WEC 2026 - Porsche is out/withdraws

Flexibility with the hybrid system is probably a big one. Spec unit and rwd only for GTP. In Hypercar they can have the hybrid drive the front wheels.

Freedom in chassis design is the other one but I don't know how much that does or does not impact things. GTP cars have to use the LMP2 chassis as a base.

 

In LMH, manufactures build a better hybrid system, transmission, and chassis concept. Watch the Astons and Pugs on the straights. They outclass the LMDh cars, even with the power caps and weight. They're much more slippery for the European style tracks. It's on the higher downforce sections that their handicaps really start to hurt them.

That's why the LMDh cars do so well in the IMSA series. Only Daytona and Road America are power tracks. Every other track requires a lot of downforce.

Without the BoP, the LMH cars would fly by the LMDh cars on the straights, and then wave bye-bye.

 

When you build a chassis, you do everything you can to make it as light as possible, so that you can control additions of ballast and what not. You're also going to try and package your engine and transmission better. And yes, the hybrid is obviously going to be better than the spec LMDh.

 

LMH cars benefit from more technical freedom than LMDh, which is basically a low-cost category, for constructors intending to sell their cars.

In LMH, the chassis design is free, the power unit and transmission are free (hybrid or not); there is choice of rear-wheel drive only, or All-wheel drive.

In LMDh, there is a choice of 4 homologated chassis to chose from (Multimatic, Dallara, Oreca and Ligier). The ICE is free, but transmission (only rear-wheel drive), hybrid system, battery and electric motors are imposed. This to keep the cost down, obviously.

Both are imposed different parameters, like maximun ICE power delivery, maximum EV power, etc...
Then, there is the BOP to equalise performance on paper. This is now the bone of contention.

But it is obvious that, initially, LMHs benefit from technical advantages compared to LMDhs.
The LMHs are close to the Prototype definition.
The LMDhs are sort of LMP2 on steroids, half-way to a specs series.

 

I have already expressed my disdain for LMDh cars in the past so I won´t insist. Porsche won more than they deserved at WEC with cars that in my opinion should only be grid fillers for privateers and brands that can´t afford something better but want to show up and hope for a lucky win in a crazy race. ACO gets the BOP terribly wrong, yes, but one of the reasons for that is that they have to shoehorn the LMDhs in it.

Yet nothing of that matters, here the problem is money. With a 90% profit decrease in Porsche, Lamborghini closing down the prototype program and Audi closing everything to concentrate in F1, there is zero motivation to keep these cars at WEC when you can have an invitation for Le Mans doing just IMSA.

 

Both the Peugeot 9X8 and the Aston Martin Valkyrie are misfits in LMH !
They were designed and conceived by people who didn't understand the rules.

Peugeot assumed until late in their design that LMH cars would be allowed permanent AWD.
So they rushed to design a car to that effect, with a beefed up front chassis and 4 wheels of the same size.
When the technical rules were finalised, they found the limitation imposed on the front axle in terms of EV power and duration, negating all their efforts. But it was too late !!!

As for Aston, after years of dithering, they decided to enter LMH with a street-derived car designed by Adrian Newey that benefits from NONE of the technical advantages allowed in that category.
Unlike its peers in LMH, the Valkyrie is NOT an hybrid, nor it doesn't have a turbo engine; it a basic rear-wheel drive supercar trying to punch above its weight.
What were they thinking ?

 

Even still, the Pugs and Astons are faster than most of the LMDh cars, even as clunky as their designs are. I don't mind that they're punching above their weight. Their business if they want to try. But LMDh is just LMP2 by another name.

What's important is cost control and BoP. That is working. But trying to equalize LMH and LMDh, while not pissing off nine manufactures is just not going to work long term.

The problem is manufactures wanting to use P2 equipment for overall wins. Either the ACO needs to separate the classes into P1 and P2 like before, or they need to turn LMDh into a platform that gives manufactures like Ferrari and Toyota more technical freedom.

 

You guys seem to have forgotten how much they have had to slow down the P2 cars since the Hypercars weren't much faster, especially in the twisty sections.

 

You can receive an invitation from the ACO to race at Le Mans, but you have to earn it, I believe.

 

Yes IMSA gets a few auto invites. With respect to GTP the season champion gets an auto-invite. But part of the issue there is it has to be a car that is in WEC. So if Lamborghini or Acura won the championship and got the invite, they wouldn't be able to run that car at LeMans. So I think that is part of why Porsche dropping out of WEC is such a big deal. None of the 963s in IMSA would be able to run the LM24 unless FIA/ACO makes an exception.

There really needed to just be 1 ruleset for everyone and not trying to balance these very different approaches. Hopefully that will be how things develop.

 

They still have the Proton car at WEC.