WEC 2012: Toyota Delay Season Debut of TS030

[Wouter Melissen]

Press Release:

TOYOTA Racing regrets to announce that, as a result of a testing accident, it is not able to participate in the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

During testing at Paul Ricard, on Wednesday 4 April, the TS030 HYBRID was involved in an accident which damaged the team’s only monocoque.

Regrettably this damage is too severe to repair. A replacement monocoque cannot be produced and sufficiently tested to ensure reliability within the limited time available.

Therefore TOYOTA Racing has informed the organizers of the FIA World Endurance Championship of its decision to withdraw from the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, due to be held on 5 May. The team will make its first appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

Yoshiaki Kinoshita, TOYOTA Racing Team President: “We are deeply saddened to announce this decision and our sympathies are with the drivers, team members and fans who have been anticipating the Spa race so eagerly. Since the accident we have looked into all options but unfortunately there is no alternative course of action open to us.”

TOYOTA Racing will now urgently prepare a new monocoque to allow it to resume testing as soon as possible and prepare itself for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

[Cobrafan427]

and so begins the path that the Aston took

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by Cobrafan427

and so begins the path that the Aston took

Well Toyota's funds are less likely to dry up, so I doubt they will give up after one race.

[henk4]

it is just funny that their second tub is not ready well before Le Mans. Furthermore a spare (third) tub would be the least that Toyata will have to bring to LM...

[RacingManiac]

I wouldn't be surprise they are just saving equipment....and likely that they may have made the choice between front or rear hybrid layout and this is already the "MK2" version of the tub.....AFAIK they have been pretty busy at Ricard the last little while...

Dipping quickly into the spare pile for the dress rehearsal when your prize is the 24 hours is not a good idea anyway...And unlike Audi who can use the year old R18 to race at Sebring, Toyota doesn't have a year-old fleet to draw from...

[henk4]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

I wouldn't be surprise they are just saving equipment....and likely that they may have made the choice between front or rear hybrid layout and this is already the "MK2" version of the tub.....AFAIK they have been pretty busy at Ricard the last little while...

Dipping quickly into the spare pile for the dress rehearsal when your prize is the 24 hours is not a good idea anyway...And unlike Audi who can use the year old R18 to race at Sebring, Toyota doesn't have a year-old fleet to draw from...

the press release specifically uses the word "only" in relation to their tubs....although of course the FIA/ACO need to be convinced that appearing at Spa is cancelled because of force majeure. After all the organisers specifically put pressure on Toyota and gave them exemptions to the rules of participating in the WEC (which has become sort of hollow following the demise of Peugeot)

[LHamilton_w]

Originally Posted by henk4

the WEC (which has become sort of hollow following the demise of Peugeot)

The truth unfortunately. Honestly, it is Audi's season for the taking. It will be R18 e-tron vs R18 ultra.

[Kitdy]

It seems as though Toyota has done nowhere near the same level of testing that Audi has for this season, and maybe even as much as Peugeot had done before their 2007 Le Mans debut.

I don't really like to see a program like this rushed, where testing also overlaps with racing and can lead to very poor results, and potentially an angry Toyota management back in Japan.

I think I woulda have rather preferred Toyota to have take longer in developing the car and debuted in racing next year, with the goal of potentially winning in 2013 and being a very strong contender in 2014. Then again, will 2014 be the time when LMP1 rules change again, or will that be delayed once more?

[RacingManiac]

Technically Toyota is not "competing" this year....they don't think they'll be racing for the win, but out there racing and developing is probably potentially more profitable commercially and developmentally than closed door testing an entire year....their F1 testing year certainly didn't do any good....The fact that they were willing to take up the slack in Peugeot's place must have taken some doing....considering no one probably saw that coming....

I don't think they will be that much off the pace if at all....and I would be surprised if Dome can actually beat Toyota in qualifying....

As far as the "only" monocoque, another possibility is that that is the only monocoque that they build as a test car. If their plan was to test and figureout what configuration of the hybrid system is more useful, its likely that they will arrive at some decision and actually build an actual "finalized" version after testing is over.....