Toyota, Alpine Made Heavier in Portimao Hypercar BoP

Toyota Gazoo Racing and Alpine Endurance Team will run with heavier cars in the Hypercar class at round two of the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend, according to a Balance of Performance bulletin for the 8 Hours of Portimao.

The two Toyota GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercars will run to a minimum weight of 1066 kg, marking a 26 kg increase since the Total 6 Hours of Spa season-opener in May.

Alpine’s ORECA-built non-hybrid A480 Gibson LMP1 car has gained 22 kg between rounds one and two, and is now set at 952 kg.

The new SCG 007 LMH from Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has been given a minimum weight of 1030 kg, which is the lowest possible weight for a Le Mans Hypercar.

The Podium Advanced Technologies-developed racer will have 965 MJ of energy available over the course of a stint, compared with 962 MJ for Toyota and 918 MJ for Alpine.

Toyota’s maximum power output has been reduced by 5 kW to 515 kW (or 7 hp to 690 hp). Alpine has also had a slight reduction since Spa, from 454 to 450 kW (603 hp).

The SCG 007 will run at 520 kW for its WEC debut. Glickenhaus is fielding a single car at Portimao but intends to have a pair of entries on the grid for round three at Monza.

BoP hits for both Toyota and Alpine follow the Spa race where the so-called stratification process separating the new Hypercar class, which is slower than its LMP1 predecessor, and the LMP2 second-tier category was observed in race conditions for the first time.

The winning Toyota GR010 Hybrid took more than half the race to lap the leading LMP2 car, leading Toyota to suggest that the class distinction would need to be made larger.

However, WEC organizers the ACO and FIA declared at Spa that the Gibson-powered LMP2s would not be given additional performance cuts from those announced in April.

No changes have been made to the Balance of Performance for the GTE machinery from Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin that will be present a Portimao.

The Porsche 911 RSR-19 will compete at 1246 kg compared with the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo’s 1260 kg minimum weight, as was the case during the season-opener.

In GTE-Am, the Spa-winning No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari has been given 30 kg of success ballast, making it the heaviest car in the field at 1300 kg.

TF Sport’s No. 33 Aston Martin Vantage GTE is carrying an extra 20 kg and will have a final weight of 1267 kg, compared with the other Astons in the Am class at 1247 kg.

Cetilar Racing’s Ferrari, which completed the Spa podium, has 10 kg of ballast and is now running at 1280 kg.

Success ballast in 15, 10 and 5 kg packets is applied to the top three cars in the previous two races of the current season and the top three in the championship standings.