That the announcement was made was not a surprise, but the timing caught many off guard. Toyota had long been rumoured to be returning to Le Mans with full manufacturer support, but the public humiliation in the US over alleged unintended acceleration, and the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, should have put Toyota’s Le Mans ambitions off the agenda altogether.
Few, therefore, realised that the company could put together a racing programme as early as 2012, with a gasoline powered car and featuring hybrid technology, in the top class against Audi and Peugeot competing for overall honours.
The lure of hybrid technology in competition at Le Mans is clear to see. For Toyota, the first brand to hit the mass market with its Prius model, the opportunity to showcase such technology against established competition can clearly be translated into a global marketing campaign. In addition, the opportunity to develop performance hybrid technology is critical.
The lure of hybrid technology in competition at Le Mans is clear to see. For Toyota, the opportunity to showcase such technology against established competition can clearly be translated into a global marketing campaign.
Since 2000, Audi has presented its racing programme as a two-way flow of information between its racing and mainstream car production divisions. The R8 ran with FSI technology in 2001, now a common feature in its production cars. It won Le Mans with an all-aluminium diesel engine in 2006, 2007 and 2008, all the time feeding information back to production.
Peugeot has now followed the same path, stating that it, too, needs that flow of information with its diesel hybrid technology to give its racing programme focus. In 2008, it ran a diesel 908 Le Mans car fitted with a hybrid system. It was an experiment rather than a project, but the team has now started proper testing in preparation for a race debut, expected in 2012.
Toyota’s team and drivers have yet to be announced, but the project will be run from TMG’s factory in Cologne, Germany, where the Formula One programme was housed. There is no decision on whether the car will be a Toyota or a Lexus.
After the cessation of its Formula One programme in 2009, Toyota clearly needed another global racing programme, preferably with a World Championship title, and preferably in a series that would allow it to develop and showcase its hybrid systems.
Audi and Peugeot have long feared that reducing the performance of their racing diesel engines to the level of a customer team with a gasoline engine will leave them as a sitting duck for a manufacturer with advanced gasoline technology and budget.
After the cessation of its Formula One programme in 2009, Toyota clearly needed another global racing programme, preferably with a World Championship title, and preferably in a series that would allow it to develop and showcase its hybrid systems. The FIA World Endurance Championship, signed, sealed and delivered in June, was the catalyst for the decision on Le Mans.
And, no doubt it still rankles within the boardrooms of the Japanese OEMs that, despite years of trying, and a huge investment from Toyota and Nissan in 1999, of their number only Mazda has actually won at Le Mans, and that was 20 years ago.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Andrew Cotton has covered international endurance racing for more than 15 years and currently is editor of Racecar Engineering.
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