The never ending Toyota return to Le Mans (LMP1) Saga

[gucom]

At the risk of taking this discussion even further off topic, I think Jenson Button would be an amazing sportscar driver, he's known for being able to preserve tires and generally be very smooth and kind to the car, and yet he's clearly fast enough to be F1 world champion material. It's gonna be a while before he quits F1 though, given the way he's been doing recently.

[Tim the Grey]

Second that. Given a couple of bits of better luck this year, and Seb may not be suffering a hangover just yet...

Just think what Honda might have achieved if the job had been done better 5 or 6 years back? Ah, what might have been.

So, is he testing a Toyota, now???

I return you to your topic.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by gucom

At the risk of taking this discussion even further off topic, I think Jenson Button would be an amazing sportscar driver, he's known for being able to preserve tires and generally be very smooth and kind to the car, and yet he's clearly fast enough to be F1 world champion material. It's gonna be a while before he quits F1 though, given the way he's been doing recently.

I completely agree about JB he would be perfect. It is interesting to see how F1 drivers fare after they call time on their careers. Like you say he has years left in him but I'm not sure he would necessarily have the urge to compete outside of that world. I'd love to be proven wrong because he would be a huge asset to sportscars.

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by Simmi

I completely agree about JB he would be perfect. It is interesting to see how F1 drivers fare after they call time on their careers. Like you say he has years left in him but I'm not sure he would necessarily have the urge to compete outside of that world. I'd love to be proven wrong because he would be a huge asset to sportscars.

The time that F1 drivers would've been interested in sportscars are over I think. When they finish their careers they just stop racing, unless they are young enough like wurz, fisichela and davidson.

[vyselegend]

Originally Posted by NelisB

The time that F1 drivers would've been interested in sportscars are over I think. When they finish their careers they just stop racing, unless they are young enough like wurz, fisichela and davidson.

Well, Peugeot has started a trend of importing the talents F1 didn't exploit, with a rather good rate of success. Villeneuve & Zonta hirings were failures, and Klien would have needed more experience and personal comitment, but Montagny & Davidson are an incredible assets to the team performance.
Wurz is another case, as he's a (still young) retiree, but he's very solid too.

I think this trend is going to generalise itself with the arrival of new manufacturers in LMP1, combined to the "global consciousness" of Le Mans racing resurgence. Professional drivers (and more to the point, their managers) won't have the same opinion of Endurance racing in a few years, and I can bet comming 2014 being a top Porsche LMP1 driver will be unanimely recognised as a better driving seat than a Virgin F1 seat (or HRT or whatever Colgate / Woolite / Pampers F1 team replaces it in 2014). Appart maybe at autosport.com lol ...

Anyway Toyota shouldn' have too much difficulty in draging world class drivers to their team, with their deep pockets. And if they sound commited enough (which I don't doubt)

[Simmi]

I think the average career of F1 drivers is pretty short so there will always be plenty around. The new 'World Championship' status could make the WEC the second most prestigious title to hold after F1.

[The Badger]

Love to see Barrichello in that Toyota .

Question is : Would Toyota be willing to put a lot of their faith in ex-F1 drivers . They should be quick but , not proven in sportscars , not brilliant team players and not a hell of a lot of experiance with traffic either ?

[gustavobamba]

Why not consider Pedro Lamy, he will add experience to the team, and bring some of the Peugeot secrets

[Matador]

Driver guesses and we haven't even seen the car? lol I like.... How about

Lotterer, Iida, Glock

Wakisaka, Couto, Nakajima

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by MatadorRacing_F1

Driver guesses and we haven't even seen the car? lol I like.... How about

Lotterer, Iida, Glock

Wakisaka, Couto, Nakajima

With the lack of a car what else can we speculate on?

[porman]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Im glad he doesnt like it . Id rather not see a premadonna like him there , slamming Le Mans . He made his name there ..... forgot about that did he .

I reckon all the drivers who love the place , far outweigh what that spoiled arrogant little brat has to say about it .

I completely agree with you. Le Mans does not need him and his race-craft is even more questionable than it was before. There are too many cars on track for someone as dangerous as him with an ego to boot.

I also agree with others here about Button. He has speed and a brain. While he may not ultimately be the fastest, I can see his driving style lending itself well to a longer race.

[DS"]

Regarding M.Schumacher: He's to loyal to Ferrari and Mercedes. In fact, he only went to Mercedes in 2010 just because he wanted to thank them for bringing him into this sport. But he just competed at Le Mans once, so he may want to try Le Mans once again. He isn't too old, just going towards 43. But I don't think that Schumacher would bother with GT racing. The record holder of F1 should compete for overall glories, so Schumacher can only race at LMP1. But since Mercedes is highly unlikely to return to Le Mans, Schumacher may only race with Ferrari, when they decide to build a LMP1 car. But Toyota? Are you serious?

