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It's an interesting question and I guess the answer is that it depends. Even with all the new restrictions that came into place this year, the top LMP1s were running lap times that were pretty close to last year's times. That's pretty remarkable. At the same time, the top teams have managed to run hot laps almost throughout the entire race. I guess an argument could be made that the cars weren't pushed to the total extreme this year as there was a lot of time run under the safety car, but that is a different topic. Of course, even if the cars are capable of running near qualifying laps throughout the whole race, it's not so clear if the drivers can do it. We saw the consequences of that this year.
So while all of this is new and exciting right now, the fact that cars are almost bulletproof while being pushed hard could become boring old news after a while. I guess that is when racing becomes less interesting. I'm hopeful that teams will experiment with new technology that will not only up the pace (if only temporarily before new regs are made), but perhaps these new technologies will be pushed so hard to the extreme that teams will have to weigh reliability concerns again.
We have a saying here in America that things have "jumped the shark" when something has reached it's peak potential and is now on the downfall. Many forms of racing hit that moment at some point in the 80s, 90s, or early 00s when speeds became too high for safety and subsequently car technology became highly restricted, controlled, and sometimes even mandated. This hit Indycar racing hard, but I think there is still enough openness in Le Mans style racing that the racing is still interesting. I hope it can stay around for a long time, but it is not easy. Well, at least we're not at the point where drivers (or team managers!) have to pose mostly naked in magazines and FCYs have to be thrown near the end of races to make for close finishes in order to grab people's attention. We may not be in the 60s anymore, but there are still things going on with the cars that are interesting and the racing is very close in a natural way even if the diesel regulation haters disagree with that. So even without maximum speed, the racing is still interesting. Maybe it could be more interesting if big ole V12s were still allowed and such, but luckily we aren't at the point (hopefully) where we need to make a spiritual call to PT Barnum to ask for suggestions on how to spice up the action.
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