Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon commented that the two GR010 Hybrids that finished ninth and fifteenth overall in the two days of official pre-season testing ahead of this weekend’s 1000 Miglia Sebring.
The fastest Japanese car was just over a second from the best time set by an LMP2 and six tenths from the Alpine A480, ahead of the Hypercars.
The speed at which the Toyota Hypercar can be operated in ‘four-wheel drive’ mode in dry conditions has been increased from 120km / h to 190km / h for Sebring, after the so-called ‘120 Rule’ became part of the Balance of Performance for 2022.
“At 190km / h the functionality of the all-wheel drive becomes problematic, it’s a terrible blow in terms of performance, it has a big negative effect,” Vasselon told Motorsport.com, explaining that the only corners where the GR010 now uses the power hybrid through its front axle are curves 1 and 17 at Sebring, although it does not quantify the chronometric loss.
“It’s easy to say because you just have to look at the top speeds. But if I start giving figures, then I get dragged into commenting on the BoP, which I would like to avoid.”
When asked if the BoP published ahead of the Prologue could change for the race, the answer was similar.
“The current BoP system is completely objective, it goes beyond single issues. I think it makes no sense to talk about it. The cars are equipped with every minimum instrumentation and everything is visible and available. It is not me who must comment on how those are used. data”.
# 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The BoP is governed by a document that is not in the public domain and the tables published last week were titled “BoP of the Hypercar category for the Sebring competition”, without referring specifically to the Prologue.
Toyota has also received two other limitations: the minimum weight of the GR010 has been raised to 1070 kg: that is 4 kg more than the 24 Hours of Le Mans last August and 30 kg more than the double race in Bahrain.
The power granted to the Toyotas was also reduced to Bahrain levels across the rev range.
Vasselon admitted he feared the latest BoP could cause the GR010s to fall back into the pack on absolute pace.
“I can’t say we expected it, but we feared it could happen. We knew all about how much the LMP2s would lose, as they were further limited in cavalry and aerodynamics.”
The best times after the four sessions of the prologue on Saturday and Sunday were signed by the two Oreca 07 LMP2 managed by WRT.
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