Why Le Mans' saviour is needed again

The privateer is back. Back as an important component of the premier LMP1 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the World Endurance Championship. And, quite possibly, back in the hunt for outright victories against factory opposition.

This had been the avowed intent of the rulemakers, most pertinently the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, organiser of Le Mans and promoter of the WEC, as it strived to resurrect LMP1 privateer participation that slumped to a one-car low at the 24 Hours last year.

The efforts to revive interest among independents have proved successful. Rules the ACO has put in place together with the FIA are attracting a growing band of privateers ready to step up to the plate to take on Toyota at the front of the WEC field.

There should be a minimum of seven non-hybrid P1 contenders run by independents on the grid when the 2018-19 superseason kicks off at Spa in May, and there's a chance that total could nudge into double figures. Those cars will be split between four different makes and as many as six teams, and have four different engines.

Thanks to privateers, such as the Dome and Champion Audi entries pictured above in 2005, Le Mans has made it through the troughs in manufacturer participation that have followed the peaks, so the ACO knows better than most organising bodies about the vagaries of factory involvement. That explains a series of measures put in place over the past 18 months to encourage the independents.

"We know our history very well and that the privateers are very important to Le Mans and the world championship," says ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil. "We've been working on this for a long time. It's not something new."

The seeds of the revival were sown long before the ACO and the FIA made the promise of lap-time parity between non-hybrid independent machinery and the high-tech factory cars in September.

"The way I look at it, there were five heavily funded factory entries at the 24 Hours this year, but an LMP2 car came close to winning it" Manor boss Graeme Lowdon

At the same time the privateer sub-class was removed because the intent now is that all LMP1 machinery will race together. That commitment was made as part of a radical overhaul of the WEC after Porsche's announcement that it was leaving LMP1, but green shoots of recovery were already beginning to appear.

At Le Mans in 2016, the ACO took the wraps off a raft of measures to increase the competitiveness of privateer cars, at the same time offering a three-year period of rule stability. These had a direct influence on Ginetta - which is unveiling its Mecachrome-powered LMP1 at Autosport International at the NEC in Birmingham this week - and SMP Racing and its BR Engineering offshoot deciding to build new LMP1 contenders.

These two constructors will supply the bulk of the privateer P1 grid this year. SMP will field a pair of BRE BR1s with AER turbo power to be run by ART Grand Prix, which is no stranger to sportscar success despite its huge reputation in the single-seater ranks.

It was a race winner and series frontrunner with McLaren in what was then known as the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2014. The US DragonSpeed team - the European Le Mans Series champion in '17 under the G-Drive Racing banner - will field a solo car with a normally aspirated Gibson V8.

Ginetta is set to be represented by two teams, with Manor expanding from the LMP2 ranks to run one or possibly two machines. Another entrant has ordered a trio of the British cars with the Mecachrome engine around which it was designed and intends to enter two cars. It has, however, yet to stick its head above the parapet and declare its identity.

The big news in the run-up to Christmas was that Rebellion Racing, the most successful LMP1 privateer in the history of the reborn WEC, had pushed go on its plans to return to the top rank of the series after a single, successful season in LMP2. The return of the Swiss entrant, whose cars are run out of the UK, can be directly linked to the privateer revival.

Rebellion called time on its LMP1 participation, latterly with its eponymous R-One chassis, at a time when it was slipping further behind the factories yet had no real opposition in the privateer division. Now there is competition and the chance to challenge a factory effort.

That explains why it's decided to end what had been a two-year commitment to LMP2 and return to its former stomping ground. As some kind of declaration of intent, it has signed Le Mans 24 Hours winners Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani (still contracted to Porsche) to its driver roster.

Rebellion hasn't announced any details of which chassis it will run. But it can be taken as read that the car it plans to unveil at the Geneva motor show in March will be built by ORECA. Expect it to be called the Rebellion R-Two and powered by the same 4.5-litre Gibson powerplant that DragonSpeed has chosen.

ByKolles, the only independent LMP1 WEC entry last season, plans to be back after calling time on its 2017 entry after the Nurburgring round in July. It wanted to focus on testing and development with its ENSO CLM-Nissan P1/01 ahead of the arrival of more independents this year.


The question now is whether 'indies' can compete with Toyota in 2018-19. Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon thinks so. "We are not underestimating the challenge the privateers face, because we all have to get a car from the drawing board to the toughest race in the world at Le Mans and get it to finish, and then finish competitively," he says.

"But the way I look at it, there were five heavily funded factory entries at the 24 Hours this year, but an LMP2 car came close to winning it.

"So, is it possible for a privateer LMP1 car to win Le Mans this year? Yes it is."