6H Spa LMP1 Success Handicaps Defined

The LMP1 success handicaps for the next FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa-Francorchamps have been determined.

The points-leading No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez will be made 0.44 seconds per lap slower than its sister No. 8 car.

This agrees with the handicaps for the 1000 Miles of Sebring that were issued but not used because that race was canceled at due to restrictions on arrivals into the U.S.

The fact that the gap of 0.44s between the Toyotas is slightly larger than the 0.38s margin that was in place for Sebring can be explained by the Belgian circuit’s longer lap.

Success handicaps for each LMP1 car are calculated by creating a ‘virtual car’ that has 40 fewer race points than the championship leader, which is currently on 111 points.

The points difference between each car and the virtual is then multiplied by the circuit length in kilometers and a co-efficient set by the WEC to create a per-lap handicap that is applied in different ways depending on whether the car is a hybrid or non-hybrid.

For Spa, the No. 7 Toyota will be limited to having 3.53 megajoules of ERS energy at its disposal per lap, while the No. 8 car will have 3.88 megajoules per lap.

The non-hybrid entries from Rebellion Racing and ByKolles will have the same 1.58s per lap handicap, making them 1.94s quicker per lap than the No. 7 Toyota and 1.5 seconds quicker than the No. 8 of Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

The penalty for the ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01 Gibson has been matched with that of the No. 1 Rebellion R13 Gibson, which is the car with the lowest number of points heading into the Spa event considering the withdrawal of Team LNT’s Ginettas.

The two non-hybrid cars at Spa will run to a minimum weight of 877 kg, compared to the 932 kg figure that the Toyotas have been running to for most of the season.

Rebellion and ByKolles will be working with fuel restrictors at a diameter of 26.1 mm, while Toyota No. 7 will have a 19.6 mm restrictor, five millimeters smaller than its sister car.

A total of four LMP1s are due to contest the sixth round of the 2019-20 WEC season, which is the last race before the 24 Hours of Le Mans where no handicaps will be set.