WEC

Ex-Formula 1 racer and Peugeot LMH signing di Resta will join Phil Hanson and Fabio Scherer at the wheel of the #22 Oreca 07-Gibson for the Portuguese race, as Albuquerque contests the clashing Detroit round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing. United announced the news a day on from its crushing LMP2 victory in last weekend’s Spa season opener. “It’s nice to get back racing and I’m looking forward to getting back in the car – I haven’t driven the #22 since I raced in Bahrain with United at the end of last year,” said di Resta. “It’s exciting to be called up to take Filipe’s place at Portimao, so I’m thankful to the team for that. “It’ll be great to be back with Phil and to race with Fabio especially off the back of the win the team have just had in Spa, it’ll be good to continue the momentum.” Di Resta was part of United’s title-winning line-up in 2019/20, but was effectively forced out of the line-up following Hanson being upgraded from silver to gold status over the winter. Ex-DTM driver Fabio Scherer was drafted in as the Anglo-American squad’s new silver driver for 2021. Di Resta nonetheless will rejoin United for the Le Mans 24 Hours in the team’s #23 car, which he will share with Mahindra Formula E racer Alex Lynn and one more to-be-determined driver. Albuquerque faces another clash later in the season as the WEC’s Fuji round in September overlaps with the revised Long Beach IMSA date, raising the prospect di Resta could be called up for that race as well. Prior to the Spa race, LMP2 team Inter Europol Competition announced that Louis Deletraz will deputise for Chip Ganassi Racing IMSA driver Renger van der Zande at both Portimao and Fuji.

Toyota started its first-ever race with the all-new GR010 Hybrid on the front foot by qualifying both cars on the front row, but its narrow pace advantage over the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson meant the Japanese giant needed a relatively smooth race to secure victory. That didn’t happen however, with polesitter Kamui Kobayashi throwing away the lead in the second half of the race by going off the track at Bruxelles in the #7 car, losing a lap in the process. The #8 car also had its issues, notably receiving a 30-second time penalty for an early pitstop infraction, in which the Toyota crew took the refuelling hose off the car six seconds short of the required 35-second minimum time. That gave Alpine a fighting chance to take a win with the grandfathered and pegged back LMP1 car, which was run by Rebellion until last season. In the #36 car Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere traded the lead with the #8 Toyota depending on the pitstop sequence, but ultimately couldn’t live with the #8 Toyota’s race pace. Sebastien Buemi crossed the line with a 1m07 gap on Negrao, who was further held back by a late puncture. The #7 Toyota took on the lion’s share of the Cologne team’s teething issues with its all-new Hypercar, losing time with a slow pitstop early on and having to do a full system reset during a late full-course yellow. Kobayashi ultimately took third, one minute clear of the leading LMP2 car, after also having to take a drive-through for Lopez hitting the #91 Porsche at the Bus Stop. LMP2: United Autosports dominatesIn LMP2 United Autosports produced another crushing display with its #22 Oreca 07-Gibson. Phil Hanson, polesitter Filipe Albuquerque and newcomer Fabio Scherer led from start to finish and amassed a healthy one-minute lead, with only a late drive-through penalty for a full-course yellow violation able to dent their dominant lead. The #26 G-Drive Aurus-badged Oreca driven by Roman Rusinov, Franco Colapinto and Nyck de Vries looked set for second place after being driven to the front by De Vries, but the team was forced to abandon the race with an oil leak in the fifth hour. That promoted the #28 JOTA Oreca of Stoffel Vandoorne, Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist to second, but a drive-through for dangerous driving by Blomqvist handed second to the #38 sister car of Antonio Felix da Costa, Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson. The #38 trio finished 44 seconds behind the winners, with #28 car a further minute in arrears. Racing Team Nederland took a Pro-Am win courtesy of a trouble-free run by Giedo van der Garde, Frits van Eerd and Job van Uitert, beating Inter Europol to fourth in class. Early LMP2 Pro-Am frontrunner DragonSpeed was hampered by a drive-through for Juan Pablo Montoya – for causing a collision – and lost further time to finish seventh in class and third in Pro-Am, behind RealTeam Racing. Series debutant Team WRT also fell away from the front due to a clutch issue, but the Belgian squad’s Oreca also looked competitive in the hands of Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. GTE Pro: Porsche defeats FerrariIn a five-car GTE Pro class, the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani proved the pick of the field. Picking up where he left off after his stunning pole on Friday, Estre continued to dominate the field during the opening stages of the race, with only a puncture being able to worry the Porsche factory team. Estre and GTE debutant Jani took the win 25 seconds ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris, the #51 488 GTE Evo of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The #52 sister car of Miguel Molina and Daniel Serra, another car hit with a drive-through for full-course yellow infractions, completed the podium 1m38 behind. Chevrolet finished a distant fourth on its first outing outside North America with the C8.R, one lap behind the class leaders. Antonio Garcia shared the #63 machine with Oliver Gavin, who made his final appearance as a professional racer after a glittering 20+ year career, which included five Le Mans wins for Corvette. The second Porsche, the #91 of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, finished last in class after suffering two right-rear punctures and being punted off by the #7 Toyota. GTE Am: AF Corse wins as Rovera shinesThe #83 AF Corse dominated the GTE Am class. After being established at the forefront by Francois Perrodo, Italian GT champion Alessio Rovera underlined his credentials by sprinting away from the field. Nicklas Nielsen finished the job, crossing the line with a 1m08 lead on the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin of standout amateur Ben Keating, Felipe Fraga and Dylan Pereira. The #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Alessio Picariello, Marco Seefried and Andrew Haryanto look set to finish third, but it too was hit with a FCY-related 30-second penalty and was demoted to fifth. That promoted the #47 Cetilar Ferrari of Roberto Lacorte, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Antonio Fuoco to third in class.

