Organisers of the World Endurance Championship have dealt non-hybrid LMP1 competitors a blow ahead of the competition’s opening round next month.
A revision to the Equivalence of Technology, which is employed to balance out the field’s performance, has reduced the amount of fuel privateer entries can use over a single stint.
The revision also reduced the amount of fuel each car can burn a lap.
Conversely Toyota, the only hybrid LMP1 entry in this year’s field, has received a boost to those figures ahead of the Spa-Francorchamps event.
Measured in megajoules per lap, Toyota’s allocation of petrol energy has been increased from 58.9 to 71.3MJ/lap, a more than 20 percent increase over the figure used at the Paul Ricard ‘prologue’.
Non-hybid entries have had their allocation increased too, from 99.5 to 106.4MJ/lap, or just 6 percent.
Privateer entries will also be allowed to carry just 47.1kg of fuel per stint, down from 54kg, while the hybrid entries’ figure remains unchanged at 35.1kg.
The change comes following the Paul Ricard test, where Toyota set the fastest time by four seconds.
That time however was set with the car running outside of the regulations, as the Japanese manufacturer stress tested a new cooling system.
When run to the regulations, the Toyota’s best lap was only fifth fastest behind four privateer entries.
The 2018/19 WEC ‘Super Season’ begins with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 3-5.
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