How BOP, Platform Adjustments Put 24 Hours of Le Mans Up for Grabs

• The governing body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans—Automobile Club de l’Ouest—surprisingly introduced weight additions to the leading Hypercars.

• It added 81.5 pounds to the Toyota GR010 Hybrid as well as additions to the Ferrari 499P (59 pounds), the Porsche 963 (24 pounds) and Cadillac V-Series.R (6.6 pounds).

• Teams each also received some power changes in what is known as a “platform” adjustment, i.e. across all cars.

By the procedural rules of the World Endurance Championship, participants are advised not to talk publicly about the BOP, or Balance of Performance. But on the Test Day, the teams’ actions spoke louder than words. The marquee Hypercars waltzed around, testing mostly cornering speeds as teams remained alert to avoiding another sudden rule change.

Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes.

Despite a published commitment to no changes in BOP for the first four races of the WEC season, prior to Le Mans the Automobile Club de l’Ouest surprisingly introduced weight additions to the leading Hypercars. It added 81.5 pounds to the Toyota GR010 Hybrid as well as additions to the Ferrari 499P (59 pounds), the Porsche 963 (24 pounds) and Cadillac V-Series.R (6.6 pounds). They each also received some power changes in what is known as a “platform” adjustment, i.e. across all cars.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing team did not like what it learned about its speed on the Test Day. Officially, the Japanese stance was expressed by Kazuki Nakajima, a spokesman as well as reserve driver. “Well, the day was quite challenging for us,” said the three-time Le Mans winner, using typical Japanese party line word choice to avoid challenging the WEC. “Ferrari and Porsche had a lot of speed and we have a lot of work to do to catch them up.”

Nobody else had any complaints, not surprisingly, after the bull’s eye on Toyota’s back grew larger.