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97-715: The Toyota TS030 Hybrid is a Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) sports car built by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and used by the manufacturer in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and 2013. It was Toyota's first all new prototype since the GT-One last competed in 1999, and was the first petrol- hybrid engine car to participate in the World Endurance Championship. Work on designing the car began in late 2010 when early chassis designs were presented to Toyota Motorsport. The project

194-434: A 4.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8. In seasons 2017 through 2020, the engine produced about 600  bhp . Dallara , Onroak Automotive (Ligier), Oreca and the joint-venture Riley Tech / Multimatic were selected by FIA as the four exclusive chassis constructors, which must be closed-cockpit designs. Before the start of the 2021 season LMP2 cars have been slowed down to ensure the necessary lap time difference between

291-562: A class above production-based grand tourer cars, which compete alongside them in sports car racing . Later, LMP1 designs included hybrid cars that use electric motors to assist acceleration. The Le Mans Prototype LMP1 class has been replaced by Le Mans Hypercars in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from the 2021 season . Non-hybrid LMP1 cars were eligible to be "grandfathered" for two more seasons and compete alongside

388-406: A fuel pit stop at the race's start, but attempted to leave pit lane five seconds later than allowed and fell to the back of the field. Following their victory, Toyota changed a decision to run a sole car at Shanghai and included a second; reports suggested Toyota wished to increase their prospects of winning a race on outright speed. It was also confirmed that Nakajima would skip the round to contest

485-520: A fully owned part of Toyota, TMG were employing 300 staff from 17 nations. In 1998 and 1999 , TMG entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans , finishing 2nd in 1999 with their Toyota GT-One . After 1999, Toyota stopped participating in rallying and sportscar racing in order to prepare for a switch to Formula One (F1) in 2002 using existing TMG resources. From 2002 to 2009, TMG operated its parent company's Formula One team named Panasonic Toyota Racing , starting 139 Grands Prix. In that time they finished on

582-555: A half hours into the event after an engine failure. After Le Mans, Toyota fielded one car for the remainder of the season, and installed innovative rear wing extensions to their cars which garnered controversy in the series, but were declared legal. The championship resumed two months later at Silverstone , where the No. 7 Toyota qualified in third position, seven-tenths of a second behind the pole-sitting No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fässler , Benoît Tréluyer and André Lotterer . In

679-524: A large lead over Audi's No. 2 car. Competing with the TS030 Hybrid, the Toyota team scored 96 points and were second to Audi in the 2012 World Manufacturers' Championship . Toyota opted to develop the car to minimise the impact of the 2013 Technical Regulations which increased the minimum weight of manufacturer Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) vehicles by 15 kilograms (33 lb) by focusing on fine-tuning

776-598: A new Yaris WRC around it. In 2021, following the purchase by Toyota, TMR was subsequently renamed to Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team Oy, and it became a branch of TGR-E. The facility in Cologne continued to provide engines for the new hybrid Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car used in WRC from 2022. In addition to spearheading Toyota's efforts in the World Rally Championship, the group has also developed and run

873-431: A petrol engine similar to that found in their customer P1 car. The car would be entered in the inaugural season of the FIA World Endurance Championship , though it would miss the first round of the series. Toyota suffered a severe setback with a crash in late April preventing the debut of the car at the 2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , but managed to get two TS030s ready by Le Mans. Unfortunately, neither car finished

970-471: A rapid deflation. The car was destroyed and Boutsen suffered injury to his lower back. At the break of dawn, the No. 15 BMW was almost a lap ahead of the No. 3 Toyota which had been quietly cruising around at a steady pace. With this sniff of a win Ukyo Katayama put the foot down in the Toyota and set the fastest lap of the race. He narrowed the gap to less than a minute till again a tyre blowout befell

1067-549: A revised Toyota TS030 driven by Stéphane Sarrazin , Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi . The sister car finished in fourth several laps down. Toyota finished the WEC season in second place again, taking two wins at rain-shortened Fuji and Shanghai. Toyota announced in October 2013 that it would continue racing in the World Endurance Championship in 2014. In order to comply with new-for-2014 LMP1 rules, Toyota revealed its new car,

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1164-516: A second car was used in selected races. The 2012-specification chassis was used in the season's first two races with the updated 2013 chassis debuting at Spa-Francorchamps . The TS030 Hybrid cars won two of the eight rounds contested in the season with a second-place finish for the No. 8 vehicle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . Toyota again finished second behind their rivals Audi in the Manufacturers' Championship. The 2014 LMP1 regulations rendered

1261-453: A single entrant appearing in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km . Although the race mostly consisted of Japanese teams, thus leaving out most of the manufacturers that had competed at Le Mans, Toyota still had to compete against rival Nissan, who also entered their R391 . In the end the GT-One would fall short once again, finishing second and only one lap behind the winning R391. The GT-One program

