Toyota confirms José María López and will field three TS050s at Le Mans

As we have been indicating since last June (see Ah n°2067), Toyota enregistre l’arrivée cette année de l’Argentin Jose Maria Lopez, triple WTCC world champion with Citroën and resident of DS Virgin Racing in Formula e.

The former king of the tourism planet will be lined up on one of the two Toyota TS050 Hybrid 2017 (unveiled as a preamble to the Monza Prologue in Italy on March 31) entered year-round in WEC, next to Mike conway et Kamui Kobayashi. The second Japanese LM P1 present on all rounds of the calendar will be entrusted to the unchanged trio Buemi – Davidson – Nakajima.

“It’s a dream come true for me and I can’t wait to start the first race, López proclaims. Both Mike and Kamui are great teammates. I will learn a lot from them, I'm sure. Driving an LM P1 is very different compared to the WTCC cars, but I enjoy the challenge.

The power and grip of the TS050 Hybrid are incredible and Toyota's hybrid technology is impressive. I'm looking forward to my first experience in WEC and particularly Le Mans which is a very special race. »

The other novelty concerns the presence of a third TS050 Hybrid for the Spa events (Belgium) and especially the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 17-18). Only Frenchman Stéphane Sarrazin has so far been confirmed for this third LM P1, but Japanese Ryo Hirakawa is one of the favorite drivers to support the Frenchman.