The FIA World Council has approved the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship calendar and some changes to the sporting and technical regulations which will come into force from next year.
In the meeting held today in Bologna, insiders discussed various issues concerning the World Endurance Championship, starting with the Qualifying format; from the coming year, it was decided to divide the sessions into three 15′ heats, allowing teams and riders to have a track reserved for their respective attempts and without incurring traffic-related lapping.
This will mean that the LMGTE AM will be alone, as well as the LMP2 and finally the participants in the Hypercar Class, while until 2022 the tests were divided between LMGTE PRO and AM, and LMP2 with LMH, which often created problems for those who were faster both as a personal ability and as a driven vehicle.
Anyone who enters the series as a manufacturer with an LMH or LMDh prototype can do so with one or two cars at most; for those in addition, inclusion in the new Hypercar Team World Cup classification, dedicated above all to private teams, will be a must.
Departure
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The pits will not be allowed to pre-heat the tires (also in ELMS) and the covers for the LMH Class will be reduced to just two specifications, becoming three for Le Mans. From 2024 there will be only one specification per event and two for the French 24h.
And speaking of 2024, this will be the season in which the GT3 cars will make their debut to replace the GTEs. The Class will take the name of LMGT3 and is reserved for customer teams with PRO/AM crews and will use standard tires produced by a single supplier.
Mandatory sensors will be fitted to monitor engine performance in real time and dedicated aerodynamic conversion kits will be permitted, but not made mandatory, especially for Le Mans. In the past these had been provisionally referred to as ‘GT3 Premium’, but they immediately made several people turn up their noses thinking about the increased costs for a category that already works very well as it is.
#14 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo: Konsta Lappalainen, Stuart White, Tuomas Tujula, #98 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3: Augusto Farfus, Philipp Eng, Nicholas Yelloly
Photo by: SRO
Finally, it was decided to maintain the current homologation of LMP2 prototypes until the end of 2025, but in 2024 they will be able to race with their colleagues in the World Championship only on the occasion of the 24h of Le Mans, given the arrival of many LMH and LMDh which will certainly increase the number of people on the grid. On the Circuit de la Sarthe the LMP2s will have 15 places available. And here is a footnote that underlines the possibility of placing a cap on LMH and LMGT3 entries.
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the FIA have also chosen to reduce power by 10kW and engine speed at 500rpm on these cars to ensure the best possible balance between the Hypercar and LMP2 classes. In ELMS however, being part of the first category, the LMP2s will increase power by 15kW compared to 2022.
To conclude, the new ELMS LMP3s will arrive in 2027 and the MissionH24 program linked to the hydrogen prototype – which made its debut in the Le Mans Cup – will continue to gain experience in racing with a working group dedicated to this form of energy which is collaborating with interested manufacturers.
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