Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus owner Jim Glickenhaus is calling for a more even Balance of Performance in the Le Mans Hypercar category ahead of the final two races of the current FIA WEC campaign at Bahrain and the 2022 season.

After a solid performance for the team’s new 007s at Le Mans last month, in which both cars finished without major issues and found themselves in a battle for the podium with the better placed of the two, Glickenhaus says more needs to be done to balance his 007s and the Alpine with Toyota’s GR010s.

“We now have a full Le Mans 24 Hours worth of data,” said Glickenhaus, “and it’s clear that while our cars and the Alpine are well balanced, the Toyota has a very significant advantage.

“If they had not had their fuel tank issues (which forced the cars to pit more often than planned as the fuel filters were fouling), the gap would have been even bigger — on pure performance they would have been a country mile away from the No. 36 and our cars.

“That simply should not happen in a BoP-governed class. I know we turned a few heads in qualifying, but that’s exactly where the pace should have been against the BoP — Toyota had more, much more, as evidenced by the Hyperpole gap.

Glickenhaus feels a power boost for his team’s Hypercars would be ultimately be better even for its rivals. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images

Rather than having the Toyotas slowed by BoP changes, Glickenhaus says he wants his team and Alpine to have their performance levels boosted.

“I have never said that I wanted the Toyotas to be slowed down, not at all. They clearly have a tire advantage at present — the tires we race are optimized for their car, not for a rear-wheel-drive prototype, and we expect that to be dealt with for next season, but that’s not the whole picture.

“We don’t want them to be slowed, we want to be allowed to go faster. We can’t do that with weight — the car was designed to the regulation minimum — but we can get more power out of the car, and we can do it reliably too.

“Of course we’ve made that clear to the WEC and the ACO — I hope they take a look at the numbers and make the right call. Closer competition is good for everyone — including Toyota — and they have to show now that they have the capability and the will to adjust substantially and then fine-tune, because by 2023 the job is going to be much, much bigger on the BoP front!”

A change to BoP could also mean the difference between Glickenhaus competing in the WEC full time next year, or for only a partial season. While the team hopes to be back in 2022 with a full-season effort, additional backing is needed for that to happen.

The most likely scenario at present is a campaign starting at Sebring and then the European WEC rounds and Le Mans, with two cars. Even that limited run would be good news for the series, as the strength of the Hypercar entry next season remains an open question. There is no news yet on whether the Alpine effort will be permitted to continue with a grandfathered LMP1 car for a second season and, as RACER previously reported, Peugeot’s debut with the 9X8 may be delayed until after Le Mans.