Toyota Gazoo Racing has revealed that its forthcoming FIA WEC Le Mans Hypercar programme will go ahead as planned, in the wake of this week’s news that Aston Martin has pulled the plug on its effort with the Valkyrie.
“There is little we can do about Aston Martin, we have to accept the news,” Toyota Gazoo Racing technical director Pascal Vasselon told the media today at CoTA when asked about the status of Toyota’s programme.
“For us, it doesn’t change anything except the picture of next season has changed. Now we are looking at who will be present on the grid. We have little more we can say, it will be sad obviously.
“It’s frustrating because the manufacturer that has somehow steered the regulations and caused delays is gone,” he continued.”We just want to be positive and move forward. It would be difficult to estimate (how much money it cost), it cost a lot of time for the people working on the programme, that’s for sure.”
The proposed (global) LMDh platform, which we’ll hear more about at Sebring, still doesn’t interest the Japanese brand. It is too late to switch anyway, so it will push on to develop its Hypercar as planned ahead of its debut next season.
“It’s not really possible (to shift to an LMDh programme now) and it has not been considered. Fortunately, most of the parts for our car are in production, so there is no way back. (LMDh) Doesn’t correspond with what we are looking for.
“We are looking to race to develop technology and to prove the technology. For us, it’s not interesting to purchase an (LMP2) chassis and an off the shelf hybrid system. This is not what we are looking for or are asked to do. We believe there are ways forward.”
The grid size for Le Mans Hypercar in the 2020/21 season looks set to be small. With Aston now not due to race, just Toyota, Glickenhaus and ByKolles remain signed up for the inaugural season for the formula.
American manufacturer Glickenhaus is highly unlikely to race its car this year and looks set to debut it at the WEC round at Kyalami in February 2021. ByKolles, on the other hand, is understood by DSC to be aiming to make the season opener at Silverstone. Though it has been almost silent recently about the progress it has made.
Beyond that, the chances of grandfathered LMP1s competing are slim too. Rebellion has revealed that this year’s Le Mans will be it’s last as a motorsport team for the foreseeable future, and Ginetta/Team LNT’s plans are a complete unknown beyond this season.
Peugeot is still signed up and will race in at some point in 2022, though whether or not it will run an LMH or LMDh car now is up in the air. It is also not yet clear whether or not it will bring the debut for its hypercar forward in the wake of Aston’s withdrawal.
While none of this is ideal for Toyota, it insists that it relishes the chance to race against LMDh manufacturers in the future and isn’t worried about how effective the BoP process that will govern the formula, even if the amount of LMDh competitors far outweighs those racing with LMH cars.
“The ACO and FIA claim that the Balance of Performance that is planned is the best ever,” Vasselon explained. “We can’t believe there will be an imbalance. By principal, the balance of performance that is coming cannot be politically driven.”
Toyota is also awaiting a decision on the eligibility of Le Mans Hypercars in IMSA. No decision has been made, publically at least, on whether Le Mans Hypercars will be eligible in IMSA competition in the same way that LMDh cars will be able to compete in the FIA WEC.
Thus, we all eagerly await the Super Sebring weekend where the ACO and IMSA will present the technical regulations for the global LMDH formula to the public.
The next few weeks are going to be crucial in shaping the coming years of top-class sportscar racing. There is an IMSA steering committee meeting scheduled to take place next week in Daytona, and another due to be held the week before Sebring.
Toyota may well be a part of those discussions, for the first time. Vasselon did not rule it out when DSC asked whether or not Toyota would be in attendance, “It is not defined yet,” he said.
