The LMP2 category in the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le Mans Series will have their on-track performance slowed even further than initially planned.
Automobile Club de l’Ouest has announced, that they have to slow the LMP2 category a bit more since the performance gap to the new Hyperar category otherwise would be too small.
It’s been planned for a long time, that LMP2 would have a slight power reduction, but that now turned into 400kW power output compared to the 450kW last year. That is a further reduction of 20kW than first anticipated.
All cars will be 20kg heavier, to secure the gap to the Hypercars as well.
Goodyear has become the sole tire supplier for LMP2 cars from this season onwards, and they were meant to construct some new, slightly slower tires. After the first tests with those tires, they chose has become to continue on the 2020 specification, since the teams weren’t happy about the new tires, and their characteristics.
Last but not least, there will be a reduction to just a single set of bodywork specifications for LMP2. That specification will be the Low Drag version, which otherwise was only used at Le Mans. The same rule exists for the Hypercar category, and it turns out, that the LMP2 and Hypercar performance would get too close, if the LMP2 cars were running the High Downforce version throughout the rest of the FIA WEC schedule.
Even though the Hypercar category only participates in the FIA WEC, it’s important for ACO to implement this across the series. The new Hypercar category consisting of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Glickenhaus Racing, and a single Alpine, which was previously known as the Rebellion R13, is a lot heavier than the old LMP1 cars, plus they don’t have as much power.
According to our sources, the Bodywork changes for the European Le Mans Series will be postponed until the 2nd round at the Red Bull Ring, since the gap to the opening race in Barcelona is way too tight for all teams to get a Low Drag version, in case they haven’t previously raced at Le Mans.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship avoids these changes for now, since their season is already up and running, and there are no current LMP2 speed issues compared to the other categories in the USA.