Toyota, Ferrari Concerned About Lack of New Tire Running

Toyota and Ferrari have admitted they are facing a disadvantage in terms of tire understanding to their FIA World Endurance Championship rivals that also have IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship programs heading into the new season.

The two manufacturers’ respective technical bosses, David Floury and Ferdinando Cannizzo, made similar admissions as the WEC prepares to introduce an all-new Michelin tire range that is also being used in the WeatherTech Championship this year.

Speaking to journalists in the wake of the unveiling of the updated Toyota TR010 Hybrid, Floury pointed out that Cadillac, BMW and Aston Martin will have all gained an enhanced understanding of the final range of Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tires owing to their participation in IMSA’s November test at Daytona and the Roar Before the Rolex 24.

While Toyota has so far conducted two tests with the TR010, one at Paul Ricard in October and the other in Qatar last month, it had limited access to the new-for-2026 tires.

“We still don’t have a very deep understanding of the 2026 tires,” said Floury. “We have taken part in all development sessions, every manufacturer was invited.

“Some [manufacturers] attended all the test sessions as we did, some others skipped some, but during the course of the development, you share duties between the different manufacturers, and you don’t necessarily always end up testing the final spec.

“In our case, we have only run two sets of tires so far in the final spec, which is very limited, so we will definitely be in a catch-up race mode at the start of the year.

“It’s fully understandable, because there are an awful lot of tires to be produced for the start of the season, but priority has been given to IMSA for the IMSA-sanctioned test in November, the Roar and Daytona race, and therefore, the manufacturers involved in IMSA will start with a much better understanding of the 2026 tires than us.

“So it is now up to us to do a very good job to maximize the learning and to come to Qatar in as ready a state as possible.”

Cannizzo expressed the same concerns having had only two sets of new Michelins to try in its most recent private testing session at Portimao in late November.

“It is one of our concerns, to be honest,” he told Sportscar365. “During winter testing we were not able to properly test the new tires, just two sets of Medium tires.

“We understood they have a slightly better warm-up, but with this limited testing time, we were not able to understand about the impact on the balance, on degradation, and a proper comparison versus the 2025 tires.

“There are a lot of other manufacturers that have had the opportunity to experience this, and they are all testing in a proper race, which is a clear advantage in terms of understanding how to set up the car. We have no clear picture on the impact of the car.”

Cannizzo revealed that Ferrari will take part in a group private test in Qatar in mid-February before a final test in Bahrain prior to the Prologue test on March 22-23.

“These are the two opportunities we have to understand the tires,” he said. “Last year it was fundamental to match our set-up to the tire usage, so we need to recover fast because some competitors have these questions already answered.

“We know we are behind, but we won’t give up and we’ll push hard to recover.”

Toyota will test this week at Paul Ricard in what is expected to mark its first full-scale test with the new Michelins, and will also run at Aragon in late February.

Floury said that Toyota’s deficit in tire understanding in relation to Cadillac, BMW and Aston Martin will make the season-opening Qatar 1812km, which has proven a difficult event for Toyota in the past two years, “even more challenging.”

He added: “In parallel to this, we have one new manufacturer with Genesis, and we have at least four manufacturers who will have developed their car in terms of aero, so Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and ourselves.

“There has been no full clarity on what the others have been doing, so it’s going to be an interesting start of the season. Also, we still don’t have a full understanding where we will start the season in terms of performance balancing.

“There are many factors that can [influence] the start of the season.”