1358-740: Is commonly referred to as a Le Mans car in the media. The first use of what would become Le Mans Prototypes was at the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans . In an attempt to increase the number of entrants beyond the small field of Group C competitors that the World Sportscar Championship had to offer, older Porsche 962s were allowed entry in Category 3. To further increase the size of the field, small open-cockpit race cars using production road car engines which were raced in small national championships were allowed in Category 4. Later, ACO announced its intentions to completely replace

1455-524: Is fully-owned and controlled by Toyota Motor Corporation . TGR-E's principal operation is technical development of motorsport vehicles and their competitive entries on behalf of Toyota's Gazoo Racing brand in the FIA 's World Endurance Championship (WEC) and World Rally Championship (WRC). The latter is run from a satellite facility in Jyväskylä , Finland , known as Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT . TGR-E

1552-482: The 12 Hours of Sebring because of time constraints. In early 2012, Toyota named seven drivers to the team. Sébastien Buemi , the third driver for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, had no prior experience of endurance motor racing. Former Williams Formula One and Formula Nippon driver Kazuki Nakajima also came from an open wheel racing background. Anthony Davidson was added to

1649-524: The 2012 pre-season period. The company entered into a partnership with the French-based Oreca racing team for the provision of operational support. On 24 January the TS030 was shown to the press for the first time during its test session at Paul Ricard. After its three-day roll-out at Paul Ricard, the TS030 Hybrid covered more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) with tyre evaluation, testing

1746-483: The 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship under the new Le Mans Hypercar regulations. It has a 3.5L V6 twin-turbo petrol engine connected to the rear wheels, and a battery hybrid system connected to the front wheels. † Season still in progress. The company revealed in its annual review that it has developed an electric racing car based on the Radical sportscar, along with Cologne company e-Wolf . The TMG EV P001

1843-529: The 24 Hours of Le Mans . Work on designing the car began in late 2010 when early designs of its chassis were presented to Toyota Motorsport . The project was halted briefly after the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011 although the building of the car was approved six months later. The carbon fibre monocoque was constructed at Toyota Motorsport's headquarters in Cologne which built 84% of

1940-460: The 24 Hours of Le Mans . The first race of the season, the 6 Hours of Silverstone , saw Toyota bring two 2012-specification cars in place of the updated 2013 chassis. Nakajima was absent from Silverstone because of a Super Formula commitment. Despite a timing system malfunction preventing lap times from being published for more than an hour, the No. 7 and No. 8 Toyota cars qualified in first and second places, separated by nearly two seconds. However,

2037-595: The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The technical requirements for an LMP include bodywork covering all mechanical elements of the car. As of 2023, there are two classes within Le Mans Prototypes, designated LMP2 and LMP3 . While not as fast as open-wheel Formula One cars around a track, the LMP1s were the fastest closed-wheel racing cars used in circuit racing. Le Mans Prototypes are considered

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2134-563: The Toyota GT-One and Toyota TS030 Hybrid in sports car racing . The GT-One entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 1998 and 1999 , and the TS030 Hybrid made its début in 2012 . Introduced in time for Le Mans in 1998 , the GT-One first appeared at the official testing days for the race held in May. Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the second, fifth, and tenth best times, easily beating out custom built prototypes which were meant to be

2231-477: The Toyota TS030 Hybrid in the World Endurance Championship. In 2015, it was announced Toyota would return to the World Rally Championship in 2017 with a Yaris WRC built and prepared by TMG in Cologne. However, several months later it was announced TMG would only be responsible for engine development whilst Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy (TMR) would develop the car and run the entry from Finland. TMG

2328-565: The Toyota TS040 Hybrid . The car has a 3.7L V8 normally aspirated petrol engine powering the rear wheels, and regenerative-braking devices at both axles to allow temporary four-wheel drive . The Toyota TS050 Hybrid was developed for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship . It was powered by the H8909 2.4L V6 twin-turbo petrol engine for the first time and a 2.22 kWh battery hybrid system. The Toyota GR010 Hybrid competed in

2425-822: The 2015–2019 first-generation ruleset were the Ginetta-Juno P3 , Ligier JS P3 , Norma M30 , ADESS-03 , and the Ave-Riley AR-02. The cars were eligible in a number of series, such as the Asian Le Mans Series, the European Le Mans Series, as well as the V de V Endurance Series and the IMSA Prototype Challenge . A number of championships for the class have also been created, such as the FRD LMP3 series and