Toyota hopes to make its new GR010 Hybrid Le Mans Hypercar the worthy successor of its former winning LMP1 machine in the WEC, but the car has yet to build an edge over its LMP2 rivals. In the capable hands of Sébastien Buemi, Toyota’s new machine the final session of the WEC’s two-day prologue that took place at Spa ahead of the series’ kick-off in Belgium on Saturday. But Buemi’s best was still half a second slower than the fastest overall time that was set in Tuesday morning’s session by Nyck de Vries at the wheel of G-Drive Racing’s LMP2 Oreca P2s. LMP2 cars were imposed by the WEC a total power reduction of 65bhp, harder tyres and an increase in minimum weigh from 930 to 950kg in order to balance the performance between the Hypercar and LMP2 categories. But Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon wants the balance reviewed in light of this week’s relative performances between the two categories. “It clearly was not the target to have LMP2 running faster than the Hypercar category,” explained Vasselon. “I am trying to put forward that there was a clear will to correct that; it is just that the correction has to be reviewed.”

The United Autosports LMP2 team again topped the times with Filipe Albuquerque in the final session of the opening day of the World Endurance Championship prologue test at Spa. Albuquerque improved on his morning best by just over one tenth with a 2m04.822s set aboard United’s Oreca-Gibson 07 in the second session of the two-day test ahead of this weekend’s series opener at the Belgian track. Racing Team Nederland driver Job van Uitert ended up one thousandth of a second behind Albuquerque, while Robin Frijns took third as LMP2 machinery blocked out the top three positions on the timesheets. The Alpine-Gibson A480 LMP1 car was quickest in the Hypercar class in fourth position, while the best of the new Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs took sixth overall. Albuquerque knocked the WRT Oreca in which Frijns had posted a 2m05.043s off the top of times with 90 minutes of the session left on the clock. Van Uitert subsequently pushed Frijns down to third with a 2m04.823s in the TDS Racing-run RTN entry. Matthieu Vaxiviere was four tenths off the pace in the down-specced Alpine P1, which is carrying more than 100kg of ballast to help bring its pace into line with that of the new breed of Le Mans Hypercars. He briefly topped the times with a 2m05.230s set 50 minutes into a session lasting nearly four and a half hours. That put him a tenth clear of Loic Duval in fifth position in the TDS squad’s RealTeam Racing entry, which ended up on 2m05.378s. The best of the Toyota LMHs was next best on a 2m05.413s from Kazuki Nakajima, an improvement of nearly one and a half seconds on the Japanese manufacturer’s fastest time on Monday morning. The sister GR010 managed a single flying lap right at the end of the session in Mike Conway’s hands after failing to post a time in the morning. He had just set 2m10.101s, which left him behind all the P2s, when the session was red-flagged with six minutes left on the clock. Toyota’s best lap was just over five seconds slower than its LMP1 TS050 HYBRID managed in free practice for last August’s Spa WEC round. That is the margin that the new technical rules for WEC’s top class are meant to have slowed the cars on a regular circuit for 2021. Albuquerque’s fastest lap was only just over one second than the P2 best in free practice last year, despite a 60bhp power reduction for the secondary prototype class this season. It has also been mandated that the P2 cars must run in the same low-downforce configuration in which they race at the Le Mans 24 Hours at all WEC races this year. This has resulted in an increase in top speed for the P2 cars at Spa: the United Oreca’s best time through the speed trap on the Kemmel Straight was 301.0km/h, which compares with 297.7km/h best in free practice last year. Porsche again led the way in GTE Pro with Kevin Estre in the #91 Manthey-run 911 RSR. The Frenchman produced a 2m14.304s lap, slightly slower than his morning best. Second place in the GTE Pro order was taken by Miguel Molina in the best of the AF Corse-run factory Ferrari 488 GTE Evos with a 2m14.633s. Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado were only a tenth further back in the second cars from Porsche and Ferrari respectively. The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R was just under eight tenths off the pace in Antonio Garcia’s hands. Matteo Cairoli was quickest in GTE Am with a time that put him only behind Estre and Molina in the fastest of the Project 1 team’s Porsches. The session started half an hour early in an attempt to make up the track time lost to three red-flag stoppages in the opening session in the morning. More time was lost early in the extended session with another red flag following two accidents: Sean Gelael backed the Jota P2 Oreca into the barriers at the top of Eau Rouge and Anders Buchardt went off at the Bruxelles hairpin in Project 1’s second Porsche. The final red flag that resulted in the session being curtailed early followed Charles Milesi stopping in the WRT Oreca at No-Name or Speaker’s Corner after Bruxelles.

