WEC / Le Mans – Photos, videos, technical details: Toyota unveils the TS040 Hybrid

Porsche was the first to draw, last June, followed by Audi in December. Of the three manufacturers candidates for the title of world championEndurance 2014, Toyota was the last to present its new mount, the Japanese firm having in fact waited until the day before the Prologue, the new name for the official tests of the WEC. Did she have secrets to keep? It's still too early to tell. But in accordance with what Pascal Vasselon, the technical director, told us in January, the TS040 is very different from its ancestor, with aerodynamics seeming even slicker.

Over the days, since the end of the 2013 financial year, however, technical information had been distilled here and there. Thus, we revealed to you, at the beginning of September, that the TS040 Hybrid would retain the same kinetic energy recovery system, namely the supercapacitor, as well as its atmospheric V8. With a few differences however, since the latter saw its displacement increase from 3,4 to 3,7 liters, and a second electric motor was connected to the front axle, making the car a temporary four-wheel drive like the are its rivals, the Porsche 919 Hybrid and the Audi R18 e-tron quattro “2014”.

The Japanese supercapacitor having shown itself to be formidable until now, it is not surprising that the new weapon of the troops of technical director Pascal Vasselon is located in one of the two largest classes of ERS, namely that it will be able to return up to 6 MJ per lap at Le Mans, compared to 2 to Audi and 8 to Porsche. Toyota announces, upon acceleration, 1000 horsepower when the thermal (given for 520 hp) and electric (480 hp) engines work together.

Question delivered, nothing really new, the blue and white having, unsurprisingly, been retained. As a reminder, if the British Mike conway was recruited as a reserve and test driver, the crews were also modified, as was announced at the beginning of February, the day before the presentation of the lists of entrants in the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The French Stéphane Sarrazin and Nicolas lapierre permute, the first named moving from No. 8 to No. 7, the second going the opposite way. The trios will therefore be as follows: Kazuki Nakajima-Stéphane Sarrazin-Alexander Wurz and Sébastien Buemi-Anthony Davidson-Nicolas Lapierre.

Nothing was left to chance last winter in Cologne, Germany, where the premises of TMG (Toyota Motorsport GmbH) are located. The LM P1 prototype notably covered nearly 18 km in tests. The first direct confrontation with Audi and Porsche? It is scheduled for tomorrow, with the first day of the Prologue, on the Paul-Ricard circuit, in the Var.

>>>>>The Toyota TS040 Hybrid Photo Gallery<<<<

>>>>>The video of the first official laps of the TS040 Hybrid<<<<

>>>>>The four-wheel drive system of the TS040 Hybrid<<<<