The FIA, ACO and the GTE Manufacturers entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship have agreed upon a plan for the governance of Balance of Performance (BOP). An innovative and ground-breaking automatic system will be introduced from the opening round of the 2017 season, next week during the 6 Hours of Silverstone.
The GTE cars are based on production models which are fundamentally different from each other. To create a more level playing field for competition, regulators have the ability to apply fine adjustments in the performance of individual cars to allow each model to be competitive. Adjustments to the balance of performance for cars entered in the LMGTE Pro category during the season will now be made automatically after certain rounds, according to evaluation criteria defined and agreed by all parties before the start of the season.
A calculation tool has been created which will allow the targets for balancing the different car models to be met, without human interpretation or decision-making, and using mathematical formulas based on the quantified, public, specific, measured data obtained during each race. The new system will be applicable for all rounds of the 2017 WEC except for the 24 Hours of Le Mans which will be treated separately.
The first adjustments won't be made until after the first two races, so the first adjustments will be calculated after Spa and be applicable for the fourth round at the Nürburgring. The new BOP system will only be used in the LMGTE Pro class. For the LMGTE Am class the system used up until 2016 will be applied.
More specific details about the automatic BOP can be downloaded here in the official document published by the FIA.
Kristof Vermeulen.
