The World Endurance Championship (WEC) has announced that starting in 2026, it will cease to make public the data for the Balance of Performance (BoP). This decision aims to prevent speculation and misunderstandings, as explained by officials from the FIA and the ACO during a press conference held in Imola.
At the media meeting, which took place on Thursday morning, Bruno Famin and Marek Nawarecki detailed that the decision was made just as the new season approaches. The goal of the BoP is to avoid excessive development costs, while ensuring that vehicles with different technical designs compete on equal terms through performance adjustments.
The parameters for each vehicle are initially defined during the homologation process, taking into account factors such as aerodynamics, weight, weight distribution, fuel consumption, and engine type. These are refined through track analysis. However, rumors were already circulating on the track during the Prologue indicating that the detailed BoP tables would no longer be published for each event, which has sparked debate just before the start of the 6 Hours of Imola.
Although the cars have operated with the BoP applied in testing, the exact adjustment figures, such as weight, power, and energy distribution, will remain restricted to the teams’ knowledge. Famin commented that their aim is to avoid misunderstandings, as it is difficult to explain to the public the differences applied to each vehicle and their characteristics.
Nawarecki, FIA’s sporting director, added that it is essential to “clean” the data for proper analysis. The variables are numerous, as each circuit and each driver can influence the final performance. The publication of data such as a vehicle’s weight can lead to misconceptions.
Nevertheless, Nawarecki confirmed that all vehicles will return to the wind tunnel for re-homologation before 2026, but no major changes are expected in the BoP application. The introduction of new tires will be one of the variables considered.
The possible introduction of a Success Handicap in the Hypercar class was also discussed, an idea that has ultimately been discarded. With only eight races on the calendar, the goal is to promote intense competition without risks of conservative strategies from the teams.
Famin concluded that, due to the limitations of the calendar, BoP adaptations will be more specific for each race, and no changes will be made during the competition weekend. With this, they aim to avoid any speculation that could affect team performance in key events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
