What replaced LMP1 in the WEC?

Why LMP1 ended

LMP1-Hybrid was a manufacturer arms race. By 2017 the works LMP1-Hybrid programmes were estimated to cost more than $200 million a season per manufacturer, with hybrid systems carrying their own development budgets on top of the chassis and engine. The technology was extraordinary. Toyota's TS050 deployed 1,000 hp combined from a 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 and an 8 MJ-class hybrid. The car set the Le Mans lap record several times before its retirement.

The economics did not hold. Audi withdrew at the end of 2016, citing the Volkswagen Group's post-Dieselgate reallocation of resources. Porsche followed at the end of 2017, citing a parallel reallocation toward Formula E. From 2018 onward the works LMP1-Hybrid field consisted of Toyota and a single non-hybrid privateer field competing in a class called LMP1-NH. Toyota won every race in 2018, 2019 and 2020 with the TS050.

How the new regulations came together

The FIA and ACO announced the Hypercar class for 2021. The technical brief was clear: cap the lap time around La Sarthe at the 2018 LMP1 pole pace, cap power at around 500 kW combined, mandate a hybrid front-axle motor with a low deployment cap, and crucially cap a manufacturer's development bill at roughly a fifth of the LMP1-Hybrid figure. The cars would be governed by Balance of Performance for the first time at the top of endurance racing, a sharp departure from the LMP1-Hybrid principle of letting each manufacturer build the fastest car it could.

The first LMH cars on the grid in 2021 were the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and the privateer Glickenhaus 007. Alpine ran a grandfathered LMP1 chassis as a stopgap.

In 2022 the FIA and ACO opened a second platform type, LMDh, in cooperation with IMSA. LMDh cars use one of four spec LMP2 chassis (Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic, Oreca) with a manufacturer-built engine on top of a single mandated hybrid kit (Bosch motor-generator unit, Williams Advanced Engineering battery, Xtrac gearbox). The split-platform Hypercar class allows manufacturers to choose between a full in-house build (LMH) and a faster, cheaper customer-derived build (LMDh).

What the Hypercar grid looks like

The 2025 Hypercar season had eight manufacturers entered. The LMH side: Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, Aston Martin. The LMDh side: Porsche, Cadillac, BMW, Alpine. Three more manufacturers join by 2027: Genesis (LMDh, 2026), Ford (LMDh, 2027) and McLaren (platform pending).

The deepest Hypercar grid since the World Sportscar Championship years of the late 1980s is the headline result of the regulation change. LMP1-Hybrid had two manufacturers by 2017 and one by 2019. Hypercar has eight.

How the racing has changed

LMP1-Hybrid was a one-team-at-a-time championship for the entire WEC era. Audi won the 2012 Manufacturers' title; Toyota won 2014; Porsche won 2015, 2016 and the LMP1 honours from 2017 onward; Toyota took every race from 2018 to 2020.

Hypercar is closer. Toyota took the manufacturers' Hypercar honours in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Ferrari took the title in 2025. Multiple manufacturers have scored race wins each season, and the LMH-vs-LMDh balance through Equivalence of Technology has been close enough that no single platform has run away with the championship in any of the five seasons of the class.

What it tells us about the next era

Hypercar is signed off as a regulation through 2032. The next major top-class change will not arrive before then. The current question for the class is how Balance of Performance will accommodate three additional manufacturers without compressing the field into pack racing. The FIA has tightened the BoP window twice in 2024 and 2025; further changes are likely before Le Mans 2027.