FIA Action: Silverstone Update – Toyota in Its Second Race Almost Scores a Win

[xcel]

First podium finish in just its second race.

Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - Aug 26, 2012

The Toyota TS030 Hybrid race car – Making waves in a good way at its UK LMP1 racing debut in the WEC Six Hours of Silverstone for the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Toyota in only its second FIA World Endurance Championship race secured second place and the fastest lap at the WEC Six Hours of Silverstone in Great Britain earlier today.

The driver line-up of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima in the #7 TS030 HYBRID made full use of a fast car to challenge the seasoned Audi drivers and their AWD hybrid turbo diesels (R18 e-tron quattro #1) and straight up turbo diesel (R18 ultra #2) throughout the exciting race.

Alex took the rolling start from third position but immediately fought his way into second when the Toyota Racing Hybrid delivered a decisive power boost as the green flag waved.

According to the Toyota PR, it was just 21 minutes in when he took the lead with a bold move in traffic. He handed over to Kazuki with the TS030 HYBRID firmly in the fight.

Kazuki delivered a strong stint, interrupted by a safety car period around the two-hour mark.

The battle at the front with the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro grew in intensity and, as the halfway point approached, Kazuki was briefly overtaken before instantly retaking the advantage one corner later.

Nico took over soon after and kept up the fight, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 139 before handing over the #7 TS030 HYBRID to Alex for a final stint of just under two hours.

Alex put in a series of fast laps to build a cushion over the third place car, allowing him to make a final short pit stop for fuel and rejoin in second with less than 30 minutes remaining.

The Toyota TS030 crossed the line some 55.675secs behind the Audi #1 car to lock down a solid second place finish for the team.

[2RR2NV]

wooot!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wxman]

Although I'm more of a diesel proponent than gas-hybrid, I'm actually happy that the Toyota hybrids are providing legitimate competition to the Audi diesels.

@Wayne - I'm perplexed by the results of the "Michelin GreenX Challenge" at Silverstone (http://www.lemans.org/wpphpFichiers/...ilverstone.pdf). I think the higher score is more "green"? If that's the case, the #2 Audi R18 Ultra is more "green" than either the #1 Audi R18 E-tron quattro or the #7 Toyota TS030 - Hybrid? Do you know how this "green" score is calculated?

[xcel]

Hi Wxman:

I am not exactly sure but I can bet it is GHGs exclusively. The detuned 3.7L V6 turbo diesel in the Audi's are efficient as all get out at maximum and dropping the e-tron quattro’s KERS like hybrid system and front end gear box probably makes the Ultra even more efficient. The TS030 is a gas engine and those things at maximum suck fuel like a whino with 50 less $’s leaving a liquor store.

Wayne

[wxman]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for your response. That's exactly what I find perplexing though. The #2 Audi, which according to the "results" page at http://www.fiawec.com/races/6-hours-...nd-chrono.html was the "Ultra" (it finished third behind the #7 Toyota and the #1 Audi E-tron quattro at Silverstone). According to the Michelin GreenX Challenge results, the #2 Audi finished "higher" (better?) than the #1 Audi, which was the hybrid version of essentially the same diesel engine. Is this correct?

[xcel]

Hi Wxman:

Yes, that is the final positions. I again suspect that the turbo diesel equipped R18 Ultra with its lower weight consumed less fuel than the turbo diesel hybrid equipped R18 e-tron quattro and a lot less than the gasoline hybrid equipped TS030.

Wayne

[xcel]

Hi Wxman:

On second thought, IIRC, the ALMS or FIA cars are ballasted to a certain weight so there would be no advantage. If so, it has to come from efficiency of the non-hybrid system although I am still at a loss as to why it would be more efficient. Have you seen any total fuel consumption figures for the cars anywhere?

Wayne

[wxman]

Hi Wayne,

No I haven't seen anything. IIRC, the R18 Ultra was getting another lap on the R18 E-trons in the 24 hours of Lemans (the non-hybrid diesels are allowed 2 liter greater fuel capacity per http://www.lemans.org/en/races/24h/d...-category.html). I wasn't able to see the race at Silverstone though, so there no way to gauge the fuel consumption by the number of laps they were able to complete.

[xcel]

Hi All:

Toyota’s TS030 Hybrid Quickest in Sao Paulo with Audi’s R18 e-tron Quattro clearly in the gun sights.

Toyota Racing set the fastest lap of the day at Interlagos during practice for the Six Hours of Sao Paulo, the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Saturday’s race marks the teams third in the WEC and comes three weeks after the previous round at Silverstone, in which the TS030 HYBRID took second and set a new lap record in the process. With Kazuki Nakajima remaining in Japan due to Super GT commitments, Alex Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre, on his first visit to the Interlagos track, share the #7 TS030 HYBRID in Brazil.

According to Toyota PR on the ground, Nicolas took the wheel to start the first 90-minute session and he immediately light rain causing the team to switch from dry to intermediate Michelin racing tires.

Nicolas worked on refining the set-up of the TS030 HYBRID. Alex, driving on this track for the first time since 2006, took over with 12 minutes remaining.

The roles were reversed in second practice, with Alex starting the session.

Following a long first stint, he tried out various aerodynamic and mechanical setups before handing over to Nicolas for the final 10 minutes.

Using the significant power boost of the TOYOTA HYBRID System - Racing, whose super capacitor is charged in five designated hybrid braking zones, Nicolas set the fastest time of the day, 0.438 seconds faster than the fastest Audi R18 turbo diesel AWD hybrid!

Wayne

[xcel]

Hi Wxman:

I came across some fuel consumption figures for the R18 e-tron quattro at Le Mans:

The Audi R18-208 took the checkered flag on Sunday at 15.00 after 378 laps and 5151.762 km (3,201.16 miles).

The consumption results for the winning R18 e-tron quattro underline the potential of hybrid technology on the track. The winners were considerably faster than last year’s R18s with an average speed of 133.26 mph compared with 125.06 mph in 2011. Even so, their R18 e-tron quattro consumed an average of around ten percent less fuel than the R18 TDI competing in 2011!

Wayne