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FIA introduces 'Hypercar Concept' for World Endurance Championship

One of the most common jabs at hypercars is the question, "Where can you drive them to their potential?" Imagine the answer being: to the checkered flag in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We're not there yet, but the FIA World Motor Sport Council took a step closer to the possibility during its second annual meeting in Manila, the Philippines. One of three initiatives the WSMC announced for the 2020 World Endurance Championship was "Freedom of design for brands based on a 'Hypercar' concept." This "Hypercar concept" would replace LMP1 as the premier class in the WEC. The dream, of course, would be seeing racing versions of the AMG Project One, Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, Bugatti Chiron, Koenigsegg Regera, McLaren Senna GTR, Pagani Huara BC, and the rest of the gang trading paint and carbon fiber through Dunlop in a heinously expensive version of "Buy on Sunday, sell on Monday." The reality is that we don't have all the details yet on the set of regulations called "GTP," but the FIA wants race cars more closely tied to road cars, albeit with the performance level of today's LMP1 cars. Exterior design freedom would shelter internals designed to reduce costs, the FIA planning to mandate less complex hybrid systems and allow the purchase of spec systems. One of the FIA's primary goals is lowering LMP1 budgets to a quarter of their present levels. Audi and Porsche budgets exceeded $200 million, while Toyota - the only factory LMP1 entry this year and next - is assumed to have a budget hovering around $100 million. Reports indicated that Aston Martin, Ferrari, Ford, McLaren, and Toyota sat in on the development of the proposed class. If the FIA can get costs down to around $25 million, that would compare running a top IndyCar team and have to be hugely appealing to the assembled carmakers. The initiative represents another cycle of the roughly once-a-decade reboot of sports car racing to counter power or cost concerns. The FIA shut down Group 5 Special Production Sports Car class in 1982 to halt worrying power hikes, and introduced Group C. In 1993, Group C came to an ignoble end over costs; manufacturers were spending $15 million on a season, back when that was real money and not one-fifth of a Ferrari 250 GTO. Then came the BPR Global GT Series that morphed into the FIA GT Championship, which would see the last not-really-a-road car take overall Le Mans victory in 1998, the Porsche 911 GT1. That era would be most aligned with a future hypercar class.

Ferrari shows California with unique upholstery at Goodwood

Order up a new Ferrari and you can get it just about any way you want it. That's what the company's Tailor Made program is all about. And it's showcasing some of the possibilities at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend with the unique cabrio you see here. This one-of-a-kind Ferrari California T has been done up in a special blue and white livery. Its three-layer Bianco Italia paintjob is overlaid with a pair of offset blue stripes, complimented by a set of 20-inch alloys in blue and silver. The interior is similarly done up in blue and white, but it's the material with which that's done that's the most interesting bit. Maranello has upholstered and trimmed the interior of this particular California with a new high-tech material called Mycro Prestige. It's less than a millimeter thick and weighs only a third of what the leather would, but it's flameproof and water resistant while being porous and breathable. Sort of like Alcantara, but more advanced. Of course these are only some of the options Ferrari can offer through its Tailor Made program. Clients are set up with their own personal designer who'll walk them through the endless choices available through three collections, dubbed Scuderia, Classica and Inedita, the latter offering the most out-there choices. So if what you really want is a Prancing Horse swathed in cashmere or denim, Ferrari will be only too glad to oblige your open checkbook. Related Video: "TAILOR MADE" FERRARI CALIFORNIA T SHOWCASES NEW LIGHTWEIGHT MYCRO PRESTIGE FABRIC Maranello, 24 June 2015. Ferrari will be showcasing a very special "Tailor Made" California T at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, inspired by the passion and colours of Polo and Horse racing. The California T encapsulates the ethos of personalisation, with a Bianco Italia three-layer exterior with a double-asymmetric stripe in Blu Hellen mirrored by a sumptuous Blu Sterling interior with Bianco elements and highlights. The car is finished off with 20" forged wheels which have been painted in Blu Hellen and Argento Nurburgring. This particular California T showcases a new high-tech "Mycro Prestige" fabric material that has been specifically made exclusively for Ferrari. Mycro Prestige is a highly resistant material that offers an exceptional level of grip, and, thanks to its unique mixture of fibres which are only 0.7mm thick, it is only one-third the weight of traditional leather.

Ferrari steering wheel may hold key to rocket F1 starts

Ferrari's brilliant getaways at the Australian Grand Prix were key to its early victory challenge – and could well be the result of a unique approach to new start restrictions that Giorgio Piola has uncovered. Although Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in Melbourne, it was a sensational getaway from Sebastian Vettel that helped the German swoop into the lead by the first corner. As team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said: "The start was super. I have to say both of the drivers, they start like two rockets. After that they were able to take an advantage, and that was good for us." Such great starts from Ferrari are nothing new – just look at Hungary last year – but as Piola's exclusive drawing reveals, the team may well have taken things to an all-new level in ensuring it does not miss any detail in this area. In-built advantage As early as pre-season testing, rivals had been alerted about what Ferrari was capable of by monitoring data from Barcelona. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "We saw that in pre-season testing their starts have been really strong." Even ahead of the race, there were rumours that Ferrari knew it would excel in this area. Its decision to not do a second run in Melbourne's Q3 was mainly fuelled by its desire to save a set of super soft tyres for the race. But another suggestion also emerged – that the team knew just how good its starts were so securing the second row of the grid was good enough for it to believe it had a shout of the lead on the first lap. A single paddle As Piola's comparison of Ferrari's 2015 and 2016 steering wheel arrangement shows, the team has been the most aggressive in changing its clutch configuration for this year. New rules mean that drivers can only use a single hand on a single clutch paddle for the race start – even if teams choose to keep a double-paddle arrangement for emergencies. Ferrari has opted for something totally different to its main rivals by abandoning a double paddle arrangement (see red arrows on above left image). Instead, it has a single 'rocker' paddle that stretches all the way across the back of the wheel. Investing in such a dramatic design change clearly points to it having unlocked a decent performance advantage. The exact reasons for this configuration are unclear, but it may be that it allows the driver a greater feel for the clutch bite point – and means he is better able to judge how to deliver the perfect getaway.