Ferrari Announces LMH Factory Program!

From a personal point of view, I think it's a pity.

I expected Hypercars to be like GTE on steroids, and with visible DNA from their manufacturers.

I am still hankering on a "silhouette" category, where bodywork can be recognised from a production car, but with freedom underneath on the mechanical side.

 

IIRC the rule change was to allow the cars in the Hypercar class to either be road based or prototype based. LMDh must be P2 based.

How far off do you think the GTE category was from the silhouettes you would have liked to have seen? GTE cars are pretty far from anything that actually rolled off the production line (some more than others). I guess higher performance would have been better.

 

The MC12 GT1 was the ultimate Silhouette...because they built a racecar Trojan horse and homologated it after the fact....which is why it was not allowed at Le Mans...though people forget that the very last year they ran the ACO had given the green light for them to race but by that time the teams were focusing on the future and did not bother, pity. It was much more in the spirit of the rules than the Dauer cars of the 90's....

 

Ferrari could have a LMH shaped around a SF90 (or a Daytona SP3) body, with a racing chassis.
At least it would be distinctive and look like a Ferrari !
A SF90 engine is hybrid and its engine gives 1000hp, which is a lot more than the WEC allows !

 

As explained before, the road car thing was an aftertought to please the manufacturers, but the initial idea was to make prototypes, and that's what they're making.

Anyway, I don't know what kind of road car resemblance did you expect in a Toyota or a Peugeot.

 

Both Toyota and Peugeot have shown GT concept cars in the past, that had visual DNA with the rest of their ranges.

The rulemakers have completely deviated from the initial script. The rule change has been a waste of time, IMO.

Visually the Hypercars are just a new generation of LMP1 (and very close to the LMP2).

 

There was a thread about this a while ago. The original script was about prototypes, they added later the "road car" thing to please some manufacturers, specially Aston Martin because they hoped to use the Valkyrie. Using a road car was never mandatory.

Anyway, there are styling cues from road cars, even in the Peugeot, but as you´re a Porsche guy I guess they´re too obscure for you. Porsche guys get confused when they change a single line in the 911.

 

Of the Hypercars and LMDh cars we have seen so far the BMW is the most recognizable. Well I guess SCG is but I don't think they count.

 

You can tell the Peugeot is a Peugeot. They are pretty good at making their race cars recognizable. The Group C 905 cars looked like Peugeot also.

 

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https://www.carscoops.com/2022/08/the-acura-arx-06-lmdh-will-take-on-the-world-with-honda-formula-1-technology/

 

I like the Acura. Nice evolution of the DPi design.

Next year is gonna be fun!

 

I can theorize the Toyota doesn’t have any due to it being based on the gr super sport, a car intended to be a road going lmp1 prototype with extreme styling. Adding larger headlines, a rear wing and a big sharkfin pretty much gets you the gr010, as for the Ferrari I can see the cues they took from the Daytona sp3 and the brake cooling areas that resemble the 330 p4, so I do think there’s Ferrari dna there.​

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Anyone have any new updates its gone dead quite in here...

 

Can't speak to Ferrari but the LMDh cars will be on track at Road Atlanta immediately following Petit Le Mans. Hopefully they will be on display during the event.

 

Better hope they recruit a better pit crew than the F1 clowns

 

Lets just hope MB is gone next year with a few other updates and changes as clearly Ferrari don't look like they will take any real action this season. It really sad as they have great drivers the car is overall really good. I mean look we are in some how in #2 spot with all these cockups that say allot about the overall package. Just need to remove the thorn in its side (MB) so to speak.

 

Ferrari estimates 5000km covered by new Hypercar in testing
Ferrari’s new Le Mans Hypercar has already completed approximately 5000km over the course of its first three tests this summer.


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By:Gary Watkins
Sep 13, 2022, 4:05 PM
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The hybrid prototype that will take the Ferrari factory back to the pinnacle of sportscar racing in the World Endurance Championship and at the Le Mans 24 Hours next year has undertaken multi-day tests at both Mugello and Barcelona since it shakedown at Fiorano in early July.

Ferrari sportscar racing boss Antonello Coletta put the total number of kilometres achieved so far at about 5000km, which includes the 200 to 250km the new car managed over three days on its roll-out in the first week of July.

“We have done a lot of kilometres and at the moment we are happy, but we know the road is long,” Coletta told Autosport.

“One day we have problems, the next day no problems, so we know we need more consistency.

“We are just at the start of the development programme.”

Coletta revealed that the Ferrari LMH, which has yet to be given a name or type number, should be out on track again within two weeks.

“The plan is to test every two weeks, but honestly it is changing a lot,” he explained.

“We are developing the car in the normal way: we test, go back to the factory, look at the data and work on the car.”

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Nicklas Nielsen, Ferrari LMH

Photo by: Ferrari

Coletta suggested that Ferrari is unlikely to homologate the car until the last moment ahead of its scheduled debut at next year’s WEC series opener at Sebring in March.

The rules demand that an LMH or LMDh prototype must be homologated a minimum of 30 days in advance of its first race.

All eight Ferrari Competizione GT factory drivers have now taken a turn at the wheel of the first LMH chassis during testing.

That means that Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco, Davide Rigon, Nicklas Nielsen, Daniel Serra and Alessio Rovera have been part of the development programme.

Ultra-experienced test driver Andrea Bertolini, who remains contracted to Ferrari, has also been a key part of the programme.

Coletta reiterated Ferrari’s position that it will chose its LMH WEC squad from its existing roster of drivers.

“I am happy with the drivers we have; I don’t think we need to make any changes,” he said.

“We have a big family of drivers at Ferrari, a big bag to chose from.

“We need to make the final choice, but at the moment it is still early.”




https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/ferrari-estimates-5000km-covered-by-new-hypercar-in-testing/10368690/

 

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2022/09/16/toyota-set-to-launch-gr020-hypercar-for-2023-season.html

 

Has anyone heard if they will be racing at the 24 hour Rolex in Daytona this year?

 

As of right now they're entirely focused on wec.

 

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https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/lamborghini-confirms-twin-turbo-v8-engine-for-lmdh-car/?fbclid=IwAR2vLj_M2mlX0L2kM2W1c-QLhlXxg2IodEQul282_nVe9ZLo-cy5wpvKEsE

 

The engine has to be out of the Audi/Porsche parts bin. Which is not a bad thing. It's got to be the V8 in the Urus.

 

The regs require the engine to be production based? I didn't think that was the case.

 

The V8 Pipo (what's that ?) on the Glickenhaus, or the V8 Gibson on the ByKolles Vanwall don't look to be production based.
I think that will be the same for the yet-unknown engine on the Alpine, which is likely to be a V8 Gibson too.

 

Pipo is a french engine specialist mainly specialized in rallying if i remember correctly..