[WEC] Toyota LMP1 Discussion

[XtC24]

I thought at first, he meant traffic as Tetris ��

[S griffin]

Shame no Lopez, but hopefully he'll be back in time

[gustavobamba]

Well... how can we explain Low Downforce and high drag config. from Toyota are with similar lap times in FP3?!?!?!?

Sandbag?!?!? or a hybrid High drag config?!?

[kvenom]

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

Well... how can we explain Low Downforce and high drag config. from Toyota are with similar lap times in FP3?!?!?!?

Sandbag?!?!? or a hybrid High drag config?!?

Its obviously the blown diffuser

[blankfile]

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

Well... how can we explain Low Downforce and high drag config. from Toyota are with similar lap times in FP3?!?!?!?

Sandbag?!?!? or a hybrid High drag config?!?

Spa is always a track where high and low downforce kits both work.

[GasperG]

I think it's normal that #9 took a little more time to find optimal setup. Looking at sector times diference to #7 and #8 is obvious.

[chernaudi]

Not in previous years. From 2011 to now, the only team that really benefited from running in high downforce spec was Audi in 2013. That was of course in the air restrictor era, and the LM spec cars from Audi and Toyota weren't hugely faster than the high downforce cars.

[GasperG]

In previous years they had 3rd aero package that was more or less made just for SPA.

[Adam43]

Yes. It's a track in the cross over of the two kits. A low downforce kit set to have as high downforce as it can works as well as a high downforce kit as slippery as it can be. They will tend to set lap times in different ways though. Check out the sector times, or top speeds or corner speeds.

Edit: I see there are loads of posts after the one I replied too!

[TF110]

Looks like bad luck hit the Toyota #7. The Kolles spun right in front of Kobayashi at the end of his first hot lap coming out of the bus stop. Without that they probably had pole using his last sector time from the previous lap. He lost over 4 seconds there. Going to be an interesting race surely!

[chernaudi]

I still think that Toyota might have an edge in race pace possibly, but I don't know. We do have to consider that Silverstone has traditionally been one of Toyota's weaker tracks due to a lack of hard braking zones for their dual KERS systems. But Porsche seem to still have the edge on strategy possibly, as well as it being possible, based on qualifying, that they're sandbagging a bit to try and psych Toyota.

[TF110]

I don't see any sandbagging going on. FP3 pace showed Toyota's were able to do some 57's and 58's in race pace while Porsche did about the same 58's. Same thing Japanese Samurai linked to in the motorsport.com story when Koby did a 1:57 in practice with full fuel and new tires. The first stint will be one to watch, and so will the top speed of the #9. But Porsche also have a good top speed, when they want to.

[XtC24]

My bet for today:
7 or 8 will have some problems
and wilk not finish, 9 will be crashed by Kunimoto in traffic and the remaining Toyo could do me a favour and win ��.
But i think Porsche will get It.
Fuel consumption is very interesting to Watch before the next race.

[Akrapovic]

Wasn't the best start for his first race back was it.

[Adam43]

Perhaps should have braked a bit earlier.

[Japanese Samurai]

Hisatake Murata post race interview by jp.motorsport.com
https://jp.motorsport.com/wec/news/w...%81%9F-902875/

It was painful race for #7 drivers. they had two times huge handicaps.
I felt very sorry for them.
Yes, this is a race. But I don't believe a word like the luck.
The luck is something to get by ourselves.
#7's setup was perfect through this weekend.
So #8 used #7 setup in the qualifying.
However in the final race, #8 returned to original setup because #8 drivers feels comfortable it.
#9 had a problem in tire management.
Buemi could mark the good lap time in the final stage of the race of cool temperature.
However #9 couldn't run in potential speed. Yes, there are other reasons. (But I can't say that.)
Please expect good result of us in Le Mans.

[XtC24]

Yes!

1. Great that none of the cars had reliability problems as far as I know.

2. Yuji, I am sorry that i had a doubt.
I think his weaker pace was due to extra careful driving in traffic, but it improved a little I think. It may be allright in Le Mans.

3. The pace of #9 was initially pretty good - check the best laps of the three cars - the nine was just as quick as #8.

4. Also very good news regarding fuel consumption - no difference to Porsche or am I missing something. Only the #9 was expected to be little less demanding, right?

I was wrong in every one of my predictions, so I am happy

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Japanese Samurai

Hisatake Murata post race interview by jp.motorsport.com
https://jp.motorsport.com/wec/news/w...%81%9F-902875/

It was painful race for #7 drivers. they had two times huge handicaps.
I felt very sorry for them.
Yes, this is a race. But I don't believe a word like the luck.
The luck is something to get by ourselves.
#7's setup was perfect through this weekend.
So #8 used #7 setup in the qualifying.
However in the final race, #8 returned to original setup because #8 drivers feels comfortable it.
#9 had a problem in tire management.
Buemi could mark the good lap time in the final stage of the race of cool temperature.
However #9 couldn't run in potential speed. Yes, there are other reasons. (But I can't say that.)
Please expect good result of us in Le Mans.

Thanks for the link. Just reading your summary and then the translated interview, Murata says that the tires were out of range at the end of the race on the #9. But the other reason he couldn't say... I wonder if he means they backed off a little bit. Because the car wasn't in contention for the win anyway and it was Kunimoto's first race.

[Simmi]

Will be interesting to see whether Toyota have pickup issues at LM which was something that Wurz reported when he was in the commentary box. At at least one pit stop you could see the #9 smoking heavily so I'm wondering if they are getting stuff lodged where it shouldn't be.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Will be interesting to see whether Toyota have pickup issues at LM which was something that Wurz reported when he was in the commentary box. At at least one pit stop you could see the #9 smoking heavily so I'm wondering if they are getting stuff lodged where it shouldn't be.

I think it was because of the temperatures. They might have experienced issues because the tires went out of range. The car isn't in higher downforce trim so they were sliding it also. The cooling has never been a problem before thanks to the kers on the axles, sounds like something that will be looked into. Should be interesting to see what they are doing come the test day.

[Hiro]

Was that just some rubber smoking on the brake? The crew seemed not caring it at all in the pit.

[TF110]

Thought this was interesting to read https://www.motorsport.com/wec/news/...eficit-904270/. The #8 crew should be able to match the pace of the #7, but they didn't. So what was the deal with the cars being that far apart?

[XtC24]

Seems like they do not know the reason yet which is kind of strange.

You wrote in the Spa thread "I'm more worried about Kunimoto Maybe there's still time to switch him with Hirakawa "

Do Toyota have an official reserve driver at all ?
Porsche does.
It makes even more sense in Toyota's case as they have two drivers with no experience at La Sarthe. I would be glad if they had some "Delaney" just in case.
I also think Lopez is more likely to do allright.

Hirakawa will be driving for some LMP2 or GT squad I think so it may be hard to get him.

[Victor_RO]

Hirakawa is the reserve driver. However, if a works LMP1 team needs to call on a reserve driver, they'll twist heaven and earth to make it happen; see Audi having to replace Duval with Gene in 2014, and Jota scrambling to find a replacement and getting Oliver Turvey on Thursday afternoon.

[hondafan37]

Pechito Lopez could be set to move to the No. 9 Toyota for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
http://sportscar365.com/lemans/leman...r-24h-le-mans/