This is the Toyota GR010 Hybrid, the car that the automaker will compete with in the newly-formed Le Mans Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship. Powering the car is a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine, significantly larger than the 2.4-liter unit used by Toyota’s retired TS050 LMP1 car.
Working alongside the internal combustion
engine is a front-axle hybrid system that delivers 268 hp. Total power of the
car is capped at 670 hp. To meet this cap on power, the GR010 Hybrid’s advanced
electronics reduced engine power depending on how much hybrid boost is being
deployed at any given time. Toyota has been developing the car for the past 19
months at its racing team’s headquarters in Cologne, Germany, while also using
electric hybrid powertrain experts at Higashi-Fuji in Japan.
Compared to the old TS050 LMP1 car, the
GR010 Hybrid is 250 mm longer, 100 mm wider, and 100 mm higher. It also tips
the scales at 1,040 kg, quite a bit more than the 878 kg of the TS050. Teams competing in the Le Mans Hypercar class can only
develop a single aerodynamic configuration that must work at both high- and
low-downforce circuits. Only the rear wing is adjustable.
The company’s driver line-up remains
unchanged from the LMP1 program. As such, Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and
Jose Maria Lopez will drive the #7 car while Sebastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima,
and Brendon Hartley will race the #8.