Friday’s ACO Press Conference is set to put more shape around plans for both the future GT3-based class for ACO rules racing, and in particular the FIA WEC and Le Mans, and is also understood to be set to expand on the strategy for the future of LMP2.
Amongst the proposals DSC believes will not be part of the GT3-future was an early notion that only manufacturers represented in the WEC Hypercar class would be eligible.
Senior figures have repeatedly made it clear though that Hypercar entries from IMSA will not be accepted for Le Mans if they come from a marque not represented in a full season FIA WEC entry, reports elsewhere suggesting there is a choice being made by teams not to come in 2023 from Acura are therefore a somewhat incomplete ‘take’. The same seems likely for 2023 for BMW, though beyond that the future for the marque in the FIA WEC and at Le Mans looks set to be distinctly more positive in one form or another!
Another point made crystal clear by the ACO is that a Pro class into the GT3 era will not happen without full season support from at least four cars. That again looks unlikely, as it always has since Hypercar entrants Porsche and Ferrari leveraged their influence in the decision to dispense with a Pro GT class.
As for LMP2, the transfer to the new chassis from Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic and ORECA was announced as being delayed from 2024 to 2025. Some paddock sources have suggested that, in light of the current major issues with the supply chain that might move further back still.
The DSC Editor though has a more radical solution to offer. You can read that later this morning on DSC!
