Toyota is aiming for damage limitation in this weekend’s Austin round of the World Endurance Championship as it aims to keep its title chances alive.
The Japanese manufacturer doesn’t expect a repeat of its victory last time out in the WEC at Interlagos in July and is bracing itself for a “challenging weekend” on the Circuit of The Americas, according to Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury.
Floury suggested the circuit characteristics of the 3.43-mile home of the US Grand Prix and the change in the Balance of Performance since Brazil will blunt the competitiveness of the two Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercars for round five of the 2024 WEC.
“It is not the best [circuit] for us and with what I cannot talk about [the BoP] it is going to be a challenging weekend,” he said.
Floury was unable to specifically mention the BoP by regulation: manufacturers, teams and drivers are forbidden from talking publicly under the sporting rules.
Toyota became the first manufacturer to be penalised under the regulation introduced for last year.
It was hit with a suspended €10,000 fine after comments made in the media by TGR race director Rob Leupen.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Asked if Austin is going to be a case of damage limitation as a result of a revised BoP that has reduced the power and increased the weight of the GR010, he replied: “For sure — we need to stay in the fight.”
The best-placed Toyota crew, the #7 trio of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, lie third in the Hypercar class championship table, 22 points behind Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterrer.
One of the key strengths of the Toyota at Interlagos was its ability to look after its Michelin tyres.
Floury pointed out this traditional strength of the GR010 is likely to be less of a factor in Austin than at Interlagos because “the tyre degradation is probably not as high in Brazil”.
Sebastien Buemi, who took the win at Interlagos with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa after the quicker sister car lost time with a technical problem, echoed Floury’s comments.
He explained that the Toyota had not been among the pacesetters at a collective test at Austin at the end of July attended by all the Hypercar manufacturers bar Alpine.
“On one-lap pace, we weren’t too bad, but we didn’t look so good over a stint on the tyres,” said the Swiss.
“We are going into the weekend expecting to be too slow to fight for the win.
“I have the feeling that we are going to be a little bit behind the guys at the front, which I think will be Ferrari and Porsche.”
Floury revealed that the #7 Toyota needed to be rebuilt around a new monocoque after an incident at the three-day test in July.
The tub was damaged when the car spun over one of Austin’s infamous pyramid kerbs in the fast and sweeping Turn 4 to Turn 6 sequence.
Toyota opted to airfreight the car back to its Cologne headquarters in Germany for the rebuild.
Floury would not reveal which driver spun the car except that it “was a driver from #8”.