Hydrogen-Powered Le Mans Cars Are COVID-19’s Latest Victim

Motorsport is in a strange place right now. Sports like NASCAR and IndyCar is stuck in its old gas-powered wayswhile fledgling Racing series like Formula E And Extreme E go to crazy lengths to try to show that Electric cars can put on a great show. Various motorsport series were present on the sidelines Investigation of hydrogen as a fuel zero-emission racing cars, but such a program has a rocky start.

First announced in 2017, Le Mans is organized by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has been involved with hydrogen-powered racing cars for some time. It even has a partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies and French racing team Oreca to design a concept chassis for the car.

But having originally aimed for a race debut in 2024, the program was another project that fell behind schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a matter of fact, Motorsport Reports that the hydrogen-powered racing cars will now debut in 2026 at the earliest. According to website:

“Delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a desire to ensure hydrogen cars are truly competitive before they are introduced to the world-famous endurance race, meant it was already being pushed back a year before the recent decision to push it back to 2026 should be. ”

According to Automobile Club de l’Ouest hydrogen adviser Bernard Nicolot, there are two main reasons for the delay in the debut. First he told motorsport that COVID-19 “delayed everythingespecially for hydrogen cars.”

Additionally, Niclot said the delay was necessary to give the team time to prove that “a hydrogen car can be competitive against petrol cars at Le Mans”.

This, he told Motorsport, is a challenge they believe is “doable”. But to get there, engineers need time to develop a car that lives up to the research. So far, studies of the car have been done off-track, which makes the difficult park of this whole project.

The other aspect of the new class that has yet to be developed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile or FIA, the governing body of motorsport, are the regulations. According to Motorsport:

“Regulations for the class are expected to be written later this year pending further discussion with manufacturers, with the next working group meeting later this month.”

The delay means that The new Le Mans hypercar class hybrid racers may spend a little more time in the spotlight. The new class of hybrid racing cars made its debut at Daytona earlier this year and will race at the legendary La Sarthe circuit this summer.