Audi: engineering, experience and innovation. Toyota: ingenuity, technology and performance. This is how the casual observer might sum up the German and Japanese manufacturer entries except that each, and any, of these words could be used to describe both the defending FIA WEC Manufacturers World Champions and the challengers to that title.
In 2012 Audi won five of the eight rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the jewel in endurance racing’s crown, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Had Toyota Racing been able to debut its TS030 Hybrid before Le Mans, who knows what the outcome of the World Championship would have been? As it was, the Cologne, Germany-based team won 50% of the six races it entered and was biting at Audi’s heels the entire way.
In 2013 Audi Sport Team Joest will be fielding two updated Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars, with a third entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The No.1 car will, once again, be home to World Champions Marcel Fässler (Switzerland), André Lotterer (Germany) and Benoît Tréluyer (France), while No.2 will benefit from the vastly experienced talents of Le Mans record holder Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Allan McNish (Great Britain). Joining them for 2013, to replace the recently retired Dindo Capello, will be Loïc Duval (France). The third hybrid-powered entry for the Belgian and French rounds will be driven by Lucas di Grassi (Brazil), Marc Gené (Spain) and Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain).
Toyota Racing has equal skill and expertise available, and all six of its drivers are hungry for their first WEC title. In the No.7 entry will once again be ‘rennen meister’ Alexander Wurz (Austria), Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) and Nicolas Lapierre (France), and they will be joined by former F1 Grand Prix stars Anthony Davidson (Great Britain), Stephane Sarrazin (France) and Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) in the No.8 TS030 Hybrid.
Audi’s flywheel hybrid system versus Toyota’s supercapacitor hybrid technology; four-wheel drive versus two-wheel; age and strategic superiority versus youth and a thirst for success; German engineering versus Japanese performance. These are some of the duels waiting to be fought in 2013, beginning at Silverstone on 14th April in just 63 days from now.
Fiona Miller