2522-818: The British LMP3 Cup. First-generation cars were powered by a 5.0-litre normally-aspirated Nissan VK50 V8 engine , producing 310 kW (420 hp). A 2nd Generation ruleset was introduced for 2020, with new cars introduced: the Ginetta G61-LT-P3 , Ligier JS P320 , Duqueine D-08 , and the ADESS-03 Evo. These cars can be built from its predecessors using an upgrade kit. The new LMP3 prototypes are used in Asian Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup , IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge , European Le Mans Series, and Prototype Cup Germany. For

2619-642: The Corolla was not yet ready), Toyota continued to support the Celica ST205 rallied by Italian HF Grifone team, Toyota Team Sweden, Marlboro Toyota Team Belgium, and Tein Sport in selected WRC events. In the new World Rally Car era of the WRC, Toyota introduced the Corolla WRC in the 1997 Rally of Finland with a new team name sponsored by the lubricants company, Castrol . The team however, did not enter

2716-632: The GT class regulations, forcing the ACO to promote them as prototypes. In 2000, changes were made to the LMP regulations, as the ACO once again split the open-cockpit LMP class. The two new classes became known as "LMP900" and "LMP675", with the numbers denoting the minimum weight requirements (in kilograms) for each class. The LMP900s were to be more powerful and faster in top speed, but also heavier and more cumbersome. The LMP675s were to be smaller and more nimble, yet lack

2813-519: The Group C cars with Le Mans Prototypes . Two classes were created, with LMP1s running large displacement custom-built engines that were usually turbocharged, and LMP2s using the smaller displacement production-based engines. Both classes were required to have open cockpits. However, LMP1 cars that year were just former Group C cars, some still with closed cockpits ( Toyota 94C-V , Courage C32 , Kremer K8 Spyder , Porsche 962C GTI , ALD C289 and Alpa LM). At

2910-692: The Hypercar category, a single aero kit has been made mandatory across the whole season and is limited to the Le Mans specification in the WEC; the ELMS teams have retained the right to switch between the aero kits. LMP3 is an entry-level prototype class intended for introducing young drivers and new teams to endurance racing before they progress to the higher classes of prototype racing, LMP2 and ultimately Hypercar. LMP3 uses closed-cockpit chassis, which can be built by any licensed constructor. Cars eligible for

3007-596: The LMP2 and a new class—Hypercar. In the original version of the new ruleset, revealed in November 2020, only the power of the Gibson engine has been reduced—to 560 bhp. Right before the start of the season, the cars were further weakened, by trimming an additional 20 bhp to a total of 540 bhp. The minimum weight of the cars has also been increased by 20 kg and has been set at 950 kg. Furthermore, mirroring

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3104-430: The No. 7 TS030 Hybrid's suspension. This caused him to abandon the car at the side of the track. For the 6 Hours of Fuji , Nakajima returned to partner Wurz and Lapierre. He was nominated by Toyota to drive the No. 7 car in qualifying and took pole position with an early effort that removed Tréluyer in the No. 1 Audi from the top of the time sheets. In the race, the vehicle kept its startline advantage and pulled away from

3201-428: The No. 7 car with Lapierre and Wurz. Both cars qualified on the front row of the grid with Wurz and Nakajima's No. 7 vehicle taking pole position by three-tenths of a second from the No. 8 Toyota of Sarrazin and Davidson. Although it picked up a vibration in the race's closing minutes, the No. 8 Toyota was unchallenged throughout, taking the victory with a one-minute and ten-second advantage over Audi's No. 1 car. It shared

3298-550: The No. 7 car. Toyota's No. 8 car retired from the lead in the fifth hour because a right-front suspension bolt sheared. For the season-closing round in Bahrain , Toyota confirmed to the press that two cars would be fielded with the provision that neither car finished in Shanghai with major problems, although the No. 8 Toyota's suspension failure did not affect their decision. It was also announced that Nakajima would return to drive

3395-498: The Super Formula Championship. Lapierre and Wurz qualified the No. 7 car on pole position with the No. 8 entry of Sarrazin and Buemi separating the two Audi cars in third. The No. 7 Toyota led the race heading into the final hour, but Wurz ceded it when he went off the racing line while moving past slower traffic because of worn tyres. It was overtaken by the No. 1 Audi and Wurz could only manage second place in

3492-552: The TS030 Hybrid obsolete, and it was superseded by the TS040 Hybrid . Prior to the development of the TS030 Hybrid, Toyota last competed in sports car racing in 1999. That year their cars, called GT-Ones , qualified on pole position for the 24 Hours of Le Mans . All three cars ran quickly for most of the race although two retired from tyre issues, while the remaining GT-One finished in second place behind race winners BMW . The company chose to withdraw from sports car racing at

3589-453: The Toyota team again. Katayama was however able to return to the pits for new tyres and continued. He managed to finish second after a valiant effort placing first in the GT-P class. However, they fell short of the overall victory at Le Mans, which would have made them only the second Japanese manufacturer to get an overall win ( Mazda being the first in 1991 ). The GT-One raced only once more,

