Toyota ran a trouble-free race at the FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring, with no technical issues for either car, a team spokesman confirmed to MotorsportWeek.com.
The team finished the race with a solid 1-2 at the American racetrack, known for its bumpy surface which can often cause cars to have reliability issues, as we saw for numerous machines across all three classes in the 8 hour race. At one point it seemed as though the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid may have been having electrical issues, failing to pull off under hybrid power from a pitstop — but a Toyota team spokesman confirmed this wasn’t the case.
Toyota’s trouble free Sebring run will be an ominous sign to the Japanese-German team’s rivals, in particular Peugeot, who had technical and reliability issues all race, with the two Peugeot 9X8s finishing last overall after spending lengthy amounts of time in the pits for both cars.
An old adage in motorsport is if you can run reliably at Sebring for 12 hours, you can run anywhere for 24 hours — again, sure to give Toyota’s rivals cause for concern, especially for WEC’s crown jewel race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in June.
That said, while MotorsportWeek.com could not confirm with the other Hypercar manufacturers who finished the race in Hypercar on how reliable their cars were during the race, to onlookers, Ferrari, Cadillac and Porsche ran trouble-free races in terms of reliability. The three were just lacking speed compared to Toyota, although with these three teams having new cars that is understandable.
