Peugeot Quits Le Mans as Toyota Debuts its New Racer

Peugeot Quits Le Mans as Toyota Debuts its New Racer

Peugeot is quitting its Le Mans and its global endurance racing program, effective immediately. The news coincided with Toyota posting pictures of its new Le Mans contender on Twitter.
News of Peugeot’s withdrawal from endurance racing came out of the blue and was blamed by the company on the downturn of sales stating that the “…decision has been taken against the backdrop of the challenging economic environment in Europe coupled with a particularly busy year for the brand in terms of new vehicle launches. In this context, Peugeot prefers to concentrate its 2012 resources on its commercial performance and, in particular, ensuring the successful launches of the 208, 308Hybrid4, 508RXH , 508 Hybrid4 and 4008 which will take forward the brand’s strategy of moving upmarket and extending its global presence.”

With its diesel-powered 908 Hdi LMP1s the only manufacturer to successfully challenge Audi’s dominance at the Le Mans 24 hours race, winning in 2009 but, despite their somewhat dubious tactics, last year failing to vanquish the sole remaining Audi after two other team cars crashed out.
There is, as yet, no word if a privateer such as Team Oreca might take over the entry. Nor does it address the future of its 908 Hybrid4 diesel-hybrid LMP1 debuted at the Geneva show last year.
While this is a blow to the race, Toyota has revealed details of its 2012 Le Mans challenger.

The new team, which is based at Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Cologne, Germany, will make its race debut on May 5, 2012 in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Toyota Racing intends to enter two TS030 Hybrid cars in the subsequent Le Mans 24 Hours on June 16-17, 2012. Participation in further rounds is yet to be confirmed.
A driver line-up of Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima has already been confirmed for one car while discussions are still ongoing to finalize the driver line-up for the other. Additionally, Andrea Caldarelli, from Pescara, Italy, has joined Toyota Racing as a junior driver.

The TS030 Hybrid is Toyota’s successor to the TS010 and TS020 cars which participated at Le Mans with podium success during the 1990s, failing narrowly to become the first Japanese winner of the race..
Toyota is the first manufacturer to confirm its participation in the FIA World Endurance Championship using a hybrid system, emphasizing the pioneering approach to this technology which has seen more than 3.5 million Toyota hybrid vehicles sold worldwide.
The THS-R (Toyota Hybrid System – Racing) powertrain is designed to deliver maximum performance and features an all-new V-8 3.4-liter normally-aspirated gasoline engine and hybrid system with capacitor storage developed by official team partner Nisshinbo.

The team will use the TS030 Hybrid’s first test to evaluate the merits, within the current regulations, of a front motor system produced by Aisin AW and a rear motor system developed by official team partner DENSO. Those regulations limit hybrid systems to recovering a maximum of 500kJ between braking zones while restricting deployment to only two wheels.
A brand new carbon fiber LMP1 chassis has been developed and produced at TMG, where the complete car was assembled for the first time in preparation for a roll-out in early January at Paul Ricard, France.
During an exclusive test session at the French track, which included running in darkness, the TS030 hybrid completed several hundred kilometres, showing an impressive level of reliability and performance for this very early stage in the car’s test program.