In the Ardennes forest, the six hours of Spa is about to be staged, the second stage of the 2022 World Cup and a great classic for the endurance championship. The Belgian appointment is also the last event before the highly anticipated 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled in a month on the weekend of 11 and 12 June. The WEC arrives in Belgium after the inaugural race in Sebring, which saw the Alpine of Negrao, Vaxiviere and Lapierre prevail among the Hypercars, while among the GTs the Porsche of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen won after a long duel on the Corvette by Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.
In light of the verdicts of the Florida marathon, the data collected and the characteristics of the Belgian track, the FIA and ACO have published the changes to the Balance of Performance of the various classes. Among the Hypercars, Alpine discounts a lowering of the power curvewith a reduction of the maximum peak of 20 kW, equivalent to just over 27 horses.
For hybrid cars, on the other hand, currently limited to the Toyota GR010 only, the new minimum speed threshold has been confirmed, beyond which it is possible to deliver drive power to the front wheels and take advantage of the four-wheel drive. With the advent of the 2022 season the limit was in fact postponed to 190 km / h in both dry and wet conditions, against the previous 120 km / h, thus limiting the advantage of all-wheel drive hybrid cars over the competition. Although for Spa the threshold has been confirmed at 190 km / h as well as at Sebring, the weight of this restriction will still be different from what was seen in Florida. With the exception of the first and last corners, in fact, the Belgian track is full of high-mileage folds, unlike the US track which, being more tortuous, has penalized the restraint of the Toyota’s ability to pick up more. Finally, in the comparison with Glickenhaus, the Japanese cars were confirmed with a minimum weight greater than 40 kg, 2.4% less usable energy at each stint and 20 less horsepower than maximum power.
On the other hand, practically everything remains unchanged between the GTs and it could not have been otherwise after the great balance that emerged at Sebring between Porsche and Corvette, with a top-level show staged. The Ferraris appeared clearly in troublebut the delay seems to be disconnected from the parameters of the BoP and would instead be attributable to some difficulties of the Maranello manufacturer in adapting to the new fuel in use in 2022 consisting largely of bio-components.
The Balance of Performance therefore confirms the previous lambda values for the air-fuel mixture, the turbo boost curves and the minimum diameter of the restrictors, both in GTE-Pro and in GTE-Am. The only novelty is a 2-liter reduction in the maximum amount of fuel that Porsche can carry at each stint, which goes from 102 to 100 liters in GTE-Pro and from 99 to 97 liters in GTE-Am. Finally, the usual corrections to the minimum weight are recorded for the individual members of the GTE-Am, based on the criteria of the Success Ballast for assigning the ballast to the best positioned on the calendar and in the previous race.
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