Should Le Mans welcome DPis and Cadillac?

The new LMP2 machines that are dressed to impress as Daytona Prototype international contenders certainly look the part.

The ability of manufacturers to give their cars a distinctive look is a significant reason why the DPi class seems set to flourish in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

But does it have a future elsewhere? Could it even be the future of top-flight prototype racing around the world?

There's a massive rethink going on within the Automobile Club de l'Ouest and the FIA, the two organisations that write the LMP rulebooks, in the wake of Audi's withdrawal from the LMP1 division.

There's a growing realisation that the high-tech category has become too expensive and that costs need to come down if another manufacturer is to join Porsche and Toyota in the World Endurance Championship and at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The DPi concept offers a cost-effective solution to the prototype conundrum in North America.

The final years of the American Le Mans Series proved that LMP1 wasn't sustainable in what we shouldn't forget is a national market, even if it is a massive one. The former Daytona Prototype class, meanwhile, never captured the imagination of the manufacturers.

The idea that a carmaker can take a state-of-the-art LMP2 chassis from one of the four licensed constructors, slap on its own body with lots of nice styling cues, and stick its own engine in the back, and all for a reasonable cost, is proving compelling.

Cadillac, Mazda and Nissan are the only manufacturers to have signed up so far, and the last-named in what is an arms-length arrangement, but more are on their way.

If it works in North America, is there any reason why it couldn't do likewise on a global scale in the WEC and at Le Mans? Or could some of its concepts be incorporated into the new P1 formula that should come on stream in 2020? I'm not convinced.

Manufacturers competing on the world stage need to be able to showcase their technological expertise in this day and age. Look at the factory P1 programmes of the past 10 years or so. With the exception of Nissan's bizarre attempt at an LMP1 racer, they've all been about promoting and developing the same technology found in each manufacturer's road car range.

Primary among the reasons why Porsche finally ended its long absence from the pinnacle of sportscar racing was the ability to employ hybrid technology in its race cars. Toyota's WEC programme is all about research and development, and Audi kept being allowed to return to Le Mans because it came up with a new technology story to tell every few years.

The variation in the technology used since the present P1 formula came into effect in 2014 is a convincing argument against the idea that the DPi model is the way forward. Even now we are left with two manufacturers in Porsche and Toyota both using petrol-powered engines, we shouldn't forget that they have different hybrid concepts.

This is a counter argument, of course. If the resources - financial and technological - required for entry into the P1 arena were much, much lower, we probably would have had more factories participating in LMP1 over the past 10 years.

The concept is already out there in Formula E. And there seems to be a constant flow of new manufacturers signing up for the FIA's electric-vehicle championship even though they can't build their own cars. They can, crucially, build their own EV powertrains, and it's their expertise in this field that they wish to promote.

But, really, do we need spec chassis, spec batteries or spec anything else at the very pinnacle of world sportscar racing? I would argue not, and I suspect that the head honchos at Porsche, Toyota and hopefully other manufacturers looking at the class would feel the same.

I'm not a fan of a homogenisation that I believe is increasingly blighting motorsport. I used to love Formula 3000 back in the 1980s and early '90s, then started to lose interest when it became a one-make formula and now don't care tuppence about GP2.

My love of diversity - which I surely share with most sportscar fans - has influenced my thoughts on DPi, I suspect. I'll support any initiative that puts more types and models of car on the grid; that's things that look - and also sound - different. DPi does that in the IMSA series.

It is also why I have my doubts about the new-for-2017 LMP2 category, even if it has given us DPi. Limiting the number of constructors to four and mandating a spec engine goes against the traditions of sportscar racing in my book.

Think of all those Group C2 oddities of the 1980s, like the Arundel, the Strandell and various ADAs. These past equivalents of the LMP2 machines of today enriched our branch of the sport. So did cars like the DBA4/Creation - which started out as an LMP675 car, remember - in more recent years.

I must concede that the new rules aren't going to mean fewer types of LMP2 car on the Le Mans grid this year. All four constructors will be represented at the 24 Hours, though not in the WEC. That means the same number of P2 makes as last year, though the figure is one down on 2015.

Just to clarify, I'm counting Alpines as ORECAs (which is exactly what they are) and lumping Ligiers and Morgans together because they are made by the same company, Onroak Automotive.

Here's a sorry statistic for you: there will be just 11 marques of car on the Le Mans grid this year. That's the four in P2, three in LMP1 (the two factories and a solo CLM from the ByKolles team) and then five brands in GTE. That would make a round dozen, but we can't count Porsche twice.

That's two down on last year's figure and three down on the 2015 total. Go back to '10, and there were 20 marques on the grid. And one of them, Aston Martin, was represented in three different classes with a trio of cars!

I know there is a renewed diversity coming with an influx of new privateer LMP1 machinery, not to mention the return of BMW to Le Mans in 2018, but there's a strong argument that P1 isn't the place for the small constructor. The ADAs of this world found their place in Group C2 and did very nicely thank you.

I understand the reasons behind the limitation on the number of constructors and acknowledge that an independent chassis builder can still produce a car for LMP1.

I just don't like the idea of a further disappearance of the quirky curiosities that have always been part of motor racing. In 2010, we had cars built by minnows such as Welter Racing, Norma and Radical on the grid in P2, not to mention Saleen in GT1 and Spyker in what was then GT2.

DPi adds diversity in a North American context, but it would - and I hope this doesn't sound like a contradiction - detract from it on the bigger stage of Le Mans and the WEC.

I believe that a more cost-effective set of LMP1 rules, ones that still allow a manufacturer to trumpet its technological credentials, can put three, four or more manufacturers on the grid.

Chuck in a smattering of privateers, and we'll have a decent P1 grid and the diversity I crave. There'd just be no room for a modern-day ADA in LMP2. Shame.