Alpine Power Reduced in Fuji Hypercar BoP

The Hypercar points-leading Alpine A480 Gibson has been given a power reduction in the Balance of Performance for this weekend’s six-hour FIA World Endurance Championship race at Fuji Speedway.

According to a BoP bulletin from the WEC technical committee, the grandfathered LMP1 car driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao will have a maximum output of 399 kW (535 horsepower) for the penultimate round of the season.

The greatest reduction comes at the higher end of the car’s RPM range where 29 kW has been removed since the last round at Monza, equating to a loss of around 39 hp.

It is the sixth power adjustment for the Alpine so far this year and the largest to date, eclipsing the initial 20 kW hit that it received after winning the 1000 Miles of Sebring season-opener.

Furthermore, the amount of energy that the non-hybrid Alpine can use over the course of a stint has been reduced by 43 megajoules to 752 MJ.

Weight reductions of 18 kg have been applied to the LMH-spec Hypercar machinery from Toyota and Peugeot.

The championship-chasing Toyota GR010 Hybrid has a new 1053 kg minimum weight, while the Peugeot 9X8 will tackle its second WEC race at 1061 kg.

At Monza, where there were several BoP tweaks to coincide with Peugeot’s arrival, the Toyota ran at 1071 kg and the Peugeot ran at 1079 kg.

Maximum power outputs of 515 kW (around 690 hp) for Peugeot and 513 kW (688 hp) for Toyota remain static since the previous race.

The non-hybrid Glickenhaus 007 Pipo LMH is included in the latest BoP table but is not competing at Fuji.

Alpine’s Lapierre, Vaxiviere and Negrao hold a 10-point lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley heading into this weekend’s race.

Corvette Handed Weight Increase in GTE-Pro 

The latest WEC technical bulletin also shows BoP changes in the GTE ranks, with a 10 kg weight increase for the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R being one of the key updates in Pro.

Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner’s Monza-winning mount will have a new minimum weight of 1265 kg for its first visit to Japan.

On the other hand, the Porsche 911 RSR-19 has been given a 5 kg weight reduction, taking it to 1259 kg, as well as a 2-liter increase in fuel capacity.

The Porsche’s air restrictor diameter has also been increased, by a measure of 0.4 mm.

The only BoP change to the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo is a 3-liter fuel capacity reduction.

The fuel changes are mirrored in the GTE-Am category, while the Porsche’s restrictor diamater increase is slightly smaller there than in the factory-backed Pro division.

There has been a slight turbo boost pressure decrease and a 1-liter fuel capacity reduction for the Aston Martin Vantage GTE, which is only run by customer teams in Am.

The minimum weights of the GTE-Am cars vary depending on the application of success ballast.

According to the success ballast table, the heaviest GTE-Am car at Fuji will be the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche at 1289 kg, while D’station Racing’s Aston Martin will be the lightest at 1237 kg.