It’s
All a Matter of Class
The
British are often accused of being
obsessed with Class. Over the last
few weeks that has been evident in
the subtle undercurrent to the patriotic
fervour that accompanied the wedding
of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
Never far away was some comment along
the lines of Kate being a “Commoner”.
She was “one of the people”,
the daughter of two former British Airways
flight attendants who was being elevated
to the lofty status of becoming a member
of the Royal Family. By marrying William
she joined the crème de la crème
of British aristocracy, and Class doesn’t
come any better defined than that.
The French abolished their class system
just over two hundred years ago, when
they chopped off the top layer with the
help of Madame Guillotine. Out of that
came the French national motto of Liberté, Égalité,
Fraternité, or Liberty,
Equality and Brotherhood.
Applying
those same principles to motorsport
has never been an easy process, and
understanding how it works in the
complex world of endurance racing this
season is especially difficult.
There
are nominally five classes in the Le
Mans Series; LMP1, LMP2, Formula Le
Mans, GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. To the initiated,
the cars running within each category
are fairly readily identifiable, but
to help the spectators in the
grandstands the ACO has introduced
a coloured numbering system – red
panels for LMP1, blue for LMP2, purple
for FLM, green for GTE-Pro and orange
for GTE-Am.
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|
|
|
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LMP1 |
LMP2 |
FLM |
GTE-Pro |
GTE-Am |
Those
are the visual markers. In terms of
performance, there should be a narrow
overlap between classes – the
fastest of the class below just able
to compete with the slowest of the
one above, and in general terms, a
clear series of demarcations should
exist from one end of the grid to the
other. This season, however, there
has been a broad change in the regulations
governing the classes, and the result
has been a blurring of the class
structure that makes this performance
balance a little harder to follow.
LMP1
remains broadly the fastest class,
and that’s as it should be, of
course. However, under some interpretations
there are seen to be two sub-classes
within LMP1; cars with diesel engines,
and those powered by petrol. At the
recent official pre-24 Hours test at
Le Mans, all seven diesel-powered prototypes
out-performed the best
of the petrol-engined cars and, put
simply, unless the diesels hit problems,
a car fitted with a petrol engine is
unlikely to emerge victorious.
Nevertheless,
the overall race winner is almost certain
to come from the ranks of LMP1.
The
situation in LMP2 is less clearly defined,
and cars running in the second prototype
class range
from some of the quickest – and
these may be as fast as several of the petrol-powered
LMP1 cars – right through to some
of the slowest, struggling to overtake
even the tail-enders in GTE-Am.
Visually very similar to many of the
LMP2 cars, the Formula Le Mans group
(all stock-specification Oreca 09 chassis)
sit somewhere in the middle, and are
likely to be quicker than several competitors
in the LMP2 field. It’s
all very confusing.
What
is even more confusing, and something
that no spectator can be expected to
appreciate, is that there are effectively
several sub-categories in LMP2. As
was intended by the new regulations,
which we covered here in
December last year, the plan was that
LMP2 was going to become a more affordable
category, aimed tactically at the privateer
teams and with a gentleman driver at
the heart of every line-up. To this
end a cost cap was introduced, and
the regulations stated that all new
cars had to meet stringent financial
limits. The chassis should cost no
more than £300,000 and the engine,
based on a production unit from a road-legal
car, was capped at £65,000. However,
to save some teams the expense of having
to invest in a completely new car, older
chassis would be eligible to race under
the quaintly-named "grandfather” rules,
although the same cost-capped engine
options would have to be employed.
In
principle the ACO’s aspirations
are highly laudable, but in practice
the regulations have been open to wider
interpretation than perhaps was originally
envisaged. The
result is four or five indistinct sub-classes
in LMP2.
At
one end we have cars which fulfil all
the expectations of the new regulations,
not only meeting the cost-capping price
limit, but doing so at the end of an
exhaustive development process that
includes wind-tunnel testing, the imposition
of the dorsal fin, and the incorporation
of one of the production-based engines.
The Pecom Lola (left)
is such a car.
At
the other end of the scale are the
grandfathered cars,
such as the RLR Motorsport MG Lola EX265
(shown right at Paul Ricard).
This is a 2006 chassis fitted with
the latest BMW derived Judd V8. As
a grandfathered car, the RLR MG Lola
not only carries an extra 20 kilos
of ballast (total 920 kilos) but, unlike
other cost-capped cars using the same
V8, is also fitted with a 5% smaller
restrictor to further limit the car’s
performance.
