The FIA has confirmed that the World Endurance Championship's top-level prototype regulations will be based on hypercar concepts for the 2020-21 season in a bid to attract more manufacturers.
With the loss of Audi and more recently Porsche, WEC's LMP1 class features just one manufacturer in Toyota and is propped up with a number of privateer entrants.
Although detailed technical regulations have yet to be released – they are due out next week – a summary was presented to and approved by the World Motor Sport Council in Manila this week.
The championships top tier will be "based on a hypercar concept", which will see manufacturers base their prototypes on high-end production cars, such as the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari.
Toyota, Ford, McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari were all involved in forming the new rules.
As a result, the FIA is aiming for budgets to be cut dramatically by 75 per cent from the current LMP1 factory budgets which can run into hundreds of millions – this would put the new figure at roughly £22 million (€25m, $30m).
The WMSC meeting also backed an initiative to encourage the participation of female drivers in the series. Further details of this are expected next week ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
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