[WEC] Toyota LMP1 Discussion

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Emergency meeting.......

[chernaudi]

And in reality, what options do TMG have? Run 2018 at least, run a partial season (whatever races will be pre-LM, LM and Fuji if it's on the schedule next year), or follow Porsche out the door at the end of the season. I'd bet that it's been narrowed down to those three options.

[TF110]

I think there might be a little bit of exaggeration in that. I doubt there's an emergency over at Toyota. More likely what should they spend and if they'll help prop up the wec or leave too. I don't think it's likely they'll can the program this year like Porsche but I could see it happening at the end of 2018 unless they're really convinced by the ACO to stay.

[Starfish Primer]

They can do a reduced program in 2018 and derive resources to wrc and Dakar

[Sodemo]

Well Audi had virtually no competition until Peugeot entered in 2007, up until that point Audi was pretty much just running away with it for 7 years.

[rich07]

I'd be highly surprised if Toyota didn't do at least Le Mans next year with no Porsche, its an easier path to that victory they've wanted for so long. Mind you Porsche was here this year and look how high up the LMP2 leaders finished....

[roderick]

correct me if I'm wrong but does this mean Toyota cant take part in WEC on their own??
"At least two LMP1 manufacturers are required for the WEC to retain World Championship status, according to CEO Gerard Neveu, who along with ACO President Pierre Fillon and FIA President Jean Todt, signed a contract extension through 2020 at Silverstone in April."

if so, can they enter just Le Mans??

[bobec]

Originally Posted by insane014

Toyota would be insane to pull out. If they don't rack up LM wins like 5 times in a row right now when will they ever? History will always remember them as winners, not as winners that didn't have any competition. It worked out for Audi.

It's not quite the same for me. Audi entered with a "prototype of a prototype" and also a few roofed cars in 1999, when the field was packed, and managed to get a podium. Then everyone left, but one is left to wonder whether another manufacturer could have challenged the mature R8 (except Porsche, who were swayed from participating by VAG after having developed a car).

So while Toyota has been challenged by one, two, and on one occasion even three competitors, you can only guess if anyone could have built a car that could beat the R8.

Eventually the car raced Cadillac, Panoz, Bentley and some private teams - yes, not the stiffest competition, but dominating from the first year that a car participates is still something - in fact, brand new cars usually don't even finish. Also, the car raced for 6 years with some minor changes, and that includes two private wins in 2004 and 2005. 2005 is especially valuable, since the R8s were penalized down by the regulations.

2006 had one excitement - the first time a diesel raced at Le Mans. I'm sure a lot of people must have wondered what's wrong with them to come up with the idea.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by roderick

correct me if I'm wrong but does this mean Toyota cant take part in WEC on their own??
"At least two LMP1 manufacturers are required for the WEC to retain World Championship status, according to CEO Gerard Neveu, who along with ACO President Pierre Fillon and FIA President Jean Todt, signed a contract extension through 2020 at Silverstone in April."

if so, can they enter just Le Mans??

It appears WEC name will remain, and LMP1-H championship will be a "cup" instead, just like GTE was until this year.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost....&postcount=224

[AoB Special Stage]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Well Audi had virtually no competition until Peugeot entered in 2007, up until that point Audi was pretty much just running away with it for 7 years.

Originally Posted by DSC

In the meantime, whilst that gets sorted out we could have a WEC, and Le Mans, reminiscent of the old days, where customer R8s or a single factory faced off against plucky Pescarolo.

And if that happens, then we can, and will, party like it’s 2006!

[TF110]

Put this in the lmp1 thread https://twitter.com/dsceditor/status/890870732120608768. Those "emergency meeting" reports don't seem to be right. I figured as much because they already had talks internally about a situation like this arriving.

[Akrapovic]

Yeah, there's no doubt Toyota will have a plan for if this happens. It's a shame those reports got posted on major news sites again.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Yeah, there's no doubt Toyota will have a plan for if this happens. It's a shame those reports got posted on major news sites again.

Seems like they just want to continue with the bad news and feed off the negative of the Porsche announcement.

[AoB Special Stage]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Yeah, there's no doubt Toyota will have a plan for if this happens. It's a shame those reports got posted on major news sites again.

I get the feeling those reports were written in advance, and fired out the door immediately after Porsche's decision was made public.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by TF110

Seems like they just want to continue with the bad news and feed off the negative of the Porsche announcement.

There's a podcast I listen to, which has absolutely nothing to do with this thread, but it did make a point that's relevant (it's called Talking Tesla, and it's quite funny).

The ways news works now is when something new is happening (like WEC, or Porsche joining, or in the case of this podcast, Tesla making electric cars), the headlines are overly sensationalist positive - because that gets the clicks. "Look at this amazing thing!"

Once that amazing thing has happened, you won't keep getting clicks from the same headlines. So you need to find something bad, and sensationalized that. So the same website that declared Tesla the best thing ever, will then tell you Tesla is a huge failure. We've got Porsche pulling out, but that isn't negative enough - we need to throw in some more stuff!

Basically, exactly what you've just said. Something negative has happened, so we need to compound the negativity for clicks. We need to, quite literally, make up nonsense, to get the clicks. By tomorrow, Toyota will have not only pulled out, they will have petrol bombed Le Mans race control.

[TheMightyM]

Stephen Kibey, reporting for Racer:

There was a staff meeting at Toyota on Friday to ensure everyone was aware of the news. It was not a "crisis meeting," but rather a meeting to re-evaluate its plan for the forthcoming WEC season. For the moment, its competition will come solely from non-hybrid privateer efforts in the class should it opt to continue racing in the WEC.

It is clear though, that without an LMP1 World Championship title for manufacturers, Toyota's chances of competing in 2018 full time are slim, and they are awaiting further information from the WEC and the ACO before final proposals and decisions are formulated on the full shape of its 2018 effort.

The full story is available here.

[tyronnezx]

Toyota is known to have strong pull out game

[carbsmith]

Toyota has only pulled out of Le Mans once ever, and that was to go race F1. (which isn't happening this time) They were the only manufacturer to stay all the way through the 90s with its much more dramatic collapse.

[chernaudi]

Toyota also pulled out of LM in 1994. Though that was probably in large part because that was the last year that Group C cars (albeit heavily BOP'd) were allowed to race at LM and they had no direct successor until the GT-One was developed.

And even their pull out in '99 was a year earlier than their initial plan.

[deggis]

SARD continued run the Supras after 1994, so I guess that's what was meant considering the class structure back then.

[carbsmith]

SARD had both a JGTC Supra and a special built GT1 car in '95-'96. TTE had left after 1993, it was only the SARD Group C cars (which had been racing in C2 all along) in 1994. They brought two MC8s in '97 but neither pre-qualified and TTE was back in 1998.

[Hiro]

Toyota and Mazda will strengthen their alliance by gaining stock of each other, which is reported to be announced next week.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update...nce-with-Mazda

[kvenom]

Murata has taken over as president of tmg and tgr from Toshio Sato with immediate effect.

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by kvenom

Murata has taken over as president of tmg and tgr from Toshio Sato with immediate effect.

I think this is a right decision
Leader of pu team Murata is most experienced about PU and enthusiastic

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Hiro

I think this is a right decision
Leader of pu team Murata is most experienced about PU and enthusiastic

He's the guy that lead the Tokachi 24hr hybrid race cars back in 2006 and won with the Supra in 2007. Now that he's in this position, I hope that the lmp1 program sees new life since that's basically his 'pet project'. Being head of all TMG, TRG that's quite a big role. A good guy for the position imo since he's the hybrid leader.