The 2023 World Endurance Championship season will see the current LMP2 cars with further reduced performance with the Gibson V8 engines trimmed by 10 kW and 500 rpm respectively in a further move to ‘stratify’ the LMP2 class against the HyperCar class.
In the European Le Mans Series where LMP2 is the top class, the power will be raised by an average of ~15 KW compared to the 2022 power levels.
Whilst no announcement has been made today, it is very clear that the ACO are actively considering, and likely planning, for the LMP2 class to no longer for part of the FIA WEC from 2024 as suggested in DSC’s editorial back in June.
Confirmed though is that LMP2 will continue to form the top class in the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series.
From 2024, the ACO has confirmed that at least 15 slots will remain open to LMP2 cars on the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid. These places will be allocated to teams competing in ACO-badged series. This seems to conclude the recent history of an invitation for an LMP2 competitor from IMSA though the future shape of the two current automatic invitations awarded to IMSA remains unannounced.
As previously confirmed by the ACO – the introduction of the new generation of LMP2s is postponed to 2026.
In a move designed to allow LMP3 teams to offset their existing investments, the ACO has opted to postpone the introduction of the next generation of the entry-level LMP class by two seasons to 2027.
