Richard Mille, president of the FIA Endurance Commission, has said that the unveiling of Toyota’s new Le Mans Hypercar is ‘an important milestone’ for the FIA and ACO.
Toyota unveiled its highly anticipated Hypercar, named the GR010 Hybrid, on Friday. In doing so, it became the first WEC participant to officially unveil its Le Mans Hypercar ahead of the new top class’ debut in the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Mille was one of several top WEC representatives to react positively to the unveiling of the new car, underlining its significance for the success of the LMH ruleset.
“The Le Mans Hypercar has been in the works for quite some time now and the public unveiling of the first car built to this set of regulations, the Toyota GR010 Hybrid, is an important milestone not only for the manufacturer itself, but also for the FIA as the rule maker, the ACO, the promoter as well the community of the FIA World Endurance Championship fans worldwide,” Mille said.
“I’m very much looking to seeing the car competing this season as well as beyond it, following the development of this new era of endurance racing, as other competitors are set to join the fray in due course.”
The Le Mans Hypercar regulations have been in the works for a considerable amount of time. The new class was first announced at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Toyota officially announcing its Hypercar programme at Le Mans in 2019 when the ACO unveiled the regulations for the class.
Since then, it has not always been smooth sailing for the category, especially with the introduction of the ACO/IMSA convergence and the LMDh category. The introduction of LMDh subsequently led to the indefinite postponement of the Aston Martin Valkyrie programme, leaving the class in jeopardy of having only Toyota on the grid for the first races.
Since then however, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has pushed forwards with its LMH efforts, ByKolles announced a Hypercar programme and Peugeot announced it too would join and return to endurance racing in 2022.
Pierre Fillon, ACO president, states that it is a source of pride for the organization to have Toyota involved in the new top prototype class, saying that it is an indication that it is ‘ticking the right boxes.’
“Given the brand’s success in LMP1, it shows a commitment to endurance racing and their competitive spirit. Winners in LMP1, they are now going back to the drawing board with a different set of specifications and targets,” said Fillon.
“It’s a whole new challenge. Having Toyota – an internationally renowned carmaker – in the field is a source of pride for the ACO. It means that as an event organiser we’re ticking the right boxes.
“To manufacturers like Toyota, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and endurance in general is a way of demonstrating their flagship products to the public.”
