WEC – Toyota and Nico Lapierre, it’s over for this season

If it is not a surprise, we still dared to hope to see again Nicolas lapierre driving the Toyota TS040 Hybrid n°8 in Shanghai, this weekend, on the occasion of the antepenultimate round of the WEC. Alas, that won't be the case. After not using his services at Fuji, the Japanese team has in fact made the decision to do without the Frenchman for the three remaining rounds, namely Shanghai this weekend, Bahrain on November 15 and São Paulo on November 30.

The reason given this time? “Based on its experience at Fuji, the team believes that continuing with a crew made up of two drivers, Anthony and Sébastien, is the best option in Shanghai and in the last races of the season. » can we read in the press release published this morning.

Curious treatment towards the native of Thonon-les-Bains, who was one of the pillars of the Toyota Racing adventure, since he was appointed at the end of 2011 responsible for development alongside the Austrian Alexander Wurz. With six victories and 10 podiums under his belt, the winner of the 12 2011 Hours of Sebring is also the most prolific driver of this epic event which is in its third year. The errors he may have made should not overshadow what Nico has brought to the team as well as the performances he has been responsible for since 2012.

In addition to the morphological reasons (to save time when changing drivers) put forward at the start of the season, his move from the seat of the No. 7 to that of the No. 8 last winter was indeed intended to form a sprint trio on the latter, which he shared until the 6 Hours of Austin with Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson.

Austin, precisely. Was it his excursion into the gravel trap during the flood that suddenly hit the Texan track that earned him this sidelining? How can we blame him as the conditions were dire and so many pilots made mistakes there, starting with Mike conway on the sister car (but which was lucky enough not to end up in the gravel trap) or Timo Bernhard on the Porsche 919 Hybrid n°20.

The last three rounds of the season will therefore see Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson officiating as a duo at the wheel of the No. 040 Toyota TS8 Hybrid, which will not necessarily be a gift in Bahrain, where performing double stints is far from being possible. easy. As a reminder, the Swiss and the British, winners of the 6 Hours of Fuji, are firmly in control of the Championship, since they are 26 points ahead of Nicolas Lapierre (out of the race for the title) and 29 over the trio Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer-Benoît Tréluyer.

It remains to wish Nicolas Lapierre to bounce back as quickly as possible. If team principal Yoshiaki Kinoshita had announced before Fuji: “Nicolas remains an integral member of our team”, the future of the Habs at Toyota unfortunately seems to be dotted. On the other hand, its profile would be most interesting for Nissan, which will make its return to the premier category ofEndurance next year with its GT-R LM Nismo.