Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing Media
So far, Toyota's Gazoo Racing division has taken victories from the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race three times on the trot between 2018 and 2020.
With nearly two decades of consistent wins from Audi and Porsche, someone had to take the glory away at some point and Toyota was only too happy to oblige.
New to 2021 though, is the Hypercar class in the WEC series. What this means, is that in order to enter a car in this category, 25 road-going examples must also be produced to comply with the homologation rules. Sounds very much like the late 90s, some would say.
Toyota is the first to preview their take on the Hypercar class with the striking GR010; which is a preview to the upcoming Toyota GR Super Sport in which it'll be based on.
Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing Media
Power comes from a 3.5 litre twin turbocharged V6 churning out 670hp to the rear wheels whilst combined to a 268hp electric motor driving the front ones. However, using the total 942hp on tap isn't strictly allowed: the engine power is capped at 670 whilst the electric motor can reduce the engine's power according to the amount of hybrid boost deployed.
It sounds like complex stuff - and it gets even more staggering as Toyota claim that the GR010 will actually be ten seconds slower around Le Mans than the victorious TS050 LMP1 car. But given that the GR010 is built to compete in a different and slower class, that's hardly surprising from the perspective of racing hierarchy.
The car isn't fully Japanese either: the GR010 was developed by G.R's team headquarters in Colgone, Germany, though the complicated hybrid powertrain bits were developed at Higashi-Fuji in Japan.
Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing Media
The WEC championship is set to begin on the 19th March at the 1,000 miles of Sebring where the GR010 will formally debut its racing talent. Other hypercars will be joining it for the 2021 season, including hypercars from Glickenhaus and ByKOLLES Racing.
Peugeot Sport will also be joining the party in 2022 with a car spotting similar specifications to the GR010.
The WEC calander for 2021 is as follows:
19/03/21: Sebring 1,000
01/05/21: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
12/06/21 & 13/06/21: 24 Hours of Le Mans
18/07/21: 6 Hours of Monza
26/09/21: 6 Hours of Fuji Speedway
20/11/21: 6 Hours of Bahrain
Comments