The Best thing about these classes is that more manufacturers will be Involved in the top class of sports car racing. It's going to be exciting seeing 5, 6, or even 7 different manufacturers competing for overall wins
@@afoxwithahat7846 Probably would be a good time to learn how BoP works. Everyone is going to get an opportunity to win at some point and that will be the worst thing of this class.
@@deggis4 Man, Indy and Nascar have had BoP for years now. Sometimes it's just easier to admit you're all just hoping for something that has low chance of happening
and yet LMDh is far more likely to survive since it has much more in common with the thriving LMP2 category than previous top class prototype regulations.
@@carlitoxb110 yes, that is a shame. But hopefully a class with a (relatively) low barrier to entry like LMDh will attract more manufacturers and entrants, which will create excitement where it really matters - on track.
Great overview, will be especially helpful to share with my wife who loves endurance racing along with me, but is always like, "wtf why does it have to be so complicated with class naming and standardization?" ... lol, although truth be told, aside from the WEC/IMSA branding differences, this really does feel like a step in the right direction with unified standards. Will be interesting to see how they BoP the LMH and LMDh.
I’m glad you enjoyed! Yeah it can be pretty complicated, tbh I still don’t understand it all fully after doing content on Hypercars for the last 2 years haha! That’s why I made this video, to try and breakdown everything on the differences/tech specifications, categories, and entries.
I hope there isn't going to be any bullshit bop ! I mean, why would you bother to invest into better car when they are going to limit the others for you.
@@ducedevlstear2471 Because BOP is the thing that can assure all manufacturers are happy & getting a relatively level playing field while also prevents huge spending and makes sure the class is sustainable. As good as LMP1 was, their operational costs were just too expensive for most teams/manufacturers and one of the reasons for its eventual demise
I'm biased because I was a small part of the Toyota team with the TS040/050 project. But I deeply admire the way they stuck at the LMP1 class even when everyone else pulled the plug.
I'm very interested in BoP between all these cars. It really matters in endurance racing, because any pace advantage over 24 hours grows to a gargantuan extent. Also there's a philosophical question of whether a factory-run class with many manufacturers is sustainable. Nobody wants to finish last, but if there's a pure race team, they may enjoy just the presence on the grid. But big brands don't hang around if they lose, they cut their losses and pull out. That's something that could happen in the hype car class. I'm spelling this in that way, because it's a weird name. And to make things weirder, the same class, as you pointed out, is called differently by IMSA and ACO, even though they agreed to converge their technical regulations to the same rulebook. It's a sign that they struck an agreement not because they wanted to, but because they had to to keep the grids big.
Thank you for clarifying this for my buddies who drive UPS all day every day and like IMSA and WEC but they dont have time to read all the articles to catch up so this video helps.
Update in the time since I made this comment Astom have Anooinced that the Valkyrie LMH will compete in both IMSA and WEC as of the 2025 season which is amazing as the Valkyrie sounds amazing and looks fantastic as AMR pro version so can't wait for the hypercar Great video, although the Aston isn't really a rumour. the car was under developement to enter the series in 2023 however due to the take over of Racing Point, Aston martin shelved the Valkyrie LMH to focus all their efforts on the F1 team and instead moved it to become the production version of the Valkyrie AMR Pro instead of the original AMR Pro concept, although without the horsepower restrictions related to it. The ACO even increased the motor unit horsepower to allow the valkyrie to compete which annoyed glickenhouse to no end when they pulled out as this increase had forced the 007to switch from an Alfa v6 to a Nissan V6 as the alfa engine couldn't make the increased power reliably where as the nissan engine could
2024 is going to be the best year in LeMans history with upwards of 12 teams and 24 cars competing for the outright win, the camera operators will be spinning like a helicopter just to keep up with the action.
man i find wec and imsa so confusing and intimidating. but the cars look so cool. i was not a fan of how the lmp1 cars looked back in the day but since the change to lmh these cars look fantastic. i watch F1 and i think it's fairly simple to understand, even the technical stuff and a good chunk of even the engineering stuff but i need someone to teach me more about wec
Ok so essentially there are races in a season, that go on for different amounts of time (6 hours, 8 hours and 24 hours in the case of Le Mans). Depending on the lenght of the races there are different amounts of points given to the highest placing cars (essentially the longer the races, the more points you get.) Drivers are usually placed into groups of 3 drivers who compete together as a team, it is possible, though to swap out drivers, which means if two drivers compete the full season and two drivers share the third place, only the two drivers that compete full time get all the points, while the others just for the races they competed in. The races are not just one race, but in the case of WEC 4 races in one race. And the points are given each to the class. So even if lets say a Hypercar is classified 10th in the race, but 4 LMP2 cars are ahead of him, he will still be classified P4 in the Hypercar class and get the points for P4. Class Nr. 1: The Hypercar class. Its the biggest and fastest class in the field. They are Hypercars and much cheaper than the previous LMP1 class and the video does a pretty good job of explaining this. Class Nr 2.: is the LMP2 class. It stands of Le Mans Prototype 2 and are essentially a slower, smaller and more homologated version of LMP1 cars. In this day and age, they are run mostly by private teams, not manufacturers and are in many cases mostly the same car parts and teams can only make small adjustments. In this class, you'll see the most familiar faces if you're an fan of many motorsports series (Like Seb Ogier, Antonio felix da Costa, Rene Rast etc.) And if i'm not completely wrong it uses also a rating system to keep teams on a more level playing field (explanation for that in the segment about class 4). Class Nr. 3 right now is the GTE Pro class, which won't exist next season, however it will be replaced by a class with GT3 Regulations if i'm not wrong. So essentially an endurance race with GT3-Cars, with it being the class the manufacturers want to win. You could say, this is the second most important class from a manufacturers standpoint. Class Nr. 4 is the GTE-Am class, which are not backed by any manufacturer. Its a GT class and mostly used for gentleman-drivers (for example famous actor Michael Fassbender). It is at a pretty level playing-field due to the fact that there is a rating system and only allows like one gold or higher rated, one silver rated and one bronze rated driver to compete as a team (ratings depend on expierience and success). So essentially an endurance race is 4 different smaller races in one big race with driver teams instead of drivers and with the manufacturers championship essentially more important in two of the classes than the drivers championship (different from F1) I hope this could make a bit more sense for you and i hope you'll get some enjoyment out of the WEC or IMSA :)
Oh yeah and i might want to add the BoP. It means Balance of Power and exists in many motorsports series. So essentially the fastest cars of lets say the first race get some success balast added onto their car to make their race more difficult, so just because you win one race, doesn't mean you'll win the next one. It levels the playing field a bit more and is very divisive.