Former Aston Martin factory driver Alex Lynn will team up with Paul di Resta for the rescheduled Le Mans 24 Hours in August at the United Autosports LMP2 squad. The 27-year-old Briton, who is racing with Mahindra in Formula E this season, will drive one of three Oreca 07 LMP2 prototypes entered for the double-points FIA World Endurance Championship round on August 21-22 by last year’s class winner. A fifth Le Mans start for Lynn is set to be his first sportscar appearance since he opted not to continue with Aston Martin Racing at the end of last year and his first at the wheel of a prototype since he undertook a partial WEC season with the G-Drive LMP2 team in 2017. Lynn explained that returning to Le Mans, where he took GTE Pro honours with Aston last year and LMP2 class pole with G-Drive in 2017, had been high up on his to-do list for 2021. “Getting back to Le Mans was important and I wanted to be in a prototype, but my priority was to be in a car that has a chance of winning in whatever class, and that’s what I’ve got with United,” he told Motorsport.com. “It’s the perfect opportunity: the team’s record speaks for itself. Paul is a mega driver and we get along well — he’s the perfect first teammate in the car.” Di Resta, who will race for Peugeot when it enters the WEC in 2022, has been brought back into the United fold for its third Le Mans entry after helping Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson to the WEC LMP2 title in 2019/20. Hanson’s promotion to a gold driver ranking for 2021 meant there was no room for di Resta in the line-up, while United’s attempt to put together a deal for a second full-season WEC entry didn’t come to fruition. United boss Richard Dean reckoned that the team is now “two-thirds of the way there to an exceptional line-up” for the car. “Alex is a no-nonsense driver who we all know is very quick,” he said. Dean explained that his job now is to ensure that he gets the best possible silver-rated driver to complete the line-up. “At the moment there is a budget consideration: we’ve raised a certain amount of money, but there’s still a bit of work to do,” he explained. He suggested that if United can raise the full budget for the car, then team regular Wayne Boyd could take the slot for the mandatory silver. The Northern Irishman is graduating to the P2 ranks with the team in this year’s European Le Mans Series having won the LMP3 crown with United last season. “Wayne is clearly on the list and would be an obvious choice for United because he knows the team inside out,” said Dean. Lynn will not be making his race debut with United at Le Mans: he competed in the Gulf 12 Hours at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi in 2016 aboard a Ligier JS P3 shared with his father Shaun and Richard Meins. Lynn explained that he had opted against continuing with Aston Martin after the end of its factory GTE Pro programme in the WEC in order to focus on returning to prototypes. “When the factory programme came to an end it was up to us if we wanted to carry on racing on a customer level,” said Lynn, who took class honours at Le Mans in 2020 together with Maxime Martin and Harry Tincknell at the end of his third year with Aston. “I was very lucky I had the FE opportunity with Mahindra and I chose to focus on that while looking for a way back into prototypes. “I love prototype racing and enjoyed driving with Wayne Taylor Racing at the Sebring 12 Hours [which he won in 2017] and my time with G-Drive. “There aren’t many drivers who don’t have an eye on the future of the top class in prototype racing with the arrival of the Le Mans Hypercars and LMDh coming — we all want to fight for the overall.”

