New LMP1 hypercar regulations coming in 2020
Starting in the 2020/2021 season of the WEC there will be a new set of LMP1 cars set to battle it out for endurance racing supremacy thanks to an all new set of regulations using hypercar based bodies, road going powertrains and requiring a minimum number of units to be manufactured each year – 25 in 2020 and 100 in 2021. On December 5, 2018 the FIA voted in favor of the new changes. This is all very exciting news as the new rules have sparked renewed life into an otherwise dying category.
In recent years LMP1 has lost major manufacturer teams such as Audi and Porsche due to soaring costs of the current hybrid powertrain regulations and the Dieselgate scandal which cost the VW Group $15 Billion. These departures have served a major blow to the top tier of endurance racing. Audi has been a staple of the LMP1 category since 1999 and has been extremely dominant for much of the 17 years it participated. Porsche dominated as soon as Audi departed, but they too have now moved to greener pastures in the form of Formula E. The only surviving manufacturer team is Toyota, which currently is dominant due to the fact that they are the only team left with a hybrid set up, competing against non-hybrid LMP1 rivals with significantly smaller budgets.
These new regulations can’t come fast enough. They are looking to be a lifeline for LMP1 as several top manufacturers have lined up to join in on the new ‘hypercar’ class including the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mclaren and lesser known Glickenhaus. There is also one other, yet to be announced, manufacturer who has committed to joining in on the Hypercar LMP1 party. Ford had expressed interest early on in the discussions for the new regulations, but has since abandoned the idea.
There has also been interest from other smaller manufacturers. The most highly anticipated of these is Koenigsegg who has expressed interest in entering. Koenigsegg had a failed attempt at endurance racing more than a decade ago and it seems that founder Christian Von Koenigsegg is still keen on going racing in his multi-million dollar hypercars.
Personally, I am extremely excited to have the top car manufacturers battle it out at Le Mans in road going hypercars. The racing will be a return of the glory days in the late 1990’s when endurance racing saw the likes of the legendary Mclaren F1 GTR racing against rivals such as the
Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the Porsche 911 GT1.
The good news is that the racing can only get better.
