[WEC] BoP. Brilliant or Pants.

[Gerard C]

I think Peugeot could be the dark horse for this race and could take points which will be lacking to another, or several, teams. What if they can't make it? Better not think about this…

[tomcug]

I thought last year they should've been strong in Bahrain but they weren't. Hard to tell with this car but good result is very needed so they don't axe the project.

[Matador]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Motorsport.com still has an Endurance-info subscription

LOL!!!

Originally Posted by Articus

My early prediction is that amongst the 3 manufacturers competing for the manufacturers championship, Toyota will be the quickest. There is only a 9kg difference between them and the Porsche. Porsche has never been competitive against the Toyota at such a small weight difference.

ferrari 510kw 1053kg
porsche 514kw 1056kg

Porsche will not challenge Ferrari like this.

Toyota > Ferrari > Porsche . Alpine and Peugeot will play spoilers.

Porsche driver's title, Toyota manufacturers title, Ferrari Le Mans, everybody happy

lol Pick a new three every year, rinse and repeat?


We'll see how it goes. i think Ferrari will be the quickest over a lap. Lets see how the various strategies and collision avoidance plays out.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Hard to tell with this car but good result is very needed so they don't axe the project.

Yes. I don't think they will throw the towel before end of 2026. Its not only Pug but Stellantis Motorsport too. It must be hard for them to fully appreciate Alpine team's level of performance.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by tomcug

With fuel load I wouldn't be surprised if the 963 is actually the heaviest of the 3.

What is the difference in fuel loads of the three? How do we tell?

[TF110]

Don't they have the fuel tank sizes as equal? How do you find this out?

[Adam43]

Maybe, but tomcug has info or a theory on how much fuel they put in for a stint. This is a differentiator between cars as total energy is controlled, but how much fuel you need for this could be a performance factor. One we can’t really see directly in stint lengths anymore.

Why is the Porsche particularly bad here as suggested?

[Articus]

Originally Posted by TF110

Don't they have the fuel tank sizes as equal? How do you find this out?

There is no common fuel tank size. The ACO rules by energy per stint.

It thus follows that the LMH cars with the larger hybrid and recovery capabilities (200kw LMH vs 50kw LMDh) carry less fuel because they can recover more energy in the brake zones due to the higher power, larger capacity energy recovery system.

It's another layer of complexity and something that is overlooked by the BOP naysayers when they see that the Toyota and the Ferrari are regularly heavier than the LMDh cars.

LMDh cars qualifying well is a key marker for race performance and the health of the BOP for that weekend. If the LMDh cars are not competitive in qualifying, then they typically will be even less competitive in the race because they will be even heavier relative to the LMH on a full tank of fuel compared to when they are running qualifying fuel loads.

[TF110]

It doesn't seem that bop takes into account fuel capacity. So my question was how do you find that out? I don't know if that's ever been published by the bulletins. Say lmdh style cars do require more fuel because of the lower amount of hybrid energy, is that really the reason for Toyota and Ferrari (and Isotta earlier) to run heavier minimum weights? Or is it going hand in hand that they're compensating lmdh for the disadvantage of having less hybrid/electric power? That was something that I thought when they were starting this bop.

[tomcug]

It's something no one will ever comment about officially. But I think the theory is correct. About LMH vs LMDh weight offset, it's both for fuel load and to balance tyre wear as AWD helps with that too. Again, this is just my theory

[Adam43]

Full update of this season's development of BoP.

Power is the biggest tweak here and that has also driven the changes in the Power to Weight.

Peugeot have done alright there, but there is obviously some offset needed for top end. Both the French cars look slippery when it comes to that.

Whereas Toyota stays pegged at the (maximum) 520kW for top end.

[Adam43]

Race specific change.

This view highlights the gains the hypercars have had power to weight. Mainly power. Is this more of a car type adjustment?

[Articus]

Originally Posted by Articus

My early prediction is that amongst the 3 manufacturers competing for the manufacturers championship, Toyota will be the quickest. There is only a 9kg difference between them and the Porsche. Porsche has never been competitive against the Toyota at such a small weight difference.

ferrari 510kw 1053kg
porsche 514kw 1056kg

Porsche will not challenge Ferrari like this.

Toyota > Ferrari > Porsche . Alpine and Peugeot will play spoilers.

Porsche driver's title, Toyota manufacturers title, Ferrari Le Mans, everybody happy

Alpine and Peugeot are worse than expected. Everything else was as promised

[tomcug]

Looks like unchallenged 1-2 for Yota incoming. Hardly a surprise, last year they trounced the competition at 1080 kg or something like that.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by Articus

LMDh cars qualifying well is a key marker for race performance and the health of the BOP for that weekend. If the LMDh cars are not competitive in qualifying, then they typically will be even less competitive in the race because they will be even heavier relative to the LMH on a full tank of fuel compared to when they are running qualifying fuel loads.

Not the best weekend for the BOP. Looks like a repeat of Sao Paolo.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by Articus

Looks like a repeat of Sao Paolo.

Problem is this race will decide the championships...

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Articus

Not the best weekend for the BOP. Looks like a repeat of Sao Paolo.

6 LMdh cars in the top 10 tho...

[chernaudi]

I can remember when it was a big deal in the ALMS in '07 and '08, though it came due to IMSA psudeo-combining LMP1 and LMP2 (due to Audi being the only factory LMP1 team, and LMP2 having the Penske Porsche factory team and quasi-factory Acura teams), that there were approx 10 cars within 1 second in qualifying at several races. We didn't have such a thing in the LMS when factory teams were around and we didn't have such a thing in the WEC until the present era.


Though it does have to be said that such a close field will punish mistakes or missteps by the front runners more severely than in the past. Closer times on the stopwatch mean it'll be harder for the front runners to come back from an issue. And Toyota and Ferrari have had plenty compared to the Penske Porsche guys, for whom the #6 has kept it very clean all season (which is how the #2 Audi won the drivers title in the LMS in '08, even without winning a race, and a big reason why Audi also took the manufacturers title even though they only won one race all season).


It's not over until it's over, so the Porsche guys and the #6 can't afford to screw up now, but Toyota and Ferrari can't risk too much to close the gap if they still want a shot at the manufacturers title--they mess up tomorrow, it'll more than likely be game over as of that point.