Toyota plays down WEC Sebring Prologue domination

Pascal Vasselon, Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director, insisted that the his team’s performance in the official pre-season WEC test that took place last weekend ahead of next Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles championship opener “didn’t look good if you compare them with the IMSA test a few weeks ago”.

The 1m48.208s first-session best from Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID stood as the fastest time of the two-day Prologue, but both Porsche and Cadillac lapped in the low 1m47s at the official IMSA SportsCar Championship test in February.

“Looking at the lap times of these days [of the Prologue] the conclusion would be quite obvious that we have an edge,” said Vasselon.

“But [it is different] if you look at them with the perspective of the IMSA test when some of our competitors were doing 1m47s.

“This is a question mark we have and a question that we are not on top of - this is what prevents us making any clear conclusions about this test.”

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Cadillac was third fastest behind the two Toyotas during the Prologue courtesy of the 1m48.429s with which Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber topped the Saturday afternoon session.

That compared with the 1m47.053s set by Renger van der Zande in February aboard the Ganassi team’s sister Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh entered in the full IMSA series.

Van der Zande was second in the times behind Louis Deletraz in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, while Matthieu Jaminet was third fastest in the best of Porsche 963 LMDhs.

The Frenchman’s 1m47.297s at the IMSA test compared with the 1m48.957s with which Michael Christensen placed the best of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries fourth in the combined times at the WEC test.

Vasselon insisted that small differences in the Balance of Performance between the WEC and IMSA could not explain the gap between the times the LMDhs achieved at the two tests.

Both the V-Series.R and the 963 were running at the full 520kW (697bhp) power allowed under the rules and the lowest minimum weight of 1030kg at the IMSA test.

That compared with the respective 513kW and 517kW allowed to the Cadillac and the Porsche at the Prologue and their weights of 1038kg and 1048kg.

“A difference of three or four kilowatts is only one or two tenths, so maybe the conditions were colder or there was more rubber.

He suggested that Toyota could potentially get closer in what he called “qualifying mode” but not in a race scenario.