TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season officially began at Sebring International Raceway with the two-day Prologue test at the legendary Florida venue.
“It’s been a fun couple of days back in the car,” commented Brendon Hartley. “Sebring is a great track, old school, bumpy, it’s got character and it’s high risk and unforgiving if you make a mistake. It makes you feel alive to drive this car around here.
“We’ve had minimal dramas and no mechanical issues. It’s been pretty smooth operationally. We are going to have to put the perfect race together, from strategy, mechanics in the pitstops, drivers to try and win the race. It’s going to be a challenge but we will do our best.”
The traditional test is a curtain-raiser for the first round of the 2022 season, when TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will begin the defence of its World Championships in the 1000 Miles of Sebring on Friday.
On a weekend when set-up development and data gathering were the priorities, neither GR010 HYBRID went in search of outright lap times as the team adjusted to the newly-implemented balance of performance, which includes a higher deployment speed for the hybrid motor.
The #8 crew of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa set the ninth fastest lap of the two days, 1min 49.101secs, while the reigning World Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, in the #7 car, were 15th, with a best time of 1min49.465s.
The team’s only previous visit to the birthplace of American endurance racing came in 2019, when it set a new lap record on its way to victory with the TS050 HYBRID. So the GR010 HYBRID Hypercar, which has been slightly modified for the 2022 season, made its debut at Sebring when testing began on Saturday morning.
Ryo was also making his Sebring debut, and his first official appearance as a TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WEC driver. He turned his first laps of the 6.019km circuit soon after the morning session started. Sebring, built on a former airfield from the 1940s, is famous for its bumpy, concrete surface, so the team worked immediately to optimise suspension and aerodynamic settings on the GR010 HYBRID for this unique challenge.
A heavy storm interrupted the first morning and halted the test around an hour earlier than planned due to the conditions. Strong winds continued but the rain passed and the track dried quickly to allow the team’s intense programme of set-up and tyre comparisons to continue in the afternoon.
Sunday started bright but unusually cold for Florida, with temperatures as low as 10°C in the morning. That allowed further testing of the various Michelin tyre compounds as well as further mechanical and aerodynamic set-up investigations.
A productive two days in terms of data gathered and understanding of how the GR010 HYBRID behaves around the Sebring circuit represents a positive end to pre-season preparations for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing.
The season kicks off on Wednesday with first practice sessions for the 1000 Miles of Sebring, before qualifying on Thursday and the race itself on Friday evening, beginning at midday local time and ending in darkness at 8pm.
Prologue combined results (both days):
1st #41 RealTeam (Andrade/Habsburg/Nato) 1min 48.089secs
2nd #31 WRT (Gelael/Frijns/Rast) +0.283secs
3rd #22 United Autosport (Hanson/Albuquerque/Owen) +0.350secs
4th #36 Alpine (Negrao/Lapierre/Vaxivière) +0.408secs
5th #5 Team Penske (Cameron/Collard/Nasr) +0.662secs
6th #9 Prema (Kubica/Deletraz/Colombo) +0.865secs
9th #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.012secs
15th #7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +1.376secs
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