Toyota to split downforce for 6 Hours of Spa

Toyota Gazoo Racing has confirmed that it will use both its high-downforce and low-downforce aero kits across its three LMP1 TS050 Hybrids for this Saturday's 6 Hours of Spa.

The full-season No.7 and No.8 TS050s will run with the high-downforce aero which it used in the season opener at Silverstone, while the third no.9 TS050 – which will only race at Spa and Le Mans this year – will run the low-downforce kit which the team will utilise for next month's Le Mans 24 Hours.

"We made a strong start to the season and we hope to continue this at Spa," said Toyota Gazoo Racing team president Toshi Sato. "The competition against Porsche is intense and we are looking forward to another close fight. Our high-downforce TS050 Hybrid performed very well at Silverstone, but Spa is a different circuit so we have been working hard to get ready.

"This year we have three cars for the first time, which gives us a chance to try out our low-downforce car in race conditions. We have tested it extensively over the winter, so this weekend we are taking another step in our Le Mans preparations."

"I'm really looking forward to racing the TS050 Hybrid again, especially after seeing the performance at Silverstone," added Stephane Sarrazin, who will drive the No.9 with Yuji Kunimoto and Nicolas Lapierre. "It was great to watch and I hope the car is strong also in low-downforce spec. As always, I hope to get a good result but the most important thing for our car this weekend is to prepare ourselves properly for Le Mans.

"We need to get a lot of data about the low-downforce car and fine-tune the teamwork in our first race together."

This isn't the first time which an LMP1 factory team has run different aero packages at Spa in preparation for Le Mans. As recently as 2015, Audi raced with three R18s, and used both its high and low downforce configurations to test the difference in performance.

Toyota's rivals at Porsche meanwhile, will use the low-downforce kits on both of its 919 Hybrids at Spa like it did at Silverstone, in which it finished second and third overall.

"After the Le Mans 24 Hours in June," Porsche LMP1 Team principal Andreas Seidl said, "we will consequently arm the 919 with more downforce for the remaining championship rounds."