Toyota eyes third car, but not until 2026
Toyota is evaluating an expansion of its presence in the World Endurance Championship – and not just for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Japanese manufacturer has revealed that an additional GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar, run under a different banner to the two Toyota Gazoo Racing factory entries as per series rules, is already under discussion for a full championship campaign.
But it wouldn’t happen until 2026. It is already too late to press the button on an extra car for next season.
“We see what Ferrari is doing with its customer or satellite car, and we like that,” said Toyota race director Rob Leupen. “Clearly running an extra car gives you more possibilities, so it is is something we are looking into. We are reviewing it.”
But Leupen stressed that it is already too late to make the decision for next year. “If we were going to do it next year, we would have had to have made the decision already, and at the moment nothing is decided,” he explained.
“It cannot be a short-term decision because we know what the lead times for all the components would be in the current circumstances.”
Leupen explained that if the decision was made to have an extra GR010 on the grid, he favours going the Ferrari route. AF Corse, the factory team, also runs the third car driven by works drivers Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman as well as Robert Kubica on what is officially a customer basis. That would mean the car being run in-house from the WEC team’s Cologne HQ.
Asked whether there would be room for an additional Toyota with a continued expansion of the Hypercar field for next year, when it looks certain that manufacturer teams will have to field two cars, Leupen pointed to Ferrari and Porsche. The German manufacturer has the largest full-season presence in Hypercar with the two Porsche Penske Motorsport factory 963 LMDHS, plus customer teams Jota and Proton Competition running three between them. “How many cars does Porsche run? How many cars does Ferrari run?” he asked. “So why should we not run three?”
The last time Toyota ran more than two cars came in 2017 when it entered an additional TS050 HYBRID LMP1 for Le Mans and, by way of preparation, the Spa 6 Hours WEC round the month before.