3686-605: The WRC Driver's and Manufacturer's Titles in 1993 with Juha Kankkunen , and in 1994 with Didier Auriol . In 1995 TTE was banned for 12 months from the World Rally Championship (WRC) for cheating by designing an illegal air restrictor on the ST205 that included both a bypass mechanism and spring-loaded devices to conceal it from scrutineers. While under suspension in 1996 (as well in 1997 , when

3783-424: The air and crashed heavily into a tyre barrier. Davidson got out of his car unassisted, but was transported to a local hospital, complaining of back pain. A medical inspection found he had cracked two vertebrae (T11 & T12) from the accident. The No. 7 TS030 Hybrid, which had briefly led the race before the accident, had previously suffered from car damage that required lengthy repairs to it, and retired ten and

3880-413: The alternate name ERS) to charge a super capacitor . The extra power is directed to the rear wheels, giving an automatic horsepower increase of 300 bhp (220 kW; 300 PS). Its motor generator unit acts as a generator under braking; this allows it to harvest direct energy from the drive shaft which slows the car and converts energy into electricity that is stored in the super capacitor , which

3977-446: The car and used slower traffic to move into the lead 13 minutes into the race. Wurz and later Lapierre cemented their advantage at the front of the field over the next two hours until both illuminated number panels failed, forcing an unscheduled seven-minute pit stop for replacement car parts. Lapierre and later Wurz recovered to third place before Laiperre made contact with Jonny Kane in the No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03a , damaging

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4074-406: The car as a two-person entry. Wurz put the No. 7 TS030 Hybrid on pole position despite losing time on his fastest lap, and was one-tenth of a second quicker than McNish's No. 2 Audi. In the race, the car was unhindered throughout as it consistently ran under a second faster than both Audi cars, and only ceded the lead to their rivals in the pit stop cycle, clinching its third victory of the season with

4171-503: The car's rebuilding, Toyota scheduled a functionality test at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours one month later. The initial schedule for the TS030s consisted of participation in the May pre-qualifying and testing session at Le Mans in preparation for the race in June. It was scheduled to make its début in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , but its heavy accident at Paul Ricard, forced the team

4268-456: The chassis, and performed aerodynamic development of the design in its wind tunnel . Designers were influenced by findings from outdated Dome chassis and impressions from current Audi and Peugeot monocoques. The suspension setup consisted of an independent double wishbone system with pushrod actuated dampers, and was designed to accommodate wide tyres. Its engine, a naturally aspirated petrol 3.4-litre (210 cu in) V8 power unit ,

4365-538: The costs, FIA introduced a new set of LMP2 regulations, which will be locked in through 2020, aiming for a significant power increase, to the range of 150 horsepower (which is expected to lead to a four-second decrease in lap time at Le Mans). Gibson Technology is the exclusive engine supplier for LMP2, producing a four-litre normally-aspirated V8. Biofuels , specifically petrol with 10% ethanol and biodiesel ( BTL ), are allowed in both LMP1 and LMP2 categories. The fuel tank size and minimum weight for non-hybrid cars

4462-587: The end of the 1999 season in order for Toyota Motorsport GmbH to focus on entries in Formula One and CART . The facility continued to provide services and support to customer teams within the sport. Toyota Motorsport developed an early prototype Toyota Yaris WRC in preparation for the Toyota Gazoo Racing entry in the 2017 World Rally Championship. Ultimately, TMG only produced the engine whilst Tommi Mäkinen Racing Oy of Finland (TMR) developed

4559-612: The end of the year to concentrate their efforts on establishing their Formula One team. After the Hybrid GT500 Toyota Supra HV-R  won the Tokachi 24 Hours outright in 2007, Toyota sought a larger and more international audience for acknowledgement of the company's work in hybrid racing technology. Engineers set themselves the objective of developing a purpose-built car to return to international endurance racing, and garner worldwide interest by competing in

4656-406: The engine for power improvement, efficiency and reliability. They also manufactured new chassis tubs consisting of a narrower front nose because there was no longer a need to have an option to operate the hybrid system on the front wheels. The company had limited resources, so they elected to run one TS030 Hybrid for the entire WEC season with a second vehicle participating in selected rounds including

4753-419: The event was at best uneventful, with neither car being able to match either Audi's pace, finishing third and fourth overall having struggled in the first few hours of the race with tyre management. The second round of the season, the 2013 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , saw Toyota debut the new 2013 specification car with one older chassis entered. After a close qualifying session, the updated No. 7 car ran near

