<< Prev Page 3 of 3 During the race weekend, pace was again not an issue but the cars did suffer some technical issues in practice and qualifying. The two TS030s started the race in third and fifth with the faster of the pair beaten only by the hybrid Audis. After a careful start of the race, Lapierre in the quickest of the Toyotas briefly grabbed the lead early in the evening. Sadly it all went horribly wrong for the Japanese team soon after as Davidson had a massive crash in the sister car while trying to pass a slower car. The surviving car, which had lead briefly, soon started to develop problems and eventually retired before nightfall.
Undeterred, Toyota Motorsport GmbH soldiered on and readied a single TS030 for the five remaining FIA WEC rounds. They grafted ingenious but also controversial extensions to the wings, which were nevertheless declared legal. The gremlins were also ironed out, and the TS030 scored its maiden victory at Sap Paulo. Later in the year, two more wins were added to the tally. With three wins out of six attempts in its first season, the TS030 has already lived up to expectations despite the rushed and difficult start of the program.
Despite the success late in the debut season and fundamental rule changes expected for 2014, TMG opted to thoroughly develop the TS030 for 2014. New chassis tubs were made with a narrower nose as there no longer was a need to have the option to run the hybrid system on the front wheels. In addition to being narrower, the nose was also lower, which made the 2013-specification TS030 easy to distinguish from its predecessor. With resources limited, Toyota only committed to a single full season entry in the World Championship, with an additional car entered for select rounds like Le Mans.
At the first two rounds, Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps, Toyota fielded one of the 2012 and 2013 specification cars each. They struggled to compete with the Audis, which had been thoroughly developed over the winter as well. At Le Mans, the German cars also had the upper hand but Toyota's efforts were rewarded with a second place finish. In the subsequent sprint races, the TS030 was showing more speed and eventually scored victories in the truncated Fuji race and in Bahrain. With rule changes imminent, the TS030 was retired at the end of 2013, having scored five wins in less than two full seasons. << Prev Page 3 of 3
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During the race weekend, pace was again not an issue but the cars did suffer some technical issues in practice and qualifying. The two TS030s started the race in third and fifth with the faster of the pair beaten only by the hybrid Audis. After a careful start of the race, Lapierre in the quickest of the Toyotas briefly grabbed the lead early in the evening. Sadly it all went horribly wrong for the Japanese team soon after as Davidson had a massive crash in the sister car while trying to pass a slower car. The surviving car, which had lead briefly, soon started to develop problems and eventually retired before nightfall.