When Peugeot bowed out after six years of trying to shake Audi’s dominance at Le Mans, and succeeding only once (in 2009), the motorsport fraternity wasn’t quite sure just who would have what it takes to challenge the four-ring manufacturer in the World Endurance Championship. That is until Toyota stepped up to the plate.
The return marked the end of a decade-long hiatus from endurance racing. Just before the turn of the century, Toyota unsuccessfully campaigned against eventual winners in ’98, Porsche (with the 911 GT1) and then in ’99 against BMW (V12 LMR). Not that the GT-One, codenamed TS020, wasn’t quick – it was a legitimate threat to both German manufacturers and even set one of the fastest laps ever around the 13 km long circuit. During its second outing at Le Mans, the GT One driven by Keiichi Tsuchiya, Ukyo Katayama and Toshio Suzuki also came painfully close to winning the race but suffered an unfortunate puncture, and eventually finished second.
After those two years, Toyota turned its attention to what is often regarded as the pinnacle of motorsport – Formula One – for eight years without ever achieving a win and only 13 podiums. After four world championship titles in the early 90s in WRC, and its short, but relatively successful shot at Le Mans, many thought the failed F1 project spelled the end of Toyota Motorsport GmbH.
As the world started buying more environmentally-friendly cars, and Toyota products heading the charge in that regard, it seemed inevitable that the involvement in motorsport was a thing of the past…
That is until the announcement was made that the TS030 would challenge Audi’s new R18 e-tron (essentially with quattro all wheel drive thanks to an electric boost sent to the front wheels at speeds above 120 km/h), at Le Mans this year. The use of energy regeneration and electric assistance played well into Toyota’s hybrid expertise, providing a proving ground for its technologies. The Toyota team also benefitted from obtaining the refugees of Peugeot’s Le Mans programme to star in the driver line-up as well.
The TS030, which uses a KERS regenerative set-up not far off the system used in Formula One to supplement its 3,5-litre V8, up against the might of the Audi turbodiesels would also make for an interesting spectacle because it would be the first time since Audi introduced the R10 in 2006, that a major manufacturer would field an entry that used a petrol engine.
It was rather unfortunate that the the TS030 couldn’t make its debut at Spa as planned, which would have given an early indication of its pace, but the setting was definitely set for an unpredictable 24 hour race come 16 June.
Nobody would have predicted that the TS030 would have been on the money straight off the mark, but it was, and qualified right up amongst the quartet of Audis. At one point, they were even running second and third in an effort to chase down the leading E-tron. Unfortunately, tragedy struck after just five hours when Anthony Davidson’s number 8 TS030 went airborne after being clipped by the GT Ferrari of Pierguiseppe Perazzini and hit the barriers, resulting in retirement. Before the end of the night, the number 7 car of Kazuki Nakajima had met with Satoshi Motoyama’s experimanetal Nissan Deltawing project car – resulting in yet another spectacular off. While the car did make it back to the pits for a lengthy repair session, its return to the race was short-lived when the car succumbed to mechanical failure later on.
With promising pace, and no issues in the reliability department, it seems the TS030 is a worthy adversary to Audi’s dominance at the “Grand Prix of Endurance”, just like the TS020 challenged two other German manufacturers a decade ago. Hopefully in the coming years the Toyota team will fare better – especially after Porsche (the most successful manufacturer to compete at Le Mans) confirmed its return to the top tier of endurance racing in 2014
