Here's All the Hypercars Coming to Le Mans Next Year (and Those That Aren't)

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on September 23rd, 2020 in the FIA WEC category.

 

The new LMH and LmdH era is so interesting can't wait to see those cars racing. I just hope there will be more brand and privateers coming.

Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari please don't us down

 

Yes, of course
LMP1 class has less and less manufacturers...
LMh could make them come back because developpement costs are way cheaper and we will be able to see some nice races/battles in the future

 

I’m going to say that I’m a bit underwhelmed with the first year of Hypercars. If it stays like this with no new announcements, it’ll pretty much just be like last year where Toyota is the only serious brand competing and they’re probably going to win easily again with a rebodied TS050.

 

Toyota and all of that are yesterday, it is really interesting to see with what somehow one of shining bright stars of N24 will come at Sarthe. It will be really stupid to have another ByKolles, the stupid would be to have another Rebellion along side with ByKolles sharing the same fate. 24 Hours of Le Mans deserves better, than last years.

 

The Toyota LMH looks pretty good, even in the camouflage livery. I also think that they will sweep the 2021 Le Mans as long as there won't be nasty surprises - although the Alpine LMP1 might be good for some surprises with the hopefully bigger budget than Rebellion's. Still, I'm looking forward to a decision from Porsche and Ferrari about their possible top level prototype entries. As I live in the US, I would most certainly prefer LMDh for them to seem them in IMSA competition. I'm also very much intrigued by the future BoP, one for next year between LMH and LMP1, two for later between LMH and LMDh (with Acura declaring their intention to fight for overall honors in Le Mans with LMDh).

Nevertheless, looking at the GR Super Sport I have a bit of late '90s GT1 vibe, the 911 GT1/GT1-98, CLK GTR, R390 GT1 and GT-One say hello imho.

 

2021 WEC season with mainly Toyota GR Super Sport versus Glickenhaus SCG 007 plus ByKolles and Alpine Signatech as challengers will be far more exciting than the 3 last seasons' lone run of Toyota (this year was half an exception thanks to BOP).

Peugeot confirmed WEC Hypercar entry for 2022 and first track tests during second half of 2021.

Alpine Signatech will enter 2021 WEC with a BOPed LMP1 which will actually be one of the two Rebellion of the 2020's season. They'll be racing with an LMP1 while waiting for an Alpine Hypercar (entry date not confirmed)

Ferrari told they were studying the regulations, and confirmed their interest for the coming new class, but have not yet started any engineering about it.

If Ferrari enters I'd love to see Ford and Porsche enter aswell (and it's a strong possibility)

 

Already dead in the water. Toyota are guaranteed to dominate, with the rest being garagistas with a fraction of the budget. They really screwed the pooch on these regs, they tried to pander to 90s GT-1 nostalgia demanded by the fans whilst also maintaining the ‘road relevancy’ demanded by the OEMs, and ended up with rules that combine the worst of GT1 and LMP.

 

Porsche and ferrari... It would be a dream come true!

 

I have high hopes, anything can be better than LMP1 in it’s current state.

 

It feels like this class kind of switched the draw of it. I remember hopes of Valkyries, Sennas, and people wanting Ferrari, Mercedes, etc. to join, all so people could see how these halo cars that all approach their goals of record-lap times differently (whether through major aero work or F1-derived motors), competed against each other.

Now it looks as if everyone took the blueprint for a modern LMP and approached that in their own way, and will just so happen to build a road car out of it later.

 

I haven't watched Le Mans since 2017, nor have I really paid attention to it due to the lack of competition. Why bother watching the race if Toyota are just going to run away with it? Whether the big name manufacturers enter or not doesn't matter, I just want to see some competition for top honours again at Le Mans. A shakeup was needed to revive the world's biggest car race.

 

I really hope this class is successful and they can figure out the GT class(es) as well. 2016 seems like such a long time ago.

 

Because endurance racing, and especially Le Mans is unpredictable. This year Toyota took 1st and 3rd with a Rebellion in between at 2nd. Nice reminder that manufacturer victories can slip away by accident.

 

I am so excited for LMH/DH! Looked amazing back when it was first announced with the Valkyrie, lost interest a bit later, but I am hyped again!
Also, Cyril Abiteboul says that Alpine is considering LMDH for 2022, in an interview with AMuS.(as seen on reddit)

 

It's great to see so much interesting from manufacturers for the new formation of Le Mans and WEC... It reminds me the GT1 era that gave us such a wonderfull cars like (Porsche GT1, Mercedes CLK GTR, McLaren F1 GTR). I can't wait for road cars!!!!!

 

Agree. I'm seeing this more as those GT1 cars. That aspect interests me more than the current LMP machines.

 

The IMSA DPI teams should be switching to Hypercars, that means Cadillac, Mazda and, really important this, Acura. Why? SuperGT is going to announce their future plans and since the DTM thing is dead in the water and two manufacturers will have Hypercars.... Looks like a viable option.

Then it just needs the likes of Porsche and Ferrari to make a case for selling cars to privateers and we are good to go.

 

It's disappointing after all the hype surrounding the Hypercar Class with them now not being road car-based and instead just a re-worked LMP class.

 

The next 2 years will be the transitional period from LMP1 to LMH/LMDh, nonetheless it's looking promising and I'm excited to what the 3 new LMH's bring next year, and the grandfathered R13 based Alpine too. That itself will be interesting, given on paper at least, LMH is in theory slower than the outgoing LMP1's, making the grandfathered Alpine/R13 faster. Though BoP will no-doubt come into play.

I still see Toyota being strongest (no complaints as a Toyota supporter ), as they've wisely decided to use the TS050's drivetrain in the GR Super Sport. Given how reliable it is currently, running at perhaps 75-80% capacity under the current BoP the ACO's put on Toyota this year, one would expect them to run even more consistently, restrained to circa 650bp. All that's needed is a predominantly red paint job and perhaps a special '98 Zent inspired livery for Le Mans maybe? .

I wish ByKolles to do well, but I think SCG's 007 will be Toyotas closest challenger with the potential of their established N24 exploits. Whether it translates into WEC and LM24 success is another matter. Ironically, the Bykolles LMH looks the most like an evolved LMP1, hopefully their poor luck and unreliability doesn't carry over. Another key aspect is whether hybrids and non-hybrid can be balanced more closely and successfully than LMP1, without sacrificing either setups inherent differences or strengths.

Overall I hope these new regulations have longevity, and a more level playing field crucially, attracting manufacturers and privateers into the top classes again. And with it even better racing, as I'm not going to pretend LMP1 has been great the last couple of years, because aside from Toyota battling themselves there's been no real competition. Toyota have still had to turn up and race to the rules their given, which was no different to the virtually unchallenged success Audi had at the turn of this century, so it's not eithers fault LMP1 has been dying for some years now. LMH regs look to me more like prototypes for the road with racing variants, as apposed to out and out Hypercars. And that's no bad thing IMO, making it seem more like a modern GT1 rule-set, hopefully together with LMDh its more sustainable...