FIA World Endurance Championship
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez took victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship, opening the Hypercar era of endurance racing with their second title together. Driving the Toyota GR010, which also dominated the overall results from the start, the trio started the season third at Spa after Kobayashi went off, finished second at Portimao in June, and then won at Monza as their team mates Brendon Hartley, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi hit problems with debris blocking a fuel filter. They then followed that with a further win at Le Mans despite a similar fuel filter system problem. The trio powered to victory in the first of two races in Bahrain and finished five points clear of their team mates.
The Hypercar regulations mean the car is larger in all dimensions than the old LMP1 cars. The GR010 is also 162 kg heavier than the LMP1 and has 32 per cent less power, so lap times were slower this year. The 2021 car was powered by a 3.5-litre, 24-valve, turbocharged V6 petrol engine with direct fuel injection that produced 500kW of power from a combination of ICE and a hybrid drive system that, on its own, was capable of making 200kW. The delivery of electrical power was free around the lap, the only stipulation being that total maximum output could not exceed 500kW. The GR010’s four-wheel drive was disabled up to a certain speed in the wet to help balance it against its two-wheel drive opposition. The car had a seven-speed gearbox, ran on Rays wheels and used Akebono brakes.