Toyota Gazoo Racing unveiled the TS050 Hybrid, their 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship challenge at the Paul Ricard circuit on Thursday.
After a disappointing 2015 season where as the defending champions they failed to win a race, Toyota have replaced their TS040 with the TS050 Hybrid in order to take it to the Porsche and Audi squads in 2016.
The main change sees the team moving to a 2.4litre, twin-turbo, direct injection V6 petrol engine and to an 8MJ hybrid system, with the hope that this move will close the gap to the two teams who shared out the race victories in 2015.
The two-car line-up will see Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima in the #5 car, and Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi in the sister #6 car.
“This is a very exciting season for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, particularly because we have a completely new car with a new powertrain concept,” said Team Principal Toshio Sato.
“This reflects the current trend in road cars and gives us more opportunities to transfer know-how and technology into TOYOTA’s road car developments. Our WEC activities are motivated by the development of technology and people; we are already seeing the results of our activities in current road cars.
“But as well as helping TOYOTA to make ever-better cars, we also want to win. Our clear target this year is to compete again at the front, after a very disappointing 2015 season.
“In Higashi-Fuji and Cologne, there has been a huge effort to prepare for this season; everyone is highly motivated and pushing together to get back onto the centre of the podium.”
