Toyota is considering the possibility of expanding its commitment in the FIA WEC to three Hypercars, taking inspiration from its arch-rival Ferrari to manage an additional GR010 Hybrid via a satellite team in the future.
However, Race Operations Director Rob Leupen revealed that it is already too late to implement such a plan for next season and that a possible additional full-year Hypercar car would not arrive until 2026.
“We see what Ferrari is doing with its customer or satellite car, and we like it,” Leupen told Motorsport.com. “It's clear that having an extra car offers more possibilities, so it's an aspect we are evaluating.”
The construction time for an additional LMH and the creation of the infrastructure to run it is quite long and therefore no third Toyota for 2025.
“If we wanted to do it next year, we would have to have already made a decision, and at the moment there is none of that. It can't be a short-term decision because we know what the delivery times of all the components would be under the circumstances current”.
Toyota would prefer to go the way of Ferrari: the AF Corse team runs the 499P #83 this year driven by Robert Kubica and factory drivers Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman on a customer basis.
“We're not yet at the point of saying this is how we want to do it, but if you ask me how Ferrari does it, I like it. The complexity of running an LMH is high and we won't take the direction of Porsche, which sold its 963 LMDh to private teams”.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
An additional Toyota would not score points towards the Constructors' standings in the WEC and would instead compete in the Teams' World Cup, in which AF's Ferrari and Jota and Proton Competition's Porsches currently participate.
It should also be said that it is unclear whether there will be room for another Toyota in 2026. The WEC grid is set to expand to 40 cars next year, while manufacturers are apparently forced to race with two cars.
With the arrival of Aston Martin with two Valkyrie LMHs, an expansion of the current programs of Cadillac, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini – who currently have only one car – would mean that the grid will have some redundancies.
Asked if there would be room for another Toyota with continued Hypercar expansion, Leupen replied: “How many cars does Porsche run? How many cars does Ferrari have? So why shouldn't we have three of our own?”
Leupen added that there could be overlap between the GR010 LMH and the hydrogen-burning prototype it is planning to develop following the unveiling of the GR H2 Concept at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The introduction of the new hydrogen class is expected no earlier than 2027.
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