Another major revision in the Balance of Performance (BoP) has been introduced ahead of the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the race that will close the 2025 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
8 Hours of Bahrain, BoP – On the eve of the final week of the 2025 endurance season
The FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) have released the new BoP parameters. Once again, as seen several times this year, the governing bodies have intervened decisively on certain BoP values. This time round, the biggest changes affect the programmes of Cadillac and Porsche.
Cadillac sees its power under the 250 km/h threshold reduced by 24 kW, bringing it to a total of 486 kW — making it the third-least powerful alongside Porsche and Ferrari in that respect. Porsche, in its final appearance as an official factory team in WEC, will suffer the heaviest minimum weight of the Hypercar field: now listed at 1069 kg — edging out, albeit narrowly, both Ferrari and Toyota, which until now had been heaviest overall.
8 Hours of Bahrain BoP: weight/power ratios < 250 km/h
Let us analyse in detail how these changes affect the weight/power ratios both below and above the 250 km/h threshold.
In the first table, summarising the weight/power ratio (kW/kg) under 250 km/h — excluding Peugeot and Aston Martin (yet again credited with the best parameters) — the other teams can be grouped into two macro-groups.
As mentioned, Porsche presents the weakest ratio: 481 kW for 1069 kg. Slightly better, but still similar, are Ferrari and Cadillac — both with a ratio of 0.45 kW/kg. Toyota, after many races benefitting from a weight reduction and power increase, is now best of the four, at 0.46 kW/kg.
The second group of Hypercars consists of BMW and Alpine, with very similar figures at 0.47 kW/kg. They thus sit in between Aston Martin/Peugeot and the title-contenders. This parameter, as always, will be particularly relevant in the slow-corner sections of the track. In Bahrain’s case this means especially the first “stop-and-go” sector and turn 10 which leads onto the long straight before the high-speed sweeping turns of sectors 2 and 3.
8 Hours of Bahrain BoP: weight/power ratios > 250 km/h
Now turning to values above 250 km/h — equally critical on a circuit rich in long straights across all three sectors — four key segments are identified: between turn 3 and turn 4, between turn 10 and turn 11, between turn 13 and turn 14, and on the long finishing straight. These are the zones that determine top speed performance.
From the summary table emerges that Aston Martin, Toyota and Cadillac achieve the best weight/power ratio above 250 km/h. They are followed by a compact group composed of Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and BMW — all at around 0.47 kW/kg. The only team that stands out negatively in this zone is Alpine, with the worst ratio of the group at 0.46 kW/kg.
8 Hours of Bahrain BoP: available energy (total MJ)
Another crucial BoP parameter is the total megajoules (MJ), which will directly influence race strategy. A major change is apparent for Cadillac, which loses 10 MJ and now equals Ferrari at 893 MJ.
The worst of the Hypercars is Alpine, with 887 MJ, followed by Peugeot at 891 MJ. Only Toyota (909 MJ), Porsche (901 MJ) and Aston Martin (915 MJ) sit above the 900 MJ threshold.
8 Hours of Bahrain BoP LMGT3: Porsche, Corvette and McLaren gain weight
The FIA and ACO have also released the BoP tables for the LMGT3 category. We shall therefore analyse what has changed — both in the BoP table and in the Success Handicap table, which from 2026 may also apply in the Hypercar class.
The possibility was raised after a recent addition to the WEC sporting regulations which includes the top class among those where such a table could be applied, designed to penalise those achieving podium finishes.
BoP LMGT3: power variations
Looking at the power table below 200 km/h, all values remain virtually unchanged from the 6 Hours of Fuji, except for Mercedes‑AMG, which suffers a power decrease of 1 percent.
Above the 200 km/h threshold, the most significant variations are found for Aston Martin (+1.5 %), Ford (+0.8 %) and Mercedes (-1.0 %).
BoP LMGT3: weight modifications
The most profound changes concern weight, which influences the power/weight ratios in the category. In this case, three teams have been notably penalised via weight gain: Porsche adds 20 kg, while Corvette and McLaren both add 14 kg.
Aston Martin increases by only 4 kg, while BMW and Ford benefit from reductions of 8 kg and 5 kg respectively.
BoP LMGT3: available energy (MJ per stint)
As with the Hypercars, the last parameter analysed is the megajoules available per stint. There is a general decrease of 30 MJ across all teams. McLaren remains the car with the most energy available (705 MJ), while Aston Martin has the lowest (665 MJ per stint).
Success Handicap LMGT3
Turning to the Success Handicap table, the following weight increases are noted:
- Ferrari #21 of Vista AF Corse: +24 kg
- BMW #31: +6 kg
- BMW #46 of Team WRT: +12 kg
- Ferrari #54: +6 kg
- Corvette #81 of TF Sport: +24 kg
- Porsche #92 of Team Manthey: +18 kg
- McLaren #95 of United Autosports: +18 kg
Now only the track will deliver the verdict, which will allow us to understand how and how much these values set by the governing bodies will influence the performance of the various teams. One hopes for a genuinely balanced race among the teams still fighting for the world titles on offer at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
Leave a Reply