The never ending Toyota return to Le Mans (LMP1) Saga

[DeathOrGlory]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

About 2nd car of Toyota,
According to Ausosport,
Hiroaki Ishiura and Kohei Hirate (SGT/FN drivers) will be a possible candidate.
Autosport says that they are the test driver of the hybrid system.
And in my opinion, Loic Duval will be a potential candidate, too.
It is because he will transfer to Toyota team (SGT/FN) next season.

I was impressed with Ishiura this year. Ditto with Hirate. Ito or Wakisaka is another good choice, considering their experience.

[Simmi]

Can't wait to see who they bring in. An all-Japanese team just seems right to me, but either way I want to see these talents in sportscars. Firstly I'd just love them to actually admit/confirm the second car. Hopefully they will do so when the machine is revealed to the public.

[TF110]

I think they should get Akira Iida in there. He needs to be piloting one of these LMP's. He was one of their LFA Nurb 24H racers.

[Articus]

It makes my mouth water knowing that the Toyota LMP exist and has been seen by other human beings....I can only imagine what it looks like.

[Thaw Daggerslash]

Excited over the speculation of the second car, I'm aiming to go to WEC at Silverstone so hopefully they have second car running from Le Mans onwards! Wasn't really a fan of the way Toyota ran their F1 programme, but think I'll be supporting them this year.

[TF110]

They just needed better drivers in F1. And some better decision making during the race. Bahrain 09 comes to mind. Tire strategy was botched. Spa 2009, Trulli crashing out, same with Brazil. Hopefully the race strategy won't be that big of a deal. I suspect that teaming with Oreca will help a lot with things like this.

[Thaw Daggerslash]

Originally Posted by TF110

They just needed better drivers in F1. And some better decision making during the race. Bahrain 09 comes to mind. Tire strategy was botched. Spa 2009, Trulli crashing out, same with Brazil. Hopefully the race strategy won't be that big of a deal. I suspect that teaming with Oreca will help a lot with things like this.

I actually think Glock did a very good job for the team, but at the risk of taking this off topic, I'll simply say that I hope they don't get into the same mentality that was their undoing in F1 - throwing a heap of money at it in the hopes that'll bring them success.

[TF110]

Glock had good race pace, but couldn't qualify well. Trulli was almost the direct opposite. Take Bahrain 09 for example again. Glock was fueled for 2 laps less than Trulli, yet Trulli took the pole while Glock qualified 2nd. Singapore that year was another example. The car finished 2nd yet he barely qualified in the top 8.

[gwyllion]

According to http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsjan12.html the rollout of the Toyota LMP1 is scheduled for next year at Paul Ricard.

Toyota LMP1 sooner than later? We're hearing the first chassis is nearly complete and that Paul Ricard has been rented out early next week by TMG. We're thus told the roll out will be next week some time, not later in the month as earlier anticipated.

In the meantime on http://twitter.com/alex_wurz you can follow how Wurz is airbrushing his helmets.

Originally Posted by @alex_wurz

Ah, lots of questions arrived about Helmet. The design was done by myself when I was 18. Since 2000 I paint my own helmets. 1 lid =3day work

[gustavobamba]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

According to http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsjan12.html the rollout of the Toyota LMP1 is scheduled for next year at Paul Ricard.

In the meantime on http://twitter.com/alex_wurz you can follow how Wurz is airbrushing his helmets.

So, could we have some paparazzi photos next week ????

I Think thath will look very different from the sktech´s Toyota release... a rebellion more acurate i supposed!!!!

[CTD]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

According to http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsjan12.html the rollout of the Toyota LMP1 is scheduled for next year at Paul Ricard.

I REALLY hope that's not true

[Acid09]

Like I suspected, that public launch won't be the first outing of the car, they will probably get substantial testing done until then.

[alexkiller8]

" Ah, lots of questions arrived about Helmet. The design was done by myself when I was 18. Since 2000 I paint my own helmets. 1 lid =3day work "

cool story bro....

about toyota lmp1, i don't expect to see it before sebring

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

about toyota lmp1, i don't expect to see it before sebring

Toyota has already scheduled a public launch in late January.

