Two-driver line-ups in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship could be outlawed for next season.
A potential rule change mandating the normal three drivers is under discussion in response to calls from teams and manufacturers following the Ganassi Cadillac squad’s decision to race with a two-strong line-up in the six-hour races this season, series co-organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has confirmed.
“We are thinking about that, but you will have to wait for an answer,” said ACO president Pierre Fillon without going into further detail.
Vincent Vosse, whose WRT squad masterminds BMW’s Hypercar campaign, confirmed that his was one of the teams to raise the issue.
“I would like it to be clear in the rules how many drivers you have to run, whether that is two or three,” he told Autosport.
“Two drivers clearly offers an advantage in terms of track time and team strategy, but we choose to run three because that is how many drivers you need for the Le Mans 24 Hours, the biggest race of the year.”
Sam Hignett, team principal of the Jota squad that will be taking over the Cadillac programme for 2025 in a yet-to-be-confirmed move, suggested that the regulations should remain unchanged and the choice of two or three drivers left up to the teams.
“Two drivers does offer an advantage for the six-hour races, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “But you need to to be ready for Le Mans, which is why we run three.
“It’s the choice of the team and should be left that way.”
The rules governing the composition of a driver crew in Hypercar are presently free, the only proviso being that bronze-rated drivers are not permitted.
A regulation change obliging teams to run three drivers would need to be accompanied by drive-time rules for the WEC’s premier category.
At the moment the only stipulation in the rules on the amount of time a driver spends behind the wheel is a one-hour minimum for he or she to be eligible for championship points.
Ganassi’s decision to run Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn as a duo in the regular six-hour races aboard its solo Cadillac V-Series.R bucked a trend in the premier class of the WEC that dates back to the relaunch of the series in 2012.
Only five WEC races since have been won outright by a two-driver line-up.
Toyota triumphed at Interlagos and Shanghai with Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre during its partial campaign in the inaugural season of the reborn WEC.
Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson raced as a duo for the second half of 2014 after Lapierre was dropped from the line-up of the #8 Toyota, winning at Fuji and Shanghai on the way to taking the LMP1 title.
This year Jota triumphed with its lead Porsche 963 LMDh at Spa this year with Will Stevens and Callum Ilott when Norman Nato was unavailable because he was racing in Formula E in Berlin.
