The Hyperpole is becoming general to all of WEC in 2024
The FIA World Council met to endorse changes for the WEC in 2024. In addition to some details given on the LMGT3, the major announcement is the Hyperpole applied to the whole world championship.
This season, the WEC had innovated by proposing a unique qualifying session: each category, the Hypercars, LMP2 and GTE-Am, had a quarter of an hour each to determine the order of the starting grid.
The only exception to the calendar was of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans: the highlight race of the season was the only one, since the creation of the WEC, to offer a unique format, namely the Hyperpole. The top eight in each category had to compete for the top spots over a duration of twelve minutes.
But with the expansion of the Hypercar platform and the arrival of the very popular GT3, the ACO and the FIA have chosen to pull out all the stops: the Hyperpole will be the universal qualifying format for each of the eight rounds of the season.
How is this going to happen?
In concrete terms, the qualification system planned for 2024 will closely or loosely resemble the operation of Q1, Q2 and Q3 in Formula 1.
This time there will only be two categories instead of three and each will have separate track time: before the Hyperpole, each category will have a twelve minute session. The top ten of each class will then qualify for the Hyperpole, which will run for ten minutes.
This format change perpetuates the transformation of endurance since the advent of Hypercars: the leaders have chosen to adapt to an exceptional field to offer the best possible show. Enough to give a great demonstration of management in a discipline that does not stop growing.
