They were agreed between rule makers the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the manufacturers on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the start of practice on Thursday for this weekend’s Spa round of the championship.
The move follows the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID losing 11 minutes in the pits early in the second hour of the Portimao WEC round earlier this month when a rear driveshaft torque sensor mandated in the regulations stopped working.
Toyota had to pit the car and replace a rear corner in Portugal despite a request to race control to continue running.
It is understood that two stints’ worth of data needed to have been gathered before such a request was agreed under the previous protocols.
That is why Peugeot was able to continue running the #94 9X8 that finished fifth at Portimao; it suffered a failure of a driveshaft torque sensor during the second half of the race.
New protocols have now been agreed to allow a car to run in default or back-up mode if there is a repeat failure early in the race.
Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon revealed that these procedures would be in place for the Spa 6 Hours, round three of the 2023 WEC, on Saturday.
“We very quickly agreed with the FIA and ACO that we have do everything possible to make sure we avoid stopping a car when such a thing happens,” explained Vasselon.
“We have had a very constructive meeting on how the procedures could improve to make sure we make the best use of the data available to allow running in default mode.”
Source: Autosport