IMSA president John Doonan indicated that the current designs of LMDh manufacturers are unlikely to become “obsolete” under the regulations set to be introduced in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship by 2030.
Doonan spoke immediately after Friday’s ACO press conference, where the governing bodies of the world’s two premier endurance racing series outlined their plan for a harmonized regulatory framework toward the end of the decade.
Entrants will be allowed to deploy either a chassis of their own design or a ‘spine’ sourced from one of the four certified chassis manufacturers currently available to LMDh competitors.
Those choosing the spine option can then decide between developing their own hybrid propulsion and adopting a standardized system built to the same specifications.
In response to the announcement, Doonan asserted that teams currently running LMDh in either series would not be required to create an entirely new car from scratch.
“One of our goals is to ensure the investments that everyone has made do not become obsolete,” Doonan stated.
“From an engine perspective, I hope those powertrains can be carried forward. The same goes for much of what they developed from the spine side.”
“The four constructors, Dallara, Multimatic, Ligier and ORECA, have dedicated so much to their collaboration with the manufacturers. We do not want any of those elements to become completely obsolete.”
“Will there be updates to the cars under the new regulations, or will other teams in the top category have to alter their approach and build a car to these regulations? Yes.”
“The aim is to ensure we don’t totally obsolete what exists today.”
When asked whether LMDh manufacturers could simply modify their current cars to race in 2030, Doonan replied: “That’s certainly one of the options.”
Doonan also clarified that the four existing LMDh constructors would continue to be the available choices for competitors under the 2030 rules.
FIA and ACO: In 2030, Spine Designs Could Be Manufacturer-Specific
Providing further insight into the new regulations, FIA’s chief technical and safety officer Xavier Mestelan-Pinon explained to a select group of media, including Sportscar365, that the 2030 spine framework may end up being tailored to individual manufacturers.
At present, if two LMDh manufacturers share the same chassis—for instance, Alpine, Genesis and the 2027 WEC entrant Ford all use the ORECA spine, as does Acura in the WeatherTech Championship—they cannot be customized for each brand.
That will no longer be the case in 2030 as plans are developed by the governing bodies.
“You can have some differentiation with the spine,” Mestelan-Pinon said. “Today, if you have an ORECA [spine], you cannot have any difference [to any other manufacturer using the same spine]. Here, you can have some difference.”
“All the data needs to be refined. Everything we present here is just a guideline. Please be patient while we work on it.”
ACO competition director Thierry Bouvet added that the aim of introducing a prescribed underfloor and diffuser is “to be a little bit more constraining” in terms of the aerodynamic window, to enable greater variety on the car’s upper surfaces.
“The most important thing is to further the flexibility of the external design,” he said.
Regarding the option for manufacturers to continue creating their own hybrid systems, as Toyota, Ferrari and Peugeot currently do, Bouvet noted that the rules would be crafted so that no advantage is gained from following this route.
“Manufacturers will be able to design their own system, but it must conform to the same technical specification, to avoid what you’re describing,” he said.
When Sportscar365 asked whether that implied a manufacturer would follow a standard design with its own components, Bouvet replied: “Maybe not the design, but the same output.”
John Dagys contributed to this report
