[WEC] BoP. Brilliant or Pants.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

It will be an automatic system adjusting power at speeds over 250 kph.

My opinion too and I don't expect to see something like a DRS.

[veeten]

The best part is that the power/weight is more balanced, both with the cars and across the board. Of course, we'll have to see how it works out by Test Day this weekend. Definitely, Peugeot needed that weight reduction, which should give the new rear design better response.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by tomcug

It will be an automatic system adjusting power at speeds over 250 kph.

Yes. It works just like we have now. They define a max power now. They introduced this so they could define different max powers above and below 250km/h.

A neat solution to compensate for potential variations in performance across different cars for low and high speed.

[Adam43]

An update on BoP for Le Mans.

The performance stuff:
Weight (Kg)

-- Bulletin --	--- Track ---	TOYOTA	GLICKENHAUS	ORECA	PEUGEOT	CADILLAC	FERRARI	PORSCHE	VANWALL	ALPINE	BMW	LAMBORGHINI	ISOTTA FRAACHINI
8/3/2023	Sebring	1062	1030		1049	1038	1057	1048	1030
8/3/2023	Portimao	1043	1030		1042	1035	1040	1045	1030
31/5/2023	Le Mans	1080	1030		1042	1046	1064	1048	1030
3/7/2023	Monza	1080	1030		1046	1032	1069	1049	1030
3/7/2023	Fuji	1080	1030		1038	1039	1076	1054	1030
3/7/2023	Bahrain	1080	1030		1041	1037	1075	1053	1030
26/10/2023	Bahrain	1080	1030		1041	1030	1075	1046	1030
16/2/2024	Qatar	1089			1030	1032	1075	1048		1070	1060	1041	1085
12/4/2024	Imola	1060			1061	1030	1041	1033		1042	1035	1034	1058
4/5/2024	Spa	1064			1065	1030	1053	1037		1045	1038	1035	1060
31/5/2024	Le Mans	1053			1047	1036	1043	1042		1038	1039	1039	1048
		GR010 Hybrid	-- 007 LMH --	---- R13 ----	---- 9X8 ----	- V-Series.R	--- 499P ----	---- 963 ----	Vandervell 680	A424	M Hybrid V8	SC63	Tipo6-C

Max Power (kW)

-- Bulletin --	--- Track ---	TOYOTA	GLICKENHAUS	ORECA	PEUGEOT	CADILLAC	FERRARI	PORSCHE	VANWALL	ALPINE	BMW	LAMBORGHINI	ISOTTA FRAACHINI
8/3/2023	Sebring	517	520		518	513	515	517	511
8/3/2023	Portimao	512	520		516	513	509	516	512
31/5/2023	Le Mans	512	520		516	513	509	516	512
3/7/2023	Monza	507	520		520	498	497	506	520
3/7/2023	Fuji	514	520		520	505	505	514	520
3/7/2023	Bahrain	514	520		520	504	505	514	520
26/10/2023	Bahrain	514	520		520	504	505	514	520
16/2/2024	Qatar	510			520	499	503	505		510	506	502	514
12/4/2024	Imola	516			510	517	510	508		514	511	516	520
4/5/2024	Spa	515			508	516	506	507		513	510	514	520
31/5/2024	Le Mans	508			508	509	508	511		507	508	519	515
		GR010 Hybrid	-- 007 LMH --	---- R13 ----	---- 9X8 ----	- V-Series.R	--- 499P ----	---- 963 ----	Vandervell 680	A424	M Hybrid V8	SC63	Tipo6-C

Power gain after 250 kph

-- Bulletin --	--- Track ---	TOYOTA	PEUGEOT	CADILLAC	FERRARI	PORSCHE	ALPINE	BMW	LAMBORGHINI	ISOTTA FRAACHINI
4/5/2024	Spa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
31/5/2024	Le Mans	0.009	-0.007	0	-0.017	0	0.009	0.009	-0.016	0.009
		GR010 Hybrid	---- 9X8 ----	- V-Series.R	--- 499P ----	---- 963 ----	A424	M Hybrid V8	SC63	Tipo6-C

Note: This was previously communicated as 210km/h. Does that mean they will change the cut off as well as the adjustment? Interesting. Could be by track?
Or have they just done analysis that shows it is better at 250km/h and we will stay there for the foreseeable?

More on this in my next post.

The stint stuff:
Energy Allocation (MJ)

-- Bulletin --	--- Track ---	TOYOTA	GLICKENHAUS	ORECA	PEUGEOT	CADILLAC	FERRARI	PORSCHE	VANWALL	ALPINE	BMW	LAMBORGHINI	ISOTTA FRAACHINI
8/3/2023	Sebring	913	911		909	905	908	912	900
8/3/2023	Portimao	904	913		908	904	899	910	901
31/5/2023	Le Mans	908	913		908	905	901	910	901
3/7/2023	Monza	908	916		914	890	893	899	913
3/7/2023	Fuji	907	909		908	894	898	906	903
3/7/2023	Bahrain	908	909		908	895	901	909	906
26/10/2023	Bahrain	908	909		908	894	901	908	906
16/2/2024	Qatar	914			904	890	902	900		909	904	895	917
12/4/2024	Imola	916			906	908	904	901		909	905	908	920
4/5/2024	Spa	917			910	909	905	904		913	907	908	923
31/5/2024	Le Mans	906			895	900	889	904		903	904	904	915
		GR010 Hybrid	-- 007 LMH --	---- R13 ----	---- 9X8 ----	- V-Series.R	--- 499P ----	---- 963 ----	Vandervell 680	A424	M Hybrid V8	SC63	Tipo6-C

As normal there is some correlation between the power change and the energy per stint change.
A quick glance seems to indicate that it isn't as correlated as normal. Is this a reset with more data, or a Le Mans specific thing?

