Toyota Gazoo Racing technical director Pascal Vasselon has said that the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids will be free to race without team interference for the final round of the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain marks the first time in championship history that just two LMP1 cars have been entered into the championship’s top class, and the first time that Toyota has faced no competition since joining the championship in 2012.
Since the departure of Audi and Porsche from the championship, Toyota has faced competition from various privateer LMP1 outfits, including Rebellion, Ginetta and SMP Racing. Both of their season 8 rivals, Rebellion and Ginetta, have opted not to compete in Bahrain, leaving only Toyota in the top category for LMP1’s final race.
Vasselon has said that, with just the pair of TS050s racing in WEC’s season finale, the team will not interfere in the race with team orders and will instead allow the cars freedom to run their own race.
“It makes this event quite unique,” Vasselon said. “It’s the first time we have no direct competition. It’s really the first time, so it means that we will have very different objectives here.
“The objective of the team will be to provide two very reliable cars to the two crews and to not interfere in the race.”
“Usually, we have, let’s say, team decisions, when we have to optimize the team result. This time, it will not happen, we will let the two cars race their own race and optimize their own strategy.”
“Definitely we want a fair fight from the beginning to the end without any interference from the team.”
With only two LMP1 cars entered for the season 8 finale, it effectively guarantees a podium finish for one of the six LMP2 cars entered into the eight-hour enduro.
The last time an LMP2 car finished on the overall podium in a WEC event occurred during the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans. During that event, two out of three Toyotas and one of the two Porsches retired from the race, while the other Toyota finished nine laps down.
The Porsche that ended up winning the race was the only LMP1 on the podium on that day, with second and third place overall taken by two LMP2 cars from Jackie Chan DC Racing.