@@eggselent9814 Thanks for the great explaination, really helped me to finally understand them. I have one question. Like if wec & imsa have both same lmh & lmdh cars (apart from the other categories that race in them) then why are they named differently? Is it like they are same but different brand identities for different regions?
@@shr2000 WEC is being administered directly from FIA and IMSA is handed to FIA's the ACCUS board of USA. WEC cars are largely tuned for the Le Mans circuit whereas IMSA cars are tuned for the Daytona circuit, both being 24 hour races. IMSA and WEC are separate tournaments and LMH cars and LMDH cars will feature in both of them.
Absolutely supporting Toyota. So much racing pedigree and have never been given enough credit for single-handedly keeping LMP1/LMH alive for the last few years.
I'll be supporting the motorsport legend Ferrari of course! The 499P is absolutely amazing. One of the most beautiful race cars ever created. Forza Ferrari!
I cannot put into words how excited I am that Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Peugeot, Toyota, Cadillac, Lamborghini, Glickenhaus and Bykolles will be racing together in the top class of Le Mans in cars that look THAT cool.
Awesome and very helpful video. This is great for someone new trying to get into the sport. Please keep up this great work the official sources are dull or nonexistent.
Mainly an IMSA fan but I always found myself rooting for the Cadillacs in the DPi class, but I'll be excited to see RLL and BMW since their headquarters is down the street from my work. I agree with you about the increased interest and participation these new cars will bring and I hope it will continue to expand the sportscar series.
I finally got invested in endurance racing this past year and my only regret is not giving a damn sooner. Love the direction the sport is heading. A great time to be a fan
It’s more a successor to the all conquering 956-962 BEASTS from back in the day. The 919 seem to be the successor to the legendary 917. Either way, huge shoes to fill as you said.
Hell I really don't care who wins as long as we get to see some good racing...and get to see 20+ possible cars in the combined races from imsa and wec!!!!
Growing up in Sebring, the most appealing aspect to these series - is the great access for fans. That is such a HUGE deal ! itz not like that in F1 or Motogp or even Nascar. The tech, the drivers, the fans and atmosphere, that stuff MATTERS ! It is always super interesting to see the racing bodies try to make it better, safer, more competitive - whatever, let em have at it. They will do their best to balance the cars - Meanwhile, We get to enjoy the access to badass cars, super tech, super drivers, and super weekends ! And I'll take it, before somebody realizes its a high addiction and moderates it with some quarterly prescription and a limiting amendment! Pin it to win it, Hale Yeah !
Thanks for the great information! I really like that you didn’t try to “qualify “ the information by using terms like entry level class. I think the WEC is going in the right direction. Thanks again!
I'm excited for this season! Very. As an artist and avid sports car fan, I'm looking forward to this hyper car face-off. It's going to be a treat. Great video, by the way. 😊
Isotta Fraschini isn't a rumour anymore, they're looking to debut at Spa next year, still dunno who's supplying the engine or who's gonna drive for them though.
About the costs: there was no regulation during the LMP1 times. There were quite cheap ones like the Acuras or Orecas. But the works teams played in a different League. While Toyota spend 90-120 mio per season, Audi and Porsche spend 300 mio... Those two took down LMP1 if you ask me. So yeah if you chose to take the 300 mio as a basis, the Hypercars are really cheap^^
The practical definition: D stands for "Discount version". U.S. series seem to always insist that a cheaper version will be " just as good as the international models". As for the BOP, it would appear that the manufacturer that whines the most wins.
Overall good video but: - The entry summary at the end would have been best without the rumors (some which are really iffy). - The elephant in the room (BoP) was not mentioned and quickly explained. It is a key aspect to understanding the class and the convergence.
Good to know. Yeah BOP would have been good to go over. The reason why I mentioned the rumored entries is because those are the entries in line to possibly join that have been in the news, so I wanted to make sure I briefly covered them👍
@@FormulaJonah Tbh since you labeled them as rumors I liked that. However what was really missing was how LMH and LMDH are going to compete. Because if you can build whatever you want in the LMH class, the LMDH will always be inferior.
I'm so happy they are opening the regulations letting them run whatever engine, I wish F1 could do the same, ppl would say the costs will spiral but they're already spending crazy money. It's excellent so many manufacturers are joining, hopefully it'll have a snowball effect and attract more. It's cool that they've limited the downforce to an exact number so the cars can be designed anyway. the Australian touring cars have done the same, so the cars can look cooler and they're not effected as much by following another car.
I'm supporting Peugeot with their car without a rear wing. I like the Peugeot team and their originality. My name is Hugue from Brussels and I never miss any race we have the luck to have RTBF AUVIO in Belgium and they show all races of WEC integrally. It's a real blessing as far as I'm concerned.
Would prefer a black and white alternative like BOP such as PWR ratio and drag coefficient limits but at least the new formula is attaching a lot more manufacturers.
As far as i know there are drag and downforce limits, PWR is also given and can/will be changed accordingly and probably pretty regularly in the beginning. These new "standardized" classes are probably much easier to get a fair BOP. In the end, no matter if a series has BOP or just depends on a certain set of rules, there will always be a certain "unfair" factor and politics will be involved in both anyways. All in all i personally think BOP is still great because it allows for interesting and close races for the viewers and more manufacturers/teams will participate because they can be competitive without money being the deciding factor.