In
the middle there are cars which, to
varying degrees, fulfil the cost-capping
regulations or the “grandfathered” rules,
but don’t quite meet either of
them perfectly. The Zytek Z11SN, for
example, is actually the same chassis
that ran in 2010, and in previous years
as the Zytek 09S (pictured
right).
However, by offering similar cars for
sale at below the cost-capped price,
the manufacturer has enabled any team
using the Zytek in 2010 to run under
the latest cost-capped regulations. That
means benefiting from a lighter all-up
weight of 900 kilos, and fitting the
larger restrictors (by approximately
5%) to the latest Nissan V8 naturally
aspirated V8 engine.
Similarly,
the Oreca 03 chassis (left)
is based on Oreca’s
LMP1 chassis from 2009 (right).
The company carried out redevelopment
work in order to make it suitable for
use in LMP2, but stopped short of fitting
the dorsal fin when the ACO tweaked
the regulations slightly in late 2010,
stating that the fin would not become
mandatory until January 2013 (see here). Able
to supply the updated chassis within
the cost-capped limit, and fitted with
the Nissan or Judd engine, the car
became eligible for the more favourable
interpretation of the regulations,
despite being based on an old design.
The
fourth category is probably where RML
AD Group’s
HPD ARX-01d fits in. The chassis is
grandfathered,
since it is based on the original 2006
Acura chassis that ran in the American
Le Mans Series. However, unlike the RLR
MG Lola, the ARX is fitted with a twin-turbo
V6, rather than a naturally-aspirated
unit, and so is subject to a completely
different set of uniquely smaller restrictors.
These sub-classes can be simplified
as:
1)
Cost-capped, new chassis, dorsal
fin, new engine. (Pecom Lola B11/40)
2) Cost-capped, old chassis, (no fin)
new engine. (Zytek Z11SN, Norma M200P,
Oreca 03)
3) Grandfathered, old chassis (no fin),
new engine, non-turbo (RLR MG Lola)
4)
Grandfathered, old chassis (no fin),
new engine, turbocharged (RML AD Group
HPD)
Then,
just to add further mud to the waters,
we will see a fifth sub-class in the
Le Mans 24 Hours and in ILMC races,
including Spa, with the presence of
the Level 5 Lola HPD Coupé:
5)
Non cost-capped, new chassis, dorsal
fin, new engine. (Level 5 Lola HPD
Coupé)
Although
the Lola is brand new, and therefore has to sport a dorsal
fin (*see here for clarification) and is complete with all the latest
engine, transmission, aero and braking
technology, the final price of the
package meant that it couldn't meet
the cost-capped criteria - so it has
the appearance of a cost-capped
2011 competitor, but isn't, and so
carries the extra weight and restrictor
disadvantages.
The
ACO’s challenge has
been to achieve equivalence across
a very uneven landscape. With the various
combinations of weight, ballast, engine
type and restrictor size it was never
going to be an easy process, and the
initial results (seen at Paul Ricard
and Sebring) suggested that the playing
field in LMP2 remained far from level.
Power output from the various engines
ranged from an excess of 500 bhp, down
to a more modest 420 bhp. Top speeds
were spread across a spectrum that
extended from 268 kph through to 283
kph – a
variance of 15 kph - and around the
5 kilometre Paul Ricard circuit, best
lap times between the fastest and slowest
in the class displayed a disparity
of over 3 seconds.
By
the time the cars arrived at Le Mans
for the official test, those fitted
with turbocharged engines, including
RML’s
HPD, had been issued with a slightly
bigger restrictor. In conjunction with
the fitting of the lower downforce aero
package, exclusively homologated by the
ACO for use at Le Mans, the gap between
the HPD and the quickest Nissan-powered
cars was narrowed, but it won’t
be until the teams arrive at Spa this
weekend that the true impact of the restrictor “break” will
be apparent. Preliminary tests indicate
that the performance gap may have been
halved, leaving the cost-capped
cars with a power advantage of around 35 bhp
and a weight break of 20 kilos. It must be hoped that this, in conjunction with the recognised aerodynamic efficiency of the HPD chassis, the RML and Strakka "grandfathered" cars will be more competitive this weekend.
Interestingly,
both the HPD-ARX, developed by Wirth
Research in Banbury, and the Oreca
03 can trace their lineage back to
the same central tub – the Courage
LC70/75 (above). Oreca purchased Courage
in 2007, and developed the Oreca 01
(LMP1) and Oreca 03 (LMP2) from the
ancestral stock. They also used the
same basic package to create the Oreca
09, the Formula Le Mans chassis.
