Is there only so much you can do with 6 cylinders?

[thstone]

IMHO sport car racing competitiveness is much more complicated than simply mid-engine vs rear engine.

Modern day rules packages constrain the car configuration in numerous ways such as power/weight ratio, tires, aero/downforce, energy use/energy recovery, etc. The extent of the rules are amazingly broad and often quite detailed. The days of simply racing whatever is "fastest" are long, long gone.

Thus, the winning teams are typically those that have the most money to take the best overall advantage of the rules package.