Great vid! Ive always found it sad that the eggheads atop the sportscar racing world make things so unnecessarily overcomplicated between the US and European sanctioning bodies.
Great vid and explanations. I have a passing interest in endurance racing so this seems like it will shake up the category with making it more accessible for more teams and manufacturers to compete.
Interested to learn more about both. Drive to Survive sparked my interest but after a couple of seasons it was clear despite the amazing cars and drivers, F1 is not competitive enough for prolonged interest. I want to see cars that drive like they are on rails but I also want to see competition! I want to see competition in engineering as well as drivers and their respective teams. Wolff represents drivers on other teams (only in F1 is that not a conflict of interest). It seems like 30% of the teams in F1 are there to block for the big 3. So what alternatives exist? LMH in particular sounds very interesting and looks promising.
The reason the power output is less is because the weight has been increased? That doesn’t make any sense. Overall though I like these new regs and they have definitely worked at attracting new manufacturers to endurance racing. Something f1 could learn from
@@wtfhithere that’s exactly what I was thinking which is why it didn’t make sense. You’d think if they increased the weight of the cars they’d compensate by giving them more power not less
@@FormulaJonah Those two would be completely independent of each other, both in the rule book, and in practice. I'm worried about the weight gain...that's a lot of weight, which will make the cars slower in a straight line, slower through corners, and handle worse all the way around. That's a bad move for me.
Fantastic, I support everyone. Ofc being Italian I’m rooting for Ferrari but I hope to see a lot of manufacturers, also I’m new at this sport and will start following in 2023! I hope it’s not rotten like F1 tho
another cool thing: if the hypercar uses a rotary engine, there are effectively no rules on engines (best i checked) so the only limitation on a rotary engine in an LMH is physics. thats really cool
6:35 Aston Martin kind of confirmed that they were going to enter the car. If u look under the Valkyrie AMR Pro page on their website, they say that the car was initially intended to be a Le Mans prototype (in fact, the Valkyrie as a whole was designed with the intention of being a Le Mans prototype), but the project was shelved. No one knows if it’s gonna be revived or if it’s shut down for good tho
Yeah it’s likely that Aston Martin won’t join, that’s why I put them in the rumors section of the video since there are still little hints of them joining so I had to include them since they are still in the news every once and awhile but highly unlikely that they will join.
More info on engine design and specs would have been nice. LMDH entries get a standard gear box. Does that mean gear ratios can't be changed? What about brakes? on the LMDH cars?
In a previous video, you explained that Cadillac will run one IMSA LMDH car this year and one dedicated to WEC Hypercar class. It sounded as if there are minor technical compliance changes that the car must meet. Could we have a summary of those? LMDH to LMH Hypercar class?
To my knowledge there shouldn’t be any compliance changes to force a team to run a specific amount of cars. I think it’s more if Cadillac want to run more then one car in each series. For instance in IMSA, two teams will run the Cadillac, Action Express and Chip Ganassi and both teams run 1 car. However, at big events like Daytona there will be 3 Cadillac’s, with the addition of Chip Ganassi’s LMDh from the WEC, and then at Le Mans it will be the same. The teams from IMSA will bring over their cars to compete with the WEC Chip Ganassi Cadillac. Hope this info helps!
I still remember back in the day when it was P1, P2, and the different GT classes. That changed to LMP1, LMP2, etc. Guess Hypercars don't fit within the old GT classes. If my memory serve me correctly, there also was DP1 and DP2 for Daytona Prototypes. Only thing constant is change itself. I spent time racing in SCCA, NHRA, and NASCAR. IMSA was next logical step, but life caught up with me. Many great memories though. Not sure how this change affects small independent Race Teams. Not everyone has a hundred million dollar budget, or too small for major sponsors. Some people race just for the sheer excitement. I sure did.
It's literally better for private teams. It was impossible to race LMP1 cars as private teams, now they can actually do that since they are like 10% the price that LMP1 cars were.
@@Maenfy Thanks for comment. I'm a bit behind the current info curve. Got to love the rule makers... want to race 'hypercars' then build one from ground up that has zero resemblance to a street legal hypercar like Lambo or Ferrari. Maybe I can buy a used one after it's raced a season. Make it road legal and drive it on public streets. That would attract attention from public and police as well. I drive a Maserati GT, not a hypercar, but closer to a luxury Italian supercar. The label GT stands for 'Give "Ticket'.
what I want to know is, why would anyone choose the LMH class, if the performance between LMH and LMDh is slated to be the same for lower cost? Just bragging rights? Is the flexibility of making everything yourself worth it if it won't make a difference in lap time (theorycally)?
6:34 Aston Martin actually planned to join the WEC with said Valkyrie but than acquired the Formula 1 team of RacingPoint and transformed it into a full works operation. Soon after that they noticed that running both a Formula 1 and WEC team would be too costly and ditched the LMH plans to focus on it's F1 entry.
Great video. I have a question, what is the advantage over choosing LMH over LMDh (or vice versa) from a manufacturer’s perspective? It sounds like LMDh is cheaper, so why not just go with that? I get that LMH allows more freedom, but wouldn’t it be more expensive to make a car that will race alongside the LMDh cars anyway?
Glad you enjoyed! I think it’s about weather the manufacturer is ok with supplied with parts or wants to do it themselves, both have their benefits though. For instance, you probably won’t see a Ferrari LMDh, since Ferrari want to do pretty much everything on their own, where it seems Porsche are more open to the idea of LMDh. Personally I feel LMDh is the better option here, but LMH cars could be faster then LMDh, so honestly they both have their ups and downs and there isn’t really a better one or worse one so to speak.
Good question, what we know is that Porsche Penske and Chip Ganassi (Cadillac) will race Le Mans in 2023 as well as the full WEC season. Action Express (Cadillac) will probably race Le Mans as well.
