Toyota Hybrid to enthrall Le Mans

Toyota made a startling re-entry into motorsports by announcing its participation in the Le Mans FIA World Endurance Racing Championship. It’s also the first to do so with a hybrid. Ammar Alvi reports.

Even as Peugeot-Citroen decided to pull out of the Le Mans race—it wants to concentrate on a slew of new launches, consolidate its business in the face of European economic turmoil—Toyota, with its much-anticipated re-entry in Le Mans, is the first to confirm participation in the FIA World Endurance Racing Championship with a hybrid. The new team, based out of Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Cologne, Germany, will debut on May 5, 2011, in six hours of the Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the FIA Championship, with their THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System-Racing) TS030 car. The company intends to use the same car in the 24-hours-Le Mans later this year. The THS-R powertrain of the TS030, features an all-new 3.4 litre V8 petrol engine, and a hybrid system with capacitor storage. Having tested the new TS030, the data from the test will help further developments of the car. The car was tested by Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Hiroaki Ishiura.

According to the Team President Yoshiaki Kinoshita, “Our target this year is to show the performance level of our car, particularly the THS-R powertrain. Hybrid is a core technology of Toyota, so it’s important to demonstrate this in a motorsport arena, and we want to prove it can bring a performance advantage, both in terms of lap time and fuel efficiency.”

Toyota will field two cars in 2012, with Wurz, Lapierre and Nakajima confirmed as the drivers in the first. It’s yet to name the drivers for the second car. Toyota made its FIA World Endurance Championship debut in 1983 and have participated in thirteen 24-hour Le Mans events, with 36 cars. The TS010 and TS020 were used in 1998 and 1999 respectively, the team’s last two years in the championship. TS stands for ToyotaSport.

The team had quit Le Mans in 1999 to shift its focus to Formula 1. Although Toyota hasn’t had a great record in Le Mans, they have managed three podium finishes and four front-row starts, including a pole position. Let’s wait and watch!