Sandbagging is back as WEC tries to force a level Le Mans playing field

It explains the whole-scale changes made to the BoP ahead of this weekend’s Test Day at Le Mans that leads into the week of the 24 Hours on June 10/11. Toyota has been given a whopping 37kg, Ferrari 24kg, Cadillac 11kg and Porsche 3kg.

The guidelines thrashed out between the manufacturers in the run-up to the season — a reputed eight technical working groups were required — allowed for only limited changes during the season. The BoP was effectively set in stone from the championship opener at Sebring in March up to and including the big one at Le Mans. Only the balance between the LMHs, the Toyota and Ferrari included, and the Porsche and Cadillac LMDhs could be adjusted prior to wider revisions scheduled for after the French enduro.

The BoP debate went public, in direct contradiction of an article in the sporting regulations, post-Spa, but the debate centred on whether there was scope for a BoP tweak between the two sets of rules. Toyota argued that a so-called platform change was only possible after two races, which for it meant ahead of the Belgian round. Porsche claimed that any time up to Le Mans was also after two races.

What is clear, however, is that the wider changes made by the FIA and the ACO were not possible under the guidelines without the unanimous agreement of the competitors. That was never sought. Their decision was presented to the manufacturers on Wednesday as a fait accompli. As the ultimate arbiters of the WEC, they had the right to do that.

The correction suggests that the rule makers believed that the BoP wasn’t working, or at least wasn’t hitting its mark by creating close racing. And it is easy to arrive at that conclusion given the dominance with which Toyota swept to victory in the opening three rounds of the WEC. Another conclusion would be that the ACO in particular was desperate to ensure a competitive race in this, the centenary year of the Le Mans.

Or you could argue that the new system was flawed, or at least the timing of its introduction was. It is based on simulation rather than lap-time analysis from the races as in the past, calculated on the potential of each of the seven cars rather than what they actually do on track. That and the limited scope for change was meant to remove the possibility of sand-bagging, hiding performance to get a favourable BoP.

But was that the correct thing to do in what at the start of the a new era for the WEC marked by the arrival of the LMDh cars and, of course, Ferrari? It stands to reason that Toyota with a proven car now in its third season of racing and with two not-insignificant upgrades behind it has ended up closer to its simulated potential than machinery racing for the first time.

Hypercar is essentially a non-development formula. Performance upgrades are strictly limited over the life-cycle of a car and have to be applied for. The principal is that permission will only be granted by the FIA and the ACO when there is a clear and identifiable deficit.

Peugeot has argued that allowing Toyota to upgrade its GR010 Hybrid for this year has queered the patch, making ‘bopping’ the cars that much more difficult. The Japanese manufacturer has countered by saying that this year is a kind of reset season courtesy of the arrival of all the new cars: allowing an upgrade creates a framework from which the system can work moving forward.

But what is the future of a system that the FIA and the ACO trumpeted as a step forward for the WEC ahead of Sebring? If they are going to ride rough shod over what has been agreed every time they don’t like the results it’s throwing up, then you could easily suggest that it doesn’t have a future.

The manufacturers, it is understood, were told that there would be no change between the Test Day and the race, but this week’s move by the FIA and the ACO shows that we’ve arrived back at a situation where lobbying and politicking are back, where skills in the smoke-filled room are an important part of the game.

In light of what happened this week, no one is going to show their hand on Sunday when the Le Mans field takes to the hallowed asphalt of the Circuit de la Sarthe. Like it or not, it looks like sand-bagging is back.