What Virtual Energy actually is
Virtual Energy (VE) is a per-lap energy budget that Le Mans Ultimate tracks alongside fuel. Every lap you complete spends a slice of two things at once: litres of fuel, and a measured amount of energy in megajoules. You start a stint with a full allowance of each, and the car drains both as you drive. It is not the fuel gauge under another name — it is a second, independent budget that can run dry on its own.
The misconception worth killing first: VE is not a hybrid feature. It applies to both Hypercar and LMGT3. An LMGT3 has no MGU, no regen and no brake migration — it is not a hybrid car at all — yet it still carries a Virtual Energy budget that depletes per lap and can empty before its fuel does. Real data makes this concrete: an LMGT3 ran VE at 87.9% with 4.04 MJ/lap and a pit setting of "100% / 24 laps". That number only exists because the car is spending an energy budget — exactly like a Hypercar, just without the hybrid hardware on top.
Lift & coast: the technique
Lift and coast means releasing the throttle a short distance before a braking zone and coasting into it, instead of staying flat right up to the brake point. The moment you lift, the engine stops burning fuel and the car stops drawing Virtual Energy — so a single technique saves both budgets at the same time. You give back a little speed at corner entry, and in exchange you stretch how far the stint goes.
The trade is small and very controllable. A modest lift on the right corners can claw back a meaningful fraction of fuel and VE per lap for the cost of only a few tenths of laptime. The art is in where you lift: the best corners are the ones with a high-speed entry into a slow corner, where you were going to scrub off a lot of speed anyway — there a brief coast costs the least time for the most energy saved. Lifting before a fast corner you barely brake for is almost all cost and no benefit.
- Pick the cheapest corners — fast entry, slow apex, long braking. That is where a short lift saves the most energy per tenth lost.
- Lift early, brake normally — coast in, then brake at your usual point. You are shortening the full-throttle phase, not changing the brake zone.
- Tune the amount to the target — lift just enough to hit the energy you need for the stint, no more. Over-lifting throws away laptime you did not have to spend.
Fuel vs energy: which one limits you
Because fuel and Virtual Energy drain on separate clocks, the first question every stint is simple: which one runs out first? Read VE-laps-remaining next to fuel-laps-remaining and the answer is right there. They rarely match — and the smaller number is the one that actually ends your stint.
If you are VE-limited — energy empties before fuel — then lift and coast is the move. Stretching the energy budget is the only thing that adds laps, and the spare fuel in the tank does nothing for you; it is just weight. If you are fuel-limited — fuel empties first with VE to spare — then you can push flat and spend the energy freely, and the only thing that extends the stint is saving fuel. There is no point lifting to protect an energy budget you will never finish.
The limiting factor is not fixed. It can flip mid-race as pace, traffic, weather and tyre wear move your consumption around — a stint that started fuel-limited can become VE-limited after a few cautious laps, and vice versa. So re-read the two numbers every few laps rather than deciding once at the start and forgetting.
Hypercar extras: hybrid on top of VE
Everything above — the Virtual Energy budget, the limiting-factor question, lift and coast — is shared by both classes. What only Hypercar and LMDh add is a hybrid system layered on top of that same VE budget. These are extra levers, not a replacement for energy management.
- Deployment — releasing stored electric power to boost on a straight or out of a slow corner. Deploying spends energy you then have to recover.
- Harvest / regen — recharging the battery under braking, set by regen levels. More regen recovers more energy but adds drag and changes how the car slows down.
- Brake migration — how braking is shared front-to-rear, corner by corner, as the hybrid recovers energy under braking. It shifts the balance during the brake zone in a way a pure-mechanical car never does.
Make the boundary explicit, because it is the part most guides get wrong: none of deployment, regen or brake migration exists on LMGT3. An LMGT3 has no MGU to deploy, nothing to harvest under braking and no migration to set — it manages its Virtual Energy and fuel through lift and coast alone. Both classes save energy by lifting; only Hypercar gets to also juggle deploy, harvest and brake migration on top.
How your engineers read it
Energy management is only the right call once you know which budget is hurting. SimRace.app pulls your live consumption and the energy panel on the pit wall shows the two clocks side by side: fuel-laps-remaining and VE-laps-remaining, with the limiting factor called out so you are never guessing which one ends the stint. When energy is the limit, the engineers raise lift-and-coast prompts for the cheapest corners — and they track it on both Hypercar and LMGT3, because both spend Virtual Energy.
For a Hypercar there is a second layer: the engineers also read the hybrid, so the per-corner brake migration and the deploy/harvest balance show up alongside the energy budget — the levers an LMGT3 simply does not have. On a GT3 the panel stays honest to the car: fuel, VE and where to lift, nothing about a hybrid you are not carrying. From there it is the same discipline as any setup change — one clear move, judged over a few laps, tied back to the rest of your setup.
FAQ
What is Virtual Energy in Le Mans Ultimate?
Virtual Energy (VE) is a per-lap energy budget that runs alongside fuel. Every lap spends a slice of both your fuel and your Virtual Energy, and whichever runs out first is the limiting factor that decides how long your stint lasts and how hard you can push. VE applies to both Hypercar and LMGT3 in Le Mans Ultimate — it is not a hybrid-only system. An LMGT3 with no hybrid hardware still has a Virtual Energy allowance that can empty before its fuel does.
Do LMGT3 cars have Virtual Energy, or is it only for hybrids?
LMGT3 cars absolutely have Virtual Energy and must manage it, even though they are not hybrid — no MGU, no regen, no brake migration. The common myth is that VE is a hybrid feature; it is not. Real data shows an LMGT3 running Virtual Energy at 87.9% with 4.04 MJ consumed per lap and a pit setting of "100% / 24 laps", which only makes sense because the car is spending a VE budget. Treat VE as a hard limit on both classes.
What is lift and coast and how much does it save?
Lift and coast means releasing the throttle a short distance before a braking zone and coasting in, instead of staying flat to the brake point. Because you stop burning fuel and stop drawing Virtual Energy during the coast, it saves both at once. A modest lift on the right corners can save a meaningful fraction of fuel and VE per lap for only a few tenths of laptime — often enough to turn a car that would run dry into one that makes the stint. The trick is choosing the few high-speed-entry corners where a brief lift costs the least time per unit of energy saved.
How do I know whether fuel or energy is limiting me?
Compare fuel-laps-remaining against VE-laps-remaining. If Virtual Energy runs out before fuel you are VE-limited: lift and coast to stretch the energy budget, because spare fuel does nothing if VE empties first. If fuel runs out before VE you are fuel-limited with energy to spare: push flat, spend the VE freely, and saving fuel is the only thing that extends the stint. The limiting factor can flip during a race as pace and conditions change, so re-read both numbers every few laps.
What does Hypercar add on top of Virtual Energy that LMGT3 does not have?
Only Hypercar and LMDh add a hybrid system on top of the shared Virtual Energy budget: deployment (releasing electric power to boost), harvest or regen (recharging under braking, set by regen levels) and brake migration (how braking is shared front-to-rear per corner as energy is recovered). None of these exist on LMGT3 — an LMGT3 manages VE and fuel through lift and coast alone. Both classes save energy by lifting; only Hypercar layers hybrid deployment, regen and brake migration on top.
The setup glossary
Energy management is one lever among several. The rest of the toolkit, one page at a time — and it all comes together back on the SimRace.app home: