Racer - Fall 2013

LMP1 2014

elevance has been a buzzword at the

24 Hours of Le Mans for more than a decade. The idea that the French endurance classic is a proving ground for automotive technologies destined for the street was reinvigorated when Audi introduced the direct-injection version of its R8 prototype in 2001. It gained further momentum on the arrival of the German manufacturer’s turbodiesel R10 five years later, then snowballed with the start of the battle of the hybrids between Audi and Toyota in 2012. For 2014, the relevance factor is about to go exponential.

A new set of LMP1 regulations for Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship next year will place the emphasis firmly on efficiency. Each car will be given a set amount of energy and, for those run by manufacturers, be required to recoup more of it than ever via energy-retrieval systems. There are no limits on the size of the engine, just a target that the most efficient car should win.

Efficiency prizes are nothing new at Le Mans. The Thermal Index of Efficiency was first awarded at the race back in 1959 and its modern equivalent is the Michelin-sponsored Green X Challenge, which was pioneered in the American Le Mans Series from 2009. But these have been what Vincent Beaumesnil, the sporting director at the Le Mans-organizing Automobile Club de l’Ouest, calls “parallel prizes.” The ACO saw the potential to go further.

“We imagined regulations where
efficiency would not be a parallel or
secondary target, but would determine
whether or not you win,” explains
Beaumesnil. “We wanted to see how we
could come up with a set of rules to give a
strong incentive to manufacturers to build
the most efficient car, because that’s their
top priority when it comes to road cars.”
That’s led to a diametric shift in the way
power is controlled in the LMP1 division.
Since the mid-1990s, limiting airflow by the
use of air-restrictors had been the method
of choice. Now it will be done by controlling
the amount of fuel available to each car.
“The principle is to limit energy in order
to force the manufacturers to come up
with new technology,” says Beaumesnil.
“What we’re saying is, ‘It’s up to you make
the best of the fuel we give you.’”
The basic ideas, which incorporate a
fuel consumption reduction of between
20 and 22 percent, met with instant
approval from the manufacturers,
according to Beaumesnil.

“When we first put the idea on the table in front of the manufacturers at a meeting at the ACO in Le Mans, everyone said yes,” he recalls. “I would say there was

100 percent agreement immediately.” The first discussions back in the winter

A complex matrix of megajoules, fuel-flow rates and fuel tank
size, plus an “anything goes” approach to energy-recovery
systems, put relevancy and equality centerstage at Le Mans.

The calm before the storm...

A single Toyota TS030 has been Audi’s opposition for most of the

2013 WEC. Next season, revised LMP1 regulations have lured in a third manufacturer (Porsche) and, in theory, will allow privateers to get on the same page as the factory cars.

For the first time since 1998, a factory Porsche team will be racing for an overall win at the

24 Hours of Le Mans next year. It’s gasoline-powered and – as per the 2014 LMP1 rules – it runs an energy-recovery system (possibly flywheel-based). But Porsche isn’t prepared to reveal too much more just yet...