In the third of a short, four-part, series of interviews with some of the significant stakeholders in the debate about the 2020 ‘Hypercar’ regulations, IMSA’s Scott Atherton chimes in. Here he speaks to DSC about the opportunities presented by a week at Sebring with all parties together, on the remaining potential for a global solution and with an update on current progress towards IMSA’s second generation DPi, currently due in 2022.

Has this (Sebring) weekend helped in terms of the future of this event, and perhaps with the future of prototype racing, to have the opportunity for more face time with the ACO and WEC in perhaps a less structured situation?

“No question that any time you can get face to face as opposed to electronically it’s a benefit.

“That’s especially the case when dealing with international business affairs. The opportunity to sit down with Pierre (Fillon), with Gerard (Neveu), with Vincent (Beaumesnil) and their respective peer group, Jim France, Ed Bennet, Simon Hodgson and myself and not have a structured agenda but simply to have a casual conversation is an arena in which, in my opinion, is often more effective because things come up organically.

“We’ve always had a strong relationship. That’s never been in question. Speaking personally I have been involved in discussions with the ACO for around 20 years, going back to the early days of the American Le Mans Series and I don’t think there has ever been a stronger personal relationship than what we have right now.

We’ve not always agreed on things, that’s unrealistic, but we have many common goals and our businesses are very similar

“Pierre and Jim are very much aligned, Gerard and I spend a lot of time together.

“We’ve not always agreed on things, that’s unrealistic, but we have many common goals and our businesses are very similar, though we conduct them in different parts of the world.

“But any time that we can get together like that, as we have throughout the week, it can only be described as a positive.”

With the latest moves from the FIA/ ACO to allow the road car based hypercars within their future regulations, the performance window moves closer to IMSA’s vision, is there still an opportunity for a global solution for prototype racing?

“It’s impossible to predict the future, It’s well documented that we are in a process right now of defining the next generation of DPi, or whatever it may be referenced. Are we absolutely wedded to that moniker? No, but it works for us, and the fact that the technical regulations involving the next generation WEC/ ACO car seem to still be open to change, that in my opinion constitutes a reason for hope that we can continue to work together to find something that works across the globe.

“There is hope, hope is not a strategy but it does give us something to build upon.

“Now, that may be a wildly optimistic sentence, but time right now is rapidly becoming a major issue, their intention is still to have new cars on track in September of 2020, that’s tomorrow by industry standards.

“Our timetable has our new next-generation cars on the track by January 2022 so obviously more time involved but we are of the opinion that we need to move forward at a brisk pace if only to provide solid direction to our existing constituents as well as to others that have expressed interest.

“No-one is resting right now and I’m cautiously hopeful that we can still achieve an ultimate goal that everybody would be happy about.”

What is the next waypoint on your journey towards a Gen 2 DPi?

“We don’t have deadlines as such at present, what we do have is a very detailed questionnaire which has been sent to all of our existing DPi stakeholders as well as to a number of others that have expressed interest in the future.

“It covers all aspects of the questions at hand from powertrain technology to bodywork styling to composite materials, you name it.

“The initial responses are now being received. We’ve been completely focused on executing this weekend so it has been put to one side to allow that.

“The next stage is to collect all responses, start a spreadsheet analysis of them all, look for the common threads, look for the outliers, the extremes and try then to determine via the feedback that we have, and the existing platform that we have, where do we go next.

we are all in favour of a global solution but we must retain the core tentpoles that have enabled the DPi formula to be so successful

“I would think the next step for us is to get that group together and discuss, based on the feedback we have received. This is a preliminary thumbnail sketch of what the next gen could look like both from a technical perspective and from a more marketing-led perspective in terms of what the future cars could look like.”

What can you tell us about the place that the spec P2 chassis base has in the debate over the next generation for DPi?

“Speaking for IMSA, but in particular referencing Jim France’s view. He credits that particular aspect of the DPi plan as being the single most important factor for making the formula as successful as it has been, that a manufacturer does not have to design and build a bespoke chassis, crash test it, homologate it etc, a very expensive undertaking.

“Our vision would be for our next generation to incorporate a similar approach if not an identical approach. Whether or not it’s the same constructors has yet to be determined, but that formula that has been so effective in terms of keeping costs of entry and competition down at a relatively affordable level, that had been determined by both manufacturers and team to be a viable, sustainable model is what we want to retain.

“That’s something we have said literally from the very beginning, we are all in favour of a global solution but we must retain the core tentpoles that have enabled the DPi formula to be so successful.”