Quote:
Originally Posted by WyldStallion
It was not wrong expectations. To return to the GT1 look is exactly what was promoted. Look how much they hyped the Valkyrie when they thought they were going to run it. Look at the early rumors of the class back in 2018/2019. The expectation was set by then. Got us fans hyped and now Toyota drops us a whimper. The first sign that I got though that this category was going to be a let down was the reveal of the ByKolles "hypercar" last year.
|
The first draft version of the rulebook was already published in December 2018 (and since has changed surprisingly little). After that it was clear what the rules were about. Even the very first article defined the cars as "Le Mans Prototypes". The dumb hypercar term became a more official class name later.
This is the first public presentation from June 2018, see pages 11-12:
https://assets.lemans.org/explorer/p...ier-presse.pdf
Those outlines are still valid (movable aero was disallowed but that isn't relevant now). Free aero design as long as it passes the homologation which includes wind tunnel testing. No rule that says you can't have LMPish looks and no rule that says you have to have road car looks.
What comes to the Valkyrie, in the original (Dec 2018) regs there weren't even any allowances for production model derived cars, all that was added later thanks to Aston's lobbying (Dec 2019 version). They're still in the rules (Dec 2020 version) but it's been obvious no one is going to use them now.
I'll admit though that even I didn't expect so LMPish looks, but I certainly never expected "GT1s" and never any road cars except the Valkyrie.