Convergence steps on the route to search for the true golden age of WeC

There has always been an elephant in the room in the Hypercar class of the World Dheeraj Championship, which we have come quickly to say a golden age. And the fact is that cars competed against each other at the front end of the world’s major sports series to two different rules – Le Mans Hypercar and LMDH. But now there seems to be some real desire among manufacturers to move towards general rules or reach them.

This process will begin this week, which is the first of the follow -up meetings for the announcement made in June 24 -hour round. Hypercar Division’s life will be one and three years long by the end of 2032It came 12 months after two years of expansion through the conclusion of 2029.

It is important to make a difference between what was said by the Automobile Club Day Lost and FIA, which jointly runs WEC in 2024 and 25 respectively. The first announcement was that the symmetry of the current cars would run till the end of ’29. In June this June expanded by the World Motor Sports Council in Macau, in June, the square instead of real cars related to the actual cars. It provides hope that the rules may come together when the new decade turns to create a fair and close sports ground. And possibly dependent on the balance of performance.

ACO President Pierre Philon said on the stage of the traditional Friday’s press conference of the Mann-Organizing Club during the Le Mans said “practicals need to be discussed”, while suggesting that they will “work by the end of the year”. This may not be an optimistic deadline, which will be to move towards any kind of alignment of two sets of rules, given the will from the manufacturers.

When they racing on the peak of WeC, different manufacturers have different requirements. Ferrari Stressed, as it wanted to join the hypercar field, that it had a Bespok Chesis: a Ferrari should be a Ferrari, even if its development partner on Monokok is a partner. What it could not do, the same chassis spine of four licensed constructors was used, the Dalara was involved: a Ferrari could not be built around the same tub as Chevrolet or BMW. This was one of the reasons that it chose the LMH route.

Toyota’s WEC engagement has always been billed as a program, which brings into the brand in terms of research and development rather than marketing value. It needs to be able to develop its own energy recovery technique and battery with its partners. The idea of ​​using the off-the-shelf hybrid system was annemma for the brand.

But the manufacturers who chose the cheap LMDH route, are saying that there is no reason that the demands of Ferrari and Toyota cannot be included in the revised rules that are likely to be close to LMDH than LMH. Does it not matter that a manufacturer wants to build his LMDH chassis instead of being one from peg? Or develop your own hybrid technology instead of using the Bosch motorcyst, Fortscue Zero (east Williams Advanced Engineering) and the Rear-Axle LMDH kit manufactured by XTRAC? No, Porsche Motorsport’s boss Thomas Lodenback says, whose brand is in LMDH camp with 963, so as long as the technical rules are equal for all and give the same chance for development.

Asked whether the LMDH rules can be taunted to allow manufacturers to develop their own chassis and hybrid systems, Lodenbach says: “This is absolutely possible. I think there is a solution for this. I accept a manufacturer perfectly that ‘this is important to me’, which I have heard so far, which I have heard so far can be solved.

On the chassis question, he says: “If I want to do my own within LMDH rules, where is the problem? I do not see any problem.” And on the hybrid conondrum: “If someone tells me that the most important thing is that the hybrid system is my own, then it is fine. You just have to create a technical details which are allowed.”

Andreas Ros – The head of Motorsport at BMW, provides another markest – a similar opinion at the LMDH camp. “I don’t think it is a problem for your own chassis or hybrid system,” they say. “We need to be clever and make technical rules in a certain way so that no one has any benefit and basic technical rules are equal for everyone. It is possible for me.”

Bruno Femin, Motorsport Boss AlpineBelieve that “the path ahead does not seem very complicated”. The trick, he continues, is making sure the cost does not increase with the permission of new freedom. “Technically it is not very complex,” they explain. “But we have to be careful to maintain costs at the appropriate level, because if everyone has to develop their own battery, their own MGU, I do not know that it will not be the same story.”

The official line of Ferrari is that it is “open” for the idea of ​​convergence. But at the beginning of the year, the technical director of its sports programs, Ferdinando Cannizo, was clear in his belief that a common platform could be the only way for WeC.

“This goal for me should be a normal platform to ensure a balanced area,” he said at the launch of his 2025 campaign in Manelo. “If we have to develop a rear hybrid system or whatever, I am still a fan of the concept of being the same platform.”

There seems to be no reason that the mandatory four-wheel-drives in LMH should have a glued point in negotiations starting this week. Its benefits were all, but was erased under the first round of convergence, as WEC prepared to allow in the initial wave of LMDH machinery in 2023. The speed of deployment of electric power through front axle was raised from 120 km/h to 2022, ranging from technical regulations to bop, which is from pole. This means that hybrid power is now posted in a very straight line.

Peugeot spoke a lot about the four-wheel-drive when it announced his return to the frontline sportscar racing, but it appears in favor of the latest drive towards communalism of the rules. “Overall, our situation is that nothing is stupid, crazy or irrational about trying to unite the technical rules of cars,” says Puezo sport Technical Director Olivier Jansoni. “The question is about time – when and how? It needs to be clarified.”

The question of time is a relevant to the puezo, as it has allowed to develop a replacement for the current version of the 9X8 launched earlier last year. Certainly, it seems to be the will to bring the rules together instead of later. “It would be great if it would be earlier,” Lodenback says, who believe that he “does not know what it is possible”. Femin proceeds in suggesting that a time limit centered as a “problem” at 2030: Nearly rules are required.

In this season, the travels of the organizers in balanced the hypercar field explain why Femin is called and also why a consensus is emerging to move towards a common platform. There is also a compromise between the manufacturers, although not unanimous, that the BOP hypercar will have a necessary evil.

This is, one of the “foundations” of the rules is called Roos, so you cannot leave it. It is an essential cost-earning tool for femina and he uses the word “ambitious” to describe any attempt to remove it with it.

When it comes to this convergence Part 2, the manufacturers all appear to make the right noise. WeC actually appears for a general set of rules or the title for taking. What is necessary for hypercar just to really shine in this golden age.