4850-507: The far-right of both fenders. The livery incorporated the colour scheme of Toyota's hybrid production cars and returned to the livery used by the Japanese manufacturer between 1985 and 1993. Toyota publicly announced its return to sports car racing in October 2011. Three months later the first car undertook a three-day, private test session at Circuit Paul Ricard . Toyota planned to test their TS030s for 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) during

4947-424: The field. The No. 2 Audi of Lotterer, Tréluyer and Fässler traded the lead with the Toyota multiple times before it was penalised for colliding with a slower car. Hence, the No. 7 Toyota maintained the lead for the rest of the race to secure its second victory of the season. Nakajima was unable to attend the 6 Hours of Shanghai because his Super GT commitments took priority over WEC, leaving Wurz and Laiperre to drive

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5044-427: The first turn. In a warm weather affected race, Buemi moved into second immediately after a fifteen-minute safety car period and challenged the No. 1 Audi for the lead before the pit stop cycle. Toyota achieved a strong performance through better tyre management, enabling the No. 8 car to finish second. Going into the team's home event, the 6 Hours of Fuji , Toyota announced that two TS030 Hybrid cars would take part in

5141-444: The front of the race for the first three hours, before retiring due to overheating brakes as a result of a malfunctioning energy recovery system. With the rear brake assembly designed to be assisted with certain amounts of mechanical retardation provided by the hybrid recovery system by design, it did not provide the deceleration when malfunctioning, thus overloading the conventional rear brakes. The No. 8 sister car remained in fourth for

5238-436: The front, with a restriction to a minimum speed of 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph). Michelin was the team's tyre supplier. The car was liveried in white, with blue stripes running down the sides of the cockpit and on top of each of its sidepods. Several sponsor stickers were on a number of areas of the car. The vehicle's race number was placed in a red square on the middle of the top section of its front left fender and

5335-490: The hybrid system over long distances, and aerodynamic and mechanical set-up optimising undertaken in their test session. The team returned to the track in mid-February and performed a 30-hour endurance stint, after evaluating multiple performance developments. After a heavy accident at Paul Ricard during a second endurance test on 4 April that damaged the chassis beyond repair, Toyota cancelled seven days of running at EuroSpeedway Lausitz and Ciudad del Motor de Aragón . Following

5432-475: The lead with sister car No. 7 until it was driven to the side of the track when its engine failed before the second hour's end. Competing with the TS030 for the second consecutive year, the Toyota team accumulated 142.5 points and finished in second place in the World Manufacturers' Championship, 64.5 points behind rivals Audi. The new LMP1 regulations for 2014 made the TS030 Hybrid obsolete. The car

5529-605: The manufacturer's championship that year. When they returned to contest the championship in 1998 , they did so with the Corolla WRC driven by the crews of Carlos Sainz/ Luis Moya and Didier Auriol/ Denis Giraudet . They finished the season in second overall in both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships. In 1999 however, the manufacturers championship was taken, the third in TTE's existence. Toyota withdrew from rallying at

5626-662: The new class for the 2021 to 2022 seasons. Starting from the 2023 season of WEC and IMSA SportsCar Championship, Le Mans Hypercars are joined by Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) cars. These two kinds of prototypes will form the top class of endurance racing: Hypercar in WEC and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) in IMSA. Le Mans Prototypes have used various names depending on the series in which they compete. The FIA 's equivalent cars were referred to as Sports Racers (SR) or Sports Racing Prototypes (SRP). The American IMSA GT Championship termed their cars World Sports Cars (WSC), while

5723-590: The next two races while Wurz and Lapierre focused on developing Toyota's 2014 car and Nakajima concentrated on a joint Super Formula and Super GT programme. Buemi and Davidson were chosen to qualify the car and took third with a two-lap average lap time that was two-tenths slower than the pole-sitting No. 1 Audi. More than half an hour into the race, Sarrazin drove around the outside of the slower No. 32 Lotus T128 of Dominik Kraihamer to lap him, but Kraihamer lost control of his car's rear and went into Sarrazin's left-hand side. Both drivers made high speed contact with

5820-745: The podium 13 times, earned three pole positions and scored a total of 278.5 points. TMG also provided their Toyota F1 engines to the Jordan Formula One Team in 2005, which was then sold and renamed as Midland F1 Racing in 2006, but continued using Toyota F1 engines until their withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2006. Williams Formula One Team were also TMG's customers for their Toyota F1 engines from 2007 to 2009. On 4 November 2009, Toyota announced their withdrawal from F1. TMG moved back into sports car racing from 2011 as an engine supplier to Lola Cars , powering Rebellion Racing . In 2012, TMG fully returned to sports car competition entries with

