Toyota Given Extra Weight for Barcelona Prologue

The Toyota TS050 Hybrids have been given a weight increase ahead of next week’s FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue test at Catalunya.

Toyota’s pair of LMP1 cars will run 14 kg heavier than they did during last season’s penultimate round at Spa in May, and 40 kg heavier than when they finished 1-2 in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month.

It is also the heaviest that the Toyotas have run since the current EoT format was introduced in early 2018.

They started on a minimum weight of 878 kg for the opening three rounds, including last year’s Le Mans, but this was increased to 904 kg for the remaining six-hour races.

The weight from Spa in May is more relevant than the Le Mans EoT information because the latter event is considered separate from the shorter rounds that make up the bulk of the WEC schedule.

Weight changes have not been applied to the non-hybrid LMP1 competition, which comprises of the Rebellion Racing R13 Gibsons and the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AERs.

They will run at 824 and 833 kg respectively, based on their opposing naturally aspirated and turbocharged engine configurations.

The Ginettas were not on the grid for that race, with the Prologue marking the British LMP1 constructor’s first public on-track appearance since Le Mans last year.

No changes have been made to Toyota’s maximum petrol energy allowance since Spa, while the non-hybrid entries will continue to be allowed an “unlimited” amount per lap.

This reflects a change made for Spa which freed up the fuel flow potential of the privateer LMP1s to alleviate the need for drivers to lift and coast.

New Porsche’s Starting BoP Confirmed

The recently-launched Porsche 911 RSR-19 will run as the lightest GTE-Pro car during its first official WEC duty sharing the track with its rival offerings from Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Porsche’s latest mid-engine GTE challenger has been set to a minimum weight of 1254 kg, meaning it undercuts the Aston Martin Vantage GTE by three kilos and the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo by 26 kilos.

Its new naturally-aspirated flat-six engine has been given a 30.1 mm air restrictor, which is only slightly smaller than the restrictor used by its 911 RSR predecessor at Le Mans.

In GTE-Am, the second-generation Aston Vantage has been declared at a minimum weight of 1267 kg for its first test in customer hands with TF Sport and the Paul Dalla Lana-led No. 98 AMR crew.

The car will be 10kg heavier than its GTE-Pro counterpart and will also have a slightly lower fuel capacity.