Tom Fowler: “The addition of hybrid (…) offers an incredible level of acceleration”

Neither worried nor confident, Tom Fowler, Technical Director of Toyota Gazoo Racing, expects a WRC season punctuated by reliability and progress in performance.

Published on 12/01/2022 à 09:00

Loïc ROCCI

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Tom Fowler: “The addition of hybrid (…) offers an incredible level of acceleration”

The English engineer gives some details about “his” Yaris hybrid

What caused you the most problems during this construction?

With this regulation, you either have the option of making a small car big or a big car small. In our case, with the Yaris, we chose the first option. I think it was the integration of the hybrid unit into the cabin that was the most complicated. It is not so much the way this system works that has been a challenge, but more the fact that the cars rally are generally small. We are talking here about cars that are very narrow. If you look at what's been done over the last 10 years, there's not a lot of room to put in new things.

How did you do ?

Nous y avons passé beaucoup de temps ! Nous avons étudié de nombreuses options pour savoir comment disposer tout ce qu’il y a autour de cette cellule. Immédiatement, des idées très conventionnelles ont dû être écartées. Je ne veux pas parler de choses que vous finirez de toute façon par observer, mais pour lesquelles je trouve que nous avons été inventifs. En revanche, pour vous donner un exemple que vous avez peut-être déjà vu en essai, notre roue de secours est dans une position très inhabituelle. Cela s’est encore compliqué lorsqu’il a fallu en mettre deux ! Jusqu’ici, notre objectif avait été de les pla

Loïc ROCCI

Journalist specializing in rallying past, present and future... and with a southern accent

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