Audi’s impending departure from LMP1 has raised a lot of questions about the future of sportscar racing and the World Endurance Championship in particular. Audi’s loss adds to the already confirmed announcement of Rebellion Racing from LMP1 leaving only Toyota and Porsche as serious LMP1 efforts, so just four serious cars in the LMP1 field at most races in the WEC next season.

I think that the Audi announcement came as a surprise to the ACO and the WEC organisation in general, and it may see technical and sporting regulations changing going forwards. It has been made clear by some auto makers that if they were not required to run hybrid systems then they would be interested in entering LMP1.

Peugeot Sport has voiced its belief that manufacturers should be able to enter LMP1 with a non-hybrid car, something which is currently reserved for privateer teams, it is not alone, at least one other major manufacturer has been lobbying the ACO to enter a non-hybrid car. Previously the ACO had resisted these approaches telling Racecar Engineering magazine in recent weeks that “its impossible for manufacturers to enter as a non-hybrid, it would be totally unfair. A car with a proper R&D behind it built to the new regulations would be so fast. Have you had a proper look at the relative performance of the non-hybrid cars?”

The suggestion was that if a manufacturer built a car to the non-hybrid regulations which offer a much lower weight, greater aerodynamic freedom and more liberal engine usage rules, then it would have such a great advantage nothing could beat it. Perhaps this stance is correct, the two LMP1-L cars ‘racing’ currently were both originally conceived as LMP2 designs, namely the ORECA 05 and Lotus T128, and were not given anything like the level of aerodynamic or chassis development you would expect with a works team.



So what would happen if the cars were built with manufacturer level resource? Well they would be substantially faster. This was proven at the Fuji Six Hours a few weeks ago where one of the Audi R18’s (no.7) had a MGU failure during the race. The system was disconnected and the car returned to the track running without its hybrid system, it was a great opportunity to see just how fast the R18 could go without its front wheels driving initially it was matching the Rebellion on pace but soon started to lap faster, with a best lap of 1m30.373 on its penultimate tour before being retired. It was five seconds a lap off its own best time. Rebellion’s best lap in the same race was a 1m29.901, but that was set at a different point of the race, at the time that both cars were on track together the Audi was about a second a lap faster than the Rebellion.

Looking in more detail the R18 (non-hybrid) was consistently faster than the Rebellion in the middle sector at Fuji which consists of five corners and not a lot of straight. But lost time in both Sectors 1 & 3, which perhaps suggests that it has a better apex speed but a much lower top speed (which can be seen looking at the speed trap data). Now remember that the R18 was running 20kg heavier in a car which really was not designed to run without its hybrid system, and that the EoT tables probably did not work as intended on a diesel non-hybrid car.

It all goes to prove that a manufacturer car which is built to fully exploit the non-hybrid regulations would be extremely competitive indeed. How competitive it is hard to say. If the ACO sticks to its guns and continues to prevent manufacturers entering LMP1 without hybrid systems then you may start to see some very well resourced privateers popping up with highly advanced cars. The question of ‘when is a works team not a works team?’ will raise its head even more. Note that in LMP2 a ‘privateer class’ there are works entries from Renault, the two Alpine branded ORECA’s.



But what if ESM decided that it wanted to step up its Nissan Dpi campaign and run at Le Mans, to do so with its new GT-R GT3 engined Ligiers the team would have to fit a new and totally different engine and run completely different bodywork. Why if they are going to all that effort would they not just do a proper LMP1 non-hybrid. Nissan after all has two highly suitable engines, the GT500 NRE 2 litre turbo and the V6 engine from the GT-R LM. Works supported then – if not works perhaps. Welter Racing could go a step further building a bespoke car to maximise the regulations, with the full might of Peugeot Sport behind it, if Peugeot funded the Welter entries (which are expected in LMP1 in 2018) then what would stop then from going non-hybrid. A TOM’S Toyota or a Joest Audi could follow.

For me the definition of privateer in the LMP1 sense is now far too open to abuse, and I think it is time for the ACO to allow the manufacturers to build lightweight non-hybrid cars and rebuild LMP1 while cutting costs at the same time. I think the powers that be however fear that if they allowed the lighter non-hybrid cars in then no manufacturer would enter with a hybrid at all and that would be a step backwards in the eyes of some, it might force out privateers they may argue, but the serious privateers have all gone already.

Allowing works teams to race with non-hybrid cars could see the LMP1 class really grow in terms of strength and diversity, and that is something we all want to see.