Le Mans – Toyota: “Impossible to be confident”

Toyota prepares to compete in his 16th start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the third in a row since his return to Endurance. After securing a 2nd place for the fourth time in the Sarthe double-clock race, the Japanese manufacturer has a good opportunity to finally win even if the competition will be reinforced this season with the return of Porsche. “We are better prepared than in 2012 or 2013”, assures Pascal Vasselon, the technical director of Toyota Racing. “We are going to Le Mans without any regrets but it is impossible to be confident for obvious reasons. There are far too many elements that are beyond our control, including the risks linked to 24-hour traffic and the very strong opposition we have to face. Le Mans is a different track to the others on the calendar and we have to prepare accordingly. Pure top speed is a more important factor here than anywhere else. But we also need to carefully analyze fuel consumption and tire strategy to find the best compromise between the time spent in the pits and our lap time on track. However, with two wins from the first two races, we are where we wanted to be and we can't wait to get started. »

The new regulations giving pride of place to hybrid technologies could benefit Toyota Racing, which is at the forefront in this area. The Japanese brand also won the first two events of the WEC and achieved the best times of the Test Day. “Our adventure with the TS040 Hybrid began a year ago, after Le Mans 2013, and since then, the whole team has made great efforts”, adds Yoshiaki Kinoshita, the President of the team. ?The whole team worked very hard to be ready and did everything possible to prepare as well as possible for the challenge of Le Mans. We have one goal in mind, victory. Many factors are out of our control, such as the performance level of our rivals, luck or even the weather, but we did the right thing and we must now continue what was started during the race week. With the return of Porsche, winning Le Mans this year will be even more difficult, but that also means victory will be even sweeter. »

Toyota Racing has reworked its aspirated engine to increase the displacement to 3,7l which alone develops 520hp. The block is helped by a supercapacitor which provides a gain of 480hp on the front and rear axles, making it a 4-wheel drive. “This is the system we have developed from the beginning and we are happy to use it this year”, says Hisatake Murata, general manager of the Development division of the Motor Sport Unit. “Le Mans is a different circuit to Spa and Silverstone in terms of energy recovery. The hybrid system is designed to be more efficient at Le Mans and we know from previous years that this contributes significantly to lap times. With heavy braking on the chicanes of the Mulsanne straight, we can recover a maximum of 6MJ and this is very positive for us. As always, fuel economy is an important topic at Le Mans and we will exploit our hybrid power to the maximum to give us good fuel efficiency and optimal performance. »

Discover the analysis of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Test Day carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1963 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version on all platforms and on newsstands.