5917-499: The race, the car was able to compete with the lead Audi car, with the two vehicles trading the lead throughout, but lost their race-long duel and took second place, finishing ahead of Allan McNish 's and Tom Kristensen 's third-placed No. 2 Audi. Nakajima missed the next two events because of Super GT commitments. At the following round of the season, the 6 Hours of São Paulo , Wurz took the TS030 Hybrid's first pole position on his first timed lap which he improved on minutes later; he

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6014-420: The race. Both Toyota cars lined up in second and third places on the grid with Buemi and Davidson driving the No. 8 car and Nakajima and Lapierre in the sister No. 7 vehicle. The race was shortened because of heavy rain and poor visibility. The No. 8 Toyota secured the victory when the No. 1 Audi made unscheduled pit stops for debris removal, with the other Toyota finishing one lap behind in 27th as it had to make

6111-522: The race: the #8 car being driven by Anthony Davidson suffered a massive crash with a Ferrari 458 (which also fractured two of Davidson's vertebrae), while the No. 7 car hit the DeltaWing and later retired with an engine failure. Toyota continued to compete in the rest of the WEC season with a single car, collecting three wins including the 6 Hours of Fuji . At the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans Toyota achieved its fourth second-place finish at Le Mans with

6208-425: The rest of the event, closing what was a mixed outcome for the team. Post race, technical director Pascal Vasselon explained that "his team's analysis from Spa showed that the current Balance of Performance significantly favoured Audi's turbo-diesel engine over its own normally-aspirated petrol engine," calling for the ACO and FIA for a more favourable balance of performance to be applied before Le Mans . As agreed at

6305-456: The same class structure as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, meaning it was the first championship to use the LMP name. At the same time, the ACO greatly altered their LMP classes. The smaller LMP2 class were briefly eliminated, while a new class of closed-cockpit prototypes was allowed in, known as "LMGTP" (Le Mans grand touring prototype). These cars were evolutions of production-based road cars that the ACO considered too advanced and too fast to fall under

6402-494: The same time, the IMSA GT Championship announced the end of their closed cockpit GTP and Lights classes, deciding as well to replace them with a single open-cockpit class of World Sports Cars equivalent to LMP1. This formula continued up to 1996, with many manufacturers embracing the LMP and WSC classes, including Ferrari , Porsche , and Mazda . In 1997, the first European series based around Le Mans Prototypes

6499-469: The season second to their rivals in the World Manufacturers' Championship . Further car development was undertaken to minimise the impact of the 2013 LMP1 technical regulations by focusing on engine fine-tuning for improvements in power, efficiency and reliability. Only one TS030 Hybrid was entered for the entire 2013 World Endurance Championship because Toyota had limited resources, though

6596-422: The season's start, the FIA and the ACO reviewed the technical regulations at the end of May 2013 to adjust the performance between petrol and diesel LMP1 cars for the rest of the 2013 championship. From Le Mans onward, petrol-engine cars had an additional 3 litres (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of fuel capacity. At Le Mans, the No. 8 Toyota qualified fourth, three-tenths ahead of

6693-475: The second generation, engines were upgraded to the 5.6-litre Nissan VK56 , increasing horsepower to 340 kW (455 hp). For 2025, the engines used in the class are set to be replaced with the twin-turbocharged 3.4-litre Toyota V35A , bringing about a power increase to 350 kW (470 hp). LMPC ( Le Mans Prototype Challenge ) was an earlier entry level class, introduced in 2009, consisting of competitors running identical Oreca FLM09 cars. The class

6790-521: The short-lived United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) used the classic Can-Am (CA) name for their prototypes. Since 2004, most series have switched to referring to these cars as Le Mans Prototypes . The American Le Mans Series , the successor to the IMSA GT Championship and the predecessor of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, officially referred to the cars simply as Prototypes (P1, P2, or PC). An LMP

6887-678: The sister TS030 Hybrid in fifth, but off the pace of both Audi cars. The race started on a damp and slippery track with the two TS030 cars driving faster than they had done in qualifying, moving up the field and separating the first five runners. As the track dried, Toyota dropped back from the quicker Audi cars, but had better fuel mileage. This recurring pattern continued into the night when the No. 7 and 8 Toyota vehicles took over second and third places after two of Audi's entrants ran into problems. Rain fell overnight and Toyota's tyre strategy enabled their cars to narrow Audi's lead to below two minutes. The positions remained constant until heavy rain fell on

6984-588: The situation becoming somewhat reminiscent of 1998, when the No. 1 and No. 2 car were retired. Martin Brundle in the No. 1 Toyota suffered a puncture at high speed on the Mulsanne Straight , the cars rear suspension was badly damaged and he was unable to get back to the pits. The No. 2 Toyota being driven by Thierry Boutsen was next to go when he suffered a high speed crash under the Dunlop bridge due to

