Toyota: GR010 Hybrid Styling Change Possible for 2026

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury has suggested the GR010 Hybrid could be set for a makeover for the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season to bring it in line with the Japanese marque’s latest road car offerings.

The GR010 Hybrid has been in action since the inception of the Hypercar class in the WEC in 2021, and has remained largely unchanged visually in the meantime, despite undergoing a significant refresh for 2022 and a further update for ’23.

However, that is something that is likely to be addressed in the near future by Toyota, which has evolved the design language of its road cars — as seen on the latest iterations of the Crown and Prius, and the forthcoming RAV4, which was revealed in May.

Floury said that the future lifespan of the GR010 “is not something which is fully decided” when speaking to reporters in the run up to last month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, but stated that Toyota plans to keep developing the GR010 “for the time being”.

When asked specifically about the prospect of an update for the 2026 season by Sportscar365, Floury replied: “It’s a possibility, yeah.”

He added: “From a design point of view, the car is now in its fifth season, and the road car styling has evolved since then and we need to take this into account.”

Whether or not such a visual update to the GR010 Hybrid would require the use of an Evo joker would be at the discretion of the FIA and ACO.

Floury clarified that Toyota did not apply for any Evo joker usage for the 2025 season despite credible rumors that the GR010 Hybrid had been through the Windshear wind tunnel in North Carolina at some point last year.

Addressing the Windshear visit, Floury said: “It was also the intention to calibrate ourselves to the new wind tunnel that has been homologated [by the FIA].”

Toyota has always been tight-lipped regarding how many Evo jokers it has used since the GR010 Hybrid’s introduction, but Floury’s predecessor Pascal Vasselon stated in late 2022 that an unspecified number had been deployed at that point.

That followed a significant change to the GR010 for its second season in 2022 to switch tire widths from 31cm all round, as originally stipulated by the Le Mans Hypercar rules, to 29 cm at the front and 34 cm at the rear.

Toyota was thought to be considering a new homologation for 2023 but elected to continue with the GR010 with further revisions aimed at reliability and aerodynamic stability being implemented, in what remains the car’s most recent major upgrade.

Manufacturers are permitted five Evo jokers over a car’s lifespan, with an additional two to be granted in 2028 and ’29 following last year’s extension of the Hypercar ruleset.

This was followed by a further extension through 2032, revealed last month, but details regarding further Evo jokers and homologations were not confirmed.

Floury said Toyota would not be able to commit to a clear road map for the GR010’s lifespan until such details are firmed up by the rule makers later in the year.

“We need to understand first the details of the extension to make a clear plan,” he said.

“Right now it could make sense to go in one direction, but if the extension brings new possibilities, it might change that direction.”