Other Stuff:
There is no change to FWD activation speed or docking time.

Power/Weight charts. Includes a comparison to IMSA.
The Lamborghini sticks out, but that is probably related to the power over 250km/h adjustment.

[Adam43]

250 not 210km/h
This was previously communicated as 210km/h. Does that mean they will change the cut off as well as the adjustment? Interesting.
Could be by track? Or have they just done analysis that shows it is better at 250km/h and we will stay there for the foreseeable?

The adjustment is just automatic and is easily implemented / measured. Dead simple. Certainly compared to energy usage.

Gain and Loss
Some cars gain energy and some lose power over 250km/h. I thought this interesting - it doesn't really matter as everything is relative, but I had (for no reason) assumed everyone would gain. So here they are adding to top speed and taking away. Which now I think about it makes sense. The ACO probably didn't want to push top speed higher, especially at Le Mans.

Pedantic point
The spec. sheet tells the teams what the power is below 250km/h and what it is above 250km/h, but what about at 250km/h. Interesting how that is programmed.

What has changed since Spa
I looked at the change in Power specifically for >250km/h. So this allowed for the general BoP changes and this new parameter.

Manufacturer	Spa <250km/h	Le Mans <250km/h	Spa >250km/h	Le Mans >250km/h
Alpine	513 kW	507 kW	513 kW	512 kW
BMW	510 kW	508 kW	510 kW	513 kW
Cadillac	516 kW	509 kW	516 kW	509 kW
Ferrari	506 kW	508 kW	506 kW	499 kW
Isotta Fraschini	520 kW	515 kW	520 kW	520 kW
Lamborghini	514 kW	519 kW	514 kW	511 kW
Peugeot	508 kW	508 kW	508 kW	504 kW
Porsche	507 kW	511 kW	507 kW	511 kW
Toyota	515 kW	508 kW	515 kW	513 kW

I then compared this to the maximum speeds from Spa, the most recent race. For this I took the average top speed from the race of all the cars. I then averaged across the manufactures.

I compared the change in power to these maximum speeds from Spa to see if the ACO were simply correcting for top speed.

I think to a certain extend they are. Generally the higher you top speed at Le Mans the greater the combined drop in power at >250km/h. Makes sense.

The correlation is pretty good, except for two cars.

Lamborghini
It gets a reduction in >250km/h power despite being the slowest top speed.
I think there are potentially two things here. Firstly the data from Spa is rubbish. There is only one car and it didn't have that many competitive laps.
If you look at the overall event though it still doesn't look good. If you look at Imola it was much nearer the top. Qatar near the bottom. So inconclusive here - you could argue anything.
I wonder if there is a subtlety here. Overall all it got the biggest bump in power from Spa to Le Mans (<250km/h). Maybe the ACO wanted to give it a little more acceleration, but that needed offsetting at high speed. Well, it's a theory.

Toyota
They also received a relative drop in power >250km/h (yes, a + adjustment, but they lost power overall). They've been a little up and down through the year, but generally lower than most.
It seems to be working the opposite way to Lamborghini as they seem to want to cut acceleration (they have AWD unlike Lambo). They returned some of that for top speed, but didn't quite offset that from a top speed. Perhaps the ACO didn't want to give more than the +0.9% as that is the max anyone got. Another theory.

As always, if you spot anything; a typo, an error in the calculation, let me know.

The chart shows the relationship between Spa Max Speed and the total adjustment to >250km/h power between Spa and Le Mans:

[Truckosaurus]

How much time do we think cars spend over 250kmh (150mph) at Le Mans?

Certainly during both halves of the Mulsanne/Hunaudieres straight, and the run to Indianapolis.

Arnage to the Porsche Curves as well.

But anywhere else? End of the grandstand straight into Dunlop? The run up to the Ford Chicane? The end of the grandstand straight into Dunlop?

[Matador]

Honestly, the BoP doesn't seem too bad at all. Remains to be seen how well the power gain works, it will be interesting to see for sure.



I'm surprised that Ferrari lost so much weight, as well as Alpine (I think next to Porsche and Caddy they have the most advantageous specification). Perhaps their power gain loss would do well to offset that. Some pressure still clearly being applied to Toyota as they are still the heaviest, but at least they aren't completely overweight. Test day won't show much, the bags will truly be thrown out come the 15th.



Lamborghini is quite curious as well, but one thing is for sure I do believe that overall this will be a Titanic battle.


I hope that any delays/retirements aren't LMP2/GT3 delivered (or overzealous competitor hypercar driver for that matter), can't wait for next weekend.

[Sodemo]

One thing to note, the lightest car is still carrying 6kg more than the base weight. Why don’t they just lower all the weights by 6kg? Doesn’t look very efficient or eco friendly if all the cars are carrying 6kg more than necessary?

[v8supes]

So you are saying there is not going to be an on screen graphic to let us know when the drivers are on the power boost?

[Steve McQ]

It is not a power boost. It is a power allocation that is greater or lower above 250kph, depending of the car. You have to think about it as a tweak in the power curve of the engine. Nothing more.

[Adam43]

Every time any hypercar is over 250km/h it will be there.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by Steve McQ

It is not a power boost.

For some cars it is

Originally Posted by Adam43

The chart shows the relationship between Spa Max Speed and the total adjustment to >250km/h power between Spa and Le Mans:

Excellent find. So how about a little conspiracy theory that the ACO knows those 2 manufacturers were sandbagging?

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by tomcug

For some cars it is

Power boost as in something similar to push to pass that is optional and driver selected, or as in the previous LMH category where EV boost we optional and driver selected.

While I know you get that it is clear there is confusion with v8 about this.

It just happens at that speed.