Hypercars at Le Mans will look magnificent, but how genuine will the racing be?
Richard is a contributingeditor toevoand one of the magazine’s foundingteamt
@DickieMeadenS
RICHARDMEADEN
‘Far from being a
gloves-off clash
of the titans, the
new Hypercar
class will also be a
battle of Balance
of Performance’
O LE MANSAND THEWORLDENDURANCE
Championshiphas fi nally decidedto embracethe
so-calledHypercarrulesfor2020/21.Confirmation
of the long-rumoured planswill see the end of the
top LMP1classas we know it, replacedby a new
premiercategory featuring a mix of road-basedhypercars and pure
race-bred prototypes wearing hypercar-style bodywork, each with
the choice of usinghybrid or conventionalpowertrains.
Whether you’re a young whippersnapperexcited at the prospect
of seeingposter (or shouldthat be screensaver?) cars like these
go racingfor the fi rst time,or an old codger like me who enjoyed
watching F40s,993 GT2s, McLaren F1 GTRs and then the more
specialisedGT1 Porsches and Mercedesracingat Le Manstwo
decades and more ago,it’s great news for
those of us who love the notion of road cars
goingracing.
As it stands,Toyota and Aston Martin have
both committed to the new class,both with
road-basedhypercars. Of the pair it’s Aston’s
announcementthatitwillfi eldapairofValkyries
that’s got everyone in a lather. And rightly so, for
it creates further parallelsbetween the Newey-
designed machineand Gordon Murray’s F1,
which famously won Le Mansoutright in 1995.
Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren and Ford were the
other members of a group of six manufacturers
who formed an initialtechnicalworking group
exploring the Hypercar category. Of these only
Fordhasruleditselfout,andwhiletheothersremaintight-lippedon
specifics,McLaren has expressedkeen interest and suggested it will
join for the 2021/22season.It would certainly make a compelling
halo programmefor the company’s road car division,and given the
brandwas the last to win Le Mansoutright with a genuineroad
car, the desire to repeat that achievementmust be nigh irresistible.
With Koenigseggand Scuderia Cameron Glickenhausalso keen to
join the party, it’s clear the Hypercar class has great potential.
For many of us these Hypercar regs are absolute catnip.Or at
least it would be, were it not for one thing: Balanceof Performance.
In case you’re unfamiliarwith BoP, in essenceit’s a mechanismby
which the performance of disparate cars can be equalised.Perhaps
it’s becauseI’m conditionedto view cars through the prism of
magazinegrouptests,butIhave aninstinctiveandlong-established
dislike of BoP. For althoughit meanswe are treated to bumper
grids containinga broad spread of cars, conferring advantages to
certain cars whileothers are hog-tiedoffends me.
In the real world – that’s to say the one free from motorsport
governance– we all know the score. Yet for somereasonwe’re
supposedto believe cars that aren’t rivals on the road or at a
trackdayareseparatedby ahair’sbreadthinthegreatestendurance
race of them all. Whenyou think aboutit, it’s utter nonsense.
I’ll readily accept that my view is that of a purist, and that those
who create the framework of rules by which much of motorsport
(GT/enduranceracingin particular) abides are pragmatists.
Pragmatismin this context beingindirect codefor ‘commercially
driven’. I’ll also accept that manufacturers will be vocal in their
support or their distain for BoP dependingon whether the see-saw
is up or down.
But can they really be so put out by the
impact of BoP adjustmentswhenit’s BoP that
creates the artificialparity in the fi rst place?
Put yourself in Aston Martin Racing’sshoes
in this year’s Le Mansand you can see the
problem:stick one of your GTE Pro class cars
in pole (by just a tenth of a second),then get
handeda post-qualifyingBoP adjustment– in
this case a 10kW power reduction– that sees
both your pole-sittingVantage and its sister
car inexorably drop back through the GTE Pro
fi eld before darknesshas fallen.Try explaining
that to the hundreds of guests watching from
the hospitality suite.
Sadly, far from beinga gloves-off clashof the titans between
the fastest conventionaland hybrid road cars the world has ever
seen,the new Hypercar class will also be a battleof BoP. In the case
of the Valkyrie it couldhave to be detunedby as much as 400bhp
compared to the road car to fi t with the 750bhptotal power output
limit.And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, with a raft of further
limitationsappliedto hybrid cars that deploy battery power
through the front axle, plus regulated power curves for the internal
combustion enginesand limitson downforce, all in a combined
effort to slow Le Manslap timesto the region of 3:30,which is
some15 secondsslower than this year’s LMP1s.
Don’t get me wrong, a top class comprising these sorts of cars will
surely look and soundmagnificent.And you can be sure the drivers
will race their hearts out for every mile of every lap. But if the fi ght
is so contrived, I can’t help wondering whatit is we’ll be watching.