Toyota Racing is revealing the first details of its participation in this year's FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), where it is set to once again push the boundaries of hybrid technology in motorsport. Toyota Racing will field two cars for the WEC championship season (including the 24 Hours of Le Mans); the complete lineup of cars for the championship will be confirmed on February 13 by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest .
Alex Wurz , Nicolas Lapierre , Kazuki Nakajima , Anthony Davidson , Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin will be piloting Toyota Racing cars for the third year in a row. Mike Conway will join them this year as a test and replacement driver.
The prototype of the TS040 HYBRID was designed in accordance with the new regulations, the aim of which is to apply the latest results of the technical development of road cars within the framework of the WEC championship and the Le Mans race. The new TS040 HYBRID will be presented to the public for the first time during official WEC testing on 28-29 March, where it will take to the track for the first time together with prototypes from Audi and Porsche .
The Toyota Racing team established itself as a pioneer of hybrid powertrains in the world of motorsport with its previous model, the TS030 HYBRID ; the successor TS040 HYBRID takes this technology to a higher level. After mounting an Aisin AW motor- generator on the front axle in combination with a DENSO unit located at the rear, the Toyota HYBRID System – Racing powertrain is now capable of delivering power to all four wheels .
When decelerating, motor generators in combination with classic mechanical brakes take care of the braking force, while the recovered energy is transferred via a DENSO converter to a high- capacity capacitor from Nisshinbo . On the contrary, during acceleration, the function of the motor- generator reverses and it starts to behave like an electric motor , which provides a significant power boost. The hybrid four-wheel drive is matched with a gasoline fork eight-cylinder ; in both cases, the development was handled by the Motor Sports Unit Development Division under Japan's Higashifuji Technical Center, where future generations of Toyota technologies for regular road vehicles are also being prepared.
This close link between motorsport technologies and future road vehicles is very important for the Toyota Racing team , as the TS040 HYBRID , like its predecessor, also serves to test Toyota's latest hybrid technologies under real conditions. Since the introduction of the first Prius model in 1997, total sales of Toyota hybrid cars have exceeded 6 million units .
Chassis design, development, production, assembly and operation of the TS040 HYBRID racing car is provided by Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) from Cologne. Thanks to advanced aerodynamic elements and a light construction , the new version brings a fundamental shift compared to the previous TS030 HYBRID car. Based on new regulations governing dimensions, LMP1 category cars will be 10 cm narrower in the 2014 season; other measures, such as wheel restraint cables and deformation blocks in the rear of the car, contribute to increased safety.
The tuning of the TS040 HYBRID was aided by intensive simulations and calculations at TMG , including the use of HIL (Hardware-In-the-Loop) technology to test individual components based on data from real circuits and powerful computing hardware to optimize the structural design. These state-of-the-art methods are significantly more efficient than on-track testing, as TMG designers have the opportunity to devote themselves to optimizing all TS040 HYBRID chassis parameters and modifications over a longer period of time than competitors relying on traditional approaches.
Development of the TS040 HYBRID was completed alongside a number of other external motorsport and automotive technology projects carried out concurrently at TMG for third parties and Toyota Motor Corporation . The car was successfully unveiled at Circuit Paul Ricard last month (January 21-21) with Alex Wurz and Anthony Davidson behind the wheel. Further testing is planned before the 6h race in British Silverstone (April 20), which will open this year's season of the FIA WEC championship . Further details of the TS040 HYBRID , including technical specifications, will be released immediately before official WEC testing on 28-29. March 2014.
Yoshiaki Kinoshita , President of the racing team: “ We are already very much looking forward to the new season with our new TS040 HYBRID car. The 2014 season is an important one for the Toyota Racing team; we have gained a lot of experience over the past two years and now with the introduction of the new regulations all teams start on a level playing field. It means an attractive challenge for us and we are determined to fight it successfully. These new regulations confirm that the FIA World Endurance Championship is a proving ground for advanced road vehicle technology, which fits perfectly with our approach. We compete to test the most advanced hybrid technologies under the most extreme conditions of motorsport and apply the experience in the technologies of future road vehicles. This year we will be taking advantage of the all-wheel-drive hybrid system, using our proven high-capacity capacitor to store energy, which will give us a very significant boost in acceleration performance. It will be fascinating to see how the various competing solutions fare; I personally can't wait for it to start. "
John Litjens , Chassis Project Manager: “ The TS040 HYBRID is the result of more than a year of development at TMG. We started the first design studies back in November 2012 and gradually increased our efforts on this car; we started fully focusing on the TS040 HYBRID shortly after the Le Mans race last year. We are lucky that TMG has such advanced computing and simulation hardware, which allowed us to develop the car in the virtual world. Thanks to this, the designers can spend more time on pure development before actually building the car, which is essential especially in a situation where the regulations for 2014 were to be significantly modified. The TS040 HYBRID car is much improved compared to its predecessor, but even the original car had very good aerodynamics and a mechanical solution; we have high hopes for our new car and are already looking forward to the start of the season. "
2014 FIA World Endurance Championship Calendar:
| April 20, 2014 | 6 Hours of Silverstone (Great Britain) |
| 03 May 2014 | 6 hours Spa Francorchamps (Belgium) |
| June 14, 2014 | 24 Hours of Le Mans (France) |
| August 31, 2014 | 6 hours Sao Paulo (Brazil) |
| September 20, 2014 | 6 hours Circuit of Americas (USA) |
| 02 November 2014 | 6 hours Shanghai (China) |
| November 15, 2014 | 6 hours Bahrain (Bahrain) |
Source: Toyota
