Balance stirred at Imola on the Road to Le Mans
A World Endurance Championship Balance of Performance shake-up for is sure to shake up Sunday’s Italian Road to Le Mans round at Imola
That after the WEC Monday confirmed that 2023 Le Mans 24 Hour winners and home team Ferrari, and Gazoo Toyota Racing will benefit most from breaks applied to all cars except the heavily revised new Peugeots. The Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars will drop 34 kilograms from their opening round Qatar 1812 minimum weight to 1041 kg at Imola, while gaining an extra nine horsepower 7 kilowatts of power. The Toyota’s GR010 Hybrid LMHs lose 29 kg and gain 6 kW in the FIA WEC Committee’s latest Balance of Performance tables table issued by the.
Both Toyota and Ferrari were humbled by the Porsches and Peugeots at the previous round, so Sunday’s changes certainly promise to shake up the 2024 WEC pecking order. The rest of the Hypercar grid however also gain BoP breaks. Alpine’s A424 LMDh also lose 28kg Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 drops 27 kg, and the BMW M Hybrids LMDh 25 kg. Even the Qatar winning Porsche 963 LMDhs shed15 kilos and power 3kW up. The solo Cadillac V-Series LMDh gets only a 2 kg reprieve down to the 1030 kg LMDh class limit, but it gains a healthy 18 kW.
A new winged Peugeot for Imola
The entirely re-imagined Peugeot 9X8 2024 will race 31 kg heavier than the 1061 kg versus the 2023 car as it loses 10 kW. That in line with its change from an unusual ground effect set-up to a more regular winged configuration The Peugeot will also now deploy its electric front axle hybrid system for at the same 190 km/h as its LMH. Rivals and run the standard staggered wheel sizes, rather than four smaller tires.
The changes are as much to do with Imola’s different, undulating track traits versus the flat, desert Qatar, as they have on reeling in the cars that enjoyed an advantage in the Gulf race. The WEC is also yet to introduce its planned ‘power gain’ Balance of Performance component to equalise the various cars’ straight line speeds.
The only changes to the Imola Hypercar entry list over Le Mas will be Carillac running only two drivers in Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, while Sebastien Bourdais sits the Italian round out. And Peugeot has replaced the injured Ferdinand Habsburg with Jules Gounon for Imola.
Anything can happen at Imola!
All of which means anything can happen at Imola’s Road to Le Mans race as all teams arrive with a different specification to what they ran in the Qatar season opener. The Imola 6 Hour starts at 13h00 European time Sunday 21 April. Visit fiawec.tv to learn more about live streaming fees. South African fans can bunk work on Monday to watch the full race canned on DSTV Supersport 215.