Sportscar Talk: Why the WEC’s Hypercar Class Could Already Be A Disaster?

At this moment in time, the World Endurance Championship is not in a good state. Toyota are the only manufacturer in the series’ top class (LMP1) and they have obliterated the privateer teams at Le Mans and the ‘Superseason’.

The championship will have to survive in its current state for at least one more season, starting this weekend at Silverstone, before new rules for the 2020/21 season aim to rejuvenate the top class.

Road-going supercars will be allowed to enter the new hypercar concept class which will hopefully attract more manufacturers and in turn, create closer competition. It is an exciting prospect.

If we look at the previous generation of hypercars, we would have seen models such as the McLaren P1, Ferrari La Ferrari and Porsche 918 battling at some of the world’s greatest circuits and of course the biggest motorsport event of the year, Le Mans.

On paper it looks good with Aston Martin and Toyota already announcing plans to enter cars into the new hypercar category. But is it really?

The whole reason the WEC is in this situation is due to Audi and Porsche leaving. Why they left was partly down to the VW diesel scandal but also because the ACO (organisers of the WEC) put all their eggs in one basket and prioritising manufacturers.

Toyota only stayed because they had not won Le Mans and the whole ‘superseason’ concept forced them to commit to two Le Mans. It makes sense for them to compete in the upcoming 2019/20 season rather than quit for one season then come back.

The ACO ignored the privateer teams even though every motorsport needs privateers. Manufacturers come and go and due to a set of circumstances, the ACO found themselves in massive trouble. Had they managed the privateer teams such as Rebellion or made a set of rules to invite more privateer teams to LMP1, we might not be in the current situation.

Essentially, the LMP1 regulations became unsustainable.

Yet, if you look at LMP2 they have done a reasonably good job with a category that is affordable, competitive and still fast with some very good drivers.

Looking at the IMSA WeatherTech series in America, they have got things absolutely spot on. They have made their top tier class sustainable with the DPi class and it is working brilliantly.

Why don’t the ACO do something similar with the WEC? Instead, it looks like the ACO is yet again going all in with the manufacturers and this ‘hypercar’ concept. Privateers teams have little or no value with these regulations which is completely the wrong way to go about it.

Just 12 months away from the new regulations and so far it looks like Toyota and Aston Martin are the only manufacturers interested in the new WEC hypercar class. There was plenty of talk about McLaren, Ferrari, Ford and more joining the category but things have gone very quiet in the last few months from their side.

If Toyota are going to compete as a manufacturer, we need Toyota customer cars too, for the competition sake. Make a price at which Toyota can sell these customer cars and perhaps have a regulation stating that they have to sell a certain number of customer cars to various teams. We don’t want a five car grid by any means.

Should a team pull out, an independent team should be able to come in and take over. This is exactly what happened in Formula E with Techeetah and look how successful they have been recently.

Then there is the matter of the GTE Pro class. BMW and Ford have pulled out leaving just Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin. If one of those three manufacturers pull out, then the GTE Pro class will be in massive trouble too.

Yet, BMW and Ford will continue to race in America in IMSA’s GTLM class (equivalent of WEC’s GTE Pro). Clearly, IMSA is doing something right here whilst the ACO are not; a repeating theme of this article.

The whole hypercar concept is similar to GTE Pro but with faster cars with the option to run a hybrid powertrain. As I see it, GT racing on steroids.

I like GT racing but the WEC should not become another GT-esque championship. With the prototypes there has been EOT (Equivalence of Technology), something that has been used a lot recently to peg back Toyota versus the privateer teams.

EOT was not used anywhere near as much a few years ago when the golden 2-3 years of Audi vs. Porsche vs. Toyota dominated the WEC and was loved. The drivers were giving it everything, every single race, every stint, every lap.

So many great races and battles made LMP1 exciting. The big fear now with the hypercar class is that the teams won’t want to show their true performance, just like the GTE classes in case they get handicapped for Le Mans which is arguably bigger than winning the championship.

That is not the route WEC needs to go down. First off, that is not their biggest problem, they first need close competition and at least a handful of cars on the grid in the hypercar class.

Personally, I don’t think the hypercar concept will work. Toyota will continue to dominate the WEC’s top tier. They have had years of experience fast, efficient and reliable hybrid prototypes which is a massive advantage compared to Aston Martin and there Valkyrie which will need to be converted from a road car into a raceable specification.

Will other manufacturers join? The whole idea of the hypercar concept is to attract manufacturers so the ACO better hope they do or else this will be seen as a massive mistake. Other than Toyota and Aston Martin no other manufacturer has announced plans to enter the championship.

If there are only two manufacturers along with 3-4 privateer teams, that is an immediate disaster.

The ACO clearly see hydrogen cars as the next big thing so have made a set of rules that can act as an interim until then and the WEC has lost nearly everything that made it so good a few years ago.

Less fans watch it, the quality is not the same and the ACO are not going about things in the right way. F1, WEC, WRC, IndyCar and national series such as the BTCC are all introducing new regulations within a year of each other and manufactures are not spending as much money in motorsport as they used to.

Someone has to lose out, and I fear that the WEC will be the culprit.