The LMP1 problem that must be addressed

As excited as we all are heading into this month's Le Mans 24 Hours with the prospect of all three manufacturers fighting it out for victory, we should not forget that there are only nine cars competing in the premier class. That's not a low point of recent years - there were only eight in 2013 - but it is a problem.

We all want to see the factory big guns slugging it out for the honour of winning the world's greatest motor race, but can it be right that there are fewer than 10 cars in the division that everyone cares about? It makes for a lopsided grid when you consider that the LMP2 and GTE each have double the number of cars with 23 and 27 entrants respectively.

The reduction of the Le Mans campaigns by Porsche and Audi from three to two cars in the name of cost-saving hasn't helped the P1 car count, and nor has the disappearance of Nissan. But the real problem is the lack of privateers.

Only Rebellion and ByKolles have taken up the challenge of racing at the sharp end of the grid at Le Mans over the past couple of years. Compare that with 2012 when there were five independent teams on the entry, or 2010 when there were seven private entrants. I could go on.

The lack of non-factory cars isn't good for the health of this branch of the sport that we love. We all know about the vagaries of sportscar racing and that manufacturers come and go. History relates that the world championship - when we've had one - and Le Mans need the indie teams.

Privateer participation has dwindled with the rebirth of the World Endurance Championship. That has resulted from a massive increase in costs at a time when the potential rewards have been diminishing. The independents have had less and less of a chance in the P1 hybrid era. Put simply, they have been left behind by the arms race in which the factories have become embroiled.

Rebellion has made it onto the podium in each of the WEC races held so far, but we shouldn't forget how far in arrears its AER-engine R-Ones were each time. The third-placed car at Silverstone was 11 laps down after six hours of racing. That's equivalent of nearly five laps of Le Mans over a quarter of the duration of the 24 Hours.

Rebellion, ByKolles and any aspiring P1 privateers aren't demanding that they be able to race wheel-to-wheel with Porsche, Audi and Toyota. They just want to be in the same race. And at the moment they aren't.

Neither the lack of privateers nor the performance gap to the factory teams are situations that the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the organiser of the 24 Hours and the promoter of the WEC, feels comfortable with. It knows better than any of us that it needs the privateers. It needs them now to plump up the front of the grid and it will need them at some point in the future when there won't be three big-spending manufacturers.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. The idea that a Drag Reduction System, or rather two of them, will be at the core of attempts to bring the LMP1 privateers closer to the manufacturers from next year does indeed sound drastic.

But then if anyone has got any bright ideas on how to narrow an ever-increasing gap between non-hybrid machinery and the factory P1 racers in the WEC, they should probably let the powers that be at the FIA and Le Mans know.

Hence the outside-the-box thinking that seems set to result in the introduction of DRS for the privateers in 2017. There are only a limited number of methods available to the rulemakers, and a line has been crossed through a number of the more obvious ones.

The performance of the current breed of LMP1 is controlled by limiting the fuel that can be used over each lap. Rebellion and ByKolles have been given a series of increases since 2014, but you can only go so far. More fuel means more power, and there is always engine reliability to take into consideration.

Rebellion's ORECA-built R-One also received a number of weight breaks in 2014 and ran as low as 810kg, 40 kilos below the previous 850kg minimum. Its swap to the AER twin-turbo V6 from the Toyota normally-aspirated V8 for last season means it's not possible to get much below the new minimum of 858kg. That's another tool that has been put back in the box.

Giving the privateers bigger fuel tanks so that they would need to make fewer stops doesn't appear to be an option either. A non-hybrid P1 going longer between refills than the factory cars would contradict the efficiency message of the latest rulebook.

So that's how we've ended up with the idea of DRS as a pure performance tool, distinct from a means of spicing up the racing. It would allow the privateers to run a ton of downforce when they need it in the corners and then shed it on the straights. Sounds simple.

Yet it's not quite the bolt-on solution that it might appear. The Rebellion, for instance, is a low-drag machine in its current configuration. To exploit DRS to its full, the Anglo-Swiss team and ORECA would have to develop a new aero package with more downforce, which could then be 'dropped' at the appropriate times.

I can't say that I'm entirely comfortable with the idea. The use of DRS has so far been limited to sprint racing, but even then there have been failures. Any system introduced would have to be bulletproof over 24 hours, otherwise the implications don't bear thinking about.

Sportscar racing is a multi-class discipline, which means LMP1 cars are required to negotiate slower cars on a regular basis. Changing the aero balance of the car when the driver is being asked to zig-zag through a pack of LMP2s with a GTE Am car sandwiched in the middle would come with its own hazards.

That's why the idea of a twin DRS appears to be the favoured option. That means it would work on the rear wing and the front flaps inside the nose that have been allowed since 2014. That makes a simple solution, which should be confirmed during Le Mans week later this month, sound much more complicated.

There has to be a better solution, and I think there is one. And it is one we have seen before.

Remember the LMP675 category in which MG competed in 2001-02 with its Lola-built EX257? The lightweight class might have been a kind of precursor to LMP2, but it was conceived as an alternative means by which a team - a manufacturer entry or otherwise - might win Le Mans outright.

The idea has been put forward by the Strakka Racing squad, which has an LMP1 design based on the monocoque of the Dome S103 P2 that raced at Le Mans last year on the back burner. The logic goes that if manufacturers trumpet the technology of energy-retrieval with their hybrid racers, why not let the privateers present a calling card for lightweight materials.

Aston Martin Racing, it might be remembered, put forward something similar a few years back. It championed a lightweight subclass in early discussions about the 2014 rulebook when it was still involved in the prototype arena at the start of the decade.

No one is suggesting that a coupe with the modern safety standards required today could be built to a 675kg minimum weight. But 750kg or perhaps a little lower would be possible.

The ACO isn't in favour, however. It suggests that light normally equals expensive - true up to a point - and that it needs something in place for next season. So that means working within the existing rules.

It wants the current 2014 chassis rules to be the basis of the privateer division going forward. That would mean Rebellion and ByKolles not having to reinvest to maintain a place on the grid. At the same time it would allow the chassis being built for the new-for-2017 LMP2 category by ORECA, Ligier/Onroak, Dallara and Riley/Multimatic to become the basis of new privateer P1s.

That has to be good news. Forcing the new chassis rules to which the factories will have to conform from 2018 would surely have rung the death knell for the private P1 team.

There appears to be interest from new entrants. The ACO believes that some of those constructors that didn't win one of the four P2 licences - the likes of Strakka with the Dome design and SMP Racing - will migrate into LMP1. But that's only going to happen if there's something for them to race for. And at the moment there really isn't, despite the recent additions to Rebellion's trophy cabinet.

The rulemakers are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the privateers. The whole point of the current set of road-relevant P1 regulations is to force the pace of development, but that development is making the prospects of competing as a privateer less and less attractive.

Tinkering with the current rules cannot provide the answer, DRS or no. But lightweight cars might just be it. Then the privateers against the manufacturer teams would be David versus Goliath battle in more ways than one.