Autosport – 01 August 2019

PIT + PADDOCK

1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 5

JE

P

JE

P

Ginetta LMP1 car

showed promise

Toyota handicaps have

closed the gap in LMP

competiton for electric karts in which national
teams made up of one male and one female, aged
between 14 and 16, will compete, as well as Esports
and drifting events.

INTERCONTINENTAL HEADS TO INDY
Ratel’s existing global venture, the Intercontinental GT
Challenge, will race on the Indianapolis road course next
October. The circuit that hosted the US Grand Prix in
2000-2007 will take the place of Laguna Seca.
“We have three very successful events as part of the
IGTC and are very hopeful for our revival of the historic
Kyalami 9 Hours in November,” said Ratel. “Our only
problem has been America and this year at Laguna Seca
[in March] we had a poor grid and a poor crowd. The
championship is known for visiting historical events
and iconic circuits, and with Indianapolis we are
undoubtedly doing that.”
GARY WATKINS

WEC

LMP1 privateers are going to

win races in the 2019-20 World

Endurance Championship.

That was Toyota’s conclusion

after the independents ran its

TS050 HYBRIDs close at last

week’s offi cial pre-season test

in Barcelona.

Toyota Motorsport GmbH

technical director Pascal Vasselon

explained that the pace of the

Rebellion-Gibson R-13 and

the Ginetta-AER G60-LT-P

at the so-called prologue

showed that they are already

“in the game”. He said the

system of success handicaps,

given the green light on the

eve of the test, will do the rest.

“Obviously, they are in the

window to win races and, with

success handicaps, they will win

races for sure,” said Vasselon.

“Ginetta will have a learning

curve, but Rebellion looks ready

to fi ght at the highest level.”

Vasselon was encouraged by the

performance from the Ginetta.

“Rebellion is not a surprise,

because we were expecting them

to be very close,” he explained.

“But what Ginetta has achieved

is remarkable and is good news

for the championship.”

Vasselon made it clear that the

latest 14kg weight penalty had

helped close up the LMP1 fi eld.

“You can’t escape physics —

14kg is four tenths,” he said.

“It is part of what explains how

close we are now.”

Jose Maria Lopez was fastest

in the prologue last Tuesday and

Wednesday on 1m29.141s in the

#7 Toyota. That compared with

a quickest privateer time of

1m29.408s from Rebellion driver

Gustavo Menezes. Formula 2

frontrunner Luca Ghiotto was

only two tenths behind on

1m29.697s in the best Ginetta.

OThe Spa round of the 2019-

WEC set for May 2 is set to

shift forward one week into

April to avoid a clash with the

new Seoul Formula E event.

Moving the Chinese FE round,

set for the same weekend as

the Sebring 1000 Miles WEC

event, is also being discussed.

The fi nal potential clash on the

two calendars could disappear

if the FE event in December

is dropped.

GARY WATKINS

Toyota expects privateers

to win after test strength

Hybrid F4, TCR

(below) and GT

machinery are part

of line-up for

year one