Reliable sources here in Italy claim that Isotta Fraschini is being brought back to life by Michelotto Engineering, a well known company in Northern Italy
Thx for the video but there are some mistakes/updates, the 2023 Rolex entry list has Acura and BMW running LMDh cars in addition to Porsche and Cadillac. IMO, you did a good job at start to explain the differences but then it got a bit messy and confusing as to who is running what in which series and in what year.
I think I did mention Acura and BMW entries at Daytona. But since this video is a little old now there’s some stuff I see that could have been done differently / updated. Thanks for watching
@@FormulaJonah Yeah I think so too, if their car is competitive they'd be stupid to stay at home while all the other boys duke it out at some of the most epic Le Mans races ever to come...
I was at le mans 2022 and had really hoped to see peugeot that year, but got to experience Toyota and glickenhaus race in the new class. But cannot wait for ferrari and porsche to race each other 😁
@@JanMleziva I watched the whole thing before I commented. But I don’t remember hearing a single thing about how the two classes paces compare. I know he said they’re slower than LMP1 but thats about it
@@Jakeman90210 They will be competing alongside in a single class. In WEC/Le Mans it will be called Hypercar and in IMSA it will be GTP. So yes, the pace will be very similar and a bit lower than for outgoing LMP1 due to higher weight
Both car concepts will race in the same class and will be brought together performance-wise through "Balance of Performance" (BoP), where things like engine power, hybrid power use, fuel allowance, etc. are tuned until all cars are as level as possible.
Great video.....I appreciate it. Long time Sebring/Daytona 24 fan. Favorite team...Wayne Taylor Racing as Wayne won the championship back when he raced for Dolye Racing (Dan Doyle owned Danka, I worked at Danka). Excited to see them (hybrid cars) run. I heard Wayne say that his budget last year with Konica Minolta was 5.8 Million. This year 8.5 million so I am surprised to see your comment on some of the price decreases. 80 percent from the LMP class? Not so much for DPi?
Thanks for watching! And great to see another fan of Wayne Taylor Racing! The WEC stated that the cars are 80% less from LMP1, but the difference from DPI to LMDh / LMH must be different.
The Best thing about these classes is that more manufacturers will be Involved in the top class of sports car racing. It's going to be exciting seeing 5, 6, or even 7 different manufacturers competing for overall wins
I completely agree with you!
Toyota and Porsche, yes.
Ferrari, BMW and Cadillac, Maybe
Peogeot, Lamborghini and Alpine, Not so much
Glickenhaus straight up no
@@afoxwithahat7846 Probably would be a good time to learn how BoP works. Everyone is going to get an opportunity to win at some point and that will be the worst thing of this class.
And with teh new regulations, the looks of the car would be more diverse comapred to lmp1
@@deggis4 Man, Indy and Nascar have had BoP for years now.
Sometimes it's just easier to admit you're all just hoping for something that has low chance of happening
Nice clear video on the differences of LMH and LMDH…good explanation on what they are, the classes and the teams. Well done.
Thank you!
Love how every car does look very different from each other.
me too!! it makes the competition more unique and personalised
That's the magic of bop based regulations
LMH is more interesting because of the freedom to develop in the hands of the manufacturers.
and yet LMDh is far more likely to survive since it has much more in common with the thriving LMP2 category than previous top class prototype regulations.
@@joelambert7128 LMH is more exciting but LMDH is cheaper
@@carlitoxb110 yes, that is a shame. But hopefully a class with a (relatively) low barrier to entry like LMDh will attract more manufacturers and entrants, which will create excitement where it really matters - on track.
Truth! 😎
@@joelambert7128 Yeah but it really sucks to be honest? LMDh is nothing than a spec series on steroids. Pretty boring.
I'm so excited for next year to start. Every car looks so different. Can't wait to watch all the races
Great overview, will be especially helpful to share with my wife who loves endurance racing along with me, but is always like, "wtf why does it have to be so complicated with class naming and standardization?" ... lol, although truth be told, aside from the WEC/IMSA branding differences, this really does feel like a step in the right direction with unified standards. Will be interesting to see how they BoP the LMH and LMDh.
I’m glad you enjoyed! Yeah it can be pretty complicated, tbh I still don’t understand it all fully after doing content on Hypercars for the last 2 years haha!
That’s why I made this video, to try and breakdown everything on the differences/tech specifications, categories, and entries.
I hope there isn't going to be any bullshit bop ! I mean, why would you bother to invest into better car when they are going to limit the others for you.
@@ducedevlstear2471 Because BOP is the thing that can assure all manufacturers are happy & getting a relatively level playing field while also prevents huge spending and makes sure the class is sustainable.
As good as LMP1 was, their operational costs were just too expensive for most teams/manufacturers and one of the reasons for its eventual demise
I'm biased because I was a small part of the Toyota team with the TS040/050 project. But I deeply admire the way they stuck at the LMP1 class even when everyone else pulled the plug.
Wow! That’s so cool!
Admirable because they had no competition?
@@svtinker Yes...When you're a one horse race nobody wants to watch. They stuck with it, now there will be a full field again.
@@iiredeyeiiredeye1569 and they will lose again.
@@svtinker Yeah maybe...but at least they've been there and done it through thick and thin.
I'm new to watching IMSA. I love it. I'm a old NASCAR guy,but what I've seen of IMSA I'm hooked.
Both IMSA and NASCAR are so cool! Welcome to the IMSA world as well!
I'm very interested in BoP between all these cars. It really matters in endurance racing, because any pace advantage over 24 hours grows to a gargantuan extent. Also there's a philosophical question of whether a factory-run class with many manufacturers is sustainable. Nobody wants to finish last, but if there's a pure race team, they may enjoy just the presence on the grid. But big brands don't hang around if they lose, they cut their losses and pull out. That's something that could happen in the hype car class. I'm spelling this in that way, because it's a weird name. And to make things weirder, the same class, as you pointed out, is called differently by IMSA and ACO, even though they agreed to converge their technical regulations to the same rulebook. It's a sign that they struck an agreement not because they wanted to, but because they had to to keep the grids big.
