The Japanese manufacturer blamed its race-winning #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans hypercar for a clutch problem that caused it to lose several seconds of time at each pit stop to its second-place sister car in the final stages of the eight-hour race. revealed that it was a problem. Race.
Pascal Vasselon, technical director of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, said the problem had become “severe” and “almost made it impossible to restart the car during one stop.”
A clutch issue meant the driver of the No. 8 car was unable to restart the car in the pits as usual, leaving the box with power from the front axle hybrid system to power the GR010’s twin-turbo V6 engine. I was forced to do a bump start.
“The starter could not be used because the clutch was not open.” [motor]” Vasselon explained.
“I had to pull the car with the front, but the problem was that the tires were cold and the front was spinning and the rear wasn’t.
“The tires dragged and the engine wouldn’t start. It took quite a while to get it started.”
Photo courtesy of Toyota Racing
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Vasselon explained that the TGR team was able to alleviate the problem by hitting the car in second gear instead of first.
“In the end I ended up starting second, which was better,” he said.
Vasselon was unable to calculate the exact total time loss for the No. 8 car due to the problem, but said that although “the last three pit stops were important pit stops,” He explained that he had reared his head.
Despite Toyota’s fourth 1-2 finish of the season, he said of the Bahrain 8 Hours WEC finale: “We had issues with both cars so it was very intense.”
The No. 7 Toyota shared by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose María López finished 47 seconds behind the Hypercar title winner, but suffered a problem with one of the class-required driveshaft torque sensors. There has occurred.
This was a similar issue to the one that affected Kobayashi and his teammates at the Portimao WEC round in April, leaving them in ninth place.
In Portimao, an internal electronic component failed, but this time the driveshaft sensor failed.
Since the race in Portugal, new protocols have been introduced by the WEC’s rule-makers, the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, to monitor the power supply in the event of such failures, resulting in the cars losing time in Bahrain. It decreased significantly.
“We are working more precisely on backups.” 1699230765But it’s not exactly the same as normal, so you have to detune the car so that you don’t get any benefit when something like this happens,” he explained.
Vasseron said the No. 7 car’s problems appeared around the halfway mark of the race.
Buemi and his teammates would still have won the title if they had won against the No. 8 car on Saturday.
Hartley’s pole position would have earned him extra points, and if his teammate had won, it would have been enough for him to finish third.