GARY WATKINS
WEC
Ferrari and Toyota appear to be the biggest winners in the Balance of Performance issued for this weekend’s Imola round of the World Endurance Championship. They go into Sunday’s Italian round of the series with the biggest weight breaks in the Hypercar field.
The Ferrari 499P and Toyota GR010 will race respectively at 34kg and 29kg lighter than at last month’s curtain-raiser in Qatar. At the same time, maximum power for the two cars has been increased by 7kW and 6kW (9bhp and 8bhp).
Across the board weight reductions and power increases for all nine cars competing in the Hypercar class have been made, with the exception of the new version of Peugeot’s 9X8 LMH racing for the first time at Imola. The Porsche 963 LMDh, which blocked out the podium positions in Qatar, has a 15kg reduction in minimum weight and a 3kW (4bhp) increase in maximum power.
The new Peugeot, known as the 9X8 2024, will be competing under a new homologation after its technical overhaul with a switch of tyre sizes. In Qatar the previous version raced at the lowest possible weight (1030kg) and the highest power (520kW or 697bhp), whereas the revised car will run at 1061kg, making it the heaviest car in the field, and at 510kW (683bhp), the same as the Ferrari. The deployment speed of the front-axle hybrid system on the Peugeot is now 190km/h (118mph), the same as for the other LMHs.
No explanation, as is normal on the publication of the BoP table before each WEC race, has been given for