Exactly! I completely agree with everything you said.
DPi was 2.3 sec faster than hypercar in Sebring and many have confirmed the new LMDH cars are lapping almost similar times. Hopee they manage it.
@@JoeMaters Is the goal to make them all the same pace so everyone can compete for the overall win?
@@EAGYSL always have been the goal.
More manufacturers in every aspect of auto racing means significantly higher viewing across the board.
The next 10 years will be intense!
Thank you for clarifying this for my buddies who drive UPS all day every day and like IMSA and WEC but they dont have time to read all the articles to catch up so this video helps.
Update in the time since I made this comment Astom have Anooinced that the Valkyrie LMH will compete in both IMSA and WEC as of the 2025 season which is amazing as the Valkyrie sounds amazing and looks fantastic as AMR pro version so can't wait for the hypercar
Great video, although the Aston isn't really a rumour. the car was under developement to enter the series in 2023 however due to the take over of Racing Point, Aston martin shelved the Valkyrie LMH to focus all their efforts on the F1 team and instead moved it to become the production version of the Valkyrie AMR Pro instead of the original AMR Pro concept, although without the horsepower restrictions related to it. The ACO even increased the motor unit horsepower to allow the valkyrie to compete which annoyed glickenhouse to no end when they pulled out as this increase had forced the 007to switch from an Alfa v6 to a Nissan V6 as the alfa engine couldn't make the increased power reliably where as the nissan engine could
plans changed for aston ✨
2024 is going to be the best year in LeMans history with upwards of 12 teams and 24 cars competing for the outright win, the camera operators will be spinning like a helicopter just to keep up with the action.
Ferrari win Le mans in the same year a certain Ferrari-Banana broke his monaco curse in F1 😂
man i find wec and imsa so confusing and intimidating. but the cars look so cool. i was not a fan of how the lmp1 cars looked back in the day but since the change to lmh these cars look fantastic. i watch F1 and i think it's fairly simple to understand, even the technical stuff and a good chunk of even the engineering stuff but i need someone to teach me more about wec
Ok so essentially there are races in a season, that go on for different amounts of time (6 hours, 8 hours and 24 hours in the case of Le Mans). Depending on the lenght of the races there are different amounts of points given to the highest placing cars (essentially the longer the races, the more points you get.) Drivers are usually placed into groups of 3 drivers who compete together as a team, it is possible, though to swap out drivers, which means if two drivers compete the full season and two drivers share the third place, only the two drivers that compete full time get all the points, while the others just for the races they competed in.
The races are not just one race, but in the case of WEC 4 races in one race. And the points are given each to the class. So even if lets say a Hypercar is classified 10th in the race, but 4 LMP2 cars are ahead of him, he will still be classified P4 in the Hypercar class and get the points for P4.
Class Nr. 1: The Hypercar class. Its the biggest and fastest class in the field. They are Hypercars and much cheaper than the previous LMP1 class and the video does a pretty good job of explaining this.
Class Nr 2.: is the LMP2 class. It stands of Le Mans Prototype 2 and are essentially a slower, smaller and more homologated version of LMP1 cars. In this day and age, they are run mostly by private teams, not manufacturers and are in many cases mostly the same car parts and teams can only make small adjustments. In this class, you'll see the most familiar faces if you're an fan of many motorsports series (Like Seb Ogier, Antonio felix da Costa, Rene Rast etc.) And if i'm not completely wrong it uses also a rating system to keep teams on a more level playing field (explanation for that in the segment about class 4).
Class Nr. 3 right now is the GTE Pro class, which won't exist next season, however it will be replaced by a class with GT3 Regulations if i'm not wrong. So essentially an endurance race with GT3-Cars, with it being the class the manufacturers want to win. You could say, this is the second most important class from a manufacturers standpoint.
Class Nr. 4 is the GTE-Am class, which are not backed by any manufacturer. Its a GT class and mostly used for gentleman-drivers (for example famous actor Michael Fassbender). It is at a pretty level playing-field due to the fact that there is a rating system and only allows like one gold or higher rated, one silver rated and one bronze rated driver to compete as a team (ratings depend on expierience and success).
So essentially an endurance race is 4 different smaller races in one big race with driver teams instead of drivers and with the manufacturers championship essentially more important in two of the classes than the drivers championship (different from F1)
I hope this could make a bit more sense for you and i hope you'll get some enjoyment out of the WEC or IMSA :)
Oh yeah and i might want to add the BoP. It means Balance of Power and exists in many motorsports series. So essentially the fastest cars of lets say the first race get some success balast added onto their car to make their race more difficult, so just because you win one race, doesn't mean you'll win the next one. It levels the playing field a bit more and is very divisive.
@@eggselent9814 Thanks for the great explaination, really helped me to finally understand them. I have one question. Like if wec & imsa have both same lmh & lmdh cars (apart from the other categories that race in them) then why are they named differently?
Is it like they are same but different brand identities for different regions?
@@eggselent9814 thank you as an f1 fan trying to understand WEC now that Ferrari is joying. this is very useful
@@shr2000 WEC is being administered directly from FIA and IMSA is handed to FIA's the ACCUS board of USA.
WEC cars are largely tuned for the Le Mans circuit whereas IMSA cars are tuned for the Daytona circuit, both being 24 hour races.
IMSA and WEC are separate tournaments and LMH cars and LMDH cars will feature in both of them.
I kid you fucking not, this is the racing I've always wanted. So goddamn excited for this next season!
I am a Japanese ,but your English is easy to listen for me ,so I can enjoyed your videos.
I hope your success.
Thank you! I very much appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Feels like it’s going to be another golden era of multi class racing
Absolutely supporting Toyota.
So much racing pedigree and have never been given enough credit for single-handedly keeping LMP1/LMH alive for the last few years.
Great footage ! A complete compendium of knowledge about the new generation of top-class sports cars.
Great video, I now understand 👍 should be an exciting time! Thanks for posting.
