TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will begin the defence of its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title when the 2019-2020 season kicks off in Great Britain this weekend with the 4 Hours of Silverstone.
Home favourite Mike Conway leads the #7 TS050 HYBRID line-up alongside Kamui Kobayashi and José María López while World Champions Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima are joined by Brendon Hartley, who will make his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing debut at Silverstone.
“It’s exciting to have my name on the side of the TS050 HYBRID for its final season; it’s been an incredible car,” said Hartley. “I am looking forward to racing again; I haven’t done a lot of racing since the end of the 2018 Formula 1 season but I have been very busy with testing and simulator work so I feel sharp.
“I need to get back in the groove of traffic management in WEC but I am ready to go and I can’t wait to get started at Silverstone.”
Following a near-perfect 2018-2019 season, in which the team made history by winning the Le Mans 24 Hours twice, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing returns to action for the last season of the iconic TS050 HYBRID car, which features eight races on four continents and concludes at La Sarthe on 14 June 2020.
For the start of its fourth and final season, the TS050 HYBRIDs will compete in high-downforce specification, giving a race debut to the new aerodynamic configuration which was also used during the Prologue test in Barcelona last month.
Silverstone was the only race which TOYOTA GAZOO Racing did not win last season; following a one-two victory both cars were excluded after failing post-race technical checks due to floor damage after hitting kerbs. That disappointment means the team is even more determined to earn another victory at the historic English circuit, where it won six-hour races in 2014 and 2017.
This year’s Silverstone race is the first of the WEC’s modern era to be held over four hours, during which the leading cars can expect to complete close to 800km on the 5.901km circuit. They will be fighting to earn the Royal Automobile Club International Tourist Trophy, first awarded in 1905 and won by motorsport legends such as Tazio Nuvolaro, Stirling Moss and Graham Hill.
The TS050 HYBRIDs will face a challenge from LMP1 non-hybrid rivals Rebellion and Ginetta, boosted by revised regulations which enhance their performance. At Silverstone, the TS050 HYBRIDs will be 94kg heavier than the non-turbo Rebellion and 85kg heavier than the turbo-charged Ginetta. Meanwhile, the Rebellion is permitted 61% more fuel per stint than the TS050 HYBRID, with the Ginetta’s turbo engine allowed 50% more.
Fans get their first chance to see the 2019-2020 WEC grid in action on Friday, with two 90-minute practice sessions while qualifying takes place on Saturday lunch time prior to a midday day start to Sunday’s race.
This weekend marks the first visit to a WEC race in his new role for Katsuyoshi Hikichi, new President of TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG), the Cologne-based technical centre where the TS050 HYBRID is designed and assembled. He takes over the role at TMG of Hisatake Murata, who remains as Team President of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WEC and Field General Manager of GAZOO Racing Company.
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