The 2021 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is set to be postponed to August 21-22, with 50,000 fans able to attend. The French endurance classic was originally set to be held in its traditional early summer spot, with the date set for June 12-13. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, the race will be postponed to later in the summer, with the later date paired with a goal to have up to 50,000 fans in attendance. The hope is that by postponing the event to August, the event will be allowed to welcome fans back to the Circuit de la Sarthe once more vaccines against the coronavirus have been administered. Last year, the twice-around-the-clock enduro was moved to September and held without fans for the first time in its history. The date switch would create a date clash with the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s round at Virginia International Raceway, although it would also solve a date clash between Le Mans and IMSA’s event at Belle Isle, for which a standalone event was created to allow some IMSA and IndyCar teams with sportscar involvement to compete at Le Mans. The switch will also ensure Le Mans does not clash with a Formula 1 grand prix. An official announcement on the date change, along with other possible schedule changes for the FIA World Endurance Championship, is expected before the end of the week, with the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council due to meet virtually on Friday.

Ex-Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen has been named as a driver for Peugeot’s new WEC entry in 2022, alongside fellow former F1 drivers Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne. Ex-Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen has been named as a driver for Peugeot’s new World Endurance Championship entry in 2022, alongside fellow former F1 drivers Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne. The full roster of drivers also includes Le Mans winner Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Mikkel Jensen, while ex-F1 test driver James Rossiter will serve as development and reserve driver for the French manufacturer’s return to the top flight of sportscar racing. Magnussen recently made a successful sportscar debut in the Daytona 24 Hours last month, finishing fifth with Ganassi Racing Cadillac teammates Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon after a late puncture ruined their chances of victory. The six drivers will be split across two Peugeot LMH hybrid prototype entries, though the exact line-ups for the 2022 WEC season are yet to be announced. “Le Mans is the biggest endurance race in the world, it’s the race everyone wants to win, it has a lot of history and Peugeot is a big part of that history, and I hope to be able to add to that history,” Magnussen said in a Peugeot video. “I’ve learned a lot, I’ve gained a lot of experience in the seven years I’ve had in F1, working with complex and advanced racecars but also being in a high-pressure environment. “When we go to Le Mans and the World [Endurance] Championship, we’re going to face a lot of pressure and I think working in that environment is something that I’m very accustomed to. So I’m looking forward to this new chapter. “I have high ambitions and I think, looking at the past, Peugeot have always been very successful in every motorsport programme that they’ve joined, and that matches my ambitions at Le Mans and the world championship.”

Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) has joined forces with ORECA to design the prototype chassis for the Le Mans Hydrogen class prototype. The joint project will form the exclusive chassis design for all cars in the Hydrogen class at Le Mans set to launch in 2024. ORECA already has a wealth of experience to draw from in endurance racing as a manufacturer dating back to 2009. It currently builds the Oreca 07 LMP2 car used in the World Endurance and IMSA’s WeatherTech Sports Car championships. Red Bull’s Advanced Technologies division has already collaborated with Aston Martin on the Valkyrie sports car as well as IndyCar’s chassis manufacturer Dallara for the Aeroscreen cockpit protection. ACO president Pierre Fillon said that the partnership underlined the credibility of the Hydrogen class and was a promising point in its pursuit of zero-carbon emissions racing. “This exciting announcement confirms the appeal of Mission H24 and offers a promising future for zero-carbon motor racing and hydrogen prototypes,” he said. “Thanks to ORECA, a mainstay of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for many years, and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, a successful motorsport business, the ACO will benefit from extensive endurance racing experience combined with cutting-edge technology to guarantee outstanding performance in its hydrogen class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024. “This partnership confirms that the ACO has made the right decisions for the future of motorsport and underscores our ambition for zero-carbon racing for future generations.” The Hydrogen class has been in the works for several years with the MissionH24 prototype continuing its preperations for racing this season. “I am delighted that Red Bull Advanced Technologies have been chosen by the ACO along with our partners ORECA to develop the concept of a hydrogen powered endurance racing car for Le Mans,” Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said. “Red Bull Advanced Technologies are well qualified to take on the challenge set by the ACO having access to many of the tools used to design and develop the Red Bull Racing F1 car, along with significant experience on other cutting edge vehicle programs. “The Hydrogen Class at Le Mans offers an exciting glimpse into the future of sustainable motorsport and promises both to advance the use of hydrogen in transportation, and will also deliver exciting racing.”