I'll be supporting the motorsport legend Ferrari of course! The 499P is absolutely amazing. One of the most beautiful race cars ever created. Forza Ferrari!
Yay! Forza Ferrari!
I cannot put into words how excited I am that Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Peugeot, Toyota, Cadillac, Lamborghini, Glickenhaus and Bykolles will be racing together in the top class of Le Mans in cars that look THAT cool.
Awesome and very helpful video. This is great for someone new trying to get into the sport. Please keep up this great work the official sources are dull or nonexistent.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed, content will definitely continue regularly
An amazing video, thank you. I am stoked for these cars!
Mainly an IMSA fan but I always found myself rooting for the Cadillacs in the DPi class, but I'll be excited to see RLL and BMW since their headquarters is down the street from my work. I agree with you about the increased interest and participation these new cars will bring and I hope it will continue to expand the sportscar series.
Incredibly simple yet informational video. Liked and subbed👍🏻👍🏻 loved it!
Awesome, thank you!
I hope the Vanwall badged cars get to join I love that British racing green from the very old days. Seems like some very smart changes.
I've been looking for a good beginner's guide and this was it. I'll be rooting for whatever has a Porsche or McLaren logo on it!
They better add these to Gran Turismo 7 in the future!
Yeah! I really hope so too!
The Toyota is already available 😉
Sports cars saving the day, now that F1 has become a TV soap. Can't fucking wait for this!
I finally got invested in endurance racing this past year and my only regret is not giving a damn sooner. Love the direction the sport is heading. A great time to be a fan
Now someone just needs make a dedicated endurance SIM racer with both WEC and IMSA championships and all these lovely cars.
Would be nice but I'd imagine you'll find most of the IMSA runners appearing in iRacing. The BMW has already been announced 🤷
Porsche all the way! The 963 has big shoes to fill tho, with the success the 919 had..
It's Porsche, they'll find a way to make it win
Hell yeah!!
Porsche all the way 🤟
Ready to roll Porsche 963 Win Hypercar Class
It’s more a successor to the all conquering 956-962 BEASTS from back in the day.
The 919 seem to be the successor to the legendary 917.
Either way, huge shoes to fill as you said.
Hell I really don't care who wins as long as we get to see some good racing...and get to see 20+ possible cars in the combined races from imsa and wec!!!!
ive been looking for this information for a while! thank you for the great video
No problem, glad it was informative!
The more variety the better. Those hypercard designs are nice.
I subscribed! I’m going to 2023’s Le Mans race so it’ll be great to follow your channel while looking forward to that!
Welcome! That’s awesome your going to Le Mans, have fun!
Growing up in Sebring, the most appealing aspect to these series - is the great access for fans. That is such a HUGE deal ! itz not like that in F1 or Motogp or even Nascar. The tech, the drivers, the fans and atmosphere, that stuff MATTERS ! It is always super interesting to see the racing bodies try to make it better, safer, more competitive - whatever, let em have at it. They will do their best to balance the cars - Meanwhile, We get to enjoy the access to badass cars, super tech, super drivers, and super weekends ! And I'll take it, before somebody realizes its a high addiction and moderates it with some quarterly prescription and a limiting amendment! Pin it to win it, Hale Yeah !
good video; love the details. super disappointing that no entries are coming to imsa from Europe this year. see you at sebring!
I know! Hopefully some of the LMH entries will come in 2024 like Ferrari or Peugeot. But we will see!
Thanks for the great information! I really like that you didn’t try to “qualify “ the information by using terms like entry level class. I think the WEC is going in the right direction. Thanks again!
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I'm excited for this season! Very. As an artist and avid sports car fan, I'm looking forward to this hyper car face-off. It's going to be a treat. Great video, by the way. 😊
Thanks a lot for this video, extremely helpful. Cheers from Montreal 🍻
Awesome..what weve wanted for a long time..TY Great video!
Isotta Fraschini isn't a rumour anymore, they're looking to debut at Spa next year, still dunno who's supplying the engine or who's gonna drive for them though.
Yeah they are officially confirmed now, but the announcement came out after I made this video.
@@FormulaJonah Looks that way yeah, 12 days ago.
About the costs: there was no regulation during the LMP1 times. There were quite cheap ones like the Acuras or Orecas. But the works teams played in a different League. While Toyota spend 90-120 mio per season, Audi and Porsche spend 300 mio... Those two took down LMP1 if you ask me.
So yeah if you chose to take the 300 mio as a basis, the Hypercars are really cheap^^
great video, I can see hyundai at some point. Know anything?
The practical definition: D stands for "Discount version". U.S. series seem to always insist that a cheaper version will be " just as good as the international models". As for the BOP, it would appear that the manufacturer that whines the most wins.
Overall good video but:
- The entry summary at the end would have been best without the rumors (some which are really iffy).
- The elephant in the room (BoP) was not mentioned and quickly explained. It is a key aspect to understanding the class and the convergence.
Good to know. Yeah BOP would have been good to go over. The reason why I mentioned the rumored entries is because those are the entries in line to possibly join that have been in the news, so I wanted to make sure I briefly covered them👍
@@FormulaJonah Tbh since you labeled them
as rumors I liked that.
However what was really missing was how LMH and LMDH are going to compete. Because if you can build whatever you want in the LMH class, the LMDH will always be inferior.
Yes, rumors are rumors, keep it official. It's confusing enough.
I'm so happy they are opening the regulations letting them run whatever engine, I wish F1 could do the same, ppl would say the costs will spiral but they're already spending crazy money. It's excellent so many manufacturers are joining, hopefully it'll have a snowball effect and attract more. It's cool that they've limited the downforce to an exact number so the cars can be designed anyway. the Australian touring cars have done the same, so the cars can look cooler and they're not effected as much by following another car.
Glad they did something, a lot more entries and even better LMH and LMDH race together
Excellent video, you sir have gained a new subscriber!
I miss LMP1 😪
Great Video . Very Well Done.
