After the summer break both the Toyota Gazoo Racing and Porsche LMP Team head to the first 2017 overseas race: The fifth of nine rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is held on September 3 in Mexico City and the Porsche aims to extend its championship lead over Toyota.
Toyota has won two of the four races so far in 2017 and continues to challenge Porsche for the manufacturers’ World Championship. After race wins in Le Mans and at the Nürburgring, Porsche now leads the manufacturers’ standings on 154 points from Toyota (114.5 points).
The Porsche trio of Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ) currently tops the drivers’ standings on 108 points, having a 30-point advantage to the best placed Toyota crew. Reigning World Champion Neel Jani (CH) and his partners André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) with the second Porsche 919 Hybrid currently rank in fourth position (46 points).
The #7 TS050 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López has been on pole position three times this season and the crew travels to Mexico targeting a first win of the year.
In the #8 TS050 HYBRID, Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima are fighting for the drivers’ World Championship following victories at Silverstone and Spa. They are 30 points behind the #Porsche 2 crew in the standings.
At 2,285m above sea level, the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has much thinner air than most circuits, making it harder to generate downforce. So, as at the previous race at the Nürburgring in mid July, the team will use its high-downforce aerodynamic package.
The 4.304km circuit in Mexico City rejoined the WEC calendar in 2016 after a 25-year absence. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing earned a return to the podium in that race with its #6 car, which completed a remarkable recovery after missing most of practice due to an accident and subsequent monocoque change.
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1, says in the run-up to the six-hour race in Mexico: “We continue to follow the clear target of defending both world championship titles. After winning the Le Mans 24 Hours for the third consecutive time despite difficult circumstances, and more recently claiming a hat-trick of wins at the Nürburgring, we want to conclude the 2017 WEC with the third successive constructors’ and drivers’ titles.” Since Porsche’s return to the top category of Le Mans Prototypes (LMP1) in 2014, the Porsche 919 Hybrid has won 15 races.
Porsche announced its new motorsport strategy last month (July) which confirmed the end of the LMP1 programme at the end of 2017. “The Porsche 919 Hybrid will not only be remembered as one of the companies most successful race cars”, Enzinger points out, “but it is also a role model of Porsche’s philosophy to take technology to its limits and test future relevant innovations in motor sports. With regard to electrification, hybrid and high voltage technology as well as combustion efficiency, the 919 took on a pioneering task that paid off.”
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