This week, following the multiple announcements of late regarding the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC)’s future, Toyota Gazoo Racing has made the announcement that it will compete in the 2018-19 WEC Super Season.
Following the publication of the 2018-19 LMP1 regulations, which Toyota helped define, the team has confirmed it will be entering its Gazoo Racing TS050 Hybrids for at least the 2018-19 season. The team has said that it will provide more details of its 2018-19 plans, including its driver line-up, early next year.
“More than 100 years have passed since the birth of the automobile. As we approach times of tremendous change represented by electrification, automation and other developments, I am strongly determined to make sure that cars will be fun for the next 100 years,” explained Akio Toyoda, president, Toyota Motor Corporation. “Since 2012, we have taken up the challenge of the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the Le Mans 24 Hours, with race cars equipped with hybrid technologies. Of course, we have always approached this challenge with a desire to drive faster than any other car and to win. Yet our cars carried our desire for more than just that.“Not only did we want to heighten environmental performance in terms of fuel efficiency and such, we also had a very strong desire to create hybrid cars that made drivers feel that driving is fun, and that made them want to keep at it and want to let the cars keep on going. This year, I went to Le Mans for the first time and heard people cheering for Toyota. I also heard many people saying that they would like to see Toyota come out with a hybrid sports car like our cars in the race.“This year, our cars were extremely fast on the roads of Le Mans. But they were not able to combine speed with the strength needed to keep at it for 24 hours. While wanting to provide cars that our customers will want to ride in and drive, I keenly realized that we have a long way to go. It is highly regrettable that our rival in honing technologies on the roads of Le Mans has left. Yet the World Endurance Championship, in which cars of different categories race at the same time, and particularly Le Mans, where the battle goes on for 24 hours, including on public roads, still represents the optimal proving ground for achieving the goal of making cars fun for the next 100 years.”
