An attempt to prevent teams in the FIA WEC Hypercar class from fielding two drivers from next season appears to have failed.
A proposal to this effect put forward by BMW Team WRT has not met with favour from the other participants and is likely to be abandoned. The request was made by Vincent Vosse, the boss of the Belgian team, after Cadillac chose to field only two drivers in the 6 Hours races this year, but it seems that everything will remain as it is now, with no changes to the sporting rules due to the lack of unanimous support from the teams.
“I would be surprised if there was a change,” Vosse told Motorsport.com. “It seems that most manufacturers are against imposing a new rule.”
The complications of requiring a three-driver field and the series of rule changes it would require explain why the majority appear to be against it.
There are currently no rules on driving times in Hypercars, nor is it possible for a team to nominate a reserve driver on a race weekend, not even at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Porsche Penske Motorsport general manager Jonathan Diuguid said: “It would create a lot of complexity in the regulations. We have a reserve driver at some races, but not all. Right now, if one of our drivers gets sick, we could go into the weekend with two.”
“But if we start imposing three drivers, problems will start to arise, especially in the case of conflicts of events where we can’t have a reserve. Also, these are complicated cars to drive, so you don’t want to put unprepared drivers on the track. I don’t like to put the plan on the safety issue, but this is probably something that falls into that category.”
Race action
Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo
Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie made a similar argument for keeping the regulations, pointing out that the French manufacturer ran only two drivers in each of its cars at Spa in May, when Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne were competing in Formula E in Berlin.
“The solution we found in Spa was a good compromise and we would like to keep the regulations unchanged. If you have three drivers and something happens to one, you can always do the race with two. We are pushing to keep the rules as they are.”
Batti Pregliasco, team manager of AF Corse, also said that the rules should be kept as they are.
There is also a second proposal on the table, aligned with the one regarding the two and three drivers: it would be a question of preventing teams and manufacturers from changing drivers during the season, which could have a serious impact on those who have FE participants.
“It’s important to leave the door open,” Pregliasco added. “We’re happy with our six drivers, but I understand that a manufacturer might want to bring a big name to Le Mans. Or perhaps a driver might see his performance decline over the course of the season.”
Vosse argued that the regulations should stipulate whether a team runs two or three drivers in the shorter WEC races, because using two drivers offers a clear advantage in these events.
“It is clearly in terms of track time and team strategy, but we chose to run three because that is the number of drivers needed for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most important race of the year,” he told Motorsport.com in July. “I would like the regulations to clearly state how many drivers have to run, whether two or three.”
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