ACO targeting hydrogen Le Mans class in 2024

Officials from the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) have confirmed plans for a class for hydrogen-powered cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by 2024.

In the annual ACO press conference held on Friday at Le Mans, plans for a new, hydrogen class were teased following the announcement of the new hypercar regulations that will replace LMP1 from 2020.

Using a hydrogen fuel cell as an alternative to traditional combustion engines has been mooted in motorsport for some time, but this marks the first official push by a global motorsport body to establish a class for hydrogen-powered cars to race.

"There is a strong request from FIA to bring together Hydrogen technology in WEC and Le Mans," ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil said on Friday.

"The technical people are a very strong and high quality group coming from great companies working with us. Now we just need to take some time to give you some more details later.

"But we know that the target is to have hydrogen racing in 2024. How it will race is coming soon."

A hydrogen-electric prototype by GreenGT was provisionally entered to Le Mans in 2013 as a 'Garage 56' entry for new technology, but was not able to get ready in time for the race.

Beaumesnil confirmed that a number of Garage 56 proposals have been put forward to the ACO for races in the near future, but stressed there was a long process to go through before a project could be accepted.

"It always difficult to build a budget for one race. We have good projects but they need to have strong finances so we are still expecting this," Beaumesnil said.

"Then you have to bring the great ideas these guys have in the racing requirements. The FIA will help us to approve the safety of the cars as when you make electric cars with big batteries or hydrogen or whatever it is, you are not completely free of risk. This requires a lot of time.

"We have several projects on the table, but we have not been able to approve any of these yet. It has to be funded and completely approved, including the FIA for safety, before we progress."