The two days of the Prologue of the FIA World Endurance Championship held in Lusail were very useful in preparing as best as possible for what will be the first weekend of the 2024 season, the 1812 Km of Qatar on Saturday 2 March.
In the time tables on Monday and Tuesday the Toyotas did not shine, intent on carrying out their tasks without worrying in the slightest about attacking head-on, challenging the clock.
Indeed, in all three sessions in which they took part, the GR010 Hybrids of Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck De Vries (#7) and Sébastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa (#8) drove really hard to try to fix everything.
The changes to the Balance of Performance have brought a truly impressive burden to the Japanese cars (which travel around 1089 kg), therefore forced to think above all about the race and the performance of the tyres, petrol consumption and the search for the best set-ups in all conditions on a track which has some peculiarities.
In the end, 571 laps were put together by the black LMHs, for a total of 3093 km over the two days, without experiencing any technical problems, but with still several question marks that will have to be resolved by studying the data on Wednesday, to then recur on via delle Prove Libere on Thursday with some ideas to be competitive at the highest levels.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“These two days were difficult and we struggled a bit, but we tried many things on the car and we still need to find the right solution to get more performance,” reveals Kobayashi, who also holds the role of Team Principal.
“It wasn't a great start, so I'm not feeling optimistic about race week at the moment. But we will work hard to turn that around and come back stronger on Thursday.”
Conway adds: “We used the Prologue to find out what we need in the car and prepare for the race. It won't be easy, but we've completed a lot of laps, so we have the data and will work to improve.”
De Vries instead awaits his debut anxiously: “The 2024 season has finally officially kicked off. I've been waiting a long time for this moment, I couldn't wait to be here, so it was nice to get out on track with all our Hypercar competitors We had a productive two days, completing a lot of laps, and now we need to sit together and work on everything to be fit for Thursday.”
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Reigning World Champion Buemi comments: “It was fun to get back in the car and finish the Prologue, even if it wasn't an easy two days. We did a lot of laps without problems, so in terms of reliability it was positive, but we struggled a bit a little bit on the pace. We have a day to look at all the data and look for improvements before the first practice sessions. We will work hard and see what we can achieve.”
His partner Hartley also agreed: “We haven't had any problems with the car, but we still have some work to do in terms of pace to reach the level we expect. Together with our engineers, all of us drivers will be busy over the next 24 hours”.
Hirakawa comments: “This track is new for everyone and we tried different setups to find the lap time and balance for the race. It's always nice to experience a new circuit because you discover something new at every corner and every lap. We've learned a lot of things and now there isn't much time to analyze the data before testing starts. It's clear that we're not the fastest, so we need to work on that and push even harder.”
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