By comparison, GT is a
far simpler kettle of fish. With the
phasing out of GT1, we now have two
GTE classes – one
aimed at professional teams and drivers
(GTE-Pro) and the second at amateur “gentlemen” drivers.
Cars racing in the former can have an
all-pro line-up, whereas eligibility
for GTE-Am demands a maximum of one professional
driver, and a car that’s at least
a year old. Simples. What a relief.
LMP2
Entry List
The
full entry list for LMP2 and Formula
Le Mans for Round 2 of the Le
Mans Series and ILMC 2011 is reproduced
below. If one is available, clicking
on the thumbnail will reveal an enlargement.
M = Michelin Tyres, D = Dunlop Tyres
Only
three entrants within LMP2 are competing
for points in the ILMC, and the remainder
are all regular Le Mans Series competitors.
The Le Mans Test on April 24th suggests
that the Oreca Nissans are likely to
set the class pace once again, but
the Greaves Zytek will be in amongst
them and fighting for pole.
Oak
Racing didn't have an easy run in the
Le Mans test, but the team has established
a name for gritty determination and
reliability, if not outright pace,
and it would be hard not to pick them
for a strong finish. The Pecom Lola
has also done well, both in testing,
and in the first round at Paul Ricard,
so can be expected to challenge during
the race.
Both
RML AD Group and Strakka Racing will
be looking to ascertain what performance
benefits they can draw from the larger
restrictors fitted to the twin-turbo
HPD V6 following the ACO's specification
change after Paul Ricard. However,
both teams will also have to deploy
the medium downforce aero package,
homologated by the ACO for use in
the Le Mans Series and last seen in
Round 1. That should be
fairly well suited to Spa's twists
and turns, although top speed along
the Kemmel Straight may be compromised.
Nevertheless, it will be the first
opportunity either team has had to
make a direct comparison with their
rivals.
The
full entry list in PDF format, including
a comprehensive LMP1 and GT listing,
can be viewed here:
Spa
Entry List.
From
this it can be seen that eight of the
fifteen cars listed for LMP1 are ILMC
entries, six are Le Mans Series, and
one (the #12 Rebellion Lola Toyota)
is scoring for both. Since the
list was published the Hope Racing
Swiss Hytech Hybrid has been withdrawn,
and just a week ago it was announced
that Aston Martin would also be missing
the Spa round to concentrate on development
work with its two AMR-One LMP1 prototypes.
With
three of Audi's new R18 diesel coupés
and four Peugeot 908s there is sure
to be a very competitive battle for
the overall lead. The R18 looked extremely
impressive in Le Mans testing at the
end of April - very composed through
the corners, whisper-quiet along
the straights, and fastest overall
on the lap, but the factory Peugeots
kept on posting fastest sectors, even
if they never quite strung a blistering
lap together. When hustled, the
908 is evidently very quick, but can
it maintain that kind of pace for a
race distance? Spa will reveal much
more than the official Le Mans test
did, and may offer a tantalising glimpse
of what we can expect when the gladiators
arrive at Le Mans in June.
Support Races
There
are three support series to this weekend's
LMS/ILMC race. The ATS Formula 3 Cup
is a German-based single seater, open-wheel
championship with a variety of chassis
and engine types, and is fairly typical
of Formula 3 style competition. They
will share the billing with two sportscar-based
support championships: .
The
Speed EuroSeries made an impressive
debut as support to the Le Mans Series
at Paul Ricard, and will be a regular
feature of the LMS package in 2011.
The cars are like mini-prototypes,
and almost as fast. Many top names
will be seen on the entry list, including
former Grand Prix drivers, Le Mans
racers and sportscar champions. It's
also very entertaining!
Also
on the bill, and returning as support
to the Le Mans Series after a brief
gap, is the Radical Masters series.
The Radicals have offered support to
the LMS on many occasions in the past,
and like the Speed EuroSeries, represent
a feeder for would-be endurance racing
drivers, as well as an excuse for experienced
veterans to let their hair down and
enjoy some close-fought wheel-to-wheel
racing. Theirs is a non-championship
round, but the draw of Spa, and the
chance to race on the same schedule
as the big names in sportscar racing
should be enough to guarantee a good
turnout.
A
History of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit
We
ran a brief history of the Spa-Francorchamps
circuit as part of our preview to the
1000 Kilometres in 2008, and not a great
deal has changed since then. If you're
interested in how this fabulous circuit
came to be created, please follow this
link to the archived coverage on our
companion website at www.mg-lola.com.
Weekend
Schedule
The
following schedule is subject to
change and the circumstances and
events of the day