Toyota is aiming to limit the damage at this weekend’s Austin round of the FIA WEC to keep its title hopes alive.
The Japanese manufacturer is not expecting a repeat of its last win at Interlagos in July and is preparing for a busy weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, according to Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury.
Floury pointed to the characteristics of the circuit and the change in the Balance of Performance compared to Brazil as threats to the competitiveness of the two GR010 Hybrids.
“It’s not the best circuit for us and what I can’t talk about (the BoP, ed.) is it’s going to be a busy weekend,” he said.
By regulation, Floury could not speak specifically about the BoP: the sporting regulations prohibit manufacturers, teams and drivers from discussing it publicly and Toyota was the first to be penalised under the regulation introduced last year, hit with a suspended fine of €10,000 after statements made to Motorsport.com-Netherlands by TGR director Rob Leupen.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Asked whether Austin will be a case of damage limitation following the BoP revision that reduced the power and increased the weight of the GR010s, Floury replied: “Definitely, we have to stay in the title fight.”
The best-placed Toyota crew, the #7 trio of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, are third in the Hypercar championship standings, 22 points behind Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer.
One of Toyota’s strengths at Interlagos was its ability to take care of its Michelin tyres.
Floury stressed that this traditional strength of the GR010 will probably be less important in Austin than in Interlagos: “The tyre degradation was not that high in Brazil.”
Sebastien Buemi, who took victory at Interlagos with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa after the faster sister car lost time with a technical issue, echoed Floury’s comments, explaining that Toyota was not part of a team test in Austin at the end of July, which involved all the hypercar manufacturers except Alpine.
“On a one-lap pace we didn’t do badly, but we didn’t make a good impression on the long-lasting tyres,” said the Swiss. “We were too slow to fight for the win and I have the feeling that we will be a bit behind the leaders, who I think will be Ferrari and Porsche.”
Floury revealed that the #7 Toyota had to be rebuilt with a new monocoque after a crash during three days of testing in July.
The bodywork was damaged when the car spun on one of Austin’s infamous kerbs in the fast, sweeping 4-5-6 turn sequence.
Toyota opted to airlift the car to its headquarters in Cologne, Germany, for reconstruction, but Floury would not reveal which driver had crashed other than that “it was a driver of the #8.”
