'Hypercar' Regulations Confirmed to Replace LMP1 in 2020/21

[Paul Jeffrey]

After much debate and speculation, the FIA has confirmed endurance racing will return to 'Hypercar' regulations for next season, marking the end of the current LMP1 era...

With many fans fondly remembering the mid 1990's era of endurance racing, a decade when the stunning Porsche 911 GT1 and McLaren F1 GTR's of the worlds dominated the top level of GT competition, the FIA in conjunction with several big name manufacturers have ratified new rules to come into effect for the 2020 / 2021 racing season, marking a return of the 'Hypercar' design to top tier FIA World Endurance Championship competition, and with it spelling the end of the current LMP1 Prototype style of car.

Meeting in Manilla for the second 2018 gathering of the sports powerbrokers, the FIA have finally confirmed the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours will run under a new set of regulations for the 2020/2021 racing season, ending the current and expensive LMP1 rules in favour of a more cost effective, and road relevant 'Hypercar' format as was once the case back in the mid 1990's.

Aiming to reduce costs to "one quarter of current LMP1 budgets" and give "Freedom of design for brands based on a ‘Hypercar’ concept", the new rules are expected to be explained in greater detail on the build up to Le Mans this June 15th and 16th.

It is thought that the new regulations have been designed to appeal to a wider variety of performance manufacturers, with Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren, Toyota and Ford all thought to have been involved in the discussions held so far.

To give you a little taste of the sort of cars to which I refer, check this out (btw, I was at that race, and sat in the winning Porsche ):

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Happy to hear of the new plans? Do you think this is the right move from the FIA? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[ltcars]

So like GT1 class?

 

[samcar304]

Excited to see how this pans out...

 

[apex11]

It won't be anything like 1998.

 

[otavioaff]

How I miss Group C

 

[snyperal]

A change is as good as a rest.

 

[thepharcyde]

Little taste

 

[Tom Blackett]

Sounds gd to me. Looking forward to it.

 

[Midnight⠀]

In general I prefer prototypes, however I am interested in this concept as well, let's hope for the best.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

That's a bit ingenuous - the new format is "under discussion", and I suspect is going to end up as a GT500 +hybrid silhouette formula rather than production-based like GT1 was meant to be. In other words, the end of 60 years of liberally designed prototypes, replaced by something that isn't anything - not even akin to Group 5 silhouette, which was also vaguely production based.

Not sure why they don't just can prototype classes entirely & have more open homologation for a new GT1 class. 25 produced a year perhaps.

 

[Carlitox]

It is thought that the new regulations have been designed to appeal to a wider variety of performance manufacturers, with Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren, Toyota and Ford all thought to have been involved in the discussions held so far.

So I'm picturing now an LMGTP spec LaFerrari, Valkyrie, P1 and GT. Dunno what Toyota would bring, maybe the new Supra? Anyway just overwhelmed with excitement as I typed that sentence.

GT1 cars were my childhood, to see something similar return, just so much yes.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

So I'm picturing now an LMGTP spec LaFerrari, Valkyrie, P1 and GT. Dunno what Toyota would bring, maybe the new Supra? Anyway just overwhelmed with excitement as I typed that sentence..

IIRC the new Supra is coming as a GTE car, but I can't remember where I read that ( might have been GT3? ). You won't get a prototype out of a road car, you might get something like the GT500 NSX, which is about as much a NSX as a Nissan Micra is.

 

[Ricoow]

Little taste

Oh my god, the mercedes has taken off

 

[DND]

With the LMP1 dwindling in support I think this move is fantastic. WEC and IMSA rock on

 

[DrRob]

It's a bit unfortunate that all these new LMP1 chassis were developed then, right?
Not sure this sits well with them.
That being said I'm curious what the new regulation will bring. Was getting a bit concerned that everything high-end motorsport will be prototypes in the future. As brilliant racing machines they are, they feel pretty generic in appearance to me at times.

 

[Steve Worrell]

Not quite sure how I feel about this.

I love lmp 1 class. But for a while I have been thinking I would like to see hyper car racing.

Hey, let's give it a go and see how it works. Bring it on.

 

[Andrew Harper]

This is interesting news, from what I believe and the interviews I've read there will not be a GT1 or GTX (if you like) categories. The ACO don't want the likes of the La Ferrari, Valkyrie, P1 racing in the top class. They are seen as being too much like GTE.

The feeling is that they are looking at taking the business model of DPi but making the cars more bespoke. The DPi's use a P2 chassis underneath with manufacturer designed bodywork over the top as well as their own engine. It's a great solution to allow manufacturers to win overall but at a reasonably sensible cost. I would imagine that the ACO want the cars to be more unique and the entrant will have to build their own chassis, etc.

There is still this feeling that hybrid is relevant and manufacturers want to use it, but whether that will happen we'll see. There are still the ambitions by the ACO to bring, alternative fuel cars to Le Mans which will divide fans greatly.

I have to disagree slightly about LMP1 dwindling though. I was as surprised as anyone at the number of privateer LMP1's for this year and there are more in the works for customer teams for next year as well. A bit like DPi, yes it's still expensive but it allows a team to buy a car that could be in a position to win overall and that's a good sell to potential sponsors.

I smiled in way though because I'm old enough to remember GT1 and all the Le Mans purists (and ACO) were not big fans of that period, they wanted prototypes at the front and in the end they got their way. Now we are back to that sort of period again (in theory).

As a sportscar fan my feeling is that there isn't a huge amount wrong. Apart from the LMP1-H cars the classes are actually quite healthy. We have more LMP2's than ever. More manufacturer interest in GTE and the privateer LMP1 class is looking like a reasonable success too.

I absolutely loved the hyrbrid era, I saw some of the best racing I've ever seen with those cars. So I will miss the Toyota's when they eventually go.

 

[Juwe]

2020/2021 season is NEXT season??? Ahh, I see... It's a 2 year season now. Didn't knew..

 

[dcollins22585]

This why nobody should get in bed with FIA. Hey lets build brand new LMP1 Cars from the ground up and make them worthless in 2 years. Hopefully this ends the IMSA/FIA cooperation on rules.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I'm onboard with this.