7081-665: The sportscar championship of the 1970s. However, the USRRC collapsed before the end of 1999, with the series becoming the Rolex Sports Car Series chose to use the FIA's SR1 and SR2 formula instead. 1998 saw a great expansion for the ACO's LMP classes. Following the cancellation of the IMSA GT Championship at the end of 1998, the ACO allowed for the creation of the American Le Mans Series. This series used

7178-424: The superior class. For the race week itself, all three cars performed admirably in qualifying by continuing their quick pace, qualifying second, seventh, and eighth, being beaten only by their GT class competitor, Mercedes-Benz. For the race itself, the No. 28 GT-One suffered from a high speed accident halfway through the race, taking it out of competition. The two other entrants continued to fight on, both remaining in

7275-464: The team fail to finish because of a sizeable accident by Anthony Davidson in the No. 8 vehicle, and an engine failure for the sister No. 7 entry. After the race, the company fielded a sole TS030 Hybrid for the rest of the season and attracted attention for an innovative rear wing extension. It was able to compete successfully against the two Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars, securing three victories with drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Alexander Wurz , ending

7372-467: The team for his previous experience with sports cars, while Nicolas Lapierre transferred from Team Oreca 's Le Mans squad. Alexander Wurz also had extensive experience of sports car racing having twice won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Stéphane Sarrazin was employed by Toyota in May 2012 to replace Hiroaki Ishiura who withdrew following the completion of the car's first testing session due to back discomfort. Super GT competitor Andrea Caldarelli served as

7469-478: The team's junior driver. The TS030 Hybrid made its race debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with two cars entered. It was the first petrol-hybrid car to compete in the WEC. Despite electrical problems in practice and qualifying, the No. 8 car qualified third with the No. 7 entry securing fifth. On the 82nd lap, Davidson collided with the No. 81 AF Corse Ferrari of Piergiuseppe Perazzini at Mulsanne corner, somersaulted into

7566-409: The top 10. However, within the closing hours, the higher ranked No. 29 GT-One suffered a gearbox failure while in competition for the race win. Thus Toyota was left to take ninth place in the race with the lone No. 27 entry, which ended the race 25 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 GT1 . Their 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans started bitterly after the team was plagued by multiple Michelin tyre failures,

7663-535: The top speed of the larger class. Both classes were intended to be able to compete for overall wins. Audi , Chrysler , Cadillac , and Panoz opted to use the LMP900 formula, while MG were the only major manufacturer to attempt the LMP675 class. The LMGTP class also continued, with Bentley being the only manufacturer to build a closed-cockpit prototype after the regulation changes in 2000. In 2017, in order to limit

7760-404: The track in the final hour, and Lapierre in the No. 8 Toyota aquaplaned into the barriers, requiring swift and extensive car repairs, and finished fourth overall. The No. 8 Toyota of Buemi gained on Kristensen's No. 2 Audi in the closing stages, but was too far behind to effect any positional change and came second. Starting from the 6 Hours of São Paulo , Davidson, Buemi and Sarrazin took part in

7857-482: The turn three tyre barrier. The damage to the No. 8 Toyota's steering was great enough to force it to retire. At the inaugural 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas held three weeks later, Sarrazin and Buemi qualified the car in third position, 1.3 seconds off the lead No. 2 Audi car's pace, and Sarrazin could not improve following Jan Charouz 's No. 32 Lotus T128 hitting his rear-end, sending the TS030 Hybrid spinning at

7954-446: Was subject to adjustment to reduce the difference in performance between hybrid and non-hybrid cars. There were no limits on the number of cylinders for any type of engine. Bodywork was required to cover all mechanical elements of the car, so that they couldn't be visible when the car is viewed directly from the front, side, or top. The LMP1 cars were generally the most powerful, with higher straight-line speeds. The LMP1 category

8051-593: Was also previously known as Andersson Motorsport and Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG), both of which ran Toyota Team Europe (TTE) entries in the WRC. TGR-E began as Andersson Motorsport in Sweden, a company established by rally driver Ove Andersson for his own motorsport career. His relationship with Toyota began in 1972 when he was offered a Toyota Celica to drive in the RAC Rally in the autumn of that year. The relationship developed and from 1973, Andersson Motorsport

8148-523: Was also the time they revealed their first four wheel drive car, the Toyota Celica GT-Four , driven by Juha Kankkunen and Kenneth Eriksson . Carlos Sainz won the 1990 FIA World Rally Championship Title for Drivers with ST165 . The newer GT-Four, ST185 , made its debut at the 1992 Rallye Monte Carlo, culminating in Sainz again winning the title in this year. The ST185 also won

