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While Porsche topped the time sheets at The Prologue (the opening test for 2016), early signs from Toyota suggest there could be a few surprises in store as the WEC field heads to Le Mans.
Porsche looked to have covered all bases over the winter, with their 2016-spec 919 Hybrid not only quick, but on 2015 pace despite an eight per cent fuel cut.
That alone suggests very good efficiency combined with the lengthy number of laps; mechanical fragility nearly stonewalling their 2015 championship.
Reigning co-champ Brendon Hartley claimed a time of 1 minute 37.445 seconds, which was the quickest overall during the two days of running.
Toyota Gazoo Racing though were well and truly back on track with their TS050 Hybrid, placing second ahead of the latest Audi R18, with Kamui Kobayashi and Benoit Treluyer setting the times. The Toyota set a succession of purple sector times during the two days, but then chose not to complete the laps. The team haven’t been this coy since the start of their championship year in 2014, suggesting confidence.
While Toyota’s new TS050 was a vast improvement on their 2015 WEC challenger, 2014 World Champion Anthony Davidson was circumspect about the Japanese team’s chances heading into the first round at Silverstone – despite being the meat in a German manufacturer sandwich.
“We’re already closer [to Porsche] than where we were this time last year, but it’s not quite close enough, it feels,” Davidson said to Motorsport.com.
“We can only really go by the lap-times that we see and the odd glimpse that you have of their car on the track, but most of the time, when you see them on the circuit, you are running tyres that are on different life. And it’s easy to jump to conclusions.”
One area that Toyota excelled in was straight-line speed, recording a top speed of 340.7 k/ph compared to Audi’s 310 k/ph and Porsche’s 301 k/ph.
While there’s no doubt both Audi and Porsche will feature revised aero packages for Le Mans, the 30-40 k/ph difference suggests Toyota have La Sarthe in their sites in June.
“We had consistently the fastest middle sector and that proves that our straightline speed is good and that the way that we get there is good,” continued Davidson. “That’s one area we massively struggled last year. We were losing a second in the straight line last year here and now we’re the ones setting the pace in that sector.
“And it just feels like a much more efficient car than last year’s as well, aerodynamically. So who knows? Maybe we’ll be right there.”
Davidson admitted moving up to the 8MJ category was a big step, and one that may put Toyota at a technical disadvantage in terms of developing the technology at the rate required to overhaul Porsche.
“They were already at the 8MJ category,” he said. “They’re gonna hone that. It allows them to work on things that they’ve ironed out and we’re still working on. It’s up to everyone else to try and catch them and bridge that gap.”
Audi did the least amount of running with their new R18, encountering a few gremlins, but was however “no show of strength in respect of the season opener at Silverstone in three weeks’ time,” claimed Dieter Gass, Deputy Head of Audi Sport.
“We have made many excellent findings during this test, which we must now implement technically.”
Reading between the lines of press release statements, Audi haven’t been this far behind the eight-ball since Adam was a theological embryo, and will have their work cut out at Silverstone.
One only hopes their ‘to do’ list is a lot shorter than their Formula One entry list of demands.
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