2011 Endurance Racing Thread

Final 2011 ACO technical and sporting regulations are out!

Basic points:

  • Le Mans test day is back (at least for this year). April 24th 2011.

LMP1:

  • 2011-2013 regulatory stability, so new cars should be able to race under this regulatory framework for the next 3 seasons.
  • Power target: around 520bhp, with the infamous 3:30 laptime being the target for Le Mans. 2008 and 2010 must have scared them witless... 3:18.something in qualifying and 3:19.074 in the race???? And in 2010 the Peugeots could EASILY have cracked into the 3:17s if they had been allowed to in qualifying.
  • Energy recovery systems allowed.
  • The ACO reserves its right to balance performance between diesels, petrols and their hybrid derivatives to keep the difference within 2% in terms of laptime. First major adjustments for this should be done before Le Mans.
  • Shark fins for new-for-2011 cars.
  • 2010 LMP1 cars can be grandfathered in, but with considerably smaller restrictors, and fuel tanks reduced to 75 liters from the 90 currently used for petrol cars. New-for-2011 cars will have 73-liter fuel capacity for petrol cars and 64 for diesels, minimum weight 900kg.
  • 2014-2015 prospects = geared towards efficiency i.e. racing on a set amount of fuel, the objective is 5000 km on 1500 liters of fuel, unlike 2550 liters in the Group C days, and 1876 liters for the most efficient car in the 2010 race (Strakka Racing's HPD ARX-01c, the Michelin Green X Challenge winner), and also in terms of tires (during the 2010 race a few cars went through the race on a grand total of 11 sets of tires).

LMP2:

  • Cost cap: 345 000 Euros for a whole car (without engine).
  • Engine cost cap: 75 000 Euros, with a rebuild capped at 35 000 Euros and engines have to last at least 30 hours between rebuilds, target is 50 hours between rebuilds for 2013.
  • Each team must have at least one gentleman driver, probably to prevent a repeat of the invasion of manufacturer teams like Porsche and Acura in the ALMS in 2006-2008.

LMGTE:

  • GTE-Pro and GTE-Am classes.
  • Pro: no restrictions on age of cars or on driver classifications; basically this year's GT2 cars with very slightly larger restrictors and flappy paddle gearboxes.
  • Am: only one professional driver on the team, the others must be gentlemen/sportsmen/amateur drivers. Car must be at least one year old, and for 2011 performance-balanced 2010-spec GT1 cars are also allowed in this class.

FLM/LMPC:

  • Will not race at Le Mans, but teams running this specification of car are allowed to run on the Le Mans test day (April 24).
  • The champion FLM team in the Le Mans Series for 2011 will earn an automatic invitation for the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class; this is to encourage FLM/LMPC as a stepping stone towards the main categories.

Also, the 56th entry at Le Mans will be an unclassified entry testing various technologies. So far there are two prospective entrants for that slot: an electric LMP project masterminded by Yves Courage, and probably the more likely candidate, the 911 GT3-R Hybrid.
 
Last edited:
The ACO reserves its right to balance performance between diesels, petrols and their hybrid derivatives to keep the difference within 2% in terms of laptime. First major adjustments for this should be done before Le Mans.

This, for me, confirms why I think they should have split LMP1 in a diesel and a petrol category. Surely, it is the best to have them in one class but this is going to comprise one of the teams one way or another. A team having to change a car into something it wasn't originally designer for can screw up everything. Also, I think this rules will stimulate sandbagging because, surely, none of the current top teams (Peugeot and Audi specifically) will want to run the risk of being compromised. Perhaps Audi racing the R15++ initially will bring them a bit of advantage regarding that rule.
 
No, the first series of adjustments is scheduled (for now) after the 6 Hours of Spa, and the R18 WILL be racing there and its performance will be evident (if nobody decides to sandbag). And the only adjustments in terms of performance balancing are ballast, restrictors and turbo boost, generally not something which would require any major redesigns.

Although, in 2009, the diesels were slapped before Le Mans with 30 kg of extra weight, and both Audi and Peugeot scheduled further endurance tests with the cars at the new weight specifications. But all major teams do a serious amount of endurance testing before Le Mans, several 24+ hour tests at least (sometimes they even go to ridiculous lengths, 30-36 hour tests even).
 
Am I the only one who thinks the ACO is still faffing about? I realize that restrictors and turbo boost will play a lot into how the oil burns face the gas machines but still.

Type: 2008 | 2010 | Percentage of 2008 displacement
Gas 6L 3.4L 57%
Turbo 4L 2L 50%
Oil 5.5L 3.7L 67%

This is just stupid, of all the engines that should have retained their displacement it should not be the oil burners. While we saw the turbo gas engines loose half of their displacement the turbo oil burners only lost 33%! They better be putting some pretty tight restrictions on boost and restrictors to tame those oil burners otherwise it will be worse than last year.

