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Some thoughts on this stint length business. Please correct my maths if necessary.
LMP1H is allowed 35.2kg of petrol per stint.
That is about 47 litres.
A lap of Le Mans is 13.626km.
The hybrids are restricted to a max stint length of 11 laps but we know they can do 12 because that's what Kobayashi did last year when he missed his pit call. OK, he did some of the 12th lap slowly but he didn't run it dry.
12 laps is 163.5km.
47 litres over 163.5km is about 28.7l/100km (about 9.8 imperial mpg for people of a certain age). Terrible by road car standards but pretty amazing considering the performance.
LMP1 non-hybrid is allowed 52.9kg of petrol per stint.
That is about 70.5 litres.
The non-hybrids are restricted to a max stint length of 10 laps but let's say they can do 11.
11 laps is 150km.
70.5 litres over 150km is about 47.1l/100km.
That's about 63% worse than the hybrids.
(I am assuming they use all of their allocation because I don't know any better)
If we say the hybrids should be able to exploit their greater efficiency then we could just give both types of car the same fuel allocation and let them thrash it out.
But a hybrid car, at 28.7l/100km, could do 245km on 70.5 litres, or 18 laps. A hybrid car developed and run by the world's biggest manufacturer of hybrid vehicles is going to stomp all over a bunch of privateers buying off the shelf (non-hybrid) hardware.
The 11 vs 10 lap restrictions, and the related per stint fuel allocations, while utterly repellent to any right minded race fan, are doing the non-hybrids a massive favour.
This is the problem the ACO has in trying to balance such different technologies.
Since the vast majority of the efficiency losses of the non-hybrids come from heat energy lost through braking, maybe another approach is needed. Such as: very light, low powered non-hybrids vs something like what the hybrids are now. We have already seen something like this in the form of the Deltawing. It ran at LM at 475kg with a 40 litre fuel tank, and a 300bhp 4 cylinder engine. The car ran 11 lap stints, which equates to about 26.7l/100km. OK, it wasn't bothering LMP1 (or even most of LMP2), but you get the idea.
The heat losses from slowing a smaller, lighter car are much reduced, so overall efficiency is better. Do you improve efficiency by being small and light, or by recovering otherwise wasted energy? Your choice.
Of course, none of this is going to happen because Aston Martin wants to run a V12 road car at 1200kg or something.
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