As many as 10 manufacturers have been involved in the steering committee for the formation of the next-generation of DPi regulations, set to debut at Daytona in 2022. One of the prominent points of contention in current negotiations between IMSA’s technical team and those manufactures has been the question of hybrid-technology and its potential implantation in 2022.
Among the manufacturers involved in the steering committee are all of the current DPi manufactures; Nissan, Acura, Cadillac and Mazda. In these discussions, a divide has emerged between manufacturers that have expressed interest in a ruleset that allows for hybridization to play a significant role in power production and those that have other ideas.
Some manufacturers have advocated for hybrid-technology to function as little more than a ‘push-to-pass’ system in the new cars. They believe that allowing the traditional internal combustion engine to provide the majority of the power is the best option. Those manufacturers have frequently cited cost involved in the development and operation of a hybrid system as a concern.
The World Endurance Championship rolled out its Hypercar regulations, which features prominent hybrid systems in June. IndyCar, meanwhile, has announced intentions to switch to hybrid technology in 2022. Those market-developments have shifted the attention to IMSA as they remain one of the few series awaiting a decision on hybrid-technology for their next-generation of cars.
The technical group that IMSA has assembled to produce the DPi 2022 regulations, as well as the interested manufactures, are working to balance the desire for new technology and the desire for costs to run in DPi to remain at a sustainable level for manufactures.
The first question that IMSA has to answer is the size of the hybrid system. Will the system play a large part in power production of the car? Or will the hybrid system produce a marginal amount of power, leaving much of the power production to the traditional internal combustion engine.
Mazda, one of the manufacturers involved in the discussions expressed to DSC that they still believe there is a performance to be found within the internal combustion engine and would like to see a smaller hybrid system for DPi 2022.
John Doonan, Mazda’s North American Director of Motorsports, spoke to DSC on the matter and pointed to Mazda’s efforts with their SKYACTIV engines. Engines that, according to Mazda’s website, can compress the air-fuel mixture within the engine to create more efficient use of fuel. Those SKYACTIV engines do not feature a hybrid system and are currently being fitted to most road cars across Mazda’s range.
“Mazda’s product philosophy has been that we still believe in the idea around SKYACTIV technology and that the internal combustion engine still has a great deal of efficiency to still be found,” Doonan said.
As far as Mazda’s approach to hybridization for DPi 2022, Doonan said Mazda would like to take a “baby steps” approach. A slow approach would be in line with Mazda’s approach to hybrid systems with its road car division. Mazda has been reluctant to adopt hybrid systems in their cars, especially compared to other manufacturers who have been more eager to fit hybrid systems to their more-popular models, such as Honda with the Accord or Toyota with the Camry.
Doonan added that Mazda is wary of “a full-on hybrid philosophy like what has been unveiled in Europe for the WEC and the ACO,” but that they would not be against an “opportunity to potentially showcase that [hybird] technology”.
While the addition of hybrid systems could allow for road-relevance and help advance the technology, it also comes at a financial cost for the manufactures that choose to enter cars.
As it stands now, DPi provides significant ‘bang-for-the-buck’ for manufactures, especially compared to the predicated budgets for Hypercar which could top 25 million Euros per season for a two-car team. Keeping costs at a level deemed reasonable by the manufactures will be an important part of the next two years of negotiations.
Laura Klauser, Cadillac’s DPi Program Manager, spoke to DSC and expressed that while the manufacturer has an interest in hybrid-technology, they want to see that the DPi 2022 regulations can ensure a similar cost structure as the current regulations.
“At this point, we have not made any commitments or decisions with what we are going to do with DPi 2022,” Klauser said.
“We are open to new technologies if it is something that the sanctioning body and the group as a whole think is the right move,” but Klauser emphasized that Cadillac has been extremely pleased with the current cost structure and that they “would not want to see that change”.
Keeping costs down thus has been a highlight of the talks and IMSA President Scott Atherton says that the series has a plan to achieve a budget outline that manufactures will deem acceptable.
IMSA’s plans, which are still being finalized, are expected to give the series a considerable amount of reign when it comes to enforcing the hybrid systems in the cars. The DPi 2022 regulations will not allow for large swaths of development to be done by manufacturers, which in turn is expected to keep costs down.
Atherton told DSC that “the goal is not to recreate an open development platform” that the WEC has had in recent years with LMP1. Atherton added that such an open ruleset has “proven that is is not a sustainable approach.”
The hybrid systems that are to be fitted to DPi 2022 cars “would be a bespoke system, built to IMSA specifications,” Atherton said. Such an approach would be unlike the approach taken by the WEC with their hybrid rule set that allowed for systems with varying size and shape. The hybrid systems for 2022 will also only apply power to the rear-wheels and IMSA is not considering a four-wheel-drive option given that LMP2 chassis are once again expected to be the base for DPi 2022.
“It will be a very tightly controlled system, in that there will be no, at least initially, development. IMSA will maintain control over not only the system but also the control unit and the related technologies that go with the hybrid system itself.” Atherton said.
Each manufacturer will be able to produce its own hybrid system and an ‘off-the-shelf’ option is not currently being considered. The window for manufacturers to build their hybrid systems will be very small, however.
As far as the power levels for those hybrid systems, Atherton said that he is “not in a position today to give specifics,” but he did state that the “majority feedback [from the working group] will be reflected in the decision.”
IMSA is hoping to have the final ruleset for DPi 2022 in the hands of manufactures by the first quarter of 2020, with testing activists to begin a year later in the first quarter of 2021. All in preparation for a race debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January of 2022.
That could be important as there is little prospect, beyond a likely third Mazda next season, of substantial expansion in the DPi field before the new ruleset As Ryan’s earlier pice outlines here – Ed
Atherton specified that the current estimate for regulation finalization is on the later side, and the ruleset could be finalized earlier.
