WEC: No Toyota TS030 hybrid at the 6 Hours of Spa

La sortie de route dont a été victime la Toyota TS030 hybrid mercredi de la semaine dernière au Paul-Ricard a des conséquences plus importantes que prévu pour le Toyota Racing. Pour rappel, la LMP1 hybrid de la firme nippone avait été fortement abîmée suite à une rupture d?origine mécanique. Nicolas lapierre, whose responsibility is in no way incurred, is fortunately unharmed. But this release unfortunately damaged “the only monohull of the team”, says the press release, before adding “This damage is too serious to be repaired; a replacement monocoque cannot be produced and sufficiently tested to ensure complete reliability over the limited time available to date”.

It is therefore with regret that Toyota Racing will skip the 6 Hours of Spa on May 5. “We are deeply saddened to announce this decision and our thoughts are with the drivers, team members and fans who awaited us at Spa with so much enthusiasm, underlines Yoshiaki Kinoshita, President of the Toyota Racing team. Since the accident, we have considered all possibilities but, unfortunately, no other alternative presents itself to us. »

The Toyota TS030 will therefore make its competitive debut on June 3, during the test day of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This package has a double unfortunate consequence. First of all, the Japanese hybrid LMP1 will not have completed any races before taking the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16. Here is Audi, which would have been extremely difficult to beat anyway, in an even more comfortable position in Sarthe? but also in WEC. Indeed, Toyota loves and has already destroyed its two jokers, since only the 6 best results (including Le Mans) are retained for the final counting of points for the World Championship.Endurance. It is therefore absolutely necessary to perform well in the 6 remaining rounds (which will all be taken into account on the Japanese side) to be able to hope to appear well in the general classification.

From now on, a race against time begins for the whole team, on deck to prepare as quickly as possible the two chassis which will be entrusted at Le Mans (June 16-17) to the trios Nicolas Lapierre-Alexander Wurz-Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson-Sébastien Buemi-Hiroaki Ishiura.