TOYOTA Racing ready for Silverstone challenge
TOYOTA Racing heads to 2012 Olympics host nation Great Britain intending to extend the summer of sporting excitement in the WEC Six Hours of Silverstone (26 August), the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
TOYOTA Racing made its debut with the innovative TS030 HYBRID in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, causing a stir by leading its very first race before an accident and technical issue respectively eliminated both cars.
At Silverstone, the team will be present with one car the #7 driven by Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima. Anthony Davidson, who is recovering well after his Le Mans accident, will lend his support to the team during the weekend.
Alex and Nicolas got ready for the WEC Six Hours of Silverstone with a two-day testing session (14-15 August) at MotorLand Aragon in Spain, where an updated aerodynamic package was put through its paces.
This update has been developed using a combination of simulation technology and the state-of-the-art wind tunnels at TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG) the team's home base in Cologne, Germany.
It features modified aerodynamics more suited to Silverstone's 5.891km Grand Prix circuit, delivering more downforce compared to the Le Mans specification.
Alex and Nicolas fine-tuned the revised TS030 HYBRID's handling on the 5.891km Silverstone Grand Prix track during sessions in TMG's driving simulator, which accurately recreates car behaviour.
There will be four designated braking zones at Silverstone, where the TS030 HYBRID can recover up to 500Kj of energy, stored in super capacitors for automatic release as a power boost later in the lap.
Action at Silverstone begins on Friday 24 August with two 90-minute practice sessions (11.30 and 16.00). Final practice is on Saturday morning (11.00-12.00) before qualifying for LMP1 and LMP2 cars (15.20-15.40). Following Sunday morning warm-up (08.55-09.15) the six-hour race begins at midday with a rolling start.
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: "We are looking forward to returning to racing following a long break after Le Mans. As well as recovering our energies after a very tough build-up to Le Mans, we have used this time to prepare an update to the TS030 HYBRID and this ran well in last week's test. We learnt a lot from our Le Mans experience which showed we have the potential to fight at the front of the WEC field. So we travel to Silverstone highly motivated to deliver a strong result we're ready to race again and can't wait to see how our hybrid technology performs on this track."
Alex Wurz, Car #7: "This is a learning season for TOYOTA Racing and we hope to take more steps in the right direction at Silverstone. We had an encouraging test in Spain last week which gave us plenty of data about the revised aerodynamic package. We have used this data, plus the experiences we had on the TMG driving simulator, to prepare for Silverstone. But there is no substitute for practice time so we must make the most of the sessions on Friday and Saturday. We know we face some very tough opposition so it will not be easy but we will continue pushing and hopefully we can stand on the podium on Sunday."
Nicolas Lapierre, Car #7: "It seems a long time since Le Mans but my memories of taking the lead are still very vivid. That was a great experience and this can inspire us to give everything we have at Silverstone as well. From the work I have done in the TMG driving simulator, plus our test at Aragon, I think we can be really competitive. It's impossible to judge exactly where we are compared to our main rivals but we are constantly learning and improving. We aim to continue our progress this weekend and hopefully again give the fans some exciting moments."
Kazuki Nakajima, Car #7: "Silverstone used to be my home track and it's one of my favourite circuits, although I haven't raced there since the big development was completed in 2010. It will be interesting to experience the new lay-out but I'm most excited about driving the TS030 HYBRID through Maggotts and Becketts on the old part of the track. These fast, sweeping corners should suit our car and I'm expecting it to be really good fun. Of course it was disappointing not to finish the race at Le Mans after we looked so strong but Silverstone is another race and we go there in an optimistic mood."
About TOYOTA Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship:
TOYOTA first competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 1983, marking the start of a long period of participation in endurance racing which included several editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours. TOYOTA cars have raced in 13 Le Mans 24 Hours races, with a total of 36 vehicles taking part. For 2012, TOYOTA returns to endurance racing and the FIA World Endurance Championship as a full-time entrant with a hybrid LMP1 car, the TS030 HYBRID. The chassis has been designed and built by TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG), where the race team is based. TMG is the former home of TOYOTA's World Rally and Formula 1 works teams, and was responsible for design and operation of TOYOTA's TS020 (GT-One) Le Mans car in 1998-99. TMG now combines works motorsport participation with a new direction as a high-performance engineering services provider to third party companies, as well as the TOYOTA family. www.toyotahybridracing.com
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