Officials with the FIA World Endurance Championship have announced that a new top class will be launched for 2020-2024 featuring sleeker prototypes with more marque cachet. While these racing cars will cut quite an imposing figure, officials said, they will also retain the usage of a hybrid system while leaving free the choice of combustion engine at a predetermined and fixed cost. The name of the new class will be chosen by popular vote.

The 2020-2024 plan will usher in a new era of endurance racing with an ultramodern style of prototype called… whatever the fans of the discipline decide: Super Sportscar, GTPrototype, Le Mans Supercars or Le Mans Hypercars or something else entirely.

The regulations, devised by the ACO and the FIA, focus on the appearance, style and lines of the cars in the new premier league. They will compete on circuits like Le Mans, Spa, Silverstone, Fuji and Sebring in the day and night, rain or shine, in hot weather as in cold.

Being the top class, these new prototypes must be technologically powerful and compelling in design, and will therefore remain hybrid, with a KERS system in front and 4WD to ensure energy efficiency, the FIA announced. This technology will become more popular as the KERS system developed by some constructors will have to be used on production cars at a pre-defined price, they added.

These new prototypes will have an alluring design and incredible pace, as regulations seek excellence: 3:20.00 per lap at Le Mans with limited fuel, according to the FIA. The other priority is cost, as they are meant to be remarkable, competitive, innovative and affordable—requiring a quarter of current budgets. Costly developments will be kept in check by a new homologation procedure and technical rules that will naturally reduce budgets.

However, there will be no restrictions on engine selection. Consumption rules will ensure fair competition between different systems. The new regulations will take effect for 2020-2024.

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