The FIA World Endurance Championship will not make changes to the performance levels of Hypercar or LMP2 competitors for the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after they outpaced Hypercars at the Prologue.
LMP2 teams topped the timing sheets at three out of four sessions during the pre-season tests at Spa on Monday and Tuesday, with Nyck de Vries setting the fastest time in his #26 Aurus 01-Gibson on Tuesday morning.
Toyota’s new GR010 Hybrid and Alpine’s grandfathered ORECA-built LMP1 car seemed to both lag behind the LMP2 competitors, with Sebastien Buemi only going quickest during the final session but still falling behind De Vries’ Tuesday benchmark.
LMP2 competitors were given a further weight increase, power reduction and the introduction of a single aero kit prior to the start of the season.
The Prologue results has led some to fear that the new top class of prototypes could be defeated by the secondary class, but the championship has said it will not make performance adjustments to either category ahead of the six-hour enduro.
Speaking to Sportscar365, Thierry Bouvet, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest head of competition, says that the series has not made changes between the Prologue and Saturday’s race.
“To put a bit of background and to have a wider view, we did lots of work in terms of simulation work and car analysis before this event,” Bouvet said. We did, with the new homologation process of Hypercar, put the car in wind tunnels.
“We now have torque meters which measure the power output of the engine. Obviously weight is another parameter which is important for performance.
“Finally, we have two options of tires for Hypercar. The work that has been done, some of it has been done in conjunction with the manufacturers. We know that we had to reposition LMP2 to allow [for] ‘stratification’.
“That’s what we’ve done. There have been a few changes and some of them recently. This is purely for stratification.
“To answer more on the fact – the question was will there be more changes – the answer is, clearly, not at this point.”
Bouvet went on to say that the series aims to add no further restrictions to the LMP2 cars beyond the most recent rules introduced in April.
“The idea is to have stability for LMP2, from now on,” said Bouvet. “We had to do a change, but the idea is clearly to stay on this road and stop moving things around.”
