Toyota Accident

[robmlufc]

Toyota are out of the Spa 6 Hours due to a testing accident....Anyone know what happened?

Sure there will be more to this as the day goes on.



Ah I missed the accident, Lapierre crashed during a 30 hour test last week and the monocoque is beyond repair

Edited by robmlufc on Wednesday 11th April 08:54

[Great Dane]

Any other team would have been kicked out of Le Mans -

[Harryh87]

It was at paul ricard by the looks of it, apparently they cant get a replacement monocoque in time for spa, im surprised they cant get a replacement within a week!! Its a shame as spa would be a good opportunity for them to gain some realtime information from a race, and give us some race pictures to dribble over :-)

[flattotheboards]

I noticed on twitter at the weekend that the Toyota LMP1 had suffered an accident at Paul Ricard. It seems strange that they only had one monocoque, I would have thought they would have a couple available as it is inevitable that accidents happen and by not having spares delays occur and which harms any potential practice and experience that could be gained.

It's a shame that they wouldn’t be able to bag some valuable competitive experience during the race at spa.

Quoted from the Toyota Hybrid Racing website;

"TOYOTA Racing regrets to announce that, as a result of a testing accident, it is not able to participate in the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

During testing at Paul Ricard, on Wednesday 4 April, the TS030 HYBRID was involved in an accident which damaged the team’s only monocoque.

Regrettably this damage is too severe to repair. A replacement monocoque cannot be produced and sufficiently tested to ensure reliability within the limited time available.

Therefore TOYOTA Racing has informed the organizers of the FIA World Endurance Championship of its decision to withdraw from the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, due to be held on 5 May. The team will make its first appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

Yoshiaki Kinosta, TOYOTA Racing Team President: “We are deeply saddened to announce this decision and our sympathies are with the drivers, team members and fans who have been anticipating the Spa race so eagerly. Since the accident we have looked into all options but unfortunately there is no alternative course of action open to us.”

TOYOTA Racing will now urgently prepare a new monocoque to allow it to resume testing as soon as possible and prepare itself for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

[flattotheboards]

PW said:

I wonder if the fact a second chassis isn't ready it has anything to do with the decision whether to have the hybrid system on the front or rear axle.

Good point, however they have been running the car for a while now so I would have assumed they had made their minds up over the design by now, besides its only 2 months until Le Mans!