I can't wait for all these cars come to i Racing.
👍👍
I can not WAIT for 2023, and I'm a huge fan of the BMW V12 LMR so it's even better that BMW is competing next year!
Thanks F-Jonah getting me all set for the start of the season in January
I'm supporting Peugeot with their car without a rear wing. I like the Peugeot team and their originality. My name is Hugue from Brussels and I never miss any race we have the luck to have RTBF AUVIO in Belgium and they show all races of WEC integrally. It's a real blessing as far as I'm concerned.
Full support for Peugeot
I love Peugeot road cars, I drive one by myself so there are my favorites
Oh and Cadillac because that cars sounds amazing
Hope LMH and LMDh in 2023 gonna bring the IMSA field FAR closer than before.
Great video, you made me want to subscribe to your channel before I even finished the video.
Thank you, and welcome!!
Thank you great to have all the 411 in the first 5 mins
Would prefer a black and white alternative like BOP such as PWR ratio and drag coefficient limits but at least the new formula is attaching a lot more manufacturers.
As far as i know there are drag and downforce limits, PWR is also given and can/will be changed accordingly and probably pretty regularly in the beginning. These new "standardized" classes are probably much easier to get a fair BOP.
In the end, no matter if a series has BOP or just depends on a certain set of rules, there will always be a certain "unfair" factor and politics will be involved in both anyways.
All in all i personally think BOP is still great because it allows for interesting and close races for the viewers and more manufacturers/teams will participate because they can be competitive without money being the deciding factor.
I'm excited to see LMH run in IMSA. Seeing them on the banks of Daytona is gonna be awesome.
Great vid! Ive always found it sad that the eggheads atop the sportscar racing world make things so unnecessarily overcomplicated between the US and European sanctioning bodies.
Great vid and explanations. I have a passing interest in endurance racing so this seems like it will shake up the category with making it more accessible for more teams and manufacturers to compete.
Interested to learn more about both. Drive to Survive sparked my interest but after a couple of seasons it was clear despite the amazing cars and drivers, F1 is not competitive enough for prolonged interest. I want to see cars that drive like they are on rails but I also want to see competition! I want to see competition in engineering as well as drivers and their respective teams. Wolff represents drivers on other teams (only in F1 is that not a conflict of interest). It seems like 30% of the teams in F1 are there to block for the big 3. So what alternatives exist? LMH in particular sounds very interesting and looks promising.
Like Group C did, this will become more popular than F1.
I very much appreciated this video and breaking it all down.
Glad you enjoyed it and found it informative!
Im really rooting for glickenhaus, they really have a good car.
Amazing vid btw!
Thank you! I’m so glad to see more support for Glickenhaus. Im hoping they go good as well!
I think its really cool that Cadillac is partaking
I have commented due to us sharing a name... Well that and WEC being one of my favourite series lol
Great video props!!!
Glad you enjoyed!
The reason the power output is less is because the weight has been increased? That doesn’t make any sense. Overall though I like these new regs and they have definitely worked at attracting new manufacturers to endurance racing. Something f1 could learn from
Weight is one out of a few reasons for the power output to be less
@@FormulaJonah but wouldn't increased weight mean you would want more power to compensate?
Weight was increased by 20%. Over 400lbs in some cases.
Also I've read one of the classes has planned a horsepower cap.
@@wtfhithere that’s exactly what I was thinking which is why it didn’t make sense. You’d think if they increased the weight of the cars they’d compensate by giving them more power not less
@@FormulaJonah Those two would be completely independent of each other, both in the rule book, and in practice. I'm worried about the weight gain...that's a lot of weight, which will make the cars slower in a straight line, slower through corners, and handle worse all the way around. That's a bad move for me.
Fantastic, I support everyone. Ofc being Italian I’m rooting for Ferrari but I hope to see a lot of manufacturers, also I’m new at this sport and will start following in 2023! I hope it’s not rotten like F1 tho
Great Video man!
Thank you!
@@FormulaJonah Subbed for more of that Sweet prototype content!
another cool thing: if the hypercar uses a rotary engine, there are effectively no rules on engines (best i checked) so the only limitation on a rotary engine in an LMH is physics.
thats really cool
Geiles Video mit super Info's.
Freue mich auf mehr.
Grüße aus Deutschland
Great informative video. I've always been a fan of spirtscar racing, but this is set to be one of the most exciting era's we've known.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Been looking for a video like this
6:35 Aston Martin kind of confirmed that they were going to enter the car. If u look under the Valkyrie AMR Pro page on their website, they say that the car was initially intended to be a Le Mans prototype (in fact, the Valkyrie as a whole was designed with the intention of being a Le Mans prototype), but the project was shelved. No one knows if it’s gonna be revived or if it’s shut down for good tho
Yeah it’s likely that Aston Martin won’t join, that’s why I put them in the rumors section of the video since there are still little hints of them joining so I had to include them since they are still in the news every once and awhile but highly unlikely that they will join.
@@FormulaJonah I really want them to join tho. It’d be a shame to see the Valkyrie go to waste
More info on engine design and specs would have been nice. LMDH entries get a standard gear box. Does that mean gear ratios can't be changed? What about brakes? on the LMDH cars?
This video made me more confused 😂😂😂 I thought it’s just LMDh … but it’s two categories LMD AND LMDh 😮
In a previous video, you explained that Cadillac will run one IMSA LMDH car this year and one dedicated to WEC Hypercar class. It sounded as if there are minor technical compliance changes that the car must meet. Could we have a summary of those? LMDH to LMH Hypercar class?
To my knowledge there shouldn’t be any compliance changes to force a team to run a specific amount of cars. I think it’s more if Cadillac want to run more then one car in each series. For instance in IMSA, two teams will run the Cadillac, Action Express and Chip Ganassi and both teams run 1 car. However, at big events like Daytona there will be 3 Cadillac’s, with the addition of Chip Ganassi’s LMDh from the WEC, and then at Le Mans it will be the same. The teams from IMSA will bring over their cars to compete with the WEC Chip Ganassi Cadillac. Hope this info helps!
