During the WEC’s end of season awards ceremony following the Bahrain round of the championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s team president Hisatake Murata confirmed on stage the Japanese manufacturer’s commitment to the WEC for the 2018-19 Super Season.
Toyota has won five races this season including an incredibly strong run of three consecutive victories at the final three races of 2017. The team will return with two LM P1 Hybrid cars to compete against the new generation of non-hybrid LMP1s. New Technical and Sporting regulations covering this new-look top category are still to be announced by the ACO.
Bahrain was a busy time for Gazoo Racing, with two-time Formula 1 driver’s champion Fernando Alonso undertaking the ‘Rookie’ WEC test. Completing a total of 113 laps, or 611km in the TS050, the current McLaren driver set a best lap of 1m43:013s in comparison to the 1m42.381s set by Mike Conway aboard the sister car.
“It was a great day,” stated Alonso. “Testing an LMP1 car is always a nice thing for any racing driver because these cars are amazing to drive. They are very consistent throughout a stint which is a positive thing. I have wanted to test a car like this for a long time now and today I could achieve that so I am happy.”
