The 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship will see the introduction of success handicaps in LMP1 class. The handicaps have been ratified as part of a package of measures aimed at making LMP1 privateers more competitive.
The handicaps will be imposed on the basis of points scored in the championship, and will be handed out alongside the traditional success ballast, which will remain in place.
The plan for the new penalties was ratified by a vote of the LMP1 team's ahead of the WEC prologue at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The penalties will fluctuate according to the gap in points between the cars in championship standings.
The new rules will also see the refueling times for the hybrid Toyotas increase to give the non-hybrid privateers a one-second advantage. This is meant to counter the advantage of the TS050 Hybrid restarting in electric mode once the car has completed its pitstop. The equalisation of the number of laps that the Toyotas and the privateers can achieve between pitstops has also been reimposed after it was dropped at last month's 24 Hours of Le Mans season finale.
This adds to a further 14kg weight increase for the Toyotas in the Equivalence of Technology table for the pre-season tests in Barcelona, which was announced last week.
The precise details of success handicaps are yet to be worked out, but it is believed that they would include weight, the rate of fuel flow, the maximum energy allowed per lap and, for hybrids, deployment of hybrid boost.
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