[WEC] Toyota LMP1 Discussion

[canaglia]

There will be a world driver title next year?
Anyway, guess toyota doesn't care too much about driver title, surely all the efforts will be to finally win le mans (twice in one season this time).

[hondafan37]

Alonso could be in almost all superseason races of WEC.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/1...at-toyota.html

[hondafan37]

Eric Boullier (McLaren racing director) said: WEC program would be a distraction for Alonso.
http://www.racer.com/f1/item/145636-...lonso-boullier

[deggis]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/41947568

"Le Mans is agreed," said a source close to Toyota. "The rest of the season is still being negotiated but it looks like he will do most of the races."

Toyota's participation in the WEC next season has not been officially confirmed but sources say the company will continue. The team, which is based in Germany, already has a budget for 2018 and is developing its new car.

(F1 reporter Andrew Benson)

[TF110]

There's only 5 races next year. Not sure what McLaren are worried about The super season is split between 2 years. So it won't interrupt his F1 participation (only conflict is Fuji 6hr and Austin f1). I think he's a lot more likely to win the championship in the Toyota than in his McLaren in 2018/19

[bentley speed 8]

Those last few updates really helped Toyota get ahead of Porsche. Shame they couldn't introduce them earlier, as otherwise the championship could have gone down to the wire.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by bentley speed 8

Those last few updates really helped Toyota get ahead of Porsche. Shame they couldn't introduce them earlier, as otherwise the championship could have gone down to the wire.

I think so too. But what I believe is that losing at Le Mans pretty much sealed the championship to Porsche. Winning Nurburgring was a must for them to keep the fight, but nope

[hondafan37]

Recently Pechito Lopez said on Campeones, Argentina's radio program:
The Toyota 7 was in a different strategy like the Toyota 8. The 7 car used tires softer than car 8, this allowed them to be faster at the beginning of the session but then they suffered in the second part.
The same happened in the qualify with the 2 cars with different types of tires.
He took a lot of precautions with traffic to avoid problems like the previous race.

[TF110]

Alonso is now CONFIRMED for the Toyota test! This will be interesting to see how his lap times are and if he has anything more to say about his future in the wec/Toyota. Can't wait.

[roderick]

Toyota played very well through out the week.
At qualify, they on purposely used only one set of tires for Nakajima and Anthony to have more cleaner set of tires for the actual race. On the other hand, porsche used 3 sets just to get the pole. (there are limited number of tire sets available for qualify and in the race thus using 3 sets made porsche not being able to change the type of their tires on the main day)
As same as shanghai, Toyota used 2 cars with different tires to achieve maximum performance from one of them and pass on the info to other car.

Oh, and as of Alonso. He was at Toyota garage during the race yesterday

[kvenom]

Best time of 1:44.7 so far for Alonso

[Aysedasi]

That's not bad at all.

[S griffin]

Hopefully he'll get that seat for Le Mans, he's certainly proved he's up to it. Shows why he's one of the greatest of all time

[Deleted]

IMO a substantial mistake has been made here in not covering the test professionally, now that Alonso is there. I mean not necessarily by Toyota, but by the series at least. They could've gained a GREAT audience (ironically, much bigger than for the 6 Hours itself I reckon ). The greatest business decision IndyCar did this year was to do that entire media extravagance for him and his testing program.

[Aysedasi]

Absolutely agree. That's a ball dropped there for sure.

[Deleted]

I mean at the VERY LEAST they could've youtube-streamed some CCTV cameras around the circuit and have choppy onboard footage and whatever, but no.

I wonder if United Autosports does any different when he presumably tests at Aragon in couple of days. Zak Brown is a businessman first...

[Adam43]

I’m going to quote Alonso from May year. You really have nothing to do:

https://www.sportvideos.tv/fernando-...thing-to-do-d/



(Sorry for the end bit of the video)

[Deleted]

DSC: "Media interest was high over the test but Alonso’s team had made it clear there would be no comment during the day, the Spaniard predictably sidestepping those who spent much of the day (equally predictably!) attempting to doorstep him."

It really makes no sense to me. It's like they're actively pursuing in not exploiting the best possible PR opportunity they've had (beyond Le Mans weeks) in their entire campaign since 2012.

And as for his own words, yes modesty always but it's not only the first time he's driven LMP1 but also first in multi-class racing and (I think) with coupe of any kind

Also if you want to stay silent, why not just rent Paul Ricard for a week and do secretive testing there instead. Sure it would get leaked sooner or later just like the seat fitting, but no-one would get to the paddock and take photos and interviews and stuff

[insane014]

Originally Posted by Chiana

DSC: "Media interest was high over the test but Alonso’s team had made it clear there would be no comment during the day, the Spaniard predictably sidestepping those who spent much of the day (equally predictably!) attempting to doorstep him."

It really makes no sense to me. It's like they're actively pursuing in not exploiting the best possible PR opportunity they've had (beyond Le Mans weeks) in their entire campaign since 2012.

And as for his own words, yes modesty always but it's not only the first time he's driven LMP1 but also first in multi-class racing and (I think) with coupe of any kind

Also if you want to stay silent, why not just rent Paul Ricard for a week and do secretive testing there instead. Sure it would get leaked sooner or later just like the seat fitting, but no-one would get to the paddock and take photos and interviews and stuff

Most likely Alonso's contract with Honda doesn't allow him to do any public stuff for anything unrelated to Honda.

[Aysedasi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc6dVbrImOo

A taster only though.......

[Acid09]

It was easy for Indycar to make a big PR push since Alonso was driving a Honda-powered car there, no red tape whatsoever.

Not only does Alonso drive a non-Honda here, he's driving a car of one of their direct competitors. So not hard to see where this is coming from.

The reactions from some journalists have been hilarious, especially John Dagys who even went as far to claim that "Alonso has no future in sports car racing like this" in a now-deleted tweet. Yes, I'm sure Alonso's future at Toyota will be judged on whether or not he bothers to speak to Mr Dagys. Some people really need to keep their ego in check.

[chernaudi]

I don't know why Honda marketing is a big deal since next weekend is McLaren's last race with them as engine supplier. The new deal with Renault has been a done deal for weeks now.

However, Alonso has some reputation (mostly from his Renault factory team days) for being cold and distant.

I can understand him not wanting his presence to take away from the rookie test or what TMG are up to, but he had to know that his presence there was going to attract attention, given the rumors of the TMG deal going on for a few weeks. DSC even mentioned that Alonso's PR people pretty effectively stonewalled them.

[Aysedasi]

I've been a sports car fan over many years now and have read and enjoyed many things on the internet. Somehow my mouse button never pauses for a click when I see that JD is the source......

[Adam43]

McLaren's last race with them is next weekend, not last weekend. It's probably something similar to the days when racers had to test in non branded suits and helmets. Or maybe low key to not rub it in. Who knows.

As for waiting until a later test, well this was a decent opportunity. Very convenient. Plenty of time to ramp up the publicity later. You just can't run with this being an outrage without knowing even half of the situation.

[Victor_RO]

2018/19 participation confirmed at the WEC banquet: http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/t...rn-for-201819/

Third car unlikely for Le Mans though.