@@FormulaJonah awesome thanks.
I still remember back in the day when it was P1, P2, and the different GT classes. That changed to LMP1, LMP2, etc. Guess Hypercars don't fit within the old GT classes. If my memory serve me correctly, there also was DP1 and DP2 for Daytona Prototypes. Only thing constant is change itself. I spent time racing in SCCA, NHRA, and NASCAR. IMSA was next logical step, but life caught up with me. Many great memories though.
Not sure how this change affects small independent Race Teams. Not everyone has a hundred million dollar budget, or too small for major sponsors. Some people race just for the sheer excitement. I sure did.
It's literally better for private teams. It was impossible to race LMP1 cars as private teams, now they can actually do that since they are like 10% the price that LMP1 cars were.
@@Maenfy Thanks for comment. I'm a bit behind the current info curve. Got to love the rule makers... want to race 'hypercars' then build one from ground up that has zero resemblance to a street legal hypercar like Lambo or Ferrari.
Maybe I can buy a used one after it's raced a season. Make it road legal and drive it on public streets. That would attract attention from public and police as well.
I drive a Maserati GT, not a hypercar, but closer to a luxury Italian supercar. The label GT stands for 'Give "Ticket'.
what I want to know is, why would anyone choose the LMH class, if the performance between LMH and LMDh is slated to be the same for lower cost? Just bragging rights? Is the flexibility of making everything yourself worth it if it won't make a difference in lap time (theorycally)?
6:34 Aston Martin actually planned to join the WEC with said Valkyrie but than acquired the Formula 1 team of RacingPoint and transformed it into a full works operation. Soon after that they noticed that running both a Formula 1 and WEC team would be too costly and ditched the LMH plans to focus on it's F1 entry.
I REALLY hope the Aston Martin Valkyrie races someday, would be a waste not to P.S. great video 🔥
Dodge puegot and Cadillac! can't wait to see!
All of that is looking so exiting, but only 7 races in WEC. They should do at least 10
That's tricky though since they need time to travel around the world and don't want to increase costs too much.
Great video. I have a question, what is the advantage over choosing LMH over LMDh (or vice versa) from a manufacturer’s perspective?
It sounds like LMDh is cheaper, so why not just go with that? I get that LMH allows more freedom, but wouldn’t it be more expensive to make a car that will race alongside the LMDh cars anyway?
Glad you enjoyed! I think it’s about weather the manufacturer is ok with supplied with parts or wants to do it themselves, both have their benefits though. For instance, you probably won’t see a Ferrari LMDh, since Ferrari want to do pretty much everything on their own, where it seems Porsche are more open to the idea of LMDh. Personally I feel LMDh is the better option here, but LMH cars could be faster then LMDh, so honestly they both have their ups and downs and there isn’t really a better one or worse one so to speak.
Do we know if any of the LMDH cars/teams from IMSA will run in the 2023 Le Mans 24?
Good question, what we know is that Porsche Penske and Chip Ganassi (Cadillac) will race Le Mans in 2023 as well as the full WEC season. Action Express (Cadillac) will probably race Le Mans as well.
Reliable sources here in Italy claim that Isotta Fraschini is being brought back to life by Michelotto Engineering, a well known company in Northern Italy
Great video, thanks 🏁
Glad you liked it!
Thx for the video but there are some mistakes/updates, the 2023 Rolex entry list has Acura and BMW running LMDh cars in addition to Porsche and Cadillac. IMO, you did a good job at start to explain the differences but then it got a bit messy and confusing as to who is running what in which series and in what year.
I think I did mention Acura and BMW entries at Daytona. But since this video is a little old now there’s some stuff I see that could have been done differently / updated. Thanks for watching
what are the chances for Acura/Honda in LeMans?
Very possible! It depends on if and when they decide to take the ARX-06 over to Europe. I expect a Le Mans entry in at least 2024.
@@FormulaJonah Yeah I think so too, if their car is competitive they'd be stupid to stay at home while all the other boys duke it out at some of the most epic Le Mans races ever to come...
I'm supporting Toyota since 1999. I'm hoping for some good compentition this Le Mans.
Thanks! Very instructive.
2:55 jesus that porpoising
Really great video
I was at le mans 2022 and had really hoped to see peugeot that year, but got to experience Toyota and glickenhaus race in the new class. But cannot wait for ferrari and porsche to race each other 😁
Is the pace between LMH and LMDH going to be similar? Or will only LMH’s be fighting for wins?
Please, watch the video. This is not the only thing that is explained there ;)
@@JanMleziva I watched the whole thing before I commented. But I don’t remember hearing a single thing about how the two classes paces compare. I know he said they’re slower than LMP1 but thats about it
@@Jakeman90210 They will be competing alongside in a single class. In WEC/Le Mans it will be called Hypercar and in IMSA it will be GTP. So yes, the pace will be very similar and a bit lower than for outgoing LMP1 due to higher weight
Both car concepts will race in the same class and will be brought together performance-wise through "Balance of Performance" (BoP), where things like engine power, hybrid power use, fuel allowance, etc. are tuned until all cars are as level as possible.
Both will have similar pace
Not bad but I would like to see more technical specifications such as minimum weight, engine rule, dimensions and hybrid systems
Great video.....I appreciate it. Long time Sebring/Daytona 24 fan. Favorite team...Wayne Taylor Racing as Wayne won the championship back when he raced for Dolye Racing (Dan Doyle owned Danka, I worked at Danka). Excited to see them (hybrid cars) run. I heard Wayne say that his budget last year with Konica Minolta was 5.8 Million. This year 8.5 million so I am surprised to see your comment on some of the price decreases. 80 percent from the LMP class? Not so much for DPi?
Thanks for watching! And great to see another fan of Wayne Taylor Racing! The WEC stated that the cars are 80% less from LMP1, but the difference from DPI to LMDh / LMH must be different.