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You are here: Home / Featured / What the 2018 Le Mans BoP holds for the GTE classes

What the 2018 Le Mans BoP holds for the GTE classes

1st June 2018 by: Glen Smale | 2 Comments

#92 Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Pro) driven by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #92 Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Pro) driven by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre – this car finished second in class at Spa

This weekend sees the official Le Mans Test day on Sunday 3 June for those teams participating in the 86th running of the famous 24-hour race. The GTE field is one of the largest in several years, thanks to Porsche and Ford both running four cars each in the Pro class, plus Ferrari who will be fielding three cars in this class. We ask what the 2018 Le Mans BoP holds for the GTE classes.

#66 Ford GT (LMGTE Pro) driven by Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #66 Ford GT (LMGTE Pro) driven by Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson – this car was the class winner at Spa

In a return to the days of old when sports cars made up the numbers at Le Mans, the legendary twice-around the clock endurance race promises to be a cracking event. Half of the total field of sixty cars will be made up of GT sports cars, and a third of these will be Porsches. It was fourteen years ago in 2004, that the number of Porsche 911s fielded last ran into double figures, so this will bring back shades of the old days for those Porsche enthusiasts eager to witness a revival of vintage Porsche GT superiority.

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Porsche G-Model
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO (LMGTE Pro) driven by Davide Rigon and Sam Bird – finished third in class at Spa
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #91 Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Pro) driven by Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni – the car finished fourth in class at the Spa race

In the GTE Am class, Ferrari with five cars, is not even the best represented as that accolade goes to Porsche with a total of six cars, while Aston Martin has just two cars. This year Corvette are not represented in the Am class.

WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #98 Aston Martin Vantage (LMGTE Am) driven by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda – they won their class at Spa
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: The #90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage (LMGTE Am) driven by Salih Yoluc, Euan Hankey and Charles Eastwood finished second in class at Spa

Thursday-Saturday are set aside for driver and team manager administrative checks, scrutineering and driver briefings. The Test day itself is split into two sessions and these are scheduled for 09h00-13h00 and 14h00-18h00, giving a total of eight hours of testing.

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24 Hours of Le Mans, 17/18 June 2017: #63 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (LMGTE Pro) driven by Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor finished third in class
24 Hours of Le Mans, 17/18 June 2017: The #64 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R (LMGTE Pro) driven by Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fassler came home a disappointing eighth in class

The two GTE classes for 2018 are made up as follows:

GTE Pro – 17 cars

Car No. of cars Car nos.
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 3 #51, #52, #71
Porsche 911 RSR 4 #91, #92, #93, #94
Corvette C7.R 2 #63, #64
Ford GT 4 #66, #67, #68, #69
BMW M8 GTE 2 #81, #82
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 2 #95, #97

GTE AM – 13 cars

Car No. of cars Car nos.
Ferrari 488 GTE 5 #54, #61, #70, #84, #85
Porsche 911 RSR 6 #56, #86, #77, #80, #88, #99
Aston Martin Vantage 2 #90, #98

Balance of Performance (BoP)

Last year, 2017, we saw the two oldest cars in the field battling it out for the win in GTE Pro, until the Corvette overcooked his brakes on the penultimate lap and let the Ford GT through to finish second. But how did the Aston Martin and the Corvette end up leading the field with the two new cars, the Ford GT and 911 RSR left to eat their dust. This was BoP gone wrong, and evidence of too much fiddling to make things perfect, instead of letting the best car win.

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Porsche - The Carrera Dynasty
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Am) driven by Christian Ried, Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Am) driven by Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Alexander Davison

The race authorities are committed to ensuring that there are distinctive lap time gaps between the different classes, and so they have come up with a bespoke set of BoP indexes to make sure this happens. Le Mans is a different race from the rest of the WEC series, and so the results from Spa should have no bearing on the Le Mans BoP calculations. To give you a benchmark against which to compare performance, below is a table comparing key balance of performance factors between the cars in 2017 and 2018 for Le Mans:

