Toyota TS050 Hybrid Tops Barcelona Test As It Prepares for Farewell Tour
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s successful TS050 Hybrid racing car has been updated for the upcoming 2019-2020 FIA World Endurance Championship season, the last it will compete in.
The revised LMP1 car finished at the top of the timesheets during the pre-season tests at Barcelona and will look to defend its WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans titles throughout the eight-race season.
The #7 TS050 Hybrid will feature an unchanged driver lineup comprised of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José María López, while the #8 car will feature champions Sébastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and former Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley, a new addition to the team after Fernando Alonso’s departure.
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The TS050 Hybrid is Toyota’s most successful circuit racing car, a four-wheel-drive hybrid prototype boasting nearly 1,000 horsepower. It was set to win its Le Mans debut, in 2016, before a technical issue struck on the penultimate lap.
In 2017, Kobayashi piloted the TS050 Hybrid to the fastest-ever Le Mans lap to take pole position, and in 2018 the car finally became the first-ever Toyota to secure victory at the legendary endurance race. Toyota repeated the feat with another 1-2 victory in 2019, winning the WEC in the process.
Toyota Gazoo Racing says that for the 2019-2020 season, the prototype features revised aerodynamics and optimized mechanical parts to enhance reliability. This will be the last season featuring the incredible LMP1 cars before new “hypercar” regulations are introduced. Though Toyota will continue to compete, next year’s Le Mans will be the TS050 Hybrid’s final race.
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