The ground-up refresh behind Toyota's new Le Mans challenger

By:

Gary Watkins

Jan 22, 2021, 4:57 PM

Toyota's new GR010 contender for the World Endurance Championship's Hypercar era has little in common with the LMP1 TS050 that preceded it. But within the confines of the scaled back new rules, its latest challenger will be no less formidable a prospect

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It looks like a Toyota, and to the untrained eye it could be an LMP1. Yet the machine that will carry the Japanese manufacturer's hopes in a brave new era for the World Endurance Championship starting this year is a very different beast to the line of prototypes that preceded it.

The Toyota GR010 HYBRID developed to the new Le Mans Hypercar regulations is all new, save for the odd switch and sensor. It had to be, because there's a new ruleset with a new philosophy.

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Gary Watkins

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Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.