Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Le Mans legend to bow out in Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s three-time Le Mans-winning TS050 Hybrid car will compete for the final time this weekend, when the 2019 - 2020 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season concludes with the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Since its debut in 2016, the TS050 has a record of 33 WEC races, 18 wins, 15 pole positions and 14 fastest laps, as well as recording the fastest-ever lap of Le Mans. It also helped Toyota Gazoo Racing win the world championship in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

Following this week’s Bahrain race, the TS050 will head into retirement, to be replaced by a new car for the 2021 season, designed according to the new Hypercar regulations and based on the GR Super Sport road car currently in development.

The final race of the TS050 will be a showdown for the drivers’ world championship crown. The #8 car of reigning champions Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, lead the standings by seven points after their victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, in the #7 TS050, are behind in the title race for the first time this season following their misfortune at Le Mans, but they will compete at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) with a favourable success handicap.

Success handicaps were introduced this season to promote closer competition in LMP1 by imposing lap-time penalties based on the championship standings for all races, excluding Le Mans.

Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez have already won once this season in Bahrain, heading a Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two back in December 2019, while the team is looking for its third consecutive win in the Kingdom.

A compressed timetable sees a single practice session on Thursday evening before a busy Friday, which includes two practice sessions and qualifying. The eight-hour race, which takes place behind closed doors, begins at 2pm on Saturday and will end under BIC’s bright floodlights.

“Following the excitement of our third consecutive Le Mans win, we go to Bahrain deter- mined to say goodbye to our TS050 Hybrid in the best possible way,” said team president Hisatake Murata.

“We have achieved so much and experienced so many emotions with this car, so we all feel some sadness that the TS050 HYBRID has reached the end of its career. But the new Hypercar category is coming and this is very exciting.”

Buemi commented: “The TS050 means a lot to me, it is a big part of our three Le Mans wins and our World Championship last season. I am really proud with what we have achieved as a team with this car but I prefer to look to the future and we are fighting for another World Championship on Saturday.”

Kobayashi commented: “I think it will be a good battle between the two TS050 Hybrids. Both crews want to win the World Championship so we will be pushing each other very hard. Whoever wins the race will win the title but it’s not as easy as that; eight hours is a long time so we need to make sure we have clean race, and get to the end without trouble.”