Additionally the ACO will go on to say that it will try its best to balance the performance of the two fuels to become equal yet they let in AWD KERS. I will make it clear I have no issue at all with KERS being in LM but that just adds yet another dimension to try to balance.

I guess the good news is that HPD has the perfect opportunity to sell some of their 3.4L that have proven to be quick and reliable. Additionally we know that this engine will fit in an Acura, lola or courage chassis. I will admit I am unsure if any of those are able to compete as a P1...

AER/Mazda could go for an outright win now! However their engine would likely expire 8 times during the race. Minor setback....
 
For those of us not in the know, you can you please stick to understandable terminology? I have no idea which is diesel or petrol when you type gas or oil burner.
 
Not strictly related to the 2011 season, but there are rumours floating around that Red Bull Racing (yes, THAT Red Bull Racing) is in the very early stages of development of a LMP1 car for 2013.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Several commentators have referred over the last few years to the diesels on air as "oil burners".
Click to expand...

Not everyone has the means to watch every race. All the commentary for LMS I've ever watched has only ever used petrol and diesel, maybe it's different in the usa.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
Not strictly related to the 2011 season, but there are rumours floating around that Red Bull Racing (yes, THAT Red Bull Racing) is in the very early stages of development of a LMP1 car for 2013.
Click to expand...


red-bull-x1-prototypw.jpg


Slight modifications might be necessary...but seriously, that'd be great (LMP1, not X1). Red Bull really has the budget to perhaps get on the same level with the big manufacturers. It just never ceases to amaze me how big a company can become from selling energy drinks. They really have their hands on everything. Red Bull has people sponsored on pretty much every extreme-ish sport in existence, owns football teams, a record label, not to mention organizing excellent events and tournaments in pretty much every sport, pretty much everywhere in the world. Now if they only shipped enough money to KTM to get them back into MotoGP...
 
Cold Fussion said:
Does this rumor say if its the RBR F1 team designing the car or would they be contracting out to lola or something?
Click to expand...

Rumour relates to Red Bull Technology doing the work on the car, so I would guess that the plan is to acquire an engine and build their own chassis in-house.
 
Last edited:
vikiradTG2007 said:
Rumour relates to Red Bull Technology doing the work on the car, so I would guess that the plan is to acquire an engine and build their own chassis in-house.
Click to expand...

I haven't been following sportscar prototypes that closely in the past few years, but do you know if any engine specialists (AER, Judd/Engine Developments etc) have any plans on diesel engines? And has there been any news on how much they're going to restrict the diesel engines (and engine rules in general) in the coming years? Just to give a hint on what sort of engine the car would be running if it's going to be produced.

edit: Just noticed you already posted on the future plans on this page.
 
Last edited:
AER is currently partnering with Mazda, since the MZR-R 4-pot turbo is still running (Dyson should run it in the ALMS, there's also a team running the engine in the LMS this year), Judd will probably focus on the DB 3.4 V8 for P1 and the HK V8 for P2. Although the manufacturers might sell their diesel engines to selected partner teams, after all Peugeot had an engine supply deal with Oreca for the Oreca 02 LMP1 car before the project was shelved due to unknown reasons.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
AER is currently partnering with Mazda, since the MZR-R 4-pot turbo is still running (Dyson should run it in the ALMS, there's also a team running the engine in the LMS this year), Judd will probably focus on the DB 3.4 V8 for P1 and the HK V8 for P2. Although the manufacturers might sell their diesel engines to selected partner teams, after all Peugeot had an engine supply deal with Oreca for the Oreca 02 LMP1 car before the project was shelved due to unknown reasons.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm a little doubtful Peugeot or Audi would sell competitive engines to Red Bull if they take on this seriously :)
 
crookie said:
Thanks. I'm a little doubtful Peugeot or Audi would sell competitive engines to Red Bull if they take on this seriously :)
Click to expand...
I'm not, they want a little competition just as a much as every other team.
 
Topgearfanatic said:
I'm not, they want a little competition just as a much as every other team.
Click to expand...

Budget-wise Red Bull might be able to produce a competitive chassis so I doubt the big manufacturers would sandbag their own projects by giving them a competitive engine as well. Especially if the diesels are still at advantage. I can't remember any major manufacturers selling competitive versions of their engines (in sportscar racing) in the last couple of decades while still running a full factory effort themselves. Usually they sell their cars as a complete package, and that's when the chassis is outdated compared to the works car. That's what keeps AER and Engine Developments in business.
 
Last edited:
True, selling your engine when it is just as competitive as the factory team engines can seem a bit daft. What I'm thinking though is that if the money is right and the contract is smartly negotiated the manufacturer can get more information for the factory team, providing a great marker to compare their car design and more input towards engine development especially a team like Red Bull who know their way around car development. I have to say though, I'd love to see this happen because I'm just thinking of the racing we could see.
 
Just imagine, Adrian Newey puts his hands on this project ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top