Manufacturers · 4 min read · 631 words
What was the Toyota TS050 Hybrid era like?
The Toyota TS050 Hybrid raced in the WEC's LMP1 class from 2016 to 2020. It won 19 WEC races, including three consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans (2018, 2019 and 2020), and its crews won the drivers' world titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. It is also the car of one of Le Mans' best-known late losses: in 2016 the leading TS050 stopped in the final minutes and Porsche won.
The car
The TS050 replaced the TS040 Hybrid for 2016. It used a 2.4-litre twin-turbo V6 with hybrid motor-generators on the front and rear axles, and ran in the highest energy-recovery class of the LMP1-Hybrid rules. Toyota's Cologne base, now Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, ran the race programme.
In the races held in the archive, the TS050 started 33 races and took 19 wins, 13 poles and 15 race fastest laps.
2016: the Le Mans loss
The TS050's first Le Mans was the 2016 race. The No. 5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima was leading when it lost power with about three minutes to go. It did not complete its last lap within the time the rules allow, so it was not classified, and the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid won. That race is the one WEC round the archive does not yet hold.
The car's first win came later that season at the 2016 6 Hours of Fuji, with the No. 6 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Stéphane Sarrazin. It was Toyota's only win of 2016.
2017: five wins, no titles
In 2017 the No. 8 of Davidson, Buemi and Nakajima won five races: Silverstone, Spa, Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain. Porsche won the other four, including Le Mans, and took both titles.
2018 to 2020: the only works LMP1 team
Audi left LMP1 after 2016 and Porsche after 2017, so in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 super seasons Toyota was the only works team in the class. The TS050 won 13 of those 16 races. The other three went to the privateer Rebellion R13: Silverstone in 2018, after both Toyotas were disqualified, Shanghai in 2019 and the Circuit of the Americas in 2020.
Toyota's first Le Mans win came in June 2018, with the No. 8 of Buemi, Nakajima and Fernando Alonso. The same crew won again in June 2019 and took the 2018-19 drivers' title. Brendon Hartley replaced Alonso for 2019-20, and Buemi, Nakajima and Hartley won the September 2020 Le Mans.
The two crews
The No. 7 was driven by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez; the No. 8 by Sébastien Buemi and Nakajima, with Davidson, then Alonso, then Hartley. At Le Mans the No. 8 won in 2018, 2019 and 2020, while the No. 7 finished second in 2018 and 2019 and third in 2020. The No. 7 crew won the 2019-20 drivers' title.
How the era ended
The TS050's last race was the 2020 Bahrain finale, won by the No. 7. For 2021 Toyota replaced it with the GR010 Hybrid, built for the new Hypercar rules that replaced LMP1.
With 19 wins, the TS050 won more WEC races than Toyota's earlier LMP1 cars, the TS030 Hybrid (5) and the TS040 Hybrid (5). Its 3 Le Mans wins were Toyota's first; the full list of Le Mans winners continues into the Hypercar era.
Last updated · toyota · ts050 hybrid · lmp1 · le mans · kazuki nakajima · fernando alonso