It was inevitable really. The welcome accumulation of manufacturers in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship means sportscar racing is in a state of rude health. And the onset of the LMGT3 class is expected to bring greater variety than the outgoing GTE class, which bode farewell to Le Mans last weekend. But all of this has put the squeeze on grid spaces, and something had to give.
News that LMP2 won't be part of the WEC next season, finally confirmed at the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's press conference on Friday, had long been anticipated. Hugues de Chaunac, whose ORECA company supplied all 24 cars to the class at this year's race, told Autosport he'd been informed of the decision a year ago.
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“I fully understand, due to the success of the Hypercar and the LMDh, this is normal,” he said.
The ACO has stipulated that at least 15 slots will be left open for LMP2 cars in the 24 Hours next year. These will be taken from entrants to the European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series, where LMP2 cars will continue to fight for outright honours, as well as the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Therefore, the familiar sound of Gibson V8-powered machines hammering around the Circuit de la Sarthe will be unaffected.
But it wouldn’t be correct to say that everything will continue as normal. LMP2’s absence from the WEC next year will be the end of an era. And while the decision has been made for the right reasons, that didn't make it any less lamented by those who have seen the class provide some of the best racing at the 24 Hours in recent fallow years where the fight at the front has been somewhat one-sided.
“It’s a real shame actually,” says United Autosport’s Oliver Jarvis, who finished second overall at Le Mans with Jota in 2017 when only a late recovery from the sole-remaining Porsche 919 Hybrid prevented an outright winner from the secondary class. “LMP2 just doesn’t fit from a pure numbers point of view. But when you think that at one stage there was literally Toyota and maybe one or two other Hypercars, LMP2 has almost been the backbone for many years. The LMP2 class provided the racing along with the GTs.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the LMP2 class has become a de-facto spec class – the ORECA-Gibson 07 quickly establishing superiority over the Ligier, Dallara and Multimatic-Riley – the racing is always close. Four different teams have crossed the line first in the four WEC races so far this season. But in the bigger picture, that’s not the most significant reason its demise from the WEC is one tinged with sadness.
Source: Autosport