Details of the new-look top class for endurance racing have been announced at the ACO’s annual press conference ahead of a 2020 debut.

The design concept was confirmed by the FIA at the World Motorsport Council last week but details of the formula were presented to the public for the first time at Circuit de la Sarthe on Friday morning.

The cars will resemble each manufacturer’s road car design and costs will be around one-quarter of the current LMP1 hybrid budget.

They will come into effect for the 2020-21 FIA World Endurance Championship season and make their 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in June 2021.

Several aspects of the design are open, including free engine architecture and the ability to run any number of cylinders in either a turbocharged or naturally-aspirated design.

The cars will have an overall weight of 980 kg while weight distribution will be capped, along with a defined maximum fuel flow, controlled efficiency other regulations to prevent expensive development.

An electric motor will be mounted on the front axle with a fixed performance of 200 kW while the engine’s maximum performance target is 520 kW.

Each car will have two seats, a bigger cockpit than the current LMP1 machines, a wider windscreen and a roofline more consistent with road cars.

Manufacturers will have to make their systems available for privateer teams to lease at an affordable price, while any manufacturer can build its own hybrid system which will be entirely homologated by the FIA and ACO.

Estimated lap times at Le Mans are around 3:20, and so slightly slower than the current LMP1 hybrid performance.

“The new regulations for the FIA World Endurance Championship, which come into effect for the 2020/21 season, are the result of hard work between members of the FIA, ACO, manufacturers and teams,” commented FIA President Jean Todt.

“This will provide endurance racing with a long term, stable platform, while continuing to offer a cost-effective stage to showcase future technologies.”

Imho there should only be very basic rules like l/w/h of the car, no. of wheels, safty regulations AND max. fuel consumption. and that's it. Or dont even regulate that but give them small tanks and slow refueling machines.

Works well in some video game fantasy where you don't have to use actual money to develop stuff and find those endless or diminishing performance gains.

LMP1 overpriced itself in past years and that was with a lot development restrictions.

Nobody forces you to develop expensive shit. Buy an old LMP1 and go. Bring your Hypercar and go. Or develop something completely new if you fancy. Thanks to the race' length the cars don't have to have identical pace to make it interesting.

Competition forces you to do exactly that. And the safe option is to copy the faster and winning design, and then improve it. An old LMP1 or some hypercar would be useless against a clean-sheet, purpose-built design.