This week Toyota GAZOO Racing will cross the Belgian border from its home in Cologne for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Toyota opened the season with a two-car finish and a podium in the opening race at Silverstone last month after Audi was disqualified.
Toyota goes to Spa leading the manufacturers’ World Championship following “misfortune” for rivals Audi and Porsche. However, it was clear at Silverstone that the TS050 Hybrid was deficient in power, a problem that the caused the Japanese maker to lose the WEC championship last year after winning it in 2014.
This year, Toyota now claims that it has an “improved understanding” of its all-new TS050 Hybrid, which has a turbo-charged 2.4-liter engine and the so-called 8MJ battery-based hybrid system. The team therefore expects to show improved performance at Spa, the final race before the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. The LMP1 teams admit to roughly 900 horsepower, which probably means there’s more under race-shoe clad foot.
“Even if the result at Silverstone was pretty good, we know we need to show more performance if we are to achieve our targets this season,” admitted Toshio Sato, Toyota Team President.
The two TS050 Hybrids will race again in high-downforce specification, which is the opposite of what is needed at LeMans, as also used at Silverstone.
Toyota has mixed results at Spa-Francorchamps. Victory and third place in 2014 laid the foundations for a World Championship double, but last year Kazuki Nakajima was injured in a practice accident before a disappointing race ended the team’s run of 13 successive WEC podiums.
Kazuki will again drive with Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi in the #5 TS050 Hybrid as they look to recover from a 16th place at Silverstone, caused by a tire puncture and ensuing body damage.
Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi enjoyed a better start to the season, finishing third before being promoted to second when the winning Audi was disqualified for a technical violation about skid pad wear.
Toyota GAZOO Racing in 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
2013
- #7Qualifying 4th; Race DNF. #8Qualifying 5th; Race 4th.
2014
- #7Qualifying 4th; Race 3rd. #8Qualifying 2nd; Race 1st.
2015
- #1Qualifying 6th; Race 8th. #2Qualifying 7th; Race 5th.
