitely not forgetting Ferrari.

Given that Toyota has spent the past three years competing against a bunch of well-intentioned privateers in the ailing, expensive LMP1 prototype class, the promised influx of manufacturers is testimony to the new hypercar regulations. The promise of lower costs, a level playing field, an arena to showcase new technology and the chance to compete in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours is a winning combination.The appeal is simple: every manufacturer will head to Le Mans knowing that, if they perform well, they should have a chance of victory. The rules themselves aren’t so simple, and there have been significant changes along the way as various authorities and manufacturers have had their input. The result is two similar-but-different packages: the WEC’s Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) rules and, from next year, the US-based IMSA Sportscar Championship’s Le Mans Daytona Hybrid (LMDh) formula. And, for 2021 at least, old LMP1 cars are allowed to compete, albeit with their performance pegged back.

How will it work?

The agreement between the various rules organisers (motorsport’s governing body, the FIA; Le Mans’ organiser, the ACO; and North America’s sports car racing sanctioning body, IMSA) has been key to ensuring that the two new rules packages converge. Essentially, LMH and LMDh take different routes to the same outcome.

in both classes, peak power output is pegged at 670bhp. Cars in both classes must be of an identical size and weight, while achieving a set downforce-to-drag ratio and strict controls on aerodynamic development, while ensuring that manufacturers are free to add styling touches to certain areas of bodywork.

The goal is to produce cars that lap Le Mans’ 8.467-mile Circuit de la Sarthe in around 3min 30sec – about 10 seconds slower than a current LMP1 car – while cutting costs and increasing competition. To ensure that, a Balance of Performance (BoP) formula will be employed – similar to that used in the GTE Pro class – to level the pace of each hypercar.

But while every LMH and LMDh car will theoretically be capable of the same pace and performance, the various rules still allow for vast differences and, vitally, creativity.

Le Mans hypercar

The LMP1 prototype regulations date back to 1992. At their core, they offered manufacturers powertrain and technology freedom that was absent from other top-level racing. As a result, manufacturers used LMP1 to showcase new technology, and in its final decade the focus shifted to highly sophisticated hybrid powertrains. It therefore became hugely expensive, leaving privateers unable to compete and prompting an exodus of road-car makers until, from 2018, only Toyota remained.The aim of the hypercar rules is to cut costs while still allowing manufacturers to use advanced, road-relevant technology.

“There has been not only a regulation change but a regulation principal change,” says Toyota technical chief Pascal Vasselon. “In LMP1, the regulations were prescriptive, so we were told ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’. In LMH, we have a performance target: we can do what we want, but you have to fit into a very precise performance window.”
The rules actually allow for two basic types of hypercar. The first are bespoke racing prototypes, including 2021 machines from Toyota and US low-volume specialist Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, plus future cars from Peugeot and Ferrari. Cars based on road-going hypercars are also allowed – although after Aston Martin canned its plan to race the Valkyrie in favour of a Formula 1 entry, none of these are in the works.

The dimensions of the hypercars are set and there are controls on key bodywork areas, with development not allowed. Cars must send the power from their combustion engine to their rear wheels, but they can fit an electric motor of up to 268bhp for driving the front axle to enable four-wheel drive. Entries based on road-legal hypercars must retain the hybrid layout of the original.

To level performance with the rear-driven LMDh cars, LMH cars will be unable to deploy hybrid power below 75mph in the dry (a wet-weather speed has yet to be finalised).