Having not been granted a spot on the 19-car Hypercar grid for the 2024 season amid the arrival of Lamborghini, BMW and Alpine, among others, Vanwall is pressing ahead with plans to make a comeback next year, team boss Colin Kolles told Autosport sister title Motorsport-Total.com.
The German outfit's Le Mans Hypercar will undergo a major upgrade for its planned return, with the biggest change being the introduction of Pipo Motors' 3.5-litre V8 twin-turbo engine that previously powered the Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH.
Vanwall has been hamstrung by the naturally-aspirated 4.5-litre Gibson motor, which was unable to reliably achieve the required power output allowed under the Balance of Performance system.
According to Kolles, the Gibson engine lacked up to 60kW or 80bhp, severely compromising its straightline performance.
By contrast, the Pipo engine had originally been built for Hypercar regulations requiring power outputs of up to 850hp - a figure that was later reduced in the wake of the LMH-LMDh convergence. The engine is therefore over-engineered for the required maximum of 520kW and not under-engineered like its predecessor.
Such a major change has far-reaching consequences on the design of the Vanwall LMH. While the monocoque is kept the same to avoid new crash tests, almost everything that can be changed on the periphery has been altered.
This includes the addition of an intercooler to the air intake and cooling system, plus an exhaust that has a different exit angle to the Gibson unit. As a result, various changes have to be made to the bodywork, which in turn affect the aerodynamics.
Source: Autosport