GTE Pro 2017 Chassis 2x Air restrictors Turbo boost Litres fuel
Porsche 911 RSR 1250kg 30.1mm – 100
Ferrari 488 GTE 1268kg – 1.1 @ 7100rpm 91
Ford GT 1268kg – 1.0 @ 7100rpm 97
Aston Martin Vantage 1193kg 29.8 – 103
Corvette 1243kg 29.5 – 96

(FIAWEC Decision N°: 17-D0032-LMGTE – 16/06/2017)

Notes: Aston Martin – Aero kit ”D” with 7.5mm rear wing gurney mandatory; minimum ride height 50mm

WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO (LMGTE Pro) driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR (LMGTE Pro) driven by Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner
GTE Pro 2018 Chassis 2x Air restrictors Turbo boost Litres fuel
Porsche 911 RSR 1259kg 30.3mm – 101
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1291kg – 1.1 @ 7100rpm 92
Ford GT 1280kg – 1.0 @ 7100rpm 98
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 1268kg – 1.2 @ 7300rpm 101
Corvette C7.R 1244kg 29.5 – 96
BMW M8 GTE 1268kg – 1.1 @ 7100rpm 101

(FIA/WEC Decision N°: 18-D0029-LMGTE – 19/05/2018)

GTE AM 2017 Chassis 2x Air restrictors Turbo boost Litres fuel
Porsche 911 RSR 1208kg 29.6mm – 95
Ferrari 488 GTE 1278kg – 1.1 @ 7100rpm 90
Aston Martin 1203kg 29.8 – 103
Corvette 1243kg 29.3 – 102

(FIA/WEC Decision N°: 17-D0032-LMGTE – 16/06/2017)

Notes: Aston Martin – Aero kit ”D” with 7.5mm rear wing gurney mandatory; minimum ride height 50mm

WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #67 Ford GT (LMGTE Pro) driven by Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Tony Kanaan
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR (LMGTE Pro) driven by Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Jonathan Adam
GTE AM 2018 Chassis 2x Air restrictors Turbo boost Litres fuel
Porsche 911 RSR 1269kg 29.9mm – 100
Ferrari 488 GTE 1291kg – 1.1 @ 7100rpm 91
Aston Martin 1263kg 28.8mm – 100

(FIA/WEC Decision N°: 18-D0029-LMGTE – 19/05/2018)

Notes: Aston Martin – Aero kit ”D” with 7.5mm rear wing gurney mandatory; minimum ride height 50mm

One thing is for certain, the two GTE classes will be action-packed and these will be the classes to watch at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year. The race proper is just a fortnight after this Test day, and the tension is already starting to build – are you ready?

#88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Am) driven by Khaled Al Qubaisi, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Am) driven by Khaled Al Qubaisi, Giorgio Roda and Matteo Cairoli

In the next few weeks in the lead up to the 24-hour race, let us know what your feelings are about the Le Mans BoP that the race authorities are dishing out to the GT players?

WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR (LMGTE Am) driven by Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti
WEC Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours, 5 May 2018: #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE (LMGTE Am) driven by Motoaki Ihikikawa, Olivier Beretta and Edward Cheever

Porsche Road & Race will be represented at the Test day once again, and we will be bringing you a summary early next week.

Written by: Glen Smale
Images by: Virtual Motorpix/Glen Smale & John Mountney

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Categories: Featured, Motorsport, WEC Tags: Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M8, Corvette C7.R, Ferrari 488, Ford GT, Le Mans 24 Hours, Porsche 911 RSR, Test day

Comments

  1. Martin Raffauf says

    1st June 2018 at 4:10 pm

    It will be interesting for sure. It has become clear to me watching IMSA over the past year, that while BOP is certainly a major factor, it tends to be a computer based theoretical parameter of what is possible per car. Also important are tires used, weather conditions affecting tires, and pace over the course of a fuel stint. I.e. can you get the maximum out of the car given the tires and conditions of the day/hour.

    Reply
    • Porsche Road & Race says

      1st June 2018 at 5:13 pm

      Yes, I think it was tyres that ruined Porsche’s chances at Spa this year, as both cars lacked grip towards the end. Their plight wasn’t helped by the Ford and the Ferrari that pushed both Porsches off-line at will, but this just shows that the Porsches didn’t have the grip in the final laps. We will see in 2 weeks time!!

      Reply

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