Ferrari wants BoP removal as WEC shapes 2030 Hypercar rules

Ferrari wants the World Endurance Championship to make abolishing Balance of Performance its ultimate aim when the next Hypercar rules arrive in 2030. The marque says a common technical platform could make BoP unnecessary, but its absence is not a condition for Ferrari to stay in the series.

Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s global head of endurance, said the current regulations began with two distinct approaches: LMH and LMDh. With manufacturers now working towards one platform, he believes rulemakers have an opportunity to reduce the need for performance adjustments and move the championship towards competition based more directly on merit.

Ferrari sees a single platform as a route away from BoP

The FIA and ACO currently use parameters including power and weight to balance the cars. The system accounts not only for differences between LMH and LMDh machinery, but also for variation among cars built under the same rules. Coletta argued that a unified design framework could allow clearer regulations and fewer recurring arguments over adjustments.

Ferrari would prefer BoP to disappear altogether, but Coletta also acknowledged that a limited intervention could be workable if a complete removal proves impossible. In his view, the system can substantially affect how a car performs, so any role it retains should be marginal. The WEC stopped publishing BoP information this year, a change that has added to the debate around the system.

That ambition is separate from Ferrari’s decision to continue beyond 2030. Coletta said removal of BoP is not a prerequisite for the manufacturer’s commitment. Ferrari’s priority is having the freedom to build a car that reflects its own identity, as it has under the present LMH rules. The marque’s approach to car development has also been a theme in Hamilton’s assessment of Ferrari’s SF-26.

Four-wheel drive remains a point of difference

The early outline for the 2030 regulations, presented at June’s Le Mans 24 Hours, allows manufacturers either to develop their own chassis and powertrains or to source them from an outside supplier. It also rules out four-wheel drive, a feature of current LMH cars that Toyota has opposed losing.

Coletta said Ferrari would favour keeping four-wheel drive, linking the technology to the potential transfer of endurance-racing ideas to road cars, particularly as electric and hybrid systems develop. But he recognised that the arrangement would be difficult to preserve when it interests only Ferrari and two other manufacturers. The wider debate over the next WEC cycle is also reflected in McLaren’s plans for the series.

Ferrari’s position, then, is clear: a single platform should give the WEC a chance to phase out BoP, while a small measure of adjustment could remain an acceptable compromise. Whether the eventual rules deliver that outcome will not, Coletta said, decide Ferrari’s future in the championship.