Small torque

The new era of Prototype racing at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship will begin this year, with the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class governed by an ambitious performance balancing system devised using the latest technology.

This is a change in concept from the LMP1 era, where equivalence of technology balanced the cars. The issue with this was each car had to perform at its maximum capability in order to achieve the efficiency needed to be competitive. That was expensive and so, for the Hypercar era, a more invasive and prescriptive performance balancing system has been devised by the technical teams at the ACO and FIA. Designed to allow for different concepts to race on an equal basis, it also aims to remove the incentive to develop any part of the car for performance gain.

Evaluation process

Following a long evaluation process, the LMH class will comprise five different routes into the Le Mans Hypercar category: hybrid Prototypes; non-hybrid Prototypes; hybrid road cars; non-hybrid road cars, and LMDh, which is based on an homologated LMP2 chassis with a standard hybrid system and engines and aero kits chosen by the manufacturer.

In order to bring these different concepts into the same performance bracket, parameters have been set to govern power, weight and aerodynamic efficiency, and manufacturers have to design their cars to meet these targets. They are designed against a virtual ‘reference’ car that has been created by the FIA and ACO technical teams in CAD and meshing to test and develop the new aerodynamic regulations.

We’re ensuring sporting equality and preventing cost escalation
Gilles Simon, FIA