Corvette Weight Change Caused by BoP “Error”

The Corvette C7.R has received a minimum weight adjustment ahead of its FIA World Endurance Championship appearance at Shanghai this weekend.

The Corvette Racing entry will run 28 kg lighter than the initial minimum weight set out in the GTE-Pro Balance of Performance.

It will now race at 1248 kg after an adjustment was made to the car’s initial BoP for its first six-hour WEC outing since 2014.

“The really limited information I have from the ACO and FIA is that it was an error in the initial BoP that was amended,” Corvette Racing team manager Ben Johnson told Sportscar365.

“How they came to that conclusion we don’t exactly know, but we’re happy that we’re closer to what we were in Le Mans where we had a good result with the BoP there. So, we’re hoping for good things here.”

Johnson said the team is encouraged by having the similar Le Mans weight to go by, along with data gathered from its GTLM cars in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The Corvette is subject a manually adjustable BoP setting in Shanghai because it needs two six-hour races’ worth of data to be considered for the automatic system that governs the rest of the GTE-Pro field.

“We came in [to WEC] and looked at it relative to IMSA as our only good benchmark,” explained Johnson.

“The cars here are generally lower on power but similar in weight, so it tends to make sense.

“It’s hard because we don’t have a lot of time on these tires and tracks so as long as we have a relative performance level compared to IMSA, we should be in the ballpark to be competitive.

“They’re treating us as a new car coming in, but with the added bonus that there is more data on our car from IMSA. We have absolute confidence in the FIA.”

Shanghai Squad “A Mix” of IMSA Crews

Corvette has brought team members from both its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entries to Shanghai.

Each IMSA crew usually consists of 14 to 17 personnel while Corvette’s WEC team has about 20 on board.

“Based on the skill set that we needed here, and the people who were available to come, it is a mix between the No. 3 and No. 4 car from IMSA,” said Johnson.

“That’s worked out really well so far. Everyone’s gelled together and they work as one team in the States, so it’s no problem to come here.

“We have more people than we normally would for a one-car effort because we are learning as we go on a lot of things, doing a WEC race in a country we haven’t been to before.

“It’s a new track, so we’re trying to do as much as we can in preparation. We’ll be looking for any information we can get to be competitive.”