On Sunday, June 5th, the official test day of the Le Mans 24-hour race, which will be the third round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), will be held at the Salt Circuit in Le Mans, France. Started running for the 5th straight victory of Le Mans.
This test day is very important as it is the only opportunity to drive the full course of the Sarthe Circuit on the GR010 HYBRID hypercar before entering Le Mans Race Week. The team made full use of the four-hour sessions each in the morning and afternoon, and repeated laps, making it a meaningful day.
Since collecting as much data as possible about the behavior of the car and tires was the highest priority, we did not attach importance to the lap time of one lap, but even so, last year’s champion Kamui Kobayashi, Mike・ Conway, Jose Maria Lopez’s GR010 HYBRID No. 7 set the fastest time of 3: 29.896 on this day. Car 8 of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa was in 3rd place, 0.594 seconds behind car 7.
The crew who arrived at Le Mans earlier than a week ago set up the garage and work environment, then most of the crew arrived at the site by Friday 3rd, and the two GR010 HYBRIDs were on the 4th ( Appeared in the official vehicle inspection on Saturday). The GR010 HYBRID attracted a great deal of attention as many enthusiastic spectators gathered at the official vehicle inspection held at the special venue of the Republic Square in Le Mans for the first time in three years.
The weather in Le Mans has been hot and thunderstorms for the past few days, but the test day, Sunday, 5th, started at 9am in cool conditions under a cloudy sky. It was Mike Conway and Ryo Hirakawa who took the honor of running for the first time at the 2022 Salt Circuit. A total of eight hours of intensive preparatory program began from their driving.
The 13.626km lap of the Salt Circuit will use public roads as part of it, so the road will be closed from the morning of this test day and race cars will run. Therefore, as the session progresses, dust on the road surface is removed and the condition changes significantly, and the grip is improved by riding the tire rubber.
The 2022 GR010 HYBRID uses tires of different sizes in the front and rear and is different in aerodynamics from the 2021 specification vehicle that won the championship last year, but it is not possible to run on the Salt Circuit with this specification. Today’s test day will be the first time. On this occasion, which was the first run, both the driver and the team worked hard on aerodynamic optimization and mechanical and control setup work.
Car 7 had the top time marked by Lopez in the morning session, and Car 8 had Hartley’s time 3rd. And for the first time for Hirakawa, who has been preparing for the simulator so far, he will run Le Mans with the actual car of the hypercar GR010 HYBRID.
In the afternoon session, Buemi, who had been competing in Formula E in Indonesia until Saturday, joined the group, and Car 8 also had three drivers. With the sun coming out in the afternoon, the team’s program went smoothly and we did a tire compound comparison.
In car 7, Lopez set the fastest time here as well, and car 8 was third in Hirakawa’s time. In a total of 8 hours session on this day, the two GR010 HYBRIDs ran over 210 laps and 2,861km in total. The two GR010 HYBRIDs both completed the most laps of the 62 cars that ran this time.
From this test day, Le Mans has finally entered a full-scale race week. A total of 5 hours of official practice running and 1 hour of qualifying are scheduled on Wednesday, 8th.
Kamui Kobayashi (Team representative and driver of car 7)
It was a smooth and smooth day without any trouble. Le Mans Week has just begun, and the course conditions will change over the next week. Today, I spent a lot of time checking the system and preparing to adjust it according to future changes in conditions. Our GR010 HYBRID is designed for Le Mans and feels good in terms of balance so far, but we don’t know how it will change next week. I’m looking forward to the future.
Mike Conway (Car 7 driver)
I arrived at Le Mans a few days ago and I’m happy to actually start running the course. The test day went well and the balance was good from the state of bringing in the vehicle. I tried several setups and proceeded with today’s program, seeing what could be improved. Compared to when I ran here last year, there are some changes in the vehicle and the speed at which the hybrid boost can be used is different, so it was nice to be able to confirm them in today’s test.
Jose Maria Lopez (Car 7 driver)
It was the first day, but it went well and I was able to run without any problems. We proceeded with various settings such as vehicle height and aerodynamics, and tire compound comparison. All of these factors need to be understood and linked to improvement. As for the feel of the car, it’s always best to drive here at Le Mans, but there is still a long race week waiting for us, so we will continue to tighten our minds.
Sebastien Buemi (Car 8 driver)
Even though I just arrived on a long trip from Indonesia, I am glad that I was able to complete many laps. I am grateful to the team for running a lot in the afternoon session and I am happy to be back at Le Mans. There is no problem so far, and the weather is good. We will review all the data to see what can be improved for Wednesday.
Brendon Hartley (Car 8 driver)
It was great to be able to meet many fans at the official scrutineering for the first time in a few years. Even though it was a week before the race, it feels good to be back on the Le Mans course with the atmosphere already so exciting. Over the last few months we have spent a lot of time preparing for this race. The GR010 HYBRID is a vehicle like the one made for this course, so it feels best when I’m running here and it’s really fun. The high-ranking battle is going to be pretty interesting, and we should be in it.
Ryo Hirakawa (Car 8 driver)
It was my first Le Mans run on the GR010 HYBRID, but I enjoyed it. The GR010 HYBRID is a vehicle developed for Le Mans, but it feels incredibly good and surprised in a good way. I really enjoyed it every lap and I’m looking forward to racing with it. We have done a lot of analysis and testing for the next week’s run, and although it feels good already, there are still some areas that can be improved, and we will move forward step by step. So far, things are going well, and I’ll do my best for Race Week.
Category: Category: F1 / Toyota / Le Mans 24 Hours / WEC (FIA World Endurance Championship)