Automobile Club de l’Ouest has got another player on their Hydrogen plans in sportscars.
ORECA and Red bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) will develop a sportscar together, that will participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2024.
The wording in the ACO press release, is that ORECA and RBAT will build a chassis together, that can be used for the hydrogen technology, that already starts to show in parts of the sportscar world.
Mission H24 has built a car, based on an LMP3 chassis, that they have tested and showcased. They build a new car last summer, that is lighter than the old one, which was on the upper side of 1200kg, and it will probably be on the weight vs strength side, that RBAT and ORECA will work together.
It’s already decided that the Hydrogen tanks will be delivered by the company named Plastic Omnium, who is the exclusive supplier of those tanks.
Photo: JJ Media
A lot of people think Formula 1, once the Red Bull name is mentioned in relation to motorsport. But RBAT is much more than that.
They have been developing the HALO system on the cars, and is the company behind the Aeroscreen used in the NTT IndyCar Series in the USA, where the HALO has some sort of windscreen, to prevent small parts passing the HALO system.
The ACO has a vision of Hydrogen cars at Le Mans in 2024, and that date is getting closer and closer. As previously mentioned, the Mission H24 programme is already running, while Green GT has worked on Hydrogen technology too – but on a much lower level than this new collaboration are going to deliver.
There are only talks about the 24 Hours of Le Mans at this stage, since there are plans of installing refuelling rigs in all pit garages, while the actual handling of Hydrogen refuelling on the other circuits, that the FIA World Endurance Championship visits, might have more difficulties in doing so. We have, however, seen mobile refuelling systems at Spa Francorchamps, where the Mission H24 car ran in fall 2018 and 2019.
