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"What you are describing is exactly what I would like to see. True innovation coming back to sportscar racing, restricted only by safety."
Of course, an ultra-light formula wouldn't necessarily breed "true innovation." (What is "true" innovation anyway? Seems to me diesels, ERS, wide front wheels ... seems to me just about every year engineers find new ways to do old things and new things to do. Not every innovation results in something really different .... but aside from wings, the Chapparal J, turbine engines and the six-wheel phase, not a lot of really "radical" innovations ... yet no short of (I guess) "untrue" innovation.
Thinking that because the DWing was a design no one had ever seen on a road-racing track, means that the rest of a class built to that weight limit would be equally off-the-wall is ... well ...
The DWing is so notable because it did something never done before int he history of road cars, that is made its near-tricycle, triangular design work at very high speeds. Thinking that imposing a 600-kg weight limit is going to inspire a dozen people to do a once in 120-year breakthroughs seems .... well ...
Those sorts of designs are notable mostly Because they come along once in a century. Make rules for an Ultralight cl;ass, and you will see IMSA Lites and D-sports racers on steroids, and DWing clones, which of course would be the opposite of innovative.
And as it stands, it is likely the class would be won but a multi-million dollar microcar like Tucker's record-setting DSR---huge bucks into a conventional platform, where the only "innovation" is the idea of spending P2 money in a class meant for entry-level garage-builts.
I am not opposed to an Ultralight class (though I don't think sports car racing needs more classes (fewer, in fact) and I don't think they'd be safe on a track with P1s with all that speed and half again as much weight (or GTs with twice the weight and steel fenders,) but I am a realist.
Once-in-a-century designs come along well ... do the math. Unless the rules state that every car has to be ground-breaking in a phenomenally huge way, you aren't going to get ground--breaking designs, and if the rules did say that, you's only have one car in the class.
Besides, what you are excited about seems to be the fact that the DWing is almost as fast but uses fewer resources, not the odd design. As others have pointed out, that is as much a function of being outside the rules as anything else. Put the Dyson motor in the back of an IMSA Lite and run it on really hard tires and you might get the same result—in fact, if low resource consumption was the point of the class … well seems P1 is already heading in that direction and Not sacrificing speed to do it.
Recap: an Ultralight class will Not guarantee “true innovation” any more than any other ruleset does. You need to decide if you want an Ultralight class or a High-efficiency class, and then you have to accept that “true” innovation on the scale of the DWing might come along once in a generation.
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