Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Breaking news

LMP1 privateers get EoT boost for Shanghai

The LMP1 privateers have been given a performance boost with an an increase in the amount of fuel they can use each lap for next weekend's Shanghai FIA World Endurance Championship round.

#11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Mikhail Aleshin, Vitaly Petrov, Jenson Button

#11 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Mikhail Aleshin, Vitaly Petrov, Jenson Button

JEP / Motorsport Images

The change to the Equivalence of Technology for the Shanghai 6 Hours on November 18 is designed to prevent the drivers of the independent P1 entries having to lift and coast to hit their fuel targets. 

An increase in the per-lap fuel allocation of just under 10 percent follows complaints from the privateers after the Fuji round last month that the need to make fuel cuts stymied their performance.

They claim that the rule makers, the FIA and WEC promoter the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, had made a promise in the wake of the Le Mans 24 Hours in June that they would not have to lift and coast in the future. 

Gaetan Jego, technical director of the SMP Racing team, told Motorsport.com: "Clearly what happened in Fuji was the result of a miscalculation and we are now back to the situation we were in at Silverstone.

"All the privateers should be able to do a lap in qualifying without having to lift and coast, and if you have the potential to do that in qualifying, you will clearly be able to do it in the race."

The fuel allocation has been increase more for turbocharged cars such as SMP's AER-engined BR Engineering BR1. 

The Shanghai increase for the turbos is 9.9 percent per kilometre, while that for the normally-aspirated cars such as the Rebellion R-13 is 8.5 percent. 

"Clearly we were affected more than the normally-aspirated cars at Fuji," said Jego. "The FIA and ACO are still learning how to make the EoT work and it is good that a correction has been made."

The maximum petrol per stint figures in the Shanghai EoT table have also been increased in line with the MJ/lap totals for the privateers, as have the refuelling rig restrictors governing the time it takes for the cars to take a tank of fuel. 

Jego warned that the new EoT for Shanghai would unlikely have dramatic consequences in the privateers' bid to close the gap to Toyota. 

"We will be quicker for sure, but so too should Toyota," he explained. "The miscalculation meant that they had to cut their fuel a lot at Fuji as well."

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Extra Shanghai LMP1 running due to superseason test constraints
Next article Ferrari takes BoP hit for Shanghai

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA