WEC – Toyota dreams of victory in Texas

Around thirty minutes after the start of the 6 Hours of São Paulo, on September 1, Stéphane Sarrazin was sent into a pile of tires by a sinking LM P2. Too bad, never this year has the TS030 Hybrid seemed so fast. This weekend, at the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin (Texas), the men of technical director Pascal Vasselon will be keen to show that their toy can give Audi a hard time. “After what happened in Brazil, I am extremely motivated to get a good result this weekend, admits Stéphane Sarrazin. And I think we can do it. I drove here (on the Circuit of the Americas, in Grand-Am. Editor’s note) in March, and I really enjoyed it. »

In LM P1, the Frenchman is the only one who knows the track. Discovering the track will be the primary mission of the vast majority of competitors, who should also have to face another constraint, the heat. “Running in Texas in September promises to be complicated because it should be very hot there, pretty much like in Bahrain last year, underlines the Swiss Sébastien Buemi. The circuit is really nice and should suit theEndurance. The start-finish straight line is one of its main characteristics. It is very impressive, especially since the first turn is blind. » “We had a very disappointing race in Brazil where we had a real chance of victory, continues his British teammate Anthony Davidson. Our TS030 Hybrid was really good at Interlagos, which allows us to approach this weekend with confidence. The Circuit of the Americas is awesome and new for everyone in LM P1 (Audi, Toyota et Rebellion ne l’ont jamais arpenté. Ndlr). I'm looking forward to it because I've never ridden there. It's going to be a busy week for us with collective testing on Thursday, but it will be a good opportunity to optimize our settings before free practice begins. »

For its first race in the United States, Toyota will only enter one car compared to two for Audi. The Japanese firm is therefore not leaving with the advantage of numbers, and is keeping its fingers crossed that the scenario of the 6 Hours of São Paulo is not repeated. The president of the team, Yoshiaki Kinoshita, admits that his one and only goal is victory. “Win the first race of the WEC in Austin, this would be the dream result. But it will be difficult. Our high downforce aerodynamic package performed very well in Brazil but we didn't have the chance to see how competitive we were in race conditions due to our accident. This time we want to fight against Audi for the whole six hours. » A wish shared by opponents and fans, for whom the 6 Hours of São Paulo in LM P1 was not the most exciting race of the year either.