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BR Engineering on target for WEC 2018 with LMP1 design
Russian squad BR Engineering says work on its all-new 2018 LMP1 car, the BR1, is well underway, with windtunnel and CFD programmes running in tandem at chassis builder Dallara’s Parma HQ in Italy.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Mar 31, 2017, 4:52 PM
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Motorsport.com has obtained a teaser image of the windtunnel model of the car, which is scheduled to race in the 2018 FIA World Endurance Championship.
“We have an initial design and we’re already working in the windtunnel, and at the same time doing CFD,” said Antonio Montanari, the project leader on Dallara’s side.
“The scale model has spent many days in the aero lab and we will try more different aero iterations, and we’re using all capacity of Dallara and our latest developments.
“Some part of the work is a non-stop, 24-hour process, which allows us to change the aero design of the model very rapidly. The next stage will be building the car itself.
“In October, ideally we are on track for the tests. Then we plan between 10-15 days of on-track testing. It will include a 24-hour simulation, and specific days for working with the tyres.”
100-percent new design
BR Engineering owner Boris Rotenberg added that the car would be a 100 percent new design, and would not borrow parts from previous chassis built by Dallara – such as its LMP2.
“The BR1 car shall comply with FIA safety regulations up to 2021,” said Rotenberg. “This design is from a clean sheet of paper, it does not copy the monocoque of the LMP2 or take any other parts.
“Of course we take the best of the knowledge of the designers which work on the car, and of the race engineers. I believe this will produce a really good car that will be reasonably extreme.
“We have all the latest technology at our disposal.”
Customer cars available
BR Engineering is to offer customer versions of its new BR1 for the LMP1-L class of the WEC in 2018.
With extensive track testing planned this year, the car’s specification will be finalised by February 2018, when it will be ready to compete.
This would allow time for customer versions of the prototype to be ready for pre-season testing.
“We are willing to support the grid,” added Rotenberg. “We are ready to propose this car to customer teams that wish to run LMP1-L cars in this [WEC] championship. We can provide a car that is the same as ours, or if a team wishes, we can make some adaptation of the design.
“We started this project for SMP Racing, but for the good of the series and the size of the grid, we will supply a car to anyone interested.
“We want strong rivals, obviously. The greater is the number of cars on the grid, the better it is for us. We are building this car for competition, for racing against competitors. If you achieve victory against a strong rival, then it’s an even greater result.”
When asked if he’d like to see former LMP-L class winners Rebellion back in the class, he replied: “Being practical, we hope that Rebellion will return and that their LMP2 step is temporary – we would be happy to see them back in LMP1 in 2018.”
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