Totoya Racing will debut their 2013 specification TS030 Hybrid LMP1 car this coming weekend at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Just one updated car will be in Belgium, and it will be the No.7 of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima.
The Japanese driver returns to Toyota Racing for the first time in 2013 after missing Silverstone due to Super Formula commitments. The Austrian-French-Japanese trio will be looking to improve on their fourth place finish in the opening round of the season.
Following their podium at Silverstone, the No.8 line-up of Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi will again participate with the same specification car seen in Britain.
The updated TS030 HYBRID features modifications to chassis and powertrain, with increased performance, reliability and serviceability the priorities. A revised aerodynamic package, including an updated monocoque, delivers improved performance whilst minimising the impact of updated regulations in 2013 which increase the minimum weight for manufacturer LMP1 cars by 15kg.
The Toyota HYBRID System - Racing powertrain again uses a unique super capacitor to deliver 300hp of boost automatically, on top of the 530hp generated by a 3.4litre, normally-aspirated V8 petrol engine.
Ahead of a completely new development for 2014 due to regulation changes, Toyota's Motor Sport Division in Higashifuji has fine-tuned the powertrain to improve power, efficiency, management of component usage and reliability.
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “Spa is one of two home races for our team, along with Fuji Speedway, as it’s just 120km away from TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG). So it is the perfect place to debut our 2013-specification car which we expect will show a performance improvement. Audi demonstrated in Silverstone that we need to make a step to regain the race-winning form we showed last year and I am confident our updated car will deliver. Nevertheless, our 2012-specification car remains competitive and it will be interesting to see how the race plays out. With many TMG staff members attending this race to cheer on the team, we have extra motivation to succeed so we are aiming to give them a result to celebrate.”
Fiona Miller (from Toyota Hybrid Racing press release)
Photo: The 2013 specification Toyota TS030 HYBRID will make its debut at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC
