'Motorsport is Dangerous'. That's what it says on the back of your ticket when you pay to go to a race. I reckon there should also be a warning on championship or race entry forms stamped equally large. It should read 'Motorsport is Expensive'.
That's a fact of life and why I have no qualms with the rulemakers extending the scope of hybridisation in LMP1 when a new set of rules come into force for the manufacturers at the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the World Endurance Championship in 2020. The new zero-emissions rule forcing factory P1 cars to complete their first kilometre after every fuel stop purely on electric power might appear to be in contradiction of efforts to drive down budgets, but I believe it is absolutely necessary.
The truth is that manufacturers need a technological message these days to justify their motorsport budgets if the car they are racing doesn't happen to be something they sell for the road. The current P1 rules, with a renewed onus on hybrids and fuel-efficiency, came into force in 2014, so by 2020 it will be time for the manufacturers to have something new to shout about.
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