Regarding the topic: There are many drivers with lots of open-wheel experience that could be available to Toyota. I think Toyota might go with these drivers:

Japanese Team
Kazuki Nakajima
Yuhi Sekiguchi
Hiroaki Ishiura

I admit that I haven't much knowledge about the Japanese motorsport scene. So I just took Nakajima (He's Toyota's favorite son anyway), a former F1 driver and best place Japanese driver in Formula Nippon, Sekiguchi, the 2011 All-Japan Formula 3 Champion and Ishiura, an experienced driver from Super GT. Well there might be a lot of alternatives there. Ara for example. But I think he's more linked to Team Goh and/or Nissan.

German Team
Timo Glock
Nico Hülkenberg/Lucas Luhr
André Lotterer

This may be just wishful thinking by me, but since Toyota runs its European motorsport operations from Germany, why not? Glock and Lotterer have already driven for Toyota, Hülkenberg is a talented driver, but his F1 career is in peril. On the other, Lucas Luhr might also be a good (If not better) choice, and he hasn't a contract with a factory. On the other hand, he raced a Nissan at FIA GT1. But this should still be a quick trio, with some genuine marketing for the German focus group.

International Team
Alexandre Premat
Kimi Raikkonen
Andre Couto

To be honest, I've just thrown around some international names. One with experiences in Le Mans, one former F1 world champion, and one international driver with links to Toyota. There might be a ton of possibilities.

But generelly, someone who adds more exciting to the battle between Audi and Peugeot is more than welcome. But I wait for an official confirmation by Toyota.

[colt513]

In terms of F1 drivers who I would like to see at Le Mans with toyota.

Kamui Kobayashi

[Dead-Eye]

Glock makes a lot of sense. I don't think he parted on bad terms with Toyota, and a factory sportscar drive must be more attractive than racing for 18th in F1.

Kobayashi may be too much of a sprint racer for sportscars, and I don't see him leaving F1 in the foreseeable future.

[alexkiller8]

if like the gt-one program and the f1 program, this new project will be based in germany, just forget about to see a lot of japanese guys in paddock and line-ups... remembering that we're talking about the nothingness because nothing is still confirmed i think that toyota will follow the peugeot way: expert and retired f1 drivers backuped by a team of testers and young factory drivers.

So i see:

lineup #1 (ex.f1 drivers)
-klien
-yomamoto
-heidfeld

lineup #2 (a sort of junior team, most of them from formula nippon)
- Kazuya Oshima
- Andrea Caldarelli
- Yuji Kunimoto

lineup #3 (trusted and long term toyota drivers who can help in the developing usually super GT drivers and usefull to le mans, a sort of LM #2 audi lineup)
- daisuke ito
- Juichi Wakisaka
- Hiroaki Ishiura

[Mal]

It will be interesting to see what happens to Lotterer as I would be very surprised if Audi are not trying to tie up his long term future.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Dead-Eye

and a factory sportscar drive must be more attractive than racing for 18th in F1.

I'm not so sure to be honest.

[deggis]

Neither am I, especially with young drivers. When a driver gets out of F1 he is usually out for good.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by deggis

Neither am I, especially with young drivers. When a driver gets out of F1 he is usually out for good.

Glock will be 30 next year...certainly not too young to start thinking about life after F1.

[vlad1977]

Originally Posted by NelisB

With the lack of a car what else can we speculate on?

ENGINE
What do you think, diesel or petrol?
I am pretty sure they will have some sort of hybrid sistem.

[NelisB]

Originally Posted by vlad1977

ENGINE
What do you think, diesel or petrol?
I am pretty sure they will have some sort of hybrid sistem.

I think they will go with petrol. All of their cars that have hybrid systems have them coupled to petrol engines. I would find it strange if they come out with a Diesel. I do agree that they will most likely be entering a car with a hybrid system on one of it's cars.

[edit]Forgot about Lexus. They offer the CT200H with a diesel+hybrid[/edit]

[AGD]

Originally Posted by NelisB

I think they will go with petrol. All of their cars that have hybrid systems have them coupled to petrol engines. I would find it strange if they come out with a Diesel. I do agree that they will most likely be entering a car with a hybrid system on one of it's cars.

[edit]Forgot about Lexus. They offer the CT200H with a diesel+hybrid[/edit]

I would not be surprised if they go with a small turbo 4 with a hybrid. Maybe a return of something like they ran in IMSA. A package like that without the hybrid did win the Daytona 24 Hours back in the day.

On the driver front, whatever happened to Giorgio Pantano?

[TF110]

Coupe or Open top? I hope its a coupe. Colors? Definitely RED and WHITE, sponsors? Panasonic, Denso...

[deggis]

Originally Posted by TF110

Coupe or Open top? I hope its a coupe.

I can't believe open top is even an option for a serious* big money** effort.

* **AMR-One doesn't count obviously

[Japanese Samurai]

This regulation must be revised for Toyota.
The answer is petrol and hybrid!
http://www.lemans.org/en/races/inter...ions_5410.html