8245-494: Was appointed for responsibility of Toyota's works entries in the then new World Rally Championship , competing in the name of Toyota Team Europe (TTE). In 1975, the team and organisation moved to Brussels, Belgium; then again in 1979 to Cologne, Germany where it was established as Andersson Motorsport GmbH. In 1993, Toyota Motor Corporation bought Andersson Motorsport GmbH and renamed it to Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG). Andersson remained as team manager of TTE. At this time, as

8342-402: Was based on Toyota's Super GT project. On 24 January 2012 the TS030 Hybrid was shown to the press for the first time at Circuit Paul Ricard and the team commenced testing at the track shortly after. Its planned debut at the 2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was delayed while the car's chassis was rebuilt after a heavy testing crash. Two TS030 Hybrid cars were entered for Le Mans which saw

8439-497: Was dropped in European Le Mans Series in 2014 . As the cost of running an LMPC team was found to be comparable to that for an LMP2 team, the class was dropped after the 2017 season in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe GmbH ( TGR-E ) is an automotive engineering and motorsport services facility based in Cologne , Germany . It

8536-621: Was forced to delay the TS030's debut race appearance until the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June because of the time needed to produce a new monocoque. The ACO and world motorsport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), persuaded Toyota to expand their presence in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) by extending the deadline for entries following Peugeot's withdrawal from sports car racing, but Toyota elected not to enter

8633-451: Was launched, known as the " International Sports Racing Series ". Using classes similar to LMP1/WSC and LMP2, these cars were known as "SR1" and "SR2" by the FIA. 1998 saw the creation of another series of Le Mans Prototypes, with the new United States Road Racing Championship attempting to break away from the IMSA GT Championship. To differ from IMSA'S WSC class, the USRRC named their open-cockpit prototypes " Can-Am " in an attempt to resurrect

8730-533: Was mounted at a 90-degree angle, and produced 530 horsepower (400 kW; 540 PS). Toyota engineers elected to base the engine on their Super GT project instead of constructing a new one. The six-speed sequential gearbox unit was transverse-mounted to the engine and the brakes were constructed from carbon materials. The TS030 Hybrid featured a Kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) regenerative braking device produced by Toyota Racing Development (the Le Mans organisers, Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), use

8827-404: Was nearly eight-tenths of a second faster than Audi's No. 2 car driven by Lucas di Grassi . Wurz and Lapierre maintained the No. 7's pole position advantage throughout most of the race, only ceding it to Audi during the pit stop cycles, to secure its first victory in the WEC. Lapierre qualified the No. 7 TS030 in third place for the 6 Hours of Bahrain behind the two rival Audi cars. Wurz started

8924-424: Was not continued into 2000, Toyota instead turning TTE into leaders of the new Toyota F1 team. This would mark a hiatus in Toyota's attempts at Le Mans until the 2012 season, over a decade later, when Toyota decided to once again contest at the top tier of sports car racing. In October 2011, Toyota announced its return to Le Mans in 2012 after twelve-year hiatus, with a hybrid-powered Le Mans Prototype , sporting

9021-531: Was renamed to Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe in April 2020. In 2021, TGR-E assumed the running of the WRC team from Tommi Mäkinen Racing. Toyota Team Europe (TTE) began in February 1975. In August of that year, Hannu Mikkola won TTE's first rally, the 1000 Lakes Rally in a Corolla 1600, where the competition used 2.0 L engines. In September 1987, TTE moved to a larger premises, in which they still reside. It

9118-429: Was retired at the end of the 2020 season, replaced by a new top class of the endurance racing: Hypercar . From 2017, in order to limit the costs, FIA introduced a new set of regulations, which will be locked in through 2025. The rules allow a significant power increase (150 horsepower) which is expected to lead to a four-second decrease in lap time at Le Mans. Gibson Technology is the exclusive engine supplier, producing

9215-535: Was retired, and replaced by the TS040 Hybrid. Results in bold indicate pole position. Results in italics indicate fastest lap. Le Mans Prototype#LMP1 A Le Mans Prototype ( LMP ) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans , FIA World Endurance Championship , IMSA SportsCar Championship , European Le Mans Series , and Asian Le Mans Series . Le Mans Prototypes were created by

9312-430: Was stopped briefly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , but the car's building was approved six months later. The TS030 Hybrid featured a Kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) regenerative braking device to charge a super capacitor . Its engine, a naturally aspirated petrol 3.4-litre (210 cu in) V8 power unit , was mounted at a 90-degree angle, produced 530 horsepower (400 kW; 540 PS), and

9409-496: Was supplied by Nisshinbo and mounted in the car's passenger compartment. The result allows for faster lap times when the driver exits track turns and saves fuel by reducing engine usage leaving a corner. Toyota chose Aisin AW to build the front electric motor while Denso were selected to build the rear power unit. Under the 2012 Le Mans rules they were allowed to use the system at any speed, unlike Audi who had elected to send power to

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