The question is, will they be at Sebring? If the car already runs in early January, it's probably a possibility.

[CTD]

The first public appearance has been planned long ago to be in the last week of January and will be at Paul Richard.
There is no need for speculation there.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by CTD

I REALLY hope that's not true

Stupid typo: next week

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

" about toyota lmp1, i don't expect to see it before sebring

Eemmm ..... Its Oreca running this show . That car will have heaps of miles on it by the time it hits Sebring ..... Mark my words .

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Acid09

The question is, will they be at Sebring? If the car already runs in early January, it's probably a possibility.

I think that Sebring will be too early. Just look how much testing the other two manufacturers did before their race debut. The R18 started testing in November 2010, but Audi decided that it was not ready for Sebring and used the R15+ instead. The new 908 started testing in the summer of 2010.

[Acid09]

True but didn't the 908 HDi FAP launched in January and raced at Monza in early April? Not that much more preparation time and they were completely new to sports cars while ORECA has experience.

Putting the car through Sebring would surely be helpful to iron out the kinks.

[alexkiller8]

for expect to see i meant in race!

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Acid09

True but didn't the 908 HDi FAP launched in January and raced at Monza in early April? Not that much more preparation time and they were completely new to sports cars while ORECA has experience.

Yes, Oreca has extensive experience with designing LMP cars, but they are only payed to run the car.

Anyway the step that Toyota is doing from F1 to LMP1 is a lot smaller than Peugeot's move from WRC to LMP1.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

Anyway the step that Toyota is doing from F1 to LMP1 is a lot smaller than Peugeot's move from WRC to LMP1.

So you agree that Sebring is a possibility given the fact that Peugeot got the 908 FAP race ready by April with less experience?

Aren't F1 cars usually launched in January as well just to race in March? Sounds like the scheduling TMG is used to.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Acid09

So you agree that Sebring is a possibility given the fact that Peugeot got the 908 FAP race ready by April with less experience?

Aren't F1 cars usually launched in January as well just to race in March? Sounds like the scheduling TMG is used to.

Please, F1 and Sportscars are VERY different, and comparing them that way makes no sense.

A F1 team got MUCH larger budgets than sportscars.
A F1 car doesn't have to last near as long as a Sportscar.
All F1 teams have build F1 cars the year before, Toyota have build none. (and when a F1 team haven't build a F1 car the year before, they are hopeless almost all year!).

IF Toyota choses to Run a Sebring, we will see no more than a test effort. But i do think this is unlikely, as the publicity loss will be much less if the run the car as a test the week after.

Toyota wants to win this this time around, and have probably learned a lot by the mistakes of Peugeot, Audi and AMR! - Therefor we will not see Toyota do anything over ambitiously, which could risk the success of the program.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Acid09

So you agree that Sebring is a possibility given the fact that Peugeot got the 908 FAP race ready by April with less experience?

For the old 908 there were 105 days between the rollout (31/12/2006) and the race debut (15/04/2007). If you assume that the Toyota car will roll out next week Monday (9/1/2012). There will only be 68 days before the Sebring 12 hours (17/3/2012). It can probably be done, but it will be very close.

And do not forget that Sebring is known as a car breaker and that TMG only has experience with the perfectly flat F1 tracks.

Originally Posted by Acid09

Aren't F1 cars usually launched in January as well just to race in March? Sounds like the scheduling TMG is used to.

Yes, but in F1 cars tend to be evolutions of the cars from the previous year. When the rules are changed "radically" (ban of double diffuser, blown exhaust, ...) the best teams with massive experience sometimes struggle.

Originally Posted by CTD

IF Toyota choses to Run a Sebring, we will see no more than a test effort. But i do think this is unlikely, as the publicity loss will be much less if the run the car as a test the week after.

Running after the race, like Audi did with the R15+ and R18, makes more sense for me as well.

[Simmi]

I know Sebring is a good track for shaking the weaknesses out of a car but I can't imagine they would head over there to simply test the car if they weren't racing. Surely they could get a lot more Le Mans-specific work done by staying at Paul Ricard.