Shortly after Toyota and Peugeot unveiled their Le Mans Hypercar racers, ByKolles Racing has pulled the wraps off its own competitor for the exciting new endurance class. Dubbed the PMC Project, ByKolles Racing’s hypercar won’t just compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship but will also spawn road-legal and track-special variants. Driving the ByKolles PMC Project race car is a naturally aspirated V8 engine that will be capped at approximately 700 hp in line with Balance of Performance rules. Interestingly, both the Peugeot and Toyota competitors have hybrid systems. The PMC Project will tip the scales at 2,292 lbs (1,039 kg). The track car will also be powered by a naturally aspirated V8, albeit with a 650-hp output and a weight of only 2,094 pounds, while the road-legal version will utilize a hybrid system alongside the V8 to deliver a combined 1,000 hp. The car’s engine will be capable of running on biofuel and the racing team is targeting a total weight of 2,204 lbs (1,000 kg). Images of the three variations show that the Le Mans racing car and the track model will look virtually identical with a prominent front splitter, sharp headlights, a large roof scoop, and a prominent sharkfin connected to a towering rear wing. The road-legal model is also very similar to the track models but ditches the sharkfin and rear wing. The Le Mans car and the track model will both feature a single seat mounted at the center, while the street car might add an additional seat, or even two. The 2021 Le Mans Hypercar class will see the ByKolles Racing PMC Project competing against the Toyota GR010 Hybrid and the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus 007; Peugeot’s contender will make its debut in the 2022 season.

Richard Mille Racing Team are making the step up to the FIA World Endurance Championship in2021, with the all-female team once again comprising of Tatiana Calderón, Sophia Flörsch and Beitske Visser. The team competed in last year’s European Le Mans Series Championship, finishing 10th in class with 20 points. They also competed in last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, where they finished 9th in class. Calderón is most well known as test driver for Formula 1 team Alfa Romeo Racing, as well as competing in the Japanese Super Formula championship and Formula 2 in 2019. Flörsch most recently competed in Formula 3 for Van Amersfoot Racing in 2020. While Beitske Visser finished second in the inaugural W Series championship in 2019, before joining Richard Mille Racing Team in 2020. The team will be run by Signatech, with an ORECA 07. The car will be numbered #1, which has previously been reserved for top class LMP1 teams. Signatech is also running the Alpine Endurance Team, which for 2021 is expected to enter the top class with a grandfathered ex-Rebellion R13 LMP1 car, renamed the Alpine A470. ‘We are really pleased to continue the Richard Mille Racing Team adventure! It’s an extremely motivating project as it transcends the sporting dimension by generating a lot of emotion and enthusiasm,” said Philippe Sinault, director of Signatech Automobiles. “We are taking a step forward in joining the FIA World Endurance Championship, but we are confident, given the skills and the learning curve of our three drivers.” “There will be some new things to figure out, notably with a new package and an operating balance different from last year’s, given the rule changes in LMP2, but we have great ambitions. We’ve all seen that a great dynamic is developing within the team and that motivates us all the more to go for the best possible results.”

Toyota has admitted it is “behind target” with test mileage for its new Le Mans Hypercar after a planned test this week was called off due to snow.The Japanese manufacturer officially revealed the GR010 Hybrid that will contest the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season in full livery on Friday, having released the first proper shots of the car earlier in the week. Its unveil was supposed to follow immediately after a three-day test for the new contender this week at the Aragon circuit in Spain, but this had to be abandoned due to the heavy snow that has hit the country in recent days. Toyota first ran the GR010 in a shakedown at Paul Ricard in October last year, before moving on to Portimao for the car’s second and most recent test in late December. Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon revealed that the car has completed more than 6000km so far in those two outings, but added that the cancellation of the Aragon test has put the Cologne-based outfit “behind target”. Team director Rob Leupen said that the team will conduct more running at its next planned test at Aragon in February to make up for this week’s cancellation. “We’re going to extend our next test, which will be in February also here in Aragon,” clarified Leupen. “The biggest issue is we are missing mileage. “Every test is important to get mileage on the car, and on the team in the sense of the mechanics and the engineers understanding the car better and better. That’s why we are looking for additional time. “It will get very tight to catch up everything we have missed. But this normally we should be able to do, and we are falling back on a lot of experience from the LMP1 era.”

Former Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen is yet to officially confirm what series he’ll be racing in next season. The 28-year-old Dane who lost his seat at the Haas F1 Team following the American racing outfit’s decision to sign Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin for 2021, is reportedly set to join Peugeot’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) driver squad. French motorsport magazine Auto Hebdo has reported that Magnussen will join Peugeot as they make their return to sportscar racing in 2022. Specifically, Magnussen will race with Peugeot in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar category. Its driver squad will consist of six drivers, with Mikkel Jensen, a fellow Dane, and ex-F1 racer Jean-Eric Vergne, also being strongly linked to Peugeot’s new WEC programme.

Toyota has released the first pictures of its new Le Mans Hypercar and a name for its latest FIA World Endurance Championship challenger. The Japanese manufacturer has released shots of the car, the GR010 Hybrid, in camouflage ahead of its official unveiling on Friday when the car will be shown in its 2021 livery. GR stands for Gazoo Racing, Toyota’s new sporty sub-brand, while the three-digit numbering system of the marque’s Le Mans-spec machinery stretching back to the TS010 3.5-litre Group C car of 1991-1993 has been retained and reset. The photographs from the car’s maiden test at Paul Ricard in October show a car with a clear resemblance to the TS050 Hybrid that claimed the 2018/19 and 2019/20 WEC drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles, as well as three consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours victories in 2018-20. But Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon stressed that few components have been retained from its predecessor. “Except the generic parts like switches, sensors and such, there are hardly any carry-over parts between the two cars because the regulation philosophy is very different,” he said. “It is a completely new car.” Vasselon explained that in terms of the concept of the design “the major difference is the architecture of the hybrid system”. The new LMH regulations allow for a single energy-retrieval unit on the front axle rather than the twin systems of the TS040 and then the TS050. “We implemented a system with two kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS), one on the front and one on the rear [of the previous cars], with a brake-by-wire system front and rear,” said Vasselon. “This is not allowed anymore; the hybrid system option in the regulations imposes only one KERS and one brake-by-wire braking, both at the front. “This creates many differences and challenges: for example, we don’t have the rear MGU [motor generator unit] anymore, which means we now need a starter motor and the rear brake system is now fully hydraulic like on a traditional race car.” Toyota has yet to reveal technical details of the GR010’s internal combustion engine, which will be announced during Friday’s virtual launch. A maximum power output for an LMH of 670bhp (500kW), with the ICE operating alone or in conjunction with the hybrid system, is defined under the regulations. Vasselon said that the performance of the GR010, which will run at a minimum weight of 1030kg, will be significantly reduced on that of the LMP1 car, whose base weight was 878kg. “There is definitely an impact on lap times simply because the target [of the new rules] was to make performance more affordable, and performance costs money,” he explained. “We can anticipate a lap time increase at Le Mans of around 10s, and it should be four to five seconds on a normal five-kilometre WEC circuit.” The target race lap time at Le Mans for the Hypercar class, which will incorporate LMH and LMDh machinery from 2022, is 3m30s. Toyota is undertaking a third test with the GR010 at the Aragon circuit in Spain this week, which started on Tuesday and concludes on Thursday. Kamui Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima, who both missed the shakedown at Paul Ricard and then the second test at Portimao in December, are scheduled to be part of the driver roster in Spain this week. Toyota is again running only one car in the test. Toyota is expected to confirm an unchanged driver roster for the 2021 WEC season when it reveals its new car in full livery on Friday.

Mercedes reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne has announced he will be racing in the World Endurance Championship LMP2 class this year with Jota Sports. Vandoorne will now be having a very busy schedule in 2021 competing in both WEC and in Formula E alongside Nyck de Vries in the factory Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team. Vandoorne will also race in the Asia Le Mans series for Jota Sports. In a tweet Vandoorne said he was very happy to be back in WEC this season with Jota Sport together with my buddies Sean Gelael and Tom Blomqvist. Vandoorne had experienced endurance racing for the first time in 2019 when he finished third overall, behind only the two Toyota entries, for LMP1 team SMP Racing, in the Le Mans 24 Hour. For 2021, a new hypercar class, Le Mans Hypercars(LMH) will replace LMP1 as the championship bids to rekindle manufacturer interest after Porsche and Audi pulled out in recent years, leaving Toyota as the sole manufacturer-backed LMP1 entry. LMP2 will remain the ‘budget’ competition with teams obliged to run one of four homologated chassis with no developments permitted. Manufacturer entries in the category are also banned with entries reserved for “smaller independent teams with a lower budget”.