Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota is proud to be a part of the 2016 World Endurance Championship, with its hopes hanging on the LMP1 prototype race car you can admire above. WEC fans will see the Toyota TS050 HYBRID compete in all nine rounds of the 2016 season.
The highest echelon for endurance racing will see the new kid on the block compete in the LMP1 Hybrid class. Its main competitors will come in the form of battle-hardened Audi and Porsche prototypes. As a brief reminder, Nissan has discontinued its LMP1 project because front-wheel-drive at Le Mans is similar to competing against a marathon runner with your shoelaces tied together. Tough luck, Nissan.
Toyota has confirmed to the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest that its TS050 HYBRID race cars will wear the numbers 5 and 6. The #5 Toyota will have a driver lineup made up of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima. The #6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID will be driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, and former F1 talent Kamui Kobayashi.
For the 2016 season of the World Endurance Championship, the works team will be known as Toyota Gazoo Racing. The test debut of the TS050 HYBRID took place in January at the Aragon circuit, where the new race car was pitted against last year’s TS040 HYBRID over the course of three days. Everything went well, but the Japanese manufacturer was reluctant to offer any solid details about the superiority of the new car.
The technical specifications will be released on March 24, when Toyota will launch the TS050 HYBRID at the Paul Ricard circuit. Compared to the 3.7-liter normally aspirated V8 of last year’s LMP1 prototype, the Toyota TS050 Hybrid is expected to debut a V4 turbocharged engine, a similar architecture to the one that took Porsche to both of last year’s World Endurance Championship titles. Last but not least, instead of supercapacitors, Toyota Gazoo Racing's newest weapon will introduce a battery energy storage system.
Toyota has confirmed to the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest that its TS050 HYBRID race cars will wear the numbers 5 and 6. The #5 Toyota will have a driver lineup made up of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima. The #6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID will be driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, and former F1 talent Kamui Kobayashi.
For the 2016 season of the World Endurance Championship, the works team will be known as Toyota Gazoo Racing. The test debut of the TS050 HYBRID took place in January at the Aragon circuit, where the new race car was pitted against last year’s TS040 HYBRID over the course of three days. Everything went well, but the Japanese manufacturer was reluctant to offer any solid details about the superiority of the new car.
The technical specifications will be released on March 24, when Toyota will launch the TS050 HYBRID at the Paul Ricard circuit. Compared to the 3.7-liter normally aspirated V8 of last year’s LMP1 prototype, the Toyota TS050 Hybrid is expected to debut a V4 turbocharged engine, a similar architecture to the one that took Porsche to both of last year’s World Endurance Championship titles. Last but not least, instead of supercapacitors, Toyota Gazoo Racing's newest